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The rapid evolution of Internet technology has created the ability to disseminate new information nearly instantaneously to a world‐wide audience. Many business and finance organisations have already applied this capability. Examples are real‐time stock quotes, on‐line news wires and e‐commerce.

A country’s institutional environment influences every facet of its business. This paper aims to identify institutional factors (state ownership, government attention on employment and employees’ educational background) that affect the asymmetric cost behavior in China.

Using 2,570 listed firms’ data between 2002 and 2015, we use empirical models to explore the effects of state ownership, government attention on employment and employees’ educational background on the asymmetric cost behavior in China.

This study found that the asymmetric cost behavior of central state-owned enterprises (CSOEs) is greater than local state-owned enterprises (LSOEs). Meanwhile, the empirical results show that government attention on employment is reflected in five-year government plans, and employees’ educational backgrounds are positively associated with asymmetric cost behavior.

This study contributes to the economic theory of sticky costs, institutional theory and asymmetric cost behavior literature by providing evidence that shows how government intervention and employee educational background limit the flexibility of corporate cost adjustments. Additionally, this study provides guidance to policymakers by showing how government long-term plans affect firm-level resource adjustment decisions.

We investigate the interaction of debt covenants and tax accounting on the adoption of Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). We examine how firms respond to the potential tightening of covenant slack upon FIN 48 adoption and whether these actions are penalized by creditors and anticipated by equity markets. We find that upon FIN 48 adoption, the majority of sample corporate borrowers increase their tax reserves and reduce equity. Firms close to debt covenant violation were even more likely to increase tax reserves upon FIN 48 adoption; however, the size of the adjustment was relatively smaller, suggesting that the FIN 48 standards limited, but did not eliminate, firms use of discretion in reporting uncertain tax positions to avoid costly covenant violations. For firms near net worth debt covenant violation, the act of decreasing equity upon FIN 48 adoption imposes real economic costs, as the average cost of debt increased by 43 basis points. Finally, we extend prior research on the market response to FIN 48 by showing how the market response to FIN 48 adoption is a function of debt covenant slack and tax aggressiveness. Specifically, the cumulative abnormal return at the FIN 48 exposure draft release date is negative only for tax aggressive firms that are close to debt covenant violation.

The accounting profession is beginning to demand data analytics skills from its professionals to handle the increasing amount of data available to address accounting questions. Indeed, the explosion of data availability and data are changing the accounting profession, providing accountants the opportunity to continue as key financial information providers to decision-makers. We conducted a survey of accounting department chairs to help understand if, when and how accounting programs would include data analytics in its curriculum. The authors find that 90.7% of accounting department chairs believe that data analytics belongs in the accounting curriculum, with 59.3% planning to introduce an accounting data analytics course in the next three to five years. Most (66.5%) prefer an accounting data analytics course as compared to the general business analytics course and more than half of respondents (56.2%) predict that their coverage of data analytics will be incorporated both throughout the regular accounting curriculum and in a standalone data analytics course. Combined with the requirement of 2018 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business standards, the authors propose that data analytics should be incorporated both in the undergraduate level and graduate level, starting from basic analytics tools and ending with advanced emerging techniques.

This chapter offers an introduction to the major directions that the study of culture as a social identity dimension has taken theory building and practical application. Culture is explored as it relates to a way of life of a people through arts, beliefs, ceremonies, communication, customs, ethnicity, food, gossip, language, lifestyle, music, nation of origin, religion, ritual practices, stories, and more – and ways that this filters through organizations. Various interpretive and critical approaches are used to scrutinize the nature/culture debate, challenges in operationalizing culture, the circuitous process of culture, culture’s interactions with social structures, and intersectionalities of culture with other social identity dimensions.

Culture dimensions of social identity have been explored by social scientists intrigued by ways that people report negotiating among two or more cultures – double consciousness – and making cognitive shifts for strategic reasons. Too often, even well-intentioned social policies and research designed to advance cultural plurality – or multiculturalism – ends up focusing primarily on ethnic difference while overlooking other social identity dimensions and ignoring bases of cultural differentiation. Organizational culture as an outgrowth of communication, globalization contexts, profit-centric motives, and culture’s intersectionalities with other social identity dimensions is critiqued. Chapter 4 also explores these issues according to subthemes of: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, culture and social identity, problems with culture and social identity for individuals, and managing organizational culture.