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We examine whether female faculty in US universities have a higher tenure benchmark relative to their male counterparts. Using survey data from 317 accounting faculty, we compare the role of gender for both favorable and unfavorable tenure decisions. Specifically, we compare: the research output of female faculty who are awarded tenure to that of similarly successful male faculty, and the research output of female faculty who are not awarded tenure to that of similarly unsuccessful male faculty. Contrary to past research investigating gender bias at upper ranks within organizations, we find no evidence that female faculty must achieve higher research output than male faculty in order to be awarded tenure.

Lists research evidence that organizations are often unaware of underutilized capacity resources and examines the implications of explicit unused capacity reporting which identifies the cost of unused capacity, pointing out that although this information is useful, it may increase evaluator outcome effects. Describes an experiment to test this and shows that where unused capacity is reported biased performance evaluation results; and individual decision makers may inappropriately reduce capacity or increase production to avoid negative evaluations. Considers how management accountants can mitigate this effect, recognizes the limitations of the study and calls for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether audit professionals exhibit greater performance evaluation bias compared to non‐accounting professionals.

Both audit and non‐accounting professional subjects read a case study and evaluated the performance of a hypothetical subordinate. Two factors were manipulated the subordinate's work performance history and the subordinate's current performance relative to a budget.

It was found that reputation bias and hindsight bias are prevalent in both professional groups. The groups exhibit no difference with respect to reputation bias; however, it was found that public accountants exhibit significantly greater hindsight bias relative to non‐accounting professionals.

The paper provides evidence that accountants are relatively harsh critics of subordinate performance. Importantly, the paper investigates accountant vs non‐accountant comparisons where subordinates' ex ante decisions are consistent with superiors' ex ante guidance (i.e. ex post performance being either favorable vs unfavorable is purely outcome‐effect driven). If the findings are robust, this study provides a fundamental reason why employee retention in public accounting is relatively low.

This paper is the first to make direct comparisons of performance evaluation bias effects between auditors and similarly experienced working professions.

Private company investors operate in unique environments. Seed equity investors, which generally include venture capitalists and angel investors, often have the particularly unusual role of becoming involved in the oversight of the investee company. This continuing involvement with the investee firm introduces conflicting interests: the desire to maximize the profit from the investment, but also the desire to maintain a positive relationship with the entrepreneur(s) (consistent with the theory of upper echelons/strategic management). We discuss in detail this unusual investment context and the role that accounting disclosures can have in this environment. We predict that accounting disclosures can influence the tradeoff between the profit motive and the relationship motive. Using 64 experienced angel investors as participants in a realistic experimental setting, we find that disclosures indicating conservatively biased accounting choice and lower account risk (variance) lead to angels increasing the valuation of the target firm and forgoing higher profits. Increasing the valuation serves to foster the relationship with the entrepreneur(s). Our findings have implications for entrepreneurs making choices about discretionary disclosures and for standard setters; we also inform theory related to overcoming anchoring.

We conduct an experiment asking participants to choose to purchase either a traditional or hybrid car to examine how federal-state conformity of tax incentives impacts the decisions of taxpayers. We also examine perceptions of taxpayers surrounding federal-state conformity. Consistent with theory related to the effects of information environment and using an experiment in which taxpayers are asked to evaluate tax incentives related to a purchase decision between a traditional and hybrid car, we find that conformity is a significant factor in increasing the propensity to take advantage of the tax incentive. Specifically, we find that participants with simple and conforming federal-state incentives are more likely to take advantage of the tax incentive than with complex and conforming federal-state incentives. In addition, the effects of conformity between federal and state incentives suggest that participant perceptions of the federal system were heavily influenced by the actions of the state.

This research draws on qualitative interviews with primarily lower socioeconomic status (SES) public library internet users to illuminate their perceptions of economic benefits afforded by the internet. This powerful evidence challenges utopian new technological theories. The results from this study allow for the comparison of perspectives from Millennials, Generation Xers, Boomers, and the Silent generation. These results suggest a disconnect between the cultural mythology around the internet as an all-powerful tool and the lived experiences of lower SES respondents. Lower SES participants primarily use the internet to train and educate themselves in areas where they would like to work in the process of applying for jobs using the internet. Participants recognized marginal benefits such as socialization and less burdensome job application processes. However, they struggled to identify significant job-related benefits when comparing applying for jobs online as opposed to applying for jobs in person. With the exception of millennials, all generational groups believed in the economic promise of the internet to make their lives easier given enough time. Millennials, however, challenged the techno-utopianism expressed by other generations. Only millennials recognized the realities of digital inequalities that make techno-utopian outcomes unattainable given broader economic realities for low-SES individuals.

Online labor pools continue to grow in popularity, serving as an inexpensive, readily available source of research data. Despite early skepticism, accounting research has generally found evidence that supports the use of these labor pools. However, one important distinction unique to online labor markets is the pre-screening process that qualifies participants for future studies. As the identity of online participants are generally unknown, researchers rely on participants’ self-reported identities to establish a pool of qualified respondents. This paper aims to provide evidence of the reliability of online participants’ answers to pre-screening questions.

Following the current literature’s recommendations on pre-screening candidates, I employ a multi-stage design using two similar surveys that are taken by each participant. I compare participants' answers on the first survey and the second survey to provide evidence on the consistency of their responses.

My results indicate that online participants are responding with substantial inconsistency to survey questions related to their social identity at a rate that may not be tolerable for many researchers. This has implications for researchers who use these online labor markets to represent a particular population of interest.

This study is the first to provide evidence on the consistency of online labor market participant responses. Additionally, it is the first to test the efficacy of current recommended guidelines for identifying populations of interest in the literature.