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The Stress Arousal Scale (SAS; Everly, Sherman, & Smith, 1989) is a 20-item psychometric instrument designed to measure cognitive–affective precipitators of the physiological stress response. The SAS has been utilized in a number of studies that have examined various relations between stress arousal and its antecedents and consequences in the accounting work environment. This study introduces a new version of this scale, the SAS4, developed based on the Perseverative Cognition Hypothesis (Brosschot, Gerin, & Thayer, 2006). It is hypothesized that this new scale has internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and both convergent and divergent validity as well as significant correlation with the balance of the items on the original scale. These predictions are tested with a sample of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) members employed in public accounting, and four independent samples of undergraduate business students. The results indicate that the SAS4 is a valid and reliable psychometric measure with potential benefits in terms of its congruence with recent theoretical and empirical advances in the etiology of stress, as well as its administrative efficiency for those seeking to further examine the stress dynamic among accountants in the workplace.

This study aims to examine the changes in the correlations between stressors and performance in French chartered and accounting firms.

The linkages between role stressors and performance were analyzed through a quasi-longitudinal study of 476 chartered public accountants and trainee-chartered accountants surveyed before and after the busy season, using the partial least squares approach.

Only challenge appraisals are positively related to motivation before and after the 2018 busy season. Stress arousal is positively associated with burnout and physical symptoms. However, the associations between role ambiguity and conflict, and hindrance appraisals became insignificant after the busy season. The challenge appraisals–role ambiguity linkage persisted but reduced significantly. The burnout–performance association was insignificant in the two time periods.

A busy season with its increased challenge stressors has positive effects on performance through motivation but also negative effects through strains, which explains the observed insignificant net impact.

This quasi-longitudinal study first suggests the role of appraisals, motivation and physical symptoms as mediators of the effects of role stressors on performance. Then, it aids in the broad generalization of certain findings from previous studies. Finally, it demonstrates the applicability of the partial least squares approach, which has been hitherto under-used in behavioral accounting.

The authors aim to develop a conceptual framework for longitudinal estimation of stress-related states in the wild (IW), based on the machine learning (ML) algorithms that use physiological and non-physiological bio-sensor data.

The authors propose a conceptual framework for longitudinal estimation of stress-related states consisting of four blocks: (1) identification; (2) validation; (3) measurement and (4) visualization. The authors implement each step of the proposed conceptual framework, using the example of Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and K-means algorithm. These ML algorithms are trained on the data of 18 workers from the public administration sector who wore biometric devices for about two months.

The authors confirm the convergent validity of a proposed conceptual framework IW. Empirical data analysis suggests that two-cluster models achieve five-fold cross-validation accuracy exceeding 70% in identifying stress. Coefficient of accuracy decreases for three-cluster models achieving around 45%. The authors conclude that identification models may serve to derive longitudinal stress-related measures.

Proposed conceptual framework may guide researchers in creating validated stress-related indicators. At the same time, physiological sensing of stress through identification models is limited because of subject-specific reactions to stressors.

Longitudinal indicators on stress allow estimation of long-term impact coming from external environment on stress-related states. Such stress-related indicators can become an integral part of mobile/web/computer applications supporting stress management programs.

Timely identification of excessive stress may improve individual well-being and prevent development stress-related diseases.

The study develops a novel conceptual framework for longitudinal estimation of stress-related states using physiological and non-physiological bio-sensor data, given that scientific knowledge on validated longitudinal indicators of stress is in emergent state.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between game items and mood management to show the affective value of game items. Specifically, the study examines the impact of interaction between two negative mood states (stress vs boredom) and types of game items (functional vs decorative) on the purchasing intention of game items.

Two experiments were conducted to predict the outcomes of using game items.

Game users effectively manage their level of arousal and mood valence using game items. The selective exposure theory provides additional understanding of different purchasing behaviors, suggesting that stressed users are more likely to purchase decorative items while bored users purchase functional items to manage their mood.

The study results show the affective role of game items in mood management. While previous studies focused on the cognitive and functional aspects of purchasing game items, this study extends the value of game items as augmented products.

When launching new games, companies should provide game users free game items for mood management. In addition, to increase intervention potential and behavioral affinity, marketers need to develop and launch more game item types.

This study extends the understanding of affective value of game items by applying mood management and selective exposure theories to explain the purchase intention of game items.

Examines how data on job stress, health, anxiety and daily hassle were collected via survey questionnaires from 1,925 staff at Monash University campuses. The sample included academic, general, administrative, technical and library staff, with both genders and representation from age, employment and seniority groupings. Shows that results indicated significant positive relationships between job stress and anxiety, daily hassle, and health, the latter suggesting that self‐reported stress at work was associated with absence from work, visits to medical practitioners, and frequency of illnesses and accidents. Reports comparisons across campus, gender, age and job type, and makes some overall contrasts between these data and those previously reported for a rural university. Discusses implications for health promotion among university staff.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among time pressure (TP), task complexity (TC), and audit effectiveness (AE). It is motivated by the conflicting results reported in prior TP studies.

The research hypotheses are developed using McGrath's interactional model of the Yerkes‐Dodson Law. Data are collected using a two‐treatment field experiment involving 63 public accountants.

The results show a negative, interactional relationship among TP, TC, and AE.

The first limitation concerns the non‐random procedure used to recruit public accounting firms and auditors. Second, there is the less than perfect operationalization of the TC construct.

First, the findings suggest that public accounting firms may need to resist the urge to reduce the time allowed for performing compliance tests, and provide training to improve the detection rate for all type of compliance deviations. Second, the fact that the rate of change in AE, in response to changes in TP, is different for the two audit tasks studied, suggests that it may not be appropriate for audit planners to assume a uniform TP effect across the various tasks involved in an audit. This insight has implication for the trade‐offs between the lower direct audit costs associated with tighter time budgets, and possible increases in audit risk associated with lower AE.

Two unique aspects of this paper are the operationalization of TP as a continuous random variable and the use of z‐scores to standardize the AE measure.

Job performance in the US Army is a complex construct, in part because of the stressors that soldiers face, both day-to-day and during deployment. This chapter critically reviews job performance, and the connections between performance and stress and health, discussing how findings may also be relevant within the specific context of the Army. We review established conceptualizations and metrics of job performance within the Army as well as the civilian sector. Then, we discuss the existing research on the associations between performance and stress, physical health, health behaviors, and mental health. Considering these findings, we discuss lessons learned for Army performance metrics, recommending that stress- and health-related issues be incorporated into unit and leader performance metrics, with two critical caveats: (1) data are aggregated at a company level and (2) non-reactive measures are used. Finally, we discuss how existing data repositories can facilitate future research and note potential constraints of using secondary data.

This paper examines the influence of stress arousal and burnout as mediators of the negative relations between role stressors and job outcomes (satisfaction, performance, and turnover intentions) among a sample of AICPA members working in public accounting. It extends prior research which examined these linkages (Chong & Monroe, 2015; Fogarty, Singh, Rhoads, & Moore, 2000; Smith, Davy, & Everly, 2007) by evaluating a model that simultaneously incorporates stress arousal and the three fundamental dimensions of burnout, i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. This paper also utilizes a recently validated stress arousal measure designed to capture the worry and rumination aspects of arousal posited to be responsible for a number of negative personal outcomes.

The results indicate that role stressors, mediated by stress arousal and the individual burnout dimensions, have a negative influence on job outcomes. In line with predictions regarding the temporal ordering of stress arousal and burnout in the model, each of the job stressors had a significant positive influence on accountants’ stress arousal, and the influence of the individual role stressors on each burnout dimension was either partially or fully mediated via their relations with stress arousal. In turn, the influence of stress arousal on each of the job outcomes was either partially or fully mediated through its relations with emotional exhaustion.

This study examines the effects of scent arousal on consumers' time perception in retail service environments and further explores how the effect is moderated by consumer-perceived stress.

A laboratory experiment (Study 1) and a field experiment (Study 2) were conducted to examine the relationship between scent arousal and time perception and the mediating effect between scent arousal and consumers' store evaluations. Another laboratory experiment (Study 3) was conducted to explore how consumers' stress modifies the scent arousal effect.

Consumers in a low-arousal scent condition perceived a shorter duration of time than those in a high-arousal scent condition. This finding was verified in a field experiment, whereas scent arousal affects consumers' store evaluations through the mediating effects of time perception. However, the impact of scent arousal on time perception was attenuated in high-stress conditions.

Time duration perception is an important indicator in the retail service marketing process. Evidence shows that underestimating time duration in the shopping process represents positive responses. This study extends prior research by examining how scent arousal influences time perception and how consumers' stress moderates scent arousal’s effect.