Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ethics of accounting'

The practice of earnings management not only adversely affects the long-term economic prospects of a particular business enterprise by eroding public confidence in the company, but also may severely undermine the reputation of Hong Kong as an international financial and trading centre. Given the devastating effects of such practices resulting from corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom, earnings management has received unprecedented attention in the past decade. The incommensurability between the far-reaching effects of ethical issues relating to earnings management and the paucity of prior research on the subject in Hong Kong triggers my interest to study this topic. The study examines the influence of organizational ethical climate and the perceived importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility on practicing accountants’ ethical decisions regarding accounting and operating earnings management. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. Based on 206 survey responses from practicing accountants, the models for both accounting and operating earnings management provide general support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that participants’ perceptions of the ethical climate in their organization influence their attitudes toward the perceived importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, which in turn influence ethical decisions (judgments and intentions) regarding earnings management.

This paper will examine the effectiveness of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) in improving ethics within the external auditing profession. The first chapter explores well-known ethical theories and professional code of conducts related to the auditing profession. The second chapter details the generally accepted auditing standards and changes that have been made throughout the years. The third chapter examines past corporate fraudulent scandals (Waste Management, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, Enron) and studies the role of auditors in contributing to the collapse of these corporations. The forth chapter details the objective of the SOX and how it plans to protect the investing public and improve the reliability of financial information. Finally, the fifth chapter compiles various research studies that examine the effects of the SOX and its impact on audit quality. The author discovered that regulation could help enhance ethics through indirect measures that aim to improve audit qualities, and thus, promote virtue ethics within the auditing profession. Some of these measures include establishing an oversight board to strengthen regulation and enforcement (section 101), reducing the scope of non-audit services (section 201), requiring auditors to attest to a client’s internal control operating effectiveness (section 404) and promoting principles-based standards within the profession (section 108). Through these measures, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has managed to regain the public trust and improve audit quality, thereby, enhancing ethics within the auditing profession.

This research is designed to gain an understanding of how accounting students respond to realistic, business ethical dilemmas. Prior research suggests that accounting students exhibit lower levels of ethical reasoning compared to other business and non-business majors. This study uses the Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (Rest, et al., 1999) to measure accounting studentsâ ethical reasoning processes. The Mach IV scale (Christie and Geis, 1970) is used to measure moral behavior. Eight ethical vignettes adapted from prior ethics studies represent realistic, business ethical scenarios. A total of sixty-eight undergraduate accounting students are used to examine three hypotheses. Literature suggests that individuals with lower ethical reasoning levels are more likely to agree with unethical behavior. Therefore, hypothesis one investigates the relationship between ethical reasoning and ethical decision making. Literature also suggests that individuals agreeing with Machiavellian statements are more likely to agree with questionable activities. Hypothesis two investigates the relationship between Machiavellian behavior and ethical decision making. Prior gender literature suggests that gender influences ethical decision making, with females being more ethical than males. Therefore, hypothesis three examines whether female accounting students agree less with questionable activities compared to males. Results indicate that ethical reasoning is significantly correlated with studentsâ ethical ratings on the business vignettes. Similarly, Machiavellian behavior is significantly correlated with studentsâ ethical ratings. Consistent with prior gender literature, females agree less with questionable activities compared to male accounting students.
Ph. D.

What is being done to stop the increase of accounting scandals and frauds? This study focuses on ethics teaching for accounting students at the undergraduate level. This study asks the question, "have students increased in their use of professional judgement as defined by the AICPA code of Professional Conduct?"

Currently, the Big Four accounting firms – PwC, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG – dominate the audit oligopoly. Many have raised the question: “Are the Big Four too big or too few to fail?” This paper looks at the history leading up to the establishment of the Big Four, cases since the fall of Arthur Andersen, and empirical evidence on the probability of a Big Four failure to conclude that it is not likely for a Big Four to fail under current circumstances. However, if the Big Four are truly too few to fail, it raises problems of moral hazard in the industry. This paper explores the inclination of the Big Four towards moral hazard by examining the reasons auditors might be less inclined to act in the best interest of financial statement users. In exploring solutions, this paper finds that the best way to ensure auditor’s act in the interest of public investors is to align their financial incentives with independent third parties rather than management or board members.

Unethical behavior includes all decisions and actions counterproductive to an organization's mission and can cause irrevocable damage to the organization's professional reputation. The Securities and Exchange Commission reported 807 ethical violations in 2015. This study was underpinned by the ethical leadership theory, which emphasizes leadership decision making based on fair and just practices, for all involved parties. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the ethical decision-making best practices that not-for-profit accounting managers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area needed to strengthen the ethical decision-making process in their organizations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from 5 participants who were accounting leaders of not-for-profit organizations. The analysis of data involved coding techniques, while member checking ensured confirmability of participant responses. Three themes emerged from the analysis of data as the most effective in fostering an ethical climate within the organizations, notably: the importance of leveraging internal controls, staff education on ethical decision making, and the role of leadership in fostering ethical leadership. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing leaders with strategies to reduce the occurrence of fraud within organizations. The beneficiaries of this research may include not-for-profit leaders, accounting professionals, and business practitioners. The goals of these individuals are to aid companies in furthering their missions and ensure organizations remain operational and utilize ethical decision making.

This paper examines the impact of ethics on financial statement usefulness in 120 publicly traded companies. Because ethics are difficult, if not impossible, to quantify, Corporate Social Responsibility ratings are used as a proxy. The potential implications of this study are vast, though the main idea is that investors would be able to make better financial decisions should the hypothesis come to fruition. Contrarily, investors will also be able to avoid potentially bad investments if they can ascertain certain companies that lack ethical values. In this paper, I will discuss several facets of corporate ethics such as creative accounting in addition to delving deeper into what it means for firms to be sustainable. Using data from the Roberts Environmental Center at Claremont McKenna College in conjunction with financial data from Wharton Research Data Services and panel data techniques, I find that only within the food and beverages industry is there a correlation between ethics and financial statement usefulness. This finding lends distinct support for the hypothesis and also begs the question of how corporate ethics vary between industries.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2001.
Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow, 2001. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

This paper provides empirical evidence of financial markets that “ethical” companies produce consistent financials and above S&P 500 stock returns. Companies were chosen as “ethical” based on in-depth analysis from The Ethisphere Institute and reviews from inside the various corporations. Ten years of financials and prices were analyzed between ethical companies and those that struggled with ethics previously. It was evident that companies who focus on ethics not only outperformed companies who have had ethical struggles, but also outperformed the S&P 500. The significance of this research is that firms who value ethics will have excellent financial performance in the long-run, on average. This study attempts to encourage investors to value business ethics when making investing decisions.

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Bachelors
Business Administration
Accounting

Previous research has shown that accountants may be inadequate moral reasoners. Concern over this trend caused the Treadway Commission (1987) and the Accounting Education Change Commission (1990) to call for greater integration of ethics into the student's training. Ponemon and Glazer (1990) found a difference in cognitive moral development (CMD) between accounting students at a public university and a private university with a liberal arts emphasis. This study expands Ponemon and Glazer's research by examining two liberal arts universities, one a private, secular institution and one a Catholic institution. The primary research question asks if Catholic university accounting students manifest greater CMD growth than secular university accounting students. Additionally, this study examines and compares the priority that accounting students from the different institutions place on ethical values versus economic values. It was expected that Catholic university accounting students would manifest both greater CMD growth and a greater concern for ethical values over economic values when compared with non-Catholic university accounting students. The study utilized a two-phase approach. In the first phase, an organizational study of two institutions was made to determine how each strives to integrate moral development into their accounting students' education. In the second phase, lower-division and senior accounting students were given three ethical and values related tasks to complete which propose to measure differences in ethical and economic values.

Ethical behavior and moral judgment are fundamental issues facing the accounting profession today. Changes in the ethical culture of accounting have brought about a crisis of ethical misconduct in the profession. External forces for better ethics in accounting, represented by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation, and internal forces, represented by increased educational coverage encouraged by state societies and the AACSB, are attempts to influence the current crisis. Research in the field of ethics and moral judgment in the accounting profession continues as researchers continue to examine factors influencing the ethical reasoning abilities of accountants and accounting students. The results of these studies may assist accounting schools and the accounting profession in controlling and improving the ethical orientation of the accounting profession. This study examines the possible relationship of ethics education and moral reasoning of undergraduate and graduate accounting students. Limited previous research on these two variables has provided mixed results. This study examined undergraduate and graduate accounting students at six colleges and universities in the upper mid-west and southern region of the United States. The variable of ethics was measured with Rest's DIT-2 instrument and ethical education by completed ethics courses. The results of this study demonstrate a significant relationship between ethics education and the moral reasoning of accounting students. However, the results were not in the expected direction, with the accounting students completing ethics education having a significant lower level than the accounting students without ethics education. In addition, this research found that accounting students who are 22 years of age or younger possess higher levels of ethical reasoning than accounting students who are older than 22 years of age. However, the findings show that there are no significant differences in the ethical maturity levels of accounting students when grouped by gender and education level. These findings support the need for further research into determining factors influencing moral judgment in undergraduate and graduate accounting students.

Strong ethics are critical to the success of each member of the business world, especially accountants. Because the work of accountants is utilized by both internal and external users and can have such widespread effect on the business community, it is imperative that this work is performed with the utmost accuracy, integrity and morality. The foundation for strong ethics begins before the accountant enters the workforce, and many colleges require dedicated ethics courses for accounting majors. The purpose of this project is to analyze the effectiveness of the ethics instruction, specifically in the absence of a required dedicated ethics course, at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Two surveys will be administered to a sample of ETSU students in several classes within the undergraduate and graduate accounting programs and the results will be analyzed to determine if students’ understanding of ethics has increased over the semester. The results of this thesis are intended to provide the ETSU College of Business and Technology with vital information about how to improve the ethics instruction for undergraduate accounting students.

External auditors do not have the capacity to detect corporate fraud, even though accounting scholars have agreed on the perceived importance of fraud detection. There is a need to integrate fraud detection courses and forensic accounting topics into undergraduate training. This study addressed the problem of external auditors’ detection of less than 5% of fraud cases resulting from their lack of fraud detection topics and courses from their undergraduate studies. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple-case study was to explore external auditors’ perspectives on expected competencies and fraud detection topics and courses from their undergraduate accounting programs and whether this education prepared them to detect corporate fraud. An exploratory, holistic, multiple-case study research methodology was utilized for the study. A purposive snowball criterion sampling was used to recruit 12 participants with bachelor’s degree and at least 1 year of experience in the auditing field in Northern Illinois. The list of membership provided by professional accounting bodies was used to recruit the participants. The external auditors’ perspectives were captured as data using open-ended questions in a semi-structured face-to-face interview format. A five-phased research analysis was applied for qualitative data analysis with the help of NVivo 11 software to identify themes associated with the research questions. A total of sixteen themes, made of nine major themes and seven minor themes, emerged from the study and formed the basis of the findings. The results of the study indicated that external auditors have not detected corporate fraud in practice. Furthermore, fraud education received in the undergraduate accounting programs was not sufficient for corporate fraud detection. Competencies for corporate fraud detection in auditing practice were found to be low among external auditors and four strategies were suggested for integrating fraud education into college accounting programs. The outcome of this study supported recommendations for practical accounting application and future research was recommended for replication of study in other geographic locations to compare the perspectives of educators, management, and internal auditors with a focus on other frauds involving credit cards, payroll, fraudulent billing, inventory, and theft or stealing to build on, extend, confirm, or disconfirm them.

Two experiments in this dissertation examine the effect of a leader’s emotional intelligence and its interaction with other constructs on the subordinate’s intention to whistleblow. Results from the primary experiment indicate that when the leader is not involved in the observed accounting fraud, the subordinate is more likely to whistleblow to the leader if the leader has high emotional intelligence or high group prototypicality. The relationship between leader emotional intelligence and subordinate whistleblowing intention is stronger when the leader has high group prototypicality and is mediated by the subordinate’s perceived leader-member exchange, trust in the leader, and job satisfaction. These mediations are stronger as well when the leader has high group prototypicality. In addition to the primary experiment, a supplementary experiment where the leader is involved in the observed accounting fraud demonstrate that the subordinate is less likely to whistleblow on the leader to the anonymous whistleblowing hotline if the leader has high emotional intelligence. Moreover, the subordinate is more likely to whistleblow if the consequence of the action is framed as being positive to the company than being negative to the leader when the leader has high emotional intelligence. Findings of these two experiments have strong practical implications in terms of corporate governance, internal control, and human resource management.

There is a lack of empirical research on leadership. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the three components of the theory of reasoned action (TRA): (a) behavioral intention, (b) integration attitude, and (c) subjective norms as they relate to the commitment of the corruption component of occupational fraud (OF). The rationale of this study was to evaluate whether the influences of executive management related to the intent to commit corruption. The three independent variables were behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norms, and one dependent variable, corruption. The research questions examined the relationship between executive management’s influences; behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norms and the intention of committing corruption as well as the extent to which an executive manager’s moral reasoning influences such an intention. The hypotheses in the study were not formulated to establish cause and effect relationships nor to assign groups. This quantitative, nonexperimental study was also intended to recognize patterns and trends from the data and statistics of the results. A Pearson Coefficient Correlation was utilized as an analysis tool to recognize statistically significant correlations. An online survey was administered in fall 2016 to 76 participants who are in the executive management role of finance and accounting departments from different U.S. organizations. All 76 participants were included in the TRA analysis. However, due to the additional reliability test administered by the University of Alabama Center for Ethical Study (UACSED), only 63 participants were selected in the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2) statistical analysis. TRA utilized a Pearson Coefficient Correlation analysis to determine if a relationship exists between the independent variables (behavioral intention, integration attitude, and subjective norms) and a single dependent variable (corruption). The Pearson Correlation results indicated a strong significant positive relationship for the following: (r76) = 0.795 for the relationship between executive management’s attitude towards the intention of committing corruption, (r76) = 0.713 the relationship between executive management’s subjective norms towards the intention of committing corruption, and (r76) = 0.874 for the relationship between executive management’s intention of committing corruption. The DIT2 results also indicated strong moral reasoning, illustrating high moral judgment of executive management and low intention of committing corruption based on the Maintaining Norms Score of 34.76 and a Personal Interest score of 32.12. The findings from this study could be used as a theoretical foundation for further research and subsequently bridge the gap in OF literature.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first goal is to qualitatively explore what ethics is and how companies can create a lasting culture of ethics. I explore the meanings of ethics, corporate ethics, and the responsibilities that companies have to shareholders and the public. The second goal is to demonstrate how a culture of ethics can help to prevent product recalls by creating a control environment that catches potentially dangerous products before they leave the facility. This is achieved through an analysis of three case studies: 1) Johnson & Johnson’s response to the Chicago Tylenol Murders of 1982, 2) Peanut Corporation of America’s response to its peanut butter recalls in 2009, and 3) Toyota Motor Corp’s response to the recalls of 2009-2011. The paper concludes by discussing trends in product safety over the last forty years and explaining why business ethics are an economic imperative, not just in preventing product recalls but also in protecting consumers.

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 was one in which many financial services firms participated in shortsighted and unethical behavior. About $11 trillion in household wealth were lost, 26 million Americans lost their jobs, and 4.5 million could not afford their mortgages These events and statistics show the prevalent lack of ethical leadership in the financial services sector. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of leadership ethics and its relationship to organizational success within the financial services industry. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine the relationship and test the predictive strength between corporate supervisors' use of key ethical variables and organizational success. Responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty were the predictor variables and organizational success was the criterion variable. One hundred and thirty six corporate supervisors from financial services sector in New York and Washington, D.C completed the survey questionnaires. The results of the study indicated that the four predictor variables have a significant and positive relationship with the criterion variable. The strongest relationship among the predictors and criterion variables were found between corporate supervisors' use of respect (r = 0.676, p< .001), corporate supervisors' use of honesty (r = 0.653, P<.001), followed by corporate supervisors' use of fairness (r = 0.589, P<.001), and corporate supervisors' use of responsibility (r = 0.577, p<.001). Additionally, the multiple linear regression analysis showed that that the variables were significant predictors of organizational success (R2 =0.525, F (4, 131) = 36.24, p< .001). The findings of the study concluded that ethical leadership is significantly related to organizational success. It contributed to the theoretical and operational knowledge within the fields of ethical leadership ,advancing the empirical and theoretical insight of the LMX theory, as well as providing new and pragmatic knowledge of the context of ethical leadership in the financial services industry Future research recommendations included (a) quantitative, study with a meta-analysis design,(b) an expansion of the target population beyond the financial services industry and (c) a phenomenology to explore lived experience of the variables in the study.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Administration and Law in filfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Commerce in the Department of Accounting at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011.
“We are conscious of the reality that corruption in many forms has deeply infected the fibre of our society. Precisely because we face the challenge of dealing with systematic corruption, we need a dispassionate and systematic approach to this question.” Nelson Mandela, at the opening of Parliament (February 17, 1995) It would appear that the integrity of leading organizations, and the ethical behavior of leaders in the workplace, can have a positive impact on the organization as a whole. Many such leaders are moulded and developed in our institutions of higher education. Is there then an onus on these institutions to attempt to instill such ethical values into tomorrow’s leaders? Business ethics courses have in recent years become prevalent world wide, and more recently here in South Africa. The question that begs asking however is: Does teaching an ethics course to students have an effect on their moral judgment, competence and attitudes toward corporate ethics? Many believe that integrity, and hence ethical behaviour, is not something that can be acquired as an adult, but is dependent on your upbringing, social status and perhaps religion. These aspects of life may form a foundation for thinking, but as we are constantly growing and developing, especially in the formative years, they too can be developed. Based on the undisputed need for ethical leaders the following hypothisis was developed. Higher education institutions using a well-designed Ethics instruction programme can positively influence the undergraduate student’s moral judgment competence and attitude toward corporate ethics. A literary review was conducted including both local and international studies. Based on this a survey instrument was prepared, tested and distributed. Solomon’s four group design was chosen as the most appropriate method of research. Although this research showed no statistical or practical improvement in students’ attitude toward business ethics I believe the teaching thereof at least provides the student with an awareness of the situations she/he may encounter on entering the business world. It also provides methods for resolution of conflict both internal and external to which the student may later refer. In this study there were not found to be any significant demographics affecting students’ attitudes, however the sample did have demographic limitations. As significant resources are allocated to the teaching of ethics it would be prudent to conduct further research into the effectiveness of teaching business ethics. The purpose of further research would not be to justify no longer teaching ethics, but to develop a standard of best practice in this regard. We can not change the world overnight and we possibly can not even change the views of an entire group, but if we can just create one ethical leader we have made a difference to the world.

The purpose of this study is to apply the qualitative research method of descriptive single-case study design to explore the phenomenon of fraud in companies in the state of Arkansas by conducting face-to-face interviews with mid-level officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level officers, and reviewing company documentation in the retail, professional services, or manufacturing industries in Arkansas. The focus is to understand the phenomenon of fraud and company officers’ perceptions about tools for detecting and preventing fraud. Financial statement fraud tactics make up 9% of the fraud cases globally, which equates to a median loss of $1 million (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2014). The research method involves the triangulation of data from interviewing mid-level company officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level company officers, and reviewing organizational policy and procedure documents. Interviews will consist of at least 20–35 participants in a mid-level officer position to ascertain their perceptions about the fraud triangle as a tool and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE) as a framework, a questionnaire will be distributed to upper-level officers to confirm/disconfirm themes, and company historical documents will be reviewed. Because officers are accountable for the accuracy of financial reporting and the ethical conduct of employees, establishing methods for detecting and preventing fraud averts fraudulent acts such as the embezzlement, false reporting, or bribery.

Interpretation 101-3 of the AICPA Code of Professional Ethics provides four independence requirements for certified public accountants performing bookkeeping services. As such, these requirements are largely thought of as rules requiring compliance. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence related to the question, "Can the guidelines in Interpretation 101-3 be effectively interpreted?" Accordingly, the research objectives were twofold: (1) to make an estimate of the effectiveness of independence discrimination resulting from the use of Interpretation 101-3 , and (2) to identify variables related to differences in CPAs' judgements of impairment and non-impairment of CPA independence in situations covered by Interpretation 101-3. The research methodology for this study was based on a case approach. Twelve situations developed from analysis of Interpretation 101-3 and discussions with practitioners were organized into twenty-four cases in which a CPA firm provided a variety of accounting services. These twenty-four cases were divided into two case sets of twelve cases each and then combined with two cases from a previous study by David Lavin. These cases were submitted to an expert panel for validation as to their relationship to Interpretation 101-3, and a predetermined "correct" judgement was established for use in analysis. A mail survey of the licensees of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy was used for collecting data. The CPAs were provided with a copy of Interpretation 101-3 and asked to base their judgements exclusively on the standard. Hypothesis testing was used to determine the effectiveness of the independence discrimination resulting from the use of Interpretation 101-3. Statistical models were developed for evaluating differences in the effectiveness of independence discrimination and differences in the CPAs' judgements themselves.

Diversos comportamentos inadequados apresentados na literatura acerca da Ética na pesquisa, tais como fraude e plágio, são encontrados no processo de preparação e publicação de trabalhos científicos. Esses comportamentos podem ser originados, em grande parte, pela pressão que as instituições acadêmicas fazem sobre pesquisadores para a elevação da produção científica ou a que o próprio pesquisador se impõe para obter maior posto ou remuneração, conseguir ou manter seu status de aceitação pela comunidade científica, ou ainda, porque não percebem a natureza questionável dos seus atos. Alheios a esses acontecimentos, geralmente, os pesquisadores de Contabilidade têm desenvolvido seus estudos sem qualquer reflexão às questões éticas que envolvem o processo da pesquisa contábil. O propósito geral deste estudo foi examinar o posicionamento dos pesquisadores em Contabilidade em relação à má conduta na pesquisa científica, identificando a frequência de sua ocorrência e a intensidade dos fatores que influenciam a má conduta. A importância desse estudo poderá ser verificada quando se espera que os debates sobre ética na pesquisa sejam fomentados e sirvam de base para o desenvolvimento de estratégias que possam reduzir a má conduta na pesquisa. Usando a abordagem de método misto sequencial explicativo proposto por Creswell (2008), investigou-se a ocorrência de má conduta na pesquisa e os fatores que a ocasionam por meio de um survey aplicado a 85 pesquisadores presentes no Congresso USP de Controladoria e Contabilidade de 2009 seguido por entrevistas semiestruturadas aplicadas a oito pesquisadores experientes e de reconhecida competência. O perfil geral dos participantes do estudo foi constituído por 61,1% de mestres, mestrandos e doutorandos em Contabilidade, sendo que 67% desses tinham até nove anos de envolvimento com pesquisa. Oitententa e oito por cento de todos os participantes eram professores universitários, mas apenas 19% do total da amostra estavam vinculados a um programa stricto sensu e, entre esses, 81,2% tinham maior vinculação com instituições públicas e os demais, 18,8%, com instituições privadas. Dos professores não vinculados a um programa stricto sensu (69%), 67,2% estavam vinculados a instituições públicas e 32,8% a instituições privadas. Na perspectiva desses participantes os resultados da análise do survey revelaram que há evidências de envolvimento de pesquisadores em Contabilidade com práticas inapropriadas, mas que a frequência com que essas ocorrem é pequena, ou seja, tiveram ocorrência rara ou ocasional. Dentre as dezessete más condutas avaliadas quanto às suas ocorrências, \'Um autor divide o crédito do trabalho com colega que não contribui para fazê-lo, em troca de participação em trabalho em que também não vai contribuir\' e \'Um autor, para aumentar a credibilidade de seu artigo, amplia a seção de referências com citações de fontes que não leu, mas que viu citadas em outros artigos\' são, nessa ordem, os comportamentos mais frequentes. Os resultados também forneceram evidências que quanto maior o tempo de envolvimento com a pesquisa maior a frequência que os pesquisadores mostram crer e conhecer a ocorrência de má conduta, mas isso foi verdade apenas para \'Um professor se esforça para impedir que o trabalho de um pesquisador seja publicado\' que teve uma relação positiva e significante com o tempo de envolvimento na pesquisa. Os pesquisadores participantes do survey e os entrevistados creem que a necessidade de publicação é o fator mais importante para influenciar a má conduta na pesquisa. Para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados a necessidade de publicação está associada à Capes e ao sistema de avaliação imposto por ela. Educação foi considerado um importante meio para desencorajar má conduta na pesquisa tanto para participantes do survey quanto para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados. Ainda para esses últimos, é possível inferir-se que o atual estágio da qualidade da pesquisa contábil no Brasil é, em parte, reflexo das más condutas avaliadas neste estudo.
Diverse inadequate behaviors presented by the literature about Ethics in research, such as fraud and plagiarism, are found in the preparation and publishing process of scientific works. These behaviors may be mostly originated by the academic institutions\' pressure over researchers to raise scientific production or by the pressure researchers impose themselves to obtain a higher position or revenue, to get or to keep their scientific community acceptance status, or even because they do not realize the questionable nature of their actions. Aside from these happenings, generally, Accountancy researchers have developed their studies not pondering about the ethical issues that concern the accounting research. The present work\'s general purpose was to examine Accountancy researchers\' attitude related to scientific research misconduct, identifying its frequency of occurrence and its influential factors intensity. This study importance may be verified when it is expected that debates about ethics in research are stimulated and used as the basis for developing strategies which may reduce the research misconduct. From the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design proposed by Creswell (2008), the research misconduct occurrence and the factors that caused it were investigated by a survey applied to eighty five researchers attending USP\'s 2009 Controllership and Accountancy Congress, followed by semi-structured interviews taken from eight experienced and well-recognized competence researchers. The participants\' general profile in this study was constituted by Accounting graduate students, Masters, and Doctors (61,1%). A share of 67% from this number has been involved in research up to nine years. Eighty eight per cent of all participants were professors, although only 19% from the total were linked to a stricto sensu program and, among them, 81, 2 % were more connected to public institutions; the remaining ones, 18,8%, to private institutions. From the professors not connected to a stricto sensu program (69%), 67,2% were linked to public institutions and 32,8% to private ones. In these participants\' perspective, the survey result analysis revealed that there are evidences of Accountancy researchers\' involvement in inappropriate practices, in spite of its low occurrence frequency: they were considered rare or occasional. From the seventeen misconducts assessed by their occurrence, \"[A]n author shares a work\'s credit with a colleague that does not contribute to do it in exchange of participation in a work which he or she will not contribute as well\", and \"[A]n author, to increase his or her article\'s credibility, expands its reference sections citing unread resources observed in other articles\" are, in this order, the most frequent behaviors. The results also provide evidence that when the involvement with research is longer, the frequency that researchers show belief in and know about the occurrence of misconduct is higher, although it was true only for \"[A] professor struggles to impede a researcher\'s work to be published\", which had a positive and considerable relation with the time of involvement with research. The survey\'s participant researchers and the interviewees believe that the need of publication is the most important factor to influence a research\'s misconduct. To the experienced researchers interviewed, the need of publication is associated to Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and to the evaluation system imposed by it. Education was considered an important means to discourage misconduct in research both by the participants and by the experienced researchers interviewed. Thus, from the latter, it is possible to infer that the current stage of the Accountancy research quality in Brazil is partly a reflex from the misconducts assessed by this study.

Roughly 40 million American active and retired workers are covered by local, state or federal pension systems. The most recent financial crises has caused many of these pension systems to go up in flames, leaving politicians and economists puzzled as to where the money to pay off their future pension liabilities will come from. To add to the nightmare situation, we can expect the retirement of the baby-boomers over the next decade to exacerbate the conflagration. With less contributions coming in from the reduced number of active public employees, and more to pay out to retirees, many localities and states find themselves in the middle of the fire. This issue finds itself at the crossroads of politics, labor economics, accounting, and finance, and it will take a full-fledged effort from parties within all these fields to correct the mistakes of the past. The aim of this paper is to zero-in on the origins of this dilemma, diagnose the situation we find ourselves in today, and prescribe a solution or number of solutions to implement in the near future. To accomplish this, I will examine accounting standards, legislation, public policies, and labor demographics and attempt to provide insight as to how all of these affect the state of public pension plans. To this date we have already seen the effects pensions can have on governmental entities and it is important that people act now to prevent this issue from growing more widespread.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is presently considering a proposal to revise the enforcement system of the Code of Professional Ethics from the current complaint-based mechanism to a system based on reviews of practitioners and their work. Inherent within the proposal is the conclusion that the existing enforcement provisions, based on complaints about violations, are not adequate. Complaints about ethics violations can originate from practically anyone although two of the primary initiators of violation complaints are Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and their clients. CPAs, however, may have limited opportunities to observe violations committed by colleagues. Clients, on the other hand, may be in a prime position to detect departures from the ethics code but may have no incentive to report violations committed by their CPAs; e.g., a violation may benefit the client. A survey of these two groups (CPAs and clients) indicated that while both groups are familiar with the code and believe that the rules of conduct are appropriate, clients do not tend to report violations and CPAs, on average, indicated that they would report observed violations slightly more than one-half the time. These findings suggest that an enforcement system based solely on the complaints of CPAs and clients cannot be effective.
Ph. D.

Social enterprises (SEs) are businesses managed by entrepreneurs who seek to improve society, and they represent an important trend in social change work. However, there is little empirical knowledge about which blended value accounting (BVA) methods are used by SE managers, and whether the use of BVA is perceived by SE managers as a critical success factor. Blended value accounting is a conceptual framework for measuring combined social and financial outcomes in SEs, and some believe that the use of BVA may be a critical success factor for SEs. This research was based on Covin and Slevin’s conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation. The main research question was whether the use of BVA methods was correlated with SE success from the perception of the SE managers. Surveys were sent to 3,682 SE managers in North America, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Africa (n = 280). Data were analyzed using multiple regression, with the dependent variable SE success, and the independent variables: the use of BVA method, number of employees, length of time in business, economic sector, and country of registration. Findings indicated no statistically significant correlation between the use of BVA method and SE success, though most SE managers, 73% of 280 respondents, were using BVA methods for other reasons, including complying with state laws. The BVA method B-Impact Rating System was used by 59% of survey respondents who used any method of BVA. These findings suggest that SE managers should select a BVA method that is inexpensive to implement, aligns with industry standards, and provides them with management information. Supporting agencies should create a global registry of SEs, report on the social change impact they create through their businesses, and encourage all businesses to adopt the social-change orientation of SEs.

The Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 is the latest of a cycle of scandals that involved questionable ethics in accountants. The costs were extraordinarily large this time. Once again there is a focus on the ethical training of the future accounting professionals, accounting instructors, and business leaders. Traditional methods have not been successful. Service-learning is presented as an alternative. In this study, community service hours are used as a proxy for the "service" component of service-learning. This research extends the research of Weber and Glyptis (2000) by examining the relationship between community service hours and ethical reasoning capabilities. Since the most community service studies in business education have been descriptive rather than empirical (Sneider, Gillmor, & Rabinowicz, 2011), this study also adds to the paucity of empirical data on the impact of community service on students. Their research provided evidence that students participating in community service activities scored higher DIT scores than students who did not. This study explores the relationship between DIT scores and hours of community service, hours of accounting-related community service hours, age, gender, number of accounting courses, and ethics education. The study found a strong relationship between the variables, community service hours, accounting-related community service hours, and DIT scores. There was also a relationship between DIT scores and gender as well as previous ethics education. No relationship was found between DIT scores and age and the number of accounting courses taken. The Defining Issues Test (DIT) was used to measure the ethical reasoning capabilities of 233 accounting students in several colleges in the state of Georgia.

Introduktion: Revisionsbranschen har under de senaste åren drabbats av en rad skandaler vilka har fått stor uppmärksamhet i media den senaste tiden. De inträffade företagsskandalerna har bidragit till ökade krav på etik inom revisionsbranschen. För att revisorer ska återfå sin trovärdighet bland klienter och intressenter har kraven i allmänhet ökat på revisorer. Syftet med vår studie är att från ett svenskt perspektiv undersöka graden av etiskt tänkande bland revisorer. Detta kommer även att jämföras med det etiska tänkandet bland studenter för att se om det föreligger skillnader och likheter när det gäller etik.

Metod: För att uppnå vårt syfte med studien har vi valt att genomföra

både kvantitativ enkätundersökning samt kvalitativa intervjuer.

Enkäten genomfördes på totalt 100 respondenter varav 50 revisorer och 50 studenter. Resultaten från enkäten följdes upp av tre djupintervjuer med tre revisorer som även deltog i enkäten.

Teori: Teorin är indelad i tre större avsnitt; etik i allmänhet, etik inom revisionsbranschen samt etiskt tänkande vid beslutsfattande. Den teoretiska referensramen inleds med ett brett perspektiv på etik för att få en bakgrund till vårt huvudproblem som berör etiskt tänkande bland revisorer.

Empiri: Resultaten från vår enkätundersökning och de tre intervjuerna är sammanställda i en empirisk diskussion.

Slutsats: Slutsatserna vi kommit fram till är att revisorer har ett högt etiskt tänkande i beslutsfattandet och de har även ett högre etiskt tänkande än studenter vid etiska dilemman. En annan slutsats är att studenter behöver mer etik undervisning för att vara föreberedda på vad som väntas när de kommer att arbeta på revisionsbyråer. Etikundervising är viktigt då etik är grunden för revisionsbranschen.

Introduktion: Revisionsbranschen har under de senaste åren drabbats av en rad skandaler vilka har fått stor uppmärksamhet i media den senaste tiden. De inträffade företagsskandalerna har bidragit till ökade krav på etik inom revisionsbranschen. För att revisorer ska återfå sin trovärdighet bland klienter och intressenter har kraven i allmänhet ökat på revisorer. Syftet med vår studie är att från ett svenskt perspektiv undersöka graden av etiskt tänkande bland revisorer. Detta kommer även att jämföras med det etiska tänkandet bland studenter för att se om det föreligger skillnader och likheter när det gäller etik.

Metod: För att uppnå vårt syfte med studien har vi valt att genomföra både kvantitativ enkätundersökning samt kvalitativa intervjuer. Enkäten genomfördes på totalt 100 respondenter varav 50 revisorer och 50 studenter. Resultaten från enkäten följdes upp av tre djupintervjuer med tre revisorer som även deltog i enkäten.

Teori: Teorin är indelad i tre större avsnitt; etik i allmänhet, etik inom revisionsbranschen samt etiskt tänkande vid beslutsfattande. Den teoretiska referensramen inleds med ett brett perspektiv på etik för att få en bakgrund till vårt huvudproblem som berör etiskt tänkande bland revisorer.

Emperi: Resultaten från vår enkätundersökning och de tre intervjuerna är sammanställda i en empirisk diskussion.

Slutsats: Slutsatserna vi kommit fram till är att revisorer har ett högt etiskt tänkande i beslutsfattandet och de har även ett högre etiskt tänkande än studenter vid etiska dilemman. En annan slutsats är att studenter behöver mer etik undervisning för att vara föreberedda på vad som väntas när de kommer att arbeta på revisionsbyråer. Etikundervising är viktigt då etik är grunden för revisionsbranschen.

Introduction: In the recent decades the auditing profession has been faced by several scandals. These scandals have brought up a lot of attention in media. Corporate scandals have led to increased demands for ethics within the auditing profession. To regain the trustworthiness in the auditing profession and to prevent future scandals, the demands on the profession have increased. The aim of the study is, from a Swedish perspective, to investigate the level of ethical reasoning among auditors and accounting students when facing an ethical dilemma.

Methodology: In order to achieve the purpose of the study, we have chosen to apply both a quantitative- and a qualitative approach. To investigate the level of ethical reasoning we have conducted a survey on 50 auditors and 50 accounting students. This was followed up by three in-depth interviews with three auditors who participated in the survey.

Theoretical framework: The theory is divided into three major areas; ethics in business, ethics in auditing and ethical reasoning in decisionmaking. The theory starts with a wider perspective to end with the theory concerning the main problem.

Empirical findings: The results from the survey and the interviews are presented in an empirical discussion.

Conclusion: The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that auditors posses a high level of ethical reasoning in their decision- making. Auditors also have a higher ethical reasoning than accounting students when facing ethical dilemmas. Another conclusion is that students need more ethics education before entering the auditing profession, since ethics is what the profession is all about.

By examining first the life and works of Muhammad ibn Murtada al-Fayd al-Kashani (1007/1598-1091/1680), we hope this will serve as an introduction to some of his viewpoints. We will consider his theories of muraqabat al-nafs (self-supervision) and muhasabat al-nafs (self-accounting) as expounded in his book al-Mahajjah al-Bayda', which was written as a work to enhance Ihya' al-'Ulum by al-Ghazali, (450/1058-505/1111) from a Shi'ah perspective. We will also compare the views of al-Fayd and al-Ghazali as expressed in their respective books.
Self-supervision and self-accounting are two main terms of ethical terminology that enjoy a rich history in Islamic philosophy. Al-Fayd's views on the subject, as a philosopher and an ethicist of the School of Isfahan are studied in this work. The sources of al-Ghazali and al-Fayd are discussed, and differences between the approaches of al-Fayd and al-Ghazali are also covered.

Until recently, the role of auditors in the 2008 financial crisis had largely been overlooked by regulators and the general public. Though not responsible for the meltdown, accounting firms have been criticized – and sued – for failing to warn investors about problems at financial institutions before the crisis. Auditors can and should take steps to improve their function as independent overseers in the financial world. But there also is a gap between the expectations of auditors and their true responsibilities. As Lord Justice Lopes at the Court of Appeal in England famously said more than a century ago: The auditor “is a watchdog but not a bloodhound.” This thesis examines the so-called expectations gap and recommends ways to improve the audit quality of financial institutions.

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Bachelors
Business Administration
Accounting

Thesis (MTh (Old and New Testament))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
This paper undertakes a detailed study of Matt 6:19-34 for the specific purpose of accounting for the unique context and content of the material/financial ethic being articulated here by Jesus. The passage, made up of four pericopes, is located within the first of the five discourses of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus evidently articulates the ethical standards required of the children of the emerging Kingdom of God. The need for such a study stems from an understanding that the passage, indeed the Sermon as a whole, has been treated by traditional scholarship in a somewhat distanced and abstract manner i.e. it has been read without adequate cognisance being taken of the particular socio-linguistic and socio-historical context in which it was originally formulated and articulated. Relatively recent social-scientific and socio-historical New Testament scholarship, however, has provided a specific set of interpretive tools that enable a modern reader to make a far more dynamic and context-sensitive interpretation possible. Accordingly, this paper undertakes a socio-rhetorical analysis of Matt 6:19-34, together with a social-scientific and socio-historic/financial/religious analysis of the eastern Mediterranean world of late Second Temple times. Together these interpretive tools shed new light on the text and provide the opportunity for re-reading that text in a way that, hopefully, more closely articulates the ethic as an original audience might have heard it. Specifically, the use of these interpretive tools provide insights into why it was that Jesus explicitly prohibited worry, some six times in the passage, amongst the children of the Kingdom concerning the provision of their food, drink and clothing i.e. the tools provide something of an explanation for both the rhetorical force of the ethic and the underlying realities that gave rise to its formulation in the first place. These insights are then applied in an attempt at formulating a dynamically equivalent ethic that might be appropriated and applied by present day children of the Kingdom reading the passage today.

This paper seeks to present the moral and ethical frameworks in which to consider the effect of bribing on business and the great community; confront the cultural differences that lie between American businesses and its potential interest abroad, as well as the growing international move to implementation similar to that of the FCPA; analyze prior anti-bribery legislation and the historical events that prompted the need for a policy like the FCPA, discuss the basic elements of the policy’s two pronged approach of anti-bribery and disclosure regulation; examine several cases in the enforcement of the FCPA on American businesses; and consider the advantages and disadvantages of the statute on the performance of American businesses as a factor of total international exports.

The work concerns with ethical demands of auditing profession. The first part is pointed to general evolution in ethics. The second part deals with auditor's work, with its progress, aim and meaning. The third part describes laws and the ethical code of auditing profession. And finally, in the fourth part are mentioned accounting scandals, which happened in the past. It describes the role of audit firms and what impact it has for them.

As globalization increases at a fast pace, more and more companies are diversifying their presence in foreign capital markets to gain access to capital. Today, strong corporate governance is an important element to a company’s long-term success. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Cadbury Report and King Report from the US, UK and South Africa provide recommendations for good corporate governance. Corporate governance practices and guidelines vary greatly from country to country because of differences in economic, culture, and other factors. This study examines ten companies across different regions around the world analyzing each company’s board structure, committee structure and code of ethics. Results show that the prevalence of concentrated ownerships through family and group dynamics in Asian and Latin American companies convey the need for more independent directors in the board and committees to protect the interests of minority shareholders. European companies are leading the way in incorporating sustainability as part of corporate governance. As the world becomes more interdependent, successful corporate governance requires companies to adopt an inclusive approach to economic, social and environmental issues. Internalizing these issues as part of business strategy are essential for companies to be profitable, sustainable and respected in the future.

As corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing practices have increased substantially over the past decade, the possible financial advantages have been examined in great depth. Utilizing firms from the S&P 500 I have investigated the possible outperformance of accounting based and market based measures. I did this by examining the relationship between ESG scores, a common measure of CSR level, and the following dependent variables: return on assets, total risk, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. I obtained strong evidence that an increase in CSR levels are correlated with an increased return on assets.

Uppfattning om gott och ont, vad som är rätt och fel, kan kraftigt skilja sig mellan olika individer. Hur en människa uppfattar och hanterar begreppet etik är unikt för varje enskild individ i samhället. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur redovisare och revisorer ser på redovisningsetik och om de använder ett etiskt förhållningssätt och handlingssätt i sitt dagliga arbete. Vidare undersöker studien medias framställning av redovisningsrelaterade företagsskandaler, dess effekter och hur media påverkar involverade parter. Studien utgår från ett abduktivt forskningsperspektiv. Studien består av en medieanalys där fyra olika företagsskandaler analyseras utifrån sammanlagt tolv dagstidningsartiklar. Medieanalysen är komparativ eftersom en jämförelse mellan de olika artiklarna inom de fyra företagsskandalerna har skett i form av en innehållsanalys. Vidare innefattar studien även en innehållsanalys av fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna består av yrkesaktiva redovisare och revisorer. Intervjuerna analyseras genom en kvalitativ ansats, där meningen i det som sägs är huvudfokus. En slutsats som studien drar är att etiska beslut är svåra att fatta, eftersom de ska följa lagar och förordningar samtidigt som de ska vara anpassade till individens, samhällets och företagets bästa. Vidare ser vi genom studien att medias framställning av företagsskandaler påverkar människors uppfattning av de inblandade företagen, branscherna och individerna i skandalen. Där de inblandade ofta står försvarslösa till den bild som media målar upp av dem. Av detta framkommer en slags dominoeffekt, där media påverkar samhällets bild av en individ, som i sin tur även påverkar samhällets bild av företaget som individen är kopplad till. Effekterna av medias framställning av företagsskandaler kan då bli kraftiga. Eftersom ett företag inte kan gå mot samhällets förväntningar. Om detta var fallet skulle de kunna förlora sitt “lov att verka” på marknaden. Ett förslag på vidare forskning är en jämförelse mellan hur en person ser på ett företag innan en skandal och efter att de har läst om skandalen. Ytterligare ett förslag på vidare forskning är att genomföra en studie med samma utformning men med ett större respondenter. Detta för att få en större bredd och därigenom också öka urvalet studien riktar in sig på.
Perception of what is deemed good and bad, what is right or wrong, can greatly differ between individuals. How a person perceives and manages the concept of ethics is unique to each individual in society. The purpose of the study is thus to investigate how accountants and auditors view accounting ethics and how they use an ethical approach in their daily work. Furthermore, the study examines the effects of media's presentation of accounting-related corporate scandals and how media affects the involved parties. The study is based on an abductive research method. The study consists of a media analysis of four corporate scandals that are analyzed based on a total of twelve news articles. The media analysis is conducted by a comparative content analysis where a comparison of the various articles within the four scandals is made. The study also includes a content analysis of four semi-structured interviews. The respondents who have been chosen for the interviews are professionally active accountants and auditors. These interviews are analyzed through a qualitative approach, where the meaning of the word is analyzed. A conclusion that the study draws is that ethical decisions are difficult to make, as they must comply with laws and regulations while at the same time being adapted to the individual's, society's and the company's best. Furthermore, through the study, we see that media portrayal of corporate scandals affects people's perceptions of companies, industries and individuals involved. Where those involved often stand defenseless to the image that the media portray. This results in a kind of domino effect, where the media affects society's image of an individual, which in turn also affect society's image of the company the individual are linked to. The effects of the media's presentation of corporate scandals can therefore be severe, since a company cannot go against society's expectations. If this were to be the case, they could lose their “license to operate” in the market. A proposal for further research is a comparison between preconceived opinions of individuals and the same peoples' thoughts after reviewing news articles about the corporate scandal. Another proposal for further research is to carry out a study of the same design with a larger number of accountants and auditors. The aim is to greater the width and thereby also increase the targeted selection of the study. Apart from this abstract this paper will be conducted in Swedish with the exception of a few quotes.

Recent corporate reporting history is well–known for its corporate failures and questionable accountancy practices, many of which caused the profession to be frowned upon. However, the splodge on the accounting profession?s reputation goes deeper than its corporate reporting failures. The scientific foundation thereof is also being questioned in academic circles. Even though accounting scholars have been trying to formulate foundational accounting theories, it has been the accounting regulators that have been more successful in promoting their versions of what accounting theory should be, which place a question mark on the legitimacy of current day accounting theory. This thesis aims to delve deeper into the foundational philosophies of accounting and its impact on the practice of accounting. With the current accounting globalisation efforts, the profession?s stewardship function is becoming less prominent in its promulgated standards, which in turn brings the focus on the many questionable ethical practices found in the profession. Even though the regulatory bodies require their members to commit themselves to professional codes of conduct, which entails competency, integrity, objectivity and confidentiality, the 1st article in this thesis claims that ethical conduct is more than mere adherence to rules and regulations. It is also about the image of not only the profession, but also accounting research and education. Accounting is broadly practised, researched and taught within its so–called conceptual framework, of which a key objective is to guide and inform accounting practice. The conceptual framework became the basis upon which accounting theory is based. However, many accounting scholars are openly critical of presenting accounting theory as a set of practical guidelines. The 2nd article in the thesis concludes that, from an academic perspective, accounting theory should be based on three quintessential guidelines. The first of which is its primary purpose of reporting on the historic economic events, secondly the provision of useable and comparable information about these events and finally, the facilitation of business decisions based on relevant and reliable information. In the above mentioned business decisions, the concept of value is often taken for granted and many accounting techniques? effectiveness is judged on how well it approximates an item?s value. The 3rd article argues that the multiple purposes for which accounting information is used complicates the issue of value, as reported by accounting. Two key conflicting valuation perspectives are the so–called decision–usefulness and true income perspectives. The current drive towards fair value accounting, as opposed to historic cost accounting, cast doubts on the reliability and relevance of accounting information. Even though it may be argued that value–based techniques are more relevant because it is a better reflection of the current business conditions, the mere subjective nature thereof and the accountant?s objective valuation skills make the true relevance of this information questionable. Furthermore, mixed model valuations found in financial statements makes cross–company information unreliable. Accountancy research of the past four decades focussed on the concept of user decision–usefulness. The user is also pre–eminent in the globalisation of accounting standards of the FASB and the IASB, where users are specified as the equity investors, lenders and capital providers. The 4th article acknowledges that although these user categories are important consumers of the financial data, there are other users which are also impacted by the financial information and the company?s operational performances. There are also concerns over accounting?s key assumptions, such as its quantification and predictive abilities, which are fundamental to the decision–usefulness objective. Furthermore, there are questions around how the regulators decided what information is suppose to be useful and what type of utility is being sought. In summary, the focus on the vocational aspects of accountancy stands in contrast to claims of accounting as an academic discipline in the social sciences. The reality is that the practices of the profession will probably always play a central role in what is taught at university level, and the regulators, as the final authority on accounting standards, will probably remain dictatorial in promulgating their versions of accounting theory. Yet, accounting and its wide spread impact on society, makes it a key discipline within the economical and management sciences. It is therefore essential for the resurrection of accounting as a social scientific discipline that there is a return to foundational accounting research that will prepare (and enable) prospective practitioners and academics to question the status quo and push back on accounting practices that are threatening to extinguish the flame of accounting scholarship.
Thesis (Ph.D. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The ability of outsiders to gain controlling interest in a firm has a large impact on managerial behavior. This threat has not been wielded in Indian corporations for the most part in spite of there being no direct regulatory hurdles in the execution of the same. This paper seeks to determine the reasons behind the lack of hostile takeover bids in India, as well as analyze the effect on corporate governance. The scrutiny of the Indian corporate sphere leads us to believe that corporate governance is in the process of being codified, but there are numerous motivations already in place to incentivize good managerial behavior, other than the threat of hostile takeover bids.

Auditors review documented financial figures to test for their accuracy and materiality. Lawyers analyze evidential facts and records to build sound legal arguments. These parties work toward a mutual purpose: to present their clients as legitimate and compliant businesses. But what happens when the concrete facts upon which lawyers and auditors base their work are obscured by their inability to see into the future? In other words, how can these professions conjunctively handle potential future obligations brought about by contingent liabilities? This study will attempt to resolve the tensions that emerge between lawyers and auditors when tasked with estimating the likelihood and financial value of contingent liabilities. It considers the strict regulations set forth by the ABA and FASB and how each side might circumvent the guidelines to allow for better collaboration. Addressing a focal point of contention between the legal and financial professions for decades, this study will also look at past attempts at mediating the conflict as well as current proposals to alter the contingent liability disclosure process. Most importantly, it distinguishes itself from prior research by implementing firsthand arguments from professionals in each field to improve the cooperative landscape. Collectively weighing previously attempted solutions, current regulatory barriers, and professional guidance, this study proposes a three-step solution toward initiating reform between lawyers and auditors to enhance the visibility, precision, and ease of disclosing contingent liabilities.

This paper discusses why the United States is need of international corporate tax reform. It argues that instead of the worldwide tax system it currently uses, the United States needs to transition to a territorial tax system.

This dissertation is a descriptive, exploratory examination of professional commitment, organizational commitment, and conflict between those commitments in the internal audit profession. That conflict has been suggested in prior studies as the source of dysfunctional outcomes such as increased role stress, high turnover, decreased job satisfaction, and the exercise of improper judgment leading to audit failures. The descriptive aspect of this study deals with the development of a more comprehensive structural model of the factors and relationships involved in commitment and conflict than has been developed by previous research dealing with accountants. The exploratory aspect deals with the testing and refinement of the developed model utilizing the internal audit profession as the field of examination. The model developed in this study is derived from the synthesis of factors suggested by role theory, the concept of side bets, the cosmopolitan-local construct, and the concept of commitment as a process. This research utilizes a questionnaire administered to 205 practicing internal auditors in order to test 30 hypothesized relationships. Path analysis is used to determine the significant direct relationships between variables with a process of theory trimming being conducted in order to produce more parsimonious structural models. Indirect relationships between significant variables are identified and their redundant or suppressive nature determined. Explanations of these suppressive or redundant relationships are provided based on the theoretical considerations identified above. Such a determination and explanation of the redundant and suppressive indirect relationships involved in the commitment-conflict relationship has not been accomplished in earlier studies of the subject. Although the procedures used here do not support causal conclusions, the findings of this study indirectly provide evidence that conflict between the two commitments in the internal audit area is not to be considered inherent. The findings also suggest a possible undesirable relationship between organizational formalization and professional commitment.