Accounting Behavior and Organizations Sections Publications

Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA)

2008

Volume 20(1)--Forthcoming

A publication of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

Table of Contents

• The Effect of a Justification Memo and Hypothesis Set Quality on the Review Process

Stephen K. Asare and Arnold Wright

• DCF Techniques and Non-Financial Measures in Capital Budgeting: A Contingency Approach Analysis

Shimin Chen

The Impact of Nonaudit Service Fee Levels on Investors’ Perception of Auditor Independence

Shawn M. Davis and Dana Hollie

• Accounting Firm Culture and Governance: A Research Synthesis

J. Gregory Jenkins, Donald R. Deis, Jean C. Bedard, and Mary B. Curtis

• An Empirical Examination of a Three-Component Model of Professional Commitment Among Public Accountants

David Smith and Matthew Hall

• Disclosure versus Recognition of Stock Option Compensation: Effect on the Credit Decisions of Loan Officers

Chantal Viger, Réjean Belzile, and Asokan Anandarajan

• Accounting and Machiavellianism

Robin L. Wakefield

• The Effects of Decision Aid Design on Information Search Strategies and Confirmation Bias of Tax Professionals

Patrick Wheeler and Vairam Arunachalam

Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA)

2007

Volume 19

• The effects of client and preparer risk factors on workpaper review effectiveness

Stephen K. Asare, Christine M. Haynes, and J. Gregory Jenkins

 

• New product development: How cost information precision affects designer focus and behavior in a multiple objective setting*

Donna M. Booker, Andrea Drake, and Dan L. Heitger

 

• Strategic performance measurement systems, job-relevant information, and managerial behavioral responses – role stress and performance

Laurie Burney and Sally Widener

 

• Empowerment, motivation, and performance: Examining the effect of feedback and incentives on non-management employees*

Andrea Drake, Jeffrey Wong, and Stephen Salter

 

• Effects of supervisor power on preparers’ responses to audit review: A field study

Donald B. Fedor and Robert J. Ramsay

 

Ethical reasoning and equitable relief*

Gary Fleischman, Sean Valentine, and Don W. Finn

 

Estimating activity costs: How the provision of accurate historical activity data from a biased cost system can improve individuals’ cost estimation accuracy*

Dan. L. Heitger

 

The effect of audit inquiries on the ability to detect financial misrepresentations*

Chih-Chen Lee and Robert B. Welker

 

The impact of financial information and voluntary disclosures on contributions to not-for-profit organizations

Linda M. Parsons

 

• Long series of information and nonprofessional investors’ belief revision

Robert Pinsker

 

Attention to evidence of aggressive financial reporting and intentional misstatement judgments: Effects of experience and trust*

Jacob M. Rose

 

Culture, implicit theories, and the attribution of morality*

Bernard Wong-On-Wing and Gladie Lui

 

• Academic instruction as a determinant of judgment choice*

William F. Wright

 

* Accepted by S. Kaplan

 

The Effects of Client and Preparer Risk Factors

on Workpaper Review Effectiveness

 

Stephen K. Asare

University of Florida

kwaku@ufl.edu

 

Christine M. Haynes

University of West Georgia

chaynes@westga.edu

 

J. Gregory Jenkins

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

greg.jenkins@vt.edu

 

 

ABSTRACT: Both client risk and workpaper preparer risk are important contextual factors that reviewers must manage. In this study, we experimentally investigate how combined client risk and preparer risk impact workpaper review effort and accuracy. We found that reviewers allocated more effort when reviewing workpapers of a high risk client, relative to a low risk client, but preparer risk did not drive effort. With respect to review accuracy, we found that in a high client risk environment, reviewers were more accurate when preparer risk was high than when preparer risk was low. However, when client risk was low, review accuracy was invariant to preparer risk. These results suggest that although preparer risk is not a driver of review effort, it, nevertheless can affect accuracy when client risk is high. Together, the results suggest that review effort does not appear to be the sole determinant of review accuracy.

 

New Product Development: How Cost Information Precision Affects Designer

Focus and Behavior in a Multiple Objective Setting

 

Donna M. Booker

Assistant Professor of Accounting

University of Cincinnati

Donna.Booker@uc.edu

 

Andrea Drake

Assistant Professor of Accounting

University of Cincinnati

Andrea.Drake@uc.edu

 

Dan L. Heitger*

Assistant Professor of Accounting

Miami University

heitgedl@muohio.edu

 

ABSTRACT: The development of new products that satisfy customer needs in a cost effective manner is key to survival for many organizations. The role that cost information plays in new product development (NPD), such as its effect on designers’ focus and crucial NPD performance measures, is unclear. This experimental study extends existing accounting NPD research by investigating the effect of two levels of cost information precision (specific versus relative) and new products (radical versus incremental) on designers’ focus and two common NPD performance measures: product cost and product features. The results indicate that compared to relative cost information, specific cost information increases designers’ focus on cost minimization for incremental but not radical products. However, providing designers with specific cost information results in more cost effective designs for both types of products. In addition, contrary to expectations, more cost effective designs do not come at the expense of reduced product features. The results show that the role played by cost information in NPD is more complex than has been suggested in prior literature.

 

Strategic Performance Measurement Systems, Job-Relevant Information and Managerial Behavioral Responses—Role Stress and Performance

 

Laurie Burney

Mississippi State University

lmcwhorter@cobilan.msstate.edu

 

Sally K. Widener

Rice University

widener@rice.edu

 

ABSTRACT: This study explores managerial behavioral responses associated with the extent to which a firm’s performance measurement system is linked to its strategy (SPMS). We hypothesize that an SPMS is positively associated with higher levels of job-relevant information (JRI) and lower levels of role stressors, which are then associated with higher levels of managerial performance. Using survey data from over 700 respondents, we find that an SPMS positively affects performance through its relations with JRI and role ambiguity (RA). Managers perceive that they have higher levels of JRI and lower levels of both role conflict (RC) and RA when they have an SPMS closely linked to strategy. In turn, performance is higher when managers perceive that their RA is lower. Additionally, we find that the link to the evaluative process, complexity, and managerial experience moderate the relations between an SPMS and JRI, RA, and RC. 

 

Empowerment, Motivation, and Performance: Examining the Impact of Feedback and Incentives on Non-management Employees

 

Andrea Drake

University of Cincinnati

Andrea.Drake@uc.edu

 

Jeffrey Wong

University of Nevada at Reno

wongj@unr.edu

 

Stephen Salter

University of Cincinnati

saltersb@ucmail.uc.edu

 

ABSTRACT: Motivated employees play a key role in organization success and past research indicates a positive association between perceptions of empowerment and motivation. A prominent model put forth by Spreitzer (1995) suggests that two major components of control systems will positively affect employee feelings of empowerment-- performance feedback and performance-based reward systems. This experimental study contributes to the behavioral accounting literature by examining how specific types of performance feedback and performance-based rewards affect three psychological dimensions of empowerment. Also, we use a relatively simple context to investigate whether predictions validated on surveys of managers also hold for lower-level workers. Our results suggest that feedback and rewards affect the dimensions of empowerment differently for lower level workers than they do for managers. Namely, performance feedback was positively associated with only one dimension and performance-based rewards had negative effects on two out of the three dimensions. In addition, overall motivation was not significantly associated with two of the three empowerment dimensions. Implications of this study are that techniques that work to increase manager perceptions of empowerment may not work at lower organizational levels and, even if successful, the related increase in employee motivation may not be significant. 

 

Effects of Supervisor Power on Preparers’ Responses to Audit Review: A Field Study

 

Donald B. Fedor

Georgia Institute of Technology

donald.fedor@mgt.gatech.edu

 

Robert J. Ramsay

University of Kentucky

rjrams2@pop.uky.edu

 

ABSTRACT: This study investigates the role of audit review as feedback to workpaper preparers. Specifically, we examine whether review affects preparers’ attempts to improve their performance, manage their reviewers’ impressions of their work, and seek additional feedback from their reviewers. We also examine the effects of preparers’ perceptions of their reviewers’ power. Power has previously been shown to be a critical construct affecting feedback. Our findings suggest that perceptions of reviewer power affect preparers’ responses to review. Specifically, referent power appears to have the most positive effect on preparer's responses, while perceptions of coercive power have detrimental effects.

 

ETHICAL REASONING AND EQUITABLE RELIEF

 

Gary Fleischman

University of Wyoming

gflash@uwyo.edu

 

Sean Valentine

University of Wyoming

valentin@uwyo.edu

 

Don W. Finn

University of Arkansas

dfinn@walton.uark.edu

 

ABSTRACT: Professional manager perceptions were investigated in this study using a survey containing two equitable relief situational vignettes to empirically investigate two of the four steps from Rest’s (1986) ethical reasoning process. Business societal perceptions of the equitable relief subset of the innocent spouse rules were also investigated, focusing on the knowledge of evasion and abuse factors.  The results indicated that the ethical reasoning process was significantly related to ethical decision making and Rest’s model. Furthermore, decision-makers were more likely to judge that relief be granted in an equitable relief scenario involving abuse than to one not involving abuse. The knowledge of evasion factor contained in both scenarios appeared to indirectly influence respondents’ judgments to deny equitable relief, while the presence of emotional abuse strengthened relief judgments. Finally, the study presents a general framework involving the interrelationship of Congressional intent with societal perceptions regarding subjective equitable relief tax law provisions that are associated within a societal context. 

 

Estimating Activity Costs:  How the Provision of Accurate Historical Activity Data

From a Biased Cost System Can Improve Individuals’ Cost Estimation Accuracy

 

Dan L. Heitger

Miami University

heitgedl@muohio.edu

 

ABSTRACT: An integral component of effective cost control and performance evaluation is the ability to accurately estimate relationships between activities and overhead costs (i.e., activity costs).  Individuals using a single cost pool system often have to rely on memory of historical activity data when estimating activity costs.  If individuals’ recall of data is representative of the historical data, then reliance on memory should not be detrimental to cost estimation accuracy.  However, individuals often possess incorrect initial beliefs about activity costs.  These incorrect beliefs are expected to serve as an anchor from which individuals make insufficient adjustments when estimating activity costs based on memory of historical activity data.  Multiple cost pool systems frequently provide biased standard rates; however, such systems also provide accurate historical activity data when individuals estimate costs.  I extend prior accounting research by experimentally examining whether a multiple cost pool system’s provision of accurate historical activity data improves activity cost estimation for individuals with incorrect cost beliefs even when the cost system also provides biased standard rates.  The main contribution of the study is its finding that the multiple cost pool system’s provision of historical activity data improves individuals’ adjustments from their incorrect initial cost beliefs when estimating activity costs, thereby increasing their estimation accuracy.  The results suggest that this improved adjustment from incorrect initial cost beliefs occurs because the provision of historical activity data improves individuals’ recognition of how wrong their initial cost beliefs were in reality.  This result is achieved even though the cost system provides biased standard rates.  The ability of flawed cost systems to improve individuals’ activity cost estimation in other such ways has received little research attention and is important because of its potential for improving managerial decision making.

 

The Effect of Audit Inquiries no the Ability to

Detect Financial Misrepresentations

 

Chih-Chen Lee

Northern Illinois University

cclee@niu.edu

 

Robert B. Welker

Southern Illinois University – Carbondale

welker@cba.siu.edu

 

ABSTRACT: Recent professional promulgations recommend the use of audit inquiry for fraud detection. One benefit of audit inquiries is that they may induce interviewees to act in ways that facilitate the discovery of intentional financial misrepresentations (deception). We conducted two experiments to assess the ability of prospective accountants (upper-level accounting majors) to detect intentional financial misrepresentations in audit inquiries. These accounting majors served as proxies for entry-level accountants. Our results indicate that participants have poor deception detection ability in evaluating a response to an inquiry, even when they receive deception detection training prior to the inquiry and when repeat questions are added to the inquiry to heighten the level of stress with which interviewees must cope. But our results also suggest that the inquiry process may change the way participants view interviewees. Participants were more skeptical of verbal financial representations (e.g., valuation, existence) after they observed an inquiry regarding the representations. These results suggest that an inquiry does not significantly increase the ability of entry-level accountants to detect deception accurately, but it may benefit fraud detection by inducing a skeptical mindset for their evaluations of financial representations.

 

The Impact of Financial Information and Voluntary Disclosures on

Contributions to Not-for-Profit Organizations

 

Linda M. Parsons

George Mason University

Lparsons@gmu.edu

 

ABSTRACT:            This study uses a field-based experiment combined with a follow-up laboratory experiment to investigate whether accounting information reduces perceived uncertainty about nonprofit operations. Potential donors were sent, via a direct mail campaign, fundraising appeals containing varying amounts of financial and nonfinancial information in order to determine whether individual donors are more likely to contribute when accounting information or voluntary disclosures are provided. Participants in a lab experiment were asked to assess the usefulness of the different versions of the fundraising appeals.  A logistic regression provides evidence that some donors who have previously donated use financial accounting information when making a donation decision. The results are inconclusive regarding whether donors use nonfinancial service efforts and accomplishments disclosures to determine whether and how much to give, but participants in the lab experiment judged the nonfinancial disclosures to be useful for making a giving decision.

 

Long Series of Information and Non-Professional Investors’ Belief Revision

 

Robert Pinsker

Old Dominion University

rpinsker@odu.edu

 

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to examine the effect of disclosure pattern (sequential versus simultaneous) and direction of information (positive/negative versus negative/positive)) on non-professional investors’ belief revisions. An important feature of the experiment is that long series of information are used. Prior research has largely examined individuals’ belief revisions using short series of information.  Results indicate that individuals revise beliefs to a larger extent when the disclosure pattern is sequential rather than simultaneous. The findings extend the prior belief revision literature by providing evidence that results hold using long series of information: the current experiment uses 20 pieces of information, whereas most accounting studies only use four pieces of information. Results also contribute to the extant financial accounting literature on non-professional investors, which is particularly relevant given the larger number of inexperienced investors entering the marketplace and recent legislation that requires more detailed firm disclosures (e.g., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002).

 

Attention to Evidence of Aggressive Financial Reporting and Intentional Misstatement Judgments: Effects of Experience and Trust

 

Jacob M. Rose

Southern Illinois University – Carbondale

jakerose@cba.siu.edu

 

Abstract: This study extends prior research by examining the effects of dispositional trust, induced skepticism, and fraud-specific audit experience on attention to aggressive financial reporting practices and judgments of potential misstatement. In an experimental analysis using 125 practicing auditors, this study finds that auditors who are less trusting of others attend more to evidence of aggressive reporting than do more trusting auditors and higher levels of induced skepticism increase attention to aggressive reporting. Further, auditors who pay more attention to evidence of aggressive reporting are more likely to believe that intentional misstatement occurred. General audit experience was not a predictor of auditor’s attention to aggressive reporting or auditor’s judgments about intentional misstatements. Auditors with more fraud-specific experience, however, were more likely than auditors with less fraud-specific experience to believe that intentional misstatement had occurred when evidence of aggressive reporting exists.
 

Culture, Implicit Theories and the Attribution of Morality

 

Bernard Wong-On-Wing

Washington State University

wow@wsu.edu

 

Gladie Lui

Chinese University of Hong Kong

 

ABSTRACT: Recent research (Choi and Nisbett 1998, 2000; Choi et al. 1999; Ji et al. 2000; Nisbett et al. 2001) has repeatedly shown that compared to Westerners, East Asians pay greater attention to situational factors and endorse a more holistic theory of causality. Based on this robust finding, the present study examined the extent to which Americans and Chinese differ in their causal judgment about, and their reaction to observed fraudulent behavior. The results show that compared to Americans, Chinese were more sensitive to situational factors. They were less likely to attribute fraudulent behavior to individual dispositions, and less likely to agree to punitive measures that are directed at the target person. Implications for both practice and research are discussed.

 

Academic Instruction as a Determinant of Judgment Performance

 

William F. Wright

University of Illinois

wrightwf@uiuc.edu

 

ABSTRACT: Auditors evaluate the collectibility of commercial loans when they conduct financial audits of financial institutions. Task-specific academic instruction and practice provide for acquisition of relevant credit analysis knowledge—but the relative benefits of academic instruction and practice versus training and practical experience remain unclear (e.g., Bonner and Walker 1994; Hammond 1996). First, loan judgments made by second-year graduate business students completing an elective course in credit analysis are compared with judgments made by audit seniors with similar business experience but without any credit analysis training or experience. The graduate business students’ judgments are significantly more accurate and less biased, with more consensus, given the criterion of the mean judgment of twelve highly experienced financial institution audit partners. Second, as a test of the benefits of academic instruction and practice versus CPA firm training and practical experience, the judgments of the graduate business students are compared with judgments provided by experienced auditors (seniors and managers): similar levels of judgment performance are indicated. Models of the loan judgments of the different groups of participants based on attributes of the borrower explain why the graduate business students performed especially well.

 

 

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The Impact of Task Information Feedback on Ethical Reasoning

 

Dawn W. Massey

Fairfield University

 

Linda Thorne

York University

Abstract:  This study investigates whether task information feedback (TIF) promotes 84 auditors’ and accounting students’ use of higher ethical reasoning, thereby increasing their tendency to consider the public interest in the resolution of ethical dilemmas. TIF is a type of feedback in which subjects are provided with guidance about the cognitive decision-making process they should use. In our experiment, subjects used higher ethical reasoning to resolve audit dilemmas after receiving TIF than they did before receiving TIF. Accordingly, our findings suggest that TIF is effective in promoting higher ethical reasoning and thus increasing the tendency of practicing and aspiring auditors to consider the public interest when resolving ethical dilemmas.

 

Data availability: Contact the first author regarding data availability.

Field-Based Research in Accounting:

Accomplishments and Prospects

 

Kenneth A. Merchant and Wim A. Van der Stede

University of Southern California

 

Abstract: This paper tabulates the field-based research in accounting that was published in the period 1981-2004 and discusses the use of this method and its contributions. It shows that the number of field research publications has grown significantly over this period but that use of the method is primarily confined to management accounting topics. The paper describes the major impacts that field research has had on the management accounting field, particularly in identifying leading edge practices and enhancing their scholarly exploration, thereby contributing to our understanding of the phenomena we research and linking our research with practice. We also suggest that similar contributions might be made if researchers in other fields employed field research methods more.

 

 

Effects of Discussion of Audit Reviews on Auditors’ Motivation and Performance

 

 

 

Cathleen L. Miller

University of Michigan - Flint

 

Donald B. Fedor

Georgia Institute of Technology

 

Robert J. Ramsay

University of Kentucky

 

Abstract:  One important purpose of audit review is to provide feedback and on-the-job training (Libby and Luft 1993), but we know very little about the effectiveness of review as a feedback mechanism. Firms have recently been moving to including discussion of performance and audit findings as part of the review procedure (Rich et al. 1997). The purpose of this field survey is to explore whether the addition of such discussion to the review feedback process enhances preparers’ subsequent performance. By examining survey responses from both reviewers and preparers from actual audit engagements, we find that incorporating discussion of performance with written review notes does enhance preparers’ motivation to improve performance. However, experience moderates the effect of discussion on performance improvement as perceived by the reviewer. While discussion resulted in better performance for less experienced auditors, it appears to actually diminish performance improvement for more experienced preparers.

 

Key words: Audit, review, discussion, experience, feedback, motivation, performance,

 

 

 

Sources of Work-Family Conflict in the Accounting Profession

 

 

William R. Pasewark and Ralph E. Viator

Texas Tech University

 

 

Abstract:  Turnover of experienced and well-trained professionals continues to be a problem for accounting firms. Much of the turnover is among individuals who are trying to satisfy demands of both work and family. This study examines the sources of work-family conflict and their association with job outcomes in the accounting profession. One source of work-family conflict, work interfering with the family (WIF), is found to significantly relate to job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Females are much more likely than males to experience turnover intentions when their work interferes with their family.

Another source, family interfering with work (FIW), is not significantly related to either job satisfaction or to turnover intentions when flexible work arrangements are offered, but is related to turnover intentions when flexible work arrangements are not offered. As currently offered, flexible work arrangements seem to be effective at reducing turnover related to FIW.

 

Key Words:  work-family conflict; flexible work arrangements; job satisfaction; turnover

 

Data Availability:  The survey data for this study is available from the authors.

 

The Impact of Compensation Level and Context on Income Reporting Behavior

in the Laboratory

 

Viswanath Umashanker Trivedi and Janne Chung

York University

 

Abstract:  This study examines two methodological issues in judgment and decision making studies in accounting – compensation level and context – using an income reporting task. Previous research has not examined the joint effect of compensation level and context. Further, findings in previous research about these two variables may not extend to specific contexts such as an income reporting context. Specifically, the study examines the effect of different levels of compensation (including zero and very high values) on participants’ income reporting behavior in the laboratory. It also examines whether the use of tax-specific instructions results in differences in income reporting behavior compared to the use of context-free instructions. The study predicts that compensation level should not affect reporting income levels when the treatment is tax-specific due to the influence of social norms. The study also makes predictions based on expected utility theory in the context-fee treatment. An experimental study was carried out in India using college students that manipulated two types of context (tax-specific and context-free) and six levels of compensation, including no compensation, grouped into three levels -- Low, Medium, and High. The results show that compensation levels did not affect participants’ income reporting behavior in the tax-specific treatment but in the context-free treatment, participants’ income reporting behavior was negatively affected by the introduction of adequate compensation.

 

 

Key Words: Experimental economics, compensation, social norms, income reporting behavior.

Data Availability: Available upon request from the first author.

 

Strategy, Choice of Performance Measures, and Performance

 

Wim A. Van der Stede

University of Southern California

 

Chee W. Chow

San Diego State University

 

 Thomas W. Lin

University of Southern California

 

Abstract: We examine the relationship between quality-based manufacturing strategy and the use of different types of performance measures, as well as their separate and joint effects on performance. A key part of our investigation is the distinction between financial and both objective and subjective nonfinancial measures. Our results support the view that performance measurement diversity benefits performance as we find that, regardless of strategy, firms with more extensive performance measurement systems – especially those that include objective and subjective nonfinancial measures – have higher performance. But our findings also partly support the view that the strategy-measurement “fit” affects performance. We find that firms that emphasize quality in manufacturing use more of both objective and subjective nonfinancial measures. However, there is only a positive effect on performance from pairing a quality-based manufacturing strategy with extensive use of subjective measures, but not with objective nonfinancial measures.

 

 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA) ABSTRACTS 2005 Volume 17 A publication of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the American Accounting Association

Table of Contents • A theoretical framework of the relationship between public accounting firms and their auditors Elizabeth Dreike Almer, Julia L. Higgs, and Karen L. Hooks • Does “political bias” in the DIT or Dit-2 threaten validity in studies of CPAs? Charles D. Bailey, Thomas J. Phillips, Jr., and Stephen B. Scofield (Deceased) • Relative weighting of common and unique balanced scorecard measures by knowledgeable decision makers William N. Dilla and Paul John Steinbart • Alternative measures of managers’ performance, controllability and the outcome effect Dipankar Ghosh • Eliciting experts’ context knowledge with theory-based experiential questionnaires Michael Gibbins and Sandy Q. Qu* • Accountants’ commitment to their profession: Multiple dimensions of professional commitment and opportunities for future research Mathew Hall, David Smith, and Kim Langfield-Smith • Antecedents and consequences of quality performance Adam S. Maiga and Fred A. Jacobs • 20-F reconciliations and investors’ perceptions of risk, financial performance and quality of accounting principles James J. Maroney and Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh • Decision aids and experiential learning Jacob M. Rose • The role of social influences in using accounting performance information to evaluate subordinates: A causal attribution approach Yin Xu and Brad Tuttle • Analysis of diagnostic tasks in accounting research using signal detection theory Robert J. Ramsay and Richard M. Tubbs * Commissioned by S. Kaplan ABSTRACTS A Theoretical Framework of the Relationship Between Public Accounting Firms and Their Auditors Elizabeth Dreike Almer Portland State University Julia L. Higgs and Karen L. Hooks Florida Atlantic University ABSTRACT: The behavior of auditors in the context of their employment by public accounting firms has received significant attention in the accounting literature. The current article extends this literature by providing a framework identifying what auditing professionals contribute and receive as a result of their work efforts, as well as related influences. Using agency theory modified with fundamental ideas from the sociology of professions literature, we develop a model of the auditor-public accounting firm employment relationship. This framework is grounded in a timely, contextually rich description of the public accounting work environment, and the pressures and incentives faced by auditors. Propositions for future research are suggested that arise from understanding the auditor-firm relationship. Does “political bias” in the DIT or DIT-2 threaten validity in studies of CPAs? Charles D. Bailey University of Memphis Thomas J. Phillips, Jr. Louisiana Tech University Stephen B. Scofield (Deceased) ABSTACT: The Defining Issues Test (DIT) has been popular among accounting researchers, and will surely find continued applications. The DIT-2 is still new to accounting research. Fisher and Sweeney (1998, 2002) and Sweeney and Fisher (1998, 1999) build upon other critical research to claim that the DIT P-score is a preference measure strongly related to political beliefs. Experimental subjects, when asked to respond from an “extremely liberal” perspective or to “identify the statements designed to represent the highest levels of moral judgment,” tend to respond differently than under official DIT instructions. However, Rest et al. (1999) reject this approach to validity testing, claiming that appropriate tests should address the variance explained over and above other constructs. Based on random samples of CPAs in public accounting practice (741 taking the DIT in 1995 and 261 taking the DIT-2 in 2001, each of whom also responded to political preference scales) we measure the amount of variance shared by the “ethical” and “political” measures. In our samples, political position explains less than ten percent of the variance in DIT and DIT-2 P scores as well as the new N2 scores; these effect sizes are small, so that the scores may not be seriously threatened by confounding. __________________________________________________________________   Relative weighting of common and unique balanced scorecard measures by knowledgeable decision makers William N. Dilla Iowa State University Paul John Steinbart Arizona State University ABSTRACT: Prior research has found that decision makers with limited experience in using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) ignored measures that reflect the unique strategy of a business unit and based their performance evaluations solely on measures common across units. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether decision makers who have had training and experience in designing BSCs exhibit the same behavior. Results of an experiment show that decision makers who are knowledgeable about the BSC attended to both common and unique measures, but placed greater emphasis on the former. These results hold in both a performance evaluation judgment and in a bonus allocation decision. We attribute these results to the knowledge participants acquired through classroom training on the design of the BSC, but cannot rule out an alternative explanation that our results differ from previous research because participants in our study were undergraduate accounting and information systems majors, rather than MBA students. Eliciting experts’ context knowledge with theory-based experiential questionnaires Michael Gibbins and Sandy Q. Qu University of Alberta ABSTRACT: This paper describes a useful addition to behavioral researchers’ set of research methods, supplementing and extending what can be learned from interviews, surveys and experiments. The experiential questionnaire (EQ) is designed to study the context within which experts behave, guided by theory about that context and by extensive pre-testing with representatives of the target population of respondents. An EQ is built around expert respondents’ experience of their context, the world in which they function, as represented by cases they have experienced and can describe in detail. The value of the data is supplemented by having the respondents choose the cases and do much of the categorization and coding of their own responses. The EQ’s questions are worded in matter-of-fact terms familiar to the respondents, to encourage respondents to report their experienced contexts dispassionately. This paper describes the EQ method, with examples from the mostly auditing published studies and suggestions about extensions into other areas of accounting research. The value of studying experts’ context is addressed, as are matching of respondents and theory, designing and testing an EQ, and some threats to validity of the data resulting from an EQ. References to related research literatures are included. Alternative measures of manager’s performance, controllability and the outcome Effect Dipankar Ghosh University of Oklahoma ABSTRACT: This research examines whether alternative performance evaluation measures of managers (return of investment, sales per square foot, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction) with varying controllability increases or decreases the extent of the outcome effect and whether asking the evaluator to assess the evaluatee’s controllability of these measures prior to the evaluation mitigates the effect. The outcome effect occurs when outcome knowledge systematically influences the evaluator’s assessment of the evaluatee irrespective of the quality of his or her initial decision resulting in the outcome. The experimental results reveal that the outcome effect increased as the controllability of the retail store manager’s outcome measure increased, with the increase being more for non-financial measures than for financial measures. The results also show that controllability assessment of the outcome measures prior to the actual evaluation reduced the outcome effect across all measures. Key words: Performance evaluation, performance measures, outcome effect, controllability   Accountants’ commitment to their profession: Multiple dimensions of professional commitment and opportunities for future research Mathew Hall David Smith University of Melbourne Kim Langfield-Smith Monash University ABSTRACT: Professional commitment (PC) refers to attachments that individuals form to their profession, and has been linked to outcomes such as improved job satisfaction and reduced likelihood of leaving the profession (Harrell et al. 1986; Meixner and Bline 1989). Recent arguments in the organizational behavior literature have emphasized the importance of developing a more complete understanding of PC (Irving et al. 1997; Meyer and Allen 1997). Research has demonstrated empirically the existence of multiple dimensions of PC and found that they relate differently to important affective and behavioral outcomes (Meyer et al. 1993; Irving et al. 1997). Despite these developments, no published studies have examined the existence and/or effects of multiple dimensions of accountants’ PC. This paper reviews the literature to identify important antecedents and outcomes of accountants’ PC. Opportunities for future research that incorporate a multi-dimensional view of accountants’ PC are presented. ________________________________________________________________________ 20-F reconciliations and investors’ perceptions of risk, financial reporting and quality of accounting principles James J. Maroney Northeastern University Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh Dublin City University ABSTRACT: This paper investigates whether the increases and decreases to earnings and stockholders’ equity presented in 20-F reconciliations influence perceptions of the risk of investing, the quality of the accounting principles and the financial performance of the reporting firm. The research results indicate that subjects perceive the risk of a hypothetical firm filing a 20-F reconciliation with reconciliation decreases to be higher, and the quality of accounting principles lower, than a hypothetical firm either complying with U.S. GAAP or filing a 20-F reconciliation with reconciliation increases. Additional analysis suggests that these significant effects are due to a negative effect from the reconciliation decrease consistent with the effects predicted by attribute framing theory. The findings have implications for the SEC as they consider whether foreign registrants on U.S. exchanges should be allowed to comply with international accounting standards without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP. These findings also have implications for foreign registrants on U.S exchanges. The results indicate that firms that have higher non-U.S. GAAP earnings (and a consequent reconciliation decrease) should comply with U.S. GAAP as the reporting of a reconciliation decrease creates a negative perception of the firm. KEY WORDS: 20-F reconciliations, Risk perceptions, Foreign registrants, Quality of accounting principles. ________________________________________________________________________ ANALYSIS OF DIAGNOSTIC TASKS IN ACCOUNTING RESEARCH USING SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY Robert J. Ramsay University of Kentucky Richard M. Tubbs University of Iowa ABSTRACT: Many accounting judgments are diagnostic tasks in which accountants, auditors, managers, or investors discriminate among possible states and decide which one exists. To measure the accuracy of such decisions, most accounting research employs percentage correct, a measure proven to be invalid and unreliable, primarily because it does not control for response bias. This paper describes Signal Detection Theory (SDT), a theoretical model of diagnostic tasks that has been empirically supported in many fields. SDT provides superior measures of accuracy and response bias. We discuss the benefits of employing SDT in accounting research and describe an SDT-based reanalysis of data related to two published accounting studies that results in revised conclusions and important additional insights. Keywords: Diagnostic tasks; Signal Detection Theory; Accuracy; Response bias; Confidence.   Decision aids and experiential learning Jacob M. Rose Montana State University ABSTRACT: Rose and Wolfe (2000) demonstrated that decision aid design is critical to learning from decision aids, and aids that produce less cognitive load result in superior learning by aid users compared to aids that produce more cognitive load. The current research investigates whether a tax decision aid has differential affects on the knowledge acquisition of accounting students with varying perceived aptitudes for tax and interest in tax as a career. Results indicate that participants with more interest in and perceived aptitude for tax acquire more tax-related knowledge during manual task completion than participants with less perceived aptitude and interest. Similar to prior research, decision aids generally decrease learning relative to unaided environments. When decision aids do not produce a heavy cognitive load, however, participants with less perceived aptitude for and interest in tax learn as much in aided environments as they learn in unaided environments. ________________________________________________________________________   The Role of Social Influences in Using Accounting Performance Information to Evaluate Subordinates: A Causal Attribution Approach Yin Xu Old Dominion University Brad Tuttle University of South Carolina ABSTRACT: One important role of accounting information is to provide objective information to assist decision-makers in evaluating the performance of their subordinates. Yet, whether decision-makers use accounting data in an objective fashion, independent of interpersonal factors is an open question. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether similarities in work style (innovator vs. adaptor) between a manager and a subordinate influences the manager’s causal attributions and subsequent performance evaluation for the subordinate, given accounting performance indicators. The study is conducted in an experimental setting and the research analysis used is developed within the framework of a structural equation model. The results of the study provide initial evidence that interpersonal factors such as work style similarity and personal liking moderate how supervisors use accounting information when they make performance evaluation decisions. The more similar work style between supervisor and subordinate, the more the supervisor likes the subordinate. This in turn directly influences what the supervisor believes is the cause of the subordinate’s performance.

 

 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA) ABSTRACTS 2004 Volume 16 A publication of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the American Accounting Association

Table of Contents Main Articles An Investigation of the Attributes of Top Industry Audit Specialists Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi, D. Gerald Searfoss, and James Shanteau The Role of Cognitive and Affective Conflict in Early Implementation of Activity-Based Cost Management Robert H. Chenhall Audit-Planning Judgments and Client-Employee Compensation Contracts Shane S. Dikolli, Susan A. McCracken, and Justin B. Walawski Clients’ Expectations on Audit Judgments: A Note Venkataraman M. Iyer and Dasaratha V. Rama Debiasing Balanced Scorecard Evaluations Michael L. Roberts, Thomas L. Albright, and Aleecia R. Hibbets The Effects of Comprehensive Information Reporting Systems and Economic Incentives on Managers’ Time-Planning Decisions Mark J. Ullrich (Deceased) and Brad M. Tuttle Internet-Based Experiments: Prospects and Possibilities for Behavioral Accounting Research* Stephanie M. Bryant, James E. Hunton, and Dan N. Stone A Note about the Effect of Auditor Cognitive Style on Task Performance** Lori R. Fuller and Steven E. Kaplan Editorial Policy and Style Information *Commissioned by S. Kaplan **Accepted by previous editor, Susan Haka An Investigation of the Attributes of Top Industry Audit Specialists Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi Bentley College D. Gerald Searfoss University of Utah James Shanteau Kansas State University ABSTRACT: Prior research in psychology and auditing has established that in addition to ability, experience, and knowledge, many other attributes such as confidence and communication skills are also important to expertise. The literature also suggests that the importance of various expert attributes differ by professional rank. This study extends this literature by providing evidence on an expanded list of attributes of top industry audit specialists (TIASs). Specifically, the study elicited data from 114 senior audit partners known to be TIASs by a Big 6 accounting firm. These subjects generated an extensive list of attributes of TIASs in an open-ended questionnaire and assessed their importance. They also assessed the importance of each attribute in a 25-item pre-defined list. Our findings confirm the importance of many attributes reported in the expertise literature that can be classified as judgment/technical expertise. Our study also identifies detailed attributes related to characteristics that can generally be classified as personality and social attributes. For example, we present evidence on the importance of many attributes that can be classified as leadership (e.g., "respected"), marketing (e.g., "marketing focus"), and accepted-as-authority (e.g., "recognition") characteristics. The findings are robust and applicable to various industry specializations. Implications for research and practice are discussed. The Role of Cognitive and Affective Conflict in Early Implementation of Activity-Based Cost Management Robert H. Chenhall Monash University ABSTRACT: Activity-based cost management (ABCM) can provide improved information for strategic decisions such as product planning and cost management. While ABCM has been increasingly adopted there is evidence that, for some organizations, promised gains have not eventuated. It appears that the main difficulties in adopting ABCM derive from implementation issues rather than the technical design of the systems. This study examines the role of conflict in ABCM implementation. It is argued that attention to ABCM behavioral implementation enhances cognitive conflict that is then associated with successful ABCM applications, specifically the usefulness of ABCM for product planning and cost management. Lack of attention to these factors generates affective conflict that is associated with less successful applications. Results of an empirical study of 56 managers indicated that cognitive conflict intervenes between ABCM behavioral implementation factors and beneficial outcomes. However, while there were significant negative associations between affective conflict and beneficial outcomes, there were no significant associations between behavioral implementation factors and affective conflict. Audit-Planning Judgments and Client-Employee Compensation Contracts Shane S. Dikolli The University of Texas at Austin Susan A. McCracken University of Toronto Justin B. Walawski The Institute of Professional Development ABSTRACT: This paper investigates, in a laboratory setting, the impact of different types of client-employee compensation contracts on auditors’ audit-planning judgments. Self-interested client-executive actions (motivated by executive incentive pay) have been claimed to be at the core of a recent large public company failure and the associated demise of the company’s global auditors (Byrne et. al 2002). However, we know relatively little about how client-employee compensation contracts affect the planning choices of auditors. Our main result is that audit-planning judgments are greater (i.e., audit risk is assessed higher and the level of evidence required to perform the audit is assessed higher) if the bonuses are based on financial performance measures rather than nonfinancial performance measures. We also find that audit-planning judgments are greater (i.e., audit risk is assessed higher, internal controls are assessed weaker, and more substantive evidence is required) if client-employee compensation comprises a fixed salary plus bonuses, based on either financial or nonfinancial performance measures, rather than comprises a fixed salary only; however, we find only partial support for the finding with respect to nonfinancial measures. An important implication of these findings is that audit firms may need to pay careful attention to how auditors are trained in strategic systems auditing approaches that rely more on understanding a client’s nonfinancial performance measures and less on transaction-based testing. Clients’ Expectations on Audit Judgments: A Note Venkataraman M. Iyer University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dasaratha V. Rama Florida International University ABSTRACT: Audited financial statements can be viewed as the product of negotiations between a company’s management and its auditor. Relative power of these two parties is a major factor that determines the outcome of the negotiation. This study examines the impact of auditor tenure, importance of a client to an audit partner, nonaudit purchases, and prior audit firm experience of client personnel on client perceptions about their ability to persuade the auditor in the context of an accounting disagreement. We obtained responses to a survey from 124 CPAs in industry who are employed as CEOs, CFOs, controllers, or treasurers. Our results indicate that respondents from companies with short auditor tenures were somewhat more likely to indicate that they could persuade the auditor to accept their (client’s) position in case of a disagreement. This finding is consistent with the argument that auditors are susceptible to influence in the early years as they are still in the process of recouping start-up costs, but is not consistent with concerns expressed by legislators and others that long auditor tenures will adversely affect audit quality. Respondents who believed their business was more important for the audit partner were also more likely to believe that they could persuade the auditor. However, the purchase of nonaudit services and prior audit experience were not related to client’s perceptions about their ability to persuade the auditor. Debiasing Balanced Scorecard Evaluations Michael L. Roberts Thomas L. Albright Aleecia R. Hibbets The University of Alabama ABSTRACT: Lipe and Salterio (2000) found that superiors disregarded half of the information when using a Balanced Scorecard to evaluate the performance of two divisional managers. Only common measures affected the superiors’ holistic evaluations, defeating the purpose of the Balanced Scorecard. Our study examines whether disaggregating the Balanced Scorecard results in evaluations consistent with the intent of the Balanced Scorecard approach. Results indicate the disaggregated strategy allows superiors to utilize unique as well as common measures, thus overcoming the common-measures bias. In addition, we find Balanced Scorecard performance evaluations explain more than half the variation in subsequent compensation decisions. The Effects of Comprehensive Information Reporting Systems and Economic Incentives on Managers’ Time-Planning Decisions Mark J. Ullrich* Naval Postgraduate School Brad M. Tuttle University of South Carolina ABSTRACT: Recent innovations in management control systems, such as the Balanced Scorecard, are supposed to influence managers to redirect their attention among multiple objectives and areas. Extending prior studies that have examined behavior in only a single area, this study experimentally examines how comprehensive control systems influence managers as they allocate their time among multiple areas of responsibility. The results show that managers do not plan increases in their working week in response to increased monitoring or to performance-based incentives, but rather they shift their time from areas that are not monitored or rewarded to areas that are. The results support Kaplan and Norton’s assertion that the Balanced Scorecard can be used to influence the way managers allocate their attention between organizational objectives. *(Deceased) Internet-Based Experiments: Prospects and Possibilities for Behavioral Accounting Research Stephanie M. Bryant University of South Florida James E. Hunton Bentley College Dan N. Stone University of Kentucky ABSTRACT: The emerging technology of Internet-based experiments offers behavioral accounting research (BAR) new possibilities for obtaining large sample sizes, providing world-wide access to previously hard-to-reach participants (e.g., CFOs, audit partners, and financial analysts) and exploring new research questions. However, the validity characteristics of Internet-based experiments differ from previous BAR technologies. Herein, we review existing BAR Internet-based experiments, describe how to create and run Internet-based experiments, overview emerging literature on the validity of Internet-based experiments, and highlight several areas where the use of Internet-based experimentation offers accounting behavioral researchers new possibilities for exploring previously uninvestigated research questions. A Note about the Effect of Auditor Cognitive Style on Task Performance Lori R. Fuller Widener University Steven E. Kaplan Arizona State University ABSTRACT: Previous research documents variation among auditors in terms of their cognitive style. Auditors have been classified as possessing an intuitive, analytic, or hybrid cognitive style. However, the potential implications of cognitive style upon auditor task performance have received little attention. Building upon the work of Chan (1996), this paper examines the role of "cognitive misfit" on auditor task performance. Cognitive misfit is a lack of fit between a person’s cognitive style and task characteristics. Participating auditors were required to perform two judgment tasks and complete a cognitive style questionnaire. Tests for an interactive task performance effect between task type and auditor cognitive characteristics were performed. As expected, auditor cognitive style significantly interacts with the task type. Analytic auditors performed better on the analytic task than the intuitive task. Likewise, intuitive auditors performed better on the intuitive task than on the analytic task. Limitations and implications of the research are discussed.

Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA)

ABSTRACTS

2003

Volume 15

 

Table of Contents

 

• The Effect of Client vs. Decision Aid as a Source of Explanations upon Auditors’ Sufficiency Judgments: A Research Note

John C. Anderson, Kimberly K. Moreno, and Jennifer M. Mueller

 

• An Investigation of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Role of Moral Obligation in Tax Compliance

Donna D. Bobek and Richard C. Hatfield

 

• The Effects of Cognitive Style Diversity on Decision-Making Dyads: An Empirical Analysis in the Context of a Complex Task

Mandy M. Cheng, Peter F. Luckett, and Axel K-D. Schulz

 

• The Effects of Hurdle Rates on the Level of Escalation of Commitment in Capital Budgeting

Mandy M. Cheng, Axel K-D. Schulz, Peter F. Luckett, and Peter Booth

 

• Auditor Acceptance of Dysfunctional Audit Behavior: An Explanatory Model Using Auditors’ Personal Characteristics

David P. Donnelly, Jeffrey J. Quirin, and David O’Bryan

 

• A Note on Self-Explanation as a Training Tool for Novice Auditors: The Effects of Outcome Feedback Timing and Level of Reasoning on Performance

Christine E. Early

 

The Effect of Client vs. Decision Aid as a Source of Explanations upon Auditors’ Sufficiency Judgments: A Research Note

 

John C. Anderson

San Diego State University

 

Kimberly K. Moreno

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

 

Jennifer M. Mueller

Auburn University

 

ABSTRACT: This study examines whether auditors will rate explanations for an unusual fluctuation provided by a decision aid as more sufficient than the same explanations provided by a client, when the explanations are insufficient to account for the fluctuation. While prior research has addressed auditors’ sensitivity to the source reliability of various parties (e.g., client management, outside parties), little is known about auditors; perceptions of decision aids as an information source. Since a decision aid may be viewed as a highly objective source, auditors may tend to over-rate the sufficiency of explanations provided by a decision aid vs. those provided by a client. Our results show that auditors rated explanations provided by a decision aid as more sufficient than the same explanations provided by the client, when in fact the explanations were insufficient. These results suggest that more consideration be given to the impact of decision aids utilized in analytical review.

 

 

An Investigation of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Role of Moral Obligation in Tax Compliance

 

Donna D. Bobek

University of Central Florida

 

Richard C. Hatfield

The University of Texas at San Antonio

 

ABSTRACT: In this study, Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior is used as a theoretical framework to extend prior research examining taxpayers’ compliance intentions. Specifically, moral obligation is added to the theory’s explicit constructs: attitude, subjective norms (i.e., peer influence), and perceived behavioral control. Moral obligation was expected to be a moderating influence (Reckers et al. 1994), and therefore interaction effects were hypothesized.

 

The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a procedure was used to determine the outcome beliefs that underlie taxpayers’ attitudes. These beliefs were incorporated into an attitude measure used in the second phase in which subjects responded to two of three tax-compliance scenarios. The data from phase two were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. The results indicate that the model including moral obligation, provides a significant explanation of tax noncompliance in the three different scenarios. However, the interaction effect of moral obligation appears to be more complex than the relationship suggested by Reckers et al. (1994).

 

 

The Effects of Cognitive Style Diversity on Decision-Making Dyads: An Empirical Analysis in the Context of a Complex Task

 

Mandy M. Cheng

Peter F. Luckett

The University of New South Whales

 

Axel K-D. Schulz

The University of Melbourne

 

ABSTRACT: Some research has suggested multiple-format accounting feedback in an attempt to accommodate varying cognitive information processing styles (Gardner and Martinko 1996). This costly information solution, however, has not been widely adopted in practice. An alternative approach, which fits nicely with current team-orientation practices in the work place, is to create combinations of workers. These work groups can bear varying cognitive styles in solving complex business problems using accounting information. This study explores how cognitive style diversity affects the decision quality performance of dyads for a complex decision task. An experiment was performed to extend prior accounting studies into perception differences based on the sensor/intuitive dimension of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) instrument, and how such differences affect users of performance reports in their decision-making processes. In this study, subjects were classified into sensor or intuitive dyad members, based on the Myers-Briggs MBTI instrument, and engaged in a task that involved a series of simulation production decisions with nonfinancial direct performance feedback. After controlling for task conflict, results showed significantly better decision performance for cognitively diverse dyads over homogenous sensor dyads. Similar performance differences, however, were not observed between cognitively diverse dyads and homogenous intuitive dyads. Task conflict was not significant in explaining differences in decision performance. These findings could have implications in the areas of management control system design and personnel management.

 

The Effects of Hurdle Rates on the Level of Escalation of Commitment in Capital Budgeting

 

Mandy M. Cheng

The University of New South Whales

 

Axel K-D. Schulz

The University of Melbourne

 

Peter F. Luckett

The University of New South Whales

 

Peter Booth

University of Technology, Sydney

 

ABSTRACT: This study proposes that organizations should consider project hurdle rates, as part of their control system design, to reduce escalation of commitment behavior in managers. In particular, we empirically examined the escalation of commitment tendencies in managers receiving organization-set, self-set, and no hurdle rates.

 

Consistent with prior expectations, we found self-set hurdle rates to be an effective control mechanism resulting in significantly lower levels of escalation of commitment. Contrary to expectations, however, organization-set hurdle rates were not effective. Self-set hurdle rates also resulted in significantly higher cut-off rates compared to the average return of the investment portfolio held by the managers.

 

As escalation of commitment has been recognized as a serious potential problem in organizations, the use of self-set hurdle rates is a step toward reducing the level of escalation tendencies in managers.

 

 

Auditor Acceptance of Dysfunctional Audit Behavior: An Explanatory Model Using Auditors’ Personal Characteristics

 

David P. Donnelly

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

 

Jeffrey J. Quirin

Wichita State University

 

David O’Bryan

Pittsburg State University

 

ABSTRACT: Dysfunctional behavior (DB) and staff turnover are associated with decreased audit quality (Public Oversight Board 2000). Dysfunctional behaviors such as premature sign-ff, gathering of insufficient evidence, altering or replacing audit procedures, and underreporting of time have negative effects on the auditing profession. While recent studies suggest that dysfunctional behavior is a widespread problem (Smith 1995; Otley and Pierce 1995), extant research fails to adequately explain the causes. In this study, the organizational behavior and industrial psychology literatures provide the basis for developing and testing a model that identifies locus of control, performance, and turnover intentions as determinants of auditor acceptance of DB.

 

Using cross-organizational design and a structural equation modeling technique, survey results from 106 auditors generally supported the explanatory model. Results indicate that auditors who are more accepting of DB ten to possess an external locus of control, report lower levels of self-rated performance, and exhibit higher turnover intentions. These results suggest that individual auditor characteristics play a role in identifying those who are more accepting of DB.

 

 

A Note on Self-Explanation as a Training Tool for Novice Auditors: The Effects of Outcome Feedback Timing and Level of Reasoning on Performance

 

Christine E. Early

University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT: This study extends a previous experiment (Earley 2001), showing how a “self-explanation” training intervention promoted learning in an auditing context. A causal model is proposed to examine the effect of providing outcome feedback (i.e. the correct answer) prior to or after self-explaining on the level of reasoning exhibited in self-explanations, and then the effect of level of reasoning on performance.

 

The model was tested through an experiment in which auditors were trained to assess the reasonableness of client-provided discount rates used in real estate valuation. The following three relationships were tested: (1) the effect of outcome feedback timing on the level of reasoning exhibited, (2) the effect of outcome feedback timing (without considering reasoning level) on performance, and (3) the diminishing effect of outcome feedback timing on performance when level of reasoning is introduced as a covariate, with level of reasoning then having a significant effect on performance. The results support the causal model, indicating that in the absence of outcome feedback, auditors exhibit a lower level of reasoning in their self-explanations, which then adversely affect their performance.

 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA) ABSTRACTS 2002 Volume 14 A publication of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the American Accounting Association

Table of Contents The Effects of Flexible Work Arrangements on Stressors, Burnout, and Behavioral Job Outcomes in Public Accounting Elizabeth Dreike Almer and Steven E. Kaplan An Empirical Examination of Competing Theories to Explain the Framing Effect in Accounting-Related Decisions C. Janie Chang, Sin-Hui Yen, and Rong-Ruey Duh Budget Goal Commitment and Informational Effects of Budget Participation on Performance: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Vincent K. Chong and Kar Ming Chong A Research Note on the Influence of Outcome Knowledge on Audit Partners’ Judgments Craig Emby, Alexander M. G. Gelardi, and D. Jordan Lowe Workplace Environment in a Professional Services Firm Karen L. Hooks and Julia L. Higgs Investors’ Use of Analysts’ Recommendations Ranjani Krishnan and Donna M. Booker Decision Aids for Generating Analytical Review Alternatives: The Impact of Goal Framing and Audit-Risk Level Jennifer M. Mueller and John C. Anderson Evidence of an Association between Error-Specific Experience and Auditor Performance during Analytical Procedures Ed O’Donnell Behavioral Implications of Information Systems on Disclosure Fraud Steven T. Schwartz and David E. Wallin The Effect of the Busy Season Workload on Public Accountants’ Job Burnout John T. Sweeney and Scott L. Summers The Influence of Fairness Perceptions and Goal Commitment on Managers’ Performance in a Budget Setting Kristin Wentzel   The Effects of Flexible Work Arrangements on Stressors, Burnout, and Behavioral Job Outcomes in Public Accounting Elizabeth Dreike Almer Portland State University Steven E. Kaplan Arizona State University ABSTRACT: The majority of public accounting firms now offer flexible work arrangements to their professional employees. Presumably these arrangements help accommodate employee needs to manage work and family demands, while also improving job satisfaction and retention. The ability of flexible work arrangements to achieve these goals has received little attention. The current paper addresses this issue by reporting the results of a survey of CPAs working under a flexible work arrangement and a similar group of CPAs working under a standard arrangement but who appear to be plausible candidates for a flexible work arrangement. The survey elicited information about several key employment variables: job-related stressors (e.g., role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload), burnout tendencies (e.g., emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment, and depersonalization) and behavioral job outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction and turnover intentions). Results show that CPAs on flexible work arrangements report higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions than those on a standard work arrangement. CPAs on flexible work arrangements generally have lower levels of burnout and stressors, though the reduced personal accomplishment burnout dimension may be conditioned upon whether the CPA has a mentor. Finally, for professionals switching to a flexible work arrangement, respondents indicated a significant improvement in job satisfaction and turnover intentions as well as some decline in burnout and stressors.   An Empirical Examination of Competing Theories to Explain the Framing Effect in Accounting-Related Decisions C. Janie Chang San Jose State University Sin-Hui Yen Tamkang University Rong-Ruey Duh National Taiwan University ABSTRACT: The purposes of this study are to explore framing effects in a managerial accounting decision context and to test the explanatory power of prospect theory and two competing theories, fuzzy-trace theory and probabilistic mental models, on such effects. In Experiment 1, 86 undergraduate students made a choice between two alternatives in a managerial decision problem that illustrates a classic, Asian disease-type business scenario. Results show that the subjects committed the framing effect bias and that prospect theory, fuzzy-trace theory, and probabilistic mental models all predict the bias. In Experiment 2, a business variant of the Asian disease problem was designed to distinguish among the explanatory abilities of these theories in an accounting context. One hundred eighty-five undergraduate students participated in the experiment. Results of Experiment 2 indicate that the fuzzy-trace theory provides additional power to explain the framing effect. Hence, accounting professionals can design better approaches to reporting/presenting financial information that will help managers alleviate the framing effect in decision making.   Budget Goal Commitment and Informational Effects of Budget Participation on Performance: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Vincent K. Chong The University of Western Australia Kar Ming Chong The University of New South Wales ABSTRACT: This paper examines budget goal commitment and informational effects of budget participation on performance. A structural model is proposed and tested that includes budget participation, budget goal commitment, job-relevant information, and job performance variables. The data were collected by survey questionnaires. Seventy-nine middle-level managers, drawn randomly from a cross-section of manufacturing companies in Australia, participated in the project. A structural equation modeling technique was used to test hypothesized linkages. Support was found for the effects of budget goal commitment and informational roles of budget participation on job performance.   A Research Note on the Influence of Outcome Knowledge on Audit Partners’ Judgments Craig Emby Alexander M. G. Gelardi Simon Fraser University D. Jordan Lowe University of Nevada, Las Vegas ABSTRACT: Audit partners may be called upon to evaluate, ex post, the work of another auditor. One example of such an evaluation is a Peer Review. An experiment was conducted that examined the influence of outcome knowledge on the going concern and peer evaluation judgments of 122 audit partners from Canada and the United States. Outcome information was manipulated at three levels—no outcome, negative outcome, and positive outcome information. The results confirm previous research and show that audit partners are subject to the influence of outcome information. Negative outcome information influenced (1) audit partners’ assessments of the likelihood of the client’s continued existence (hindsight effects), (2) the evaluation of the incumbent auditor’s judgment (outcome effects), and (3) judgments of the importance of evidence items. Auditors who received outcome information tended to rate outcome-consistent items of evidence as more important. This suggests that the biasing effect of outcome knowledge operates by acting as a filter that magnifies the relative salience of outcome-consistent information.   Workplace Environment in a Professional Services Firm Karen L. Hooks Julia L. Higgs Florida Atlantic University ABSTRACT: This paper is based on survey results from 1,055 partners and employees of an international professional services firm regarding the workplace environment. Data collected address influences on work schedules, work time and locations, work with technology, and choices to work from home. The results suggest that client, organizational, and personal factors influence the work environment, and that the use of technology enables flexibility. The survey results are discussed referencing concepts of motivation, productivity, supervision, and control; empowerment and implications for accounting research are proposed.   Investors’ Use of Analysts’ Recommendations Ranjani Krishnan Michigan State University Donna M. Booker University of Cincinnati ABSTRACT: This study examines the factors influencing the decisions of investors who use analysts’ recommendations to arrive at a short-term decision to hold or to sell a stock. Specifically we examine if the presence of analysts’ recommendations reduces the tendency for investors to commit the disposition error, i.e., sell winning stocks too soon and hold losing stocks too long. We also examine whether the strength of supporting arguments to the analysts’ recommendations affects investor decisions. Our results indicate that the presence of an analyst summary recommendation report reduces the disposition error for gains but not for losses. A strong form of the analyst summary recommendation report, i.e., one with additional information supporting the analysts’ position further, reduces the disposition error for gains and also reduces the disposition error for losses.   Decision Aids for Generating Analytical Review Alternatives: The Impact of Goal Framing and Audit-Risk Level Jennifer M. Mueller Auburn University John C. Anderson San Diego State University ABSTRACT: An auditor generating potential explanations for an unusual variance in analytical review may utilize a decision aid, which provides many explanations. However, circumstances of budgetary constraints and limited cognitive load deter an auditor from using a lengthy list of explanations in an information search. A two-way between-subjects design was created to investigate the effects of two complementary approaches to trimming down the lengthy list on the number of remaining explanations carried forward into an information search. These two approaches, which represent the same goal (reducing the list) but framed differently, are found to result in a significantly different number of remaining explanations, in both low- and high-risk audit environments. The results of the study suggest that the extent to which an auditor narrows the lengthy list of explanations is important to the implementation of decision aids in analytical review.   Evidence of an Association between Error-Specific Experience and Auditor Performance during Analytical Procedures Ed O’Donnell Arizona State University ABSTRACT: This study examined whether error-specific experience can improve auditor performance during analytical procedures. In a field experiment, practicing auditors with different amounts of experience used analytical procedures to diagnose the reason for an unexpected interperiod change in an account balance. Analyses controlled for the influence of (1) general audit experience, (2) industry-specific experience, and (3) error-specific experience. Findings suggest that, for participants with less general experience, error-specific experience increased the likelihood that they would provide a correct explanation. However, the benefits of error-specific experience diminished as general experience increased. One interpretation is that error-specific experience provides little or no incremental benefit for auditors who have already developed, through general experience, the analytical skills they need to perform effectively. These results provide evidence that error-specific experience could be a surrogate for the learning opportunities made available through general experience. Research that explores how error-specific experience might be provided through training is suggested.   Behavioral Implications of Information Systems on Disclosure Fraud Steven T. Schwartz SUNY at Binghamton David E. Wallin The Ohio State University ABSTRACT: This paper uses a laboratory setting to investigate behavioral issues related to disclosure fraud. Subjects issued disclosures under one of two settings. They either knowingly issued fraudulent reports or they allowed an information system to issue fraudulent reports at a chosen rate. The settings were economically equivalent and each mechanism allowed for an implementation of the profit-maximizing strategy. The central question is one of the relative effect of the available method of lying on the frequency of lying. The results show that when subjects were distanced from the fraud through use of an information system, they made choices that would maximize their earnings. However, making subjects more closely involved with the disclosure reduced the rate of fraudulent disclosures by 30 percent. Differences in female and male rates of fraudulent reporting waned over time.   The Effect of the Busy Season Workload on Public Accountants’ Job Burnout John T. Sweeney Washington State University Scott L. Summers Brigham Young University ABSTRACT: Anecdotal evidence suggests that the escalated workload of the public accounting “busy season” is a major contributor to employee “burnout.” Academic research on the psychological impact of the busy season workload, however, is virtually absent from the accounting literature. We partially address this void by employing a longitudinal design and structural equation modeling to examine the causal impact of the busy season workload on public accountants’ job burnout—a dysfunctional stress syndrome. Prior to the start of the busy season and again at its end, we measured hours worked, role stressors, and job burnout for a sample of public accountants from a national firm. The results of our analyses indicate that public accountants’ pre-busy season burnout was not directly affected by hours worked, even though subjects reported an average workload of 49 hours per week. This result implies that public accountants may develop a relatively high workload threshold before it directly impacts their job burnout. During the busy season, our subjects’ weekly workload increased to approximately 63 hours. The additional workload burden introduced by the busy season caused job burnout for our sample of public accountants to rise to levels rarely reported in the research literature.   The Influence of Fairness Perceptions and Goal Commitment on Managers’ Performance in a Budget Setting Kristin Wentzel La Salle University ABSTRACT: Recent budgeting research suggests that fairness perceptions play a role in performance. In particular, prior work demonstrates a positive relation between fairness and performance during budgeting. The process by which fairness perceptions translate into improved performance, however, remains unaddressed. This study contributes to the accounting literature by investigating whether fairness perceptions improve performance via participation by increasing managers’ commitment to budgetary goals. Structural equation models are proposed in which both fairness perceptions and goal commitment influence managers’ performance during budgeting. Questionnaire data collected from one field site in the midst of downsizing were used to test the models. The results suggest that increased participation during budgeting fosters a sense of fairness, which, in turn, increases managers’ commitment to budgetary goals and subsequently enhances performance ratings. The direct path between fairness perceptions and performance, however, appears to be insignificant when goal commitment is considered.

 

Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

2001, Volume 13

• The Relative Importance of Management Fraud Risk Factors - Barbara A. Apostolou, John M. Hassell, Sally A. Webber, and Glenn E. Sumners
• The Relationship between Auditor Characteristics and the Nature of Review Notes for Analytical Procedure Working Papers - Brian Ballou
• A Research Note concerning Practical Problem-Solving Ability as a Predictor of Performance in Auditing Tasks - James Lloyd Bierstaker and Sally Wright
• An Analysis of Statistical Power in Behavioral Accounting Research - Susan C. Borkowski, Mary Jeanne Welsh, and Qinke (Michael) Zhang
• National Culture and the Implementation of High-Stretch Performance Standards: An Exploratory Study - Chee W. Chow, Tim M. Lindquist, and Anne Wu
• A Research Note on the Effects of Gender and Task Complexity on an Audit Judgment - Janne Chung and Gary S. Monroe
• Linking Participative Budgeting Congruence to Organization Performance - B. Douglas Clinton and James E. Hunton
• Role Stress, the Type A Behavior Pattern, and External Auditor Job Satisfaction and Performance - Richard T. Fisher
• Mitigating the Common Information Sampling Bias Inherent in Small-Group Discussion- James E. Hunton
• An Examination of Perceived Barriers to Mentoring in Public Accounting - Steven E. Kaplan, Annemarie K. Keinath, and Judith C. Walo
• Multiple Dimensions of Organizational Commitment: Implications for Future Accounting Research - Alice A. Ketchand and Jerry R. Strawser
• A Descriptive Analysis of the Content and Contributors of Behavioral Research In Accounting 1989–1998 - Michael Meyer and John T. Rigsby

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

 

The Relative Importance of Management Fraud Risk Factors

Barbara A. Apostolou
Louisiana State University

John M. Hassell
Indiana University Indianapolis

Sally A. Webber
Northern Illinois University

Glenn E. Sumners
Louisiana State University

Abstract

 

In an exploratory study, we report how 140 auditors rate the relative importance of 25 risk factors (red flags) identified in SAS No. 82. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to produce a decision model for each subject, and mean decision models are reported for groups of subjects. The results indicate that management characteristics and influence over the control environment red flags were approximately twice as important as operating and financial stability characteristics red flags and about four times as important as industry conditions red flags. The three single most important red flags account for almost 40 percent of the total decision weight. A particularly interesting finding is that the mean decision models of 43 Big 5 auditors, 50 regional/local-firm auditors, and 47 internal auditors were not significantly different from each other.

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The Relationship between Auditor Characteristics and the Nature of Review Notes for Analytical Procedure Working Papers

Brian Ballou
Auburn University

Abstract

This study investigates the auditor characteristics that are related to generation of evidence and documentation review notes by reviewers of audit working papers. To address this question, an analysis was conducted on the contents of review notes prepared in a laboratory experiment. The working papers contained no documentation deficiencies but contained insufficient evidence. As part of an effective review process, the auditor should generate review notes that call for additional evidence gathering. Generating documentation-oriented review notes created inefficiencies for carrying out the review process and corresponding audit task. Stepwise multiple regression analyses identified reviewer characteristics that were significantly associated with each type of review note. These results provide insights into the reviewer characteristics associated with focusing attention on one review-note classification instead of the other. This finding suggests opportunities for future research that more thoroughly explores and controls for the variables identified in this study.

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A Research Note concerning Practical Problem-Solving Ability as a Predictor of Performance in Auditing Tasks

James Lloyd Bierstaker
Sally Wright
University of Massachusetts Boston

Abstract

 

The ability to recognize when there is a variety of solutions to a particular situation has been shown to be important to success in the accounting profession (Baril et al. 1998). Recently, a measure of ability has been developed in psychology that focuses on “practical” problem-solving ability (PPSA) (Devolder 1993). From a theoretical standpoint, relatively little is known about the association between ability and performance in accounting tasks. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate if PPSA predicts performance on two important auditing tasks, internal-control-evaluation and analytical procedures. Participants in this study (66 auditors and 78 accounting students) assessed vignettes of real-world financial problems and provided solutions to these problems. Participants also solved an analytical procedures and internal-control-evaluation task. The results suggest that PPSA was useful in predicting the performance of both accounting students and experienced auditors on both analytical procedures and internal-control evaluation. This is the first accounting study to examine PPSA. Practically, results suggest it may be important to attract students with high PPSA into the accounting profession.

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An Analysis of Statistical Power in Behavioral Accounting Research

Susan C. Borkowski
Mary Jeanne Welsh
Qinke (Michael) Zhang
La Salle University

Abstract

 

Attention to statistical power and effect size can improve the design and the reporting of behavioral accounting research. Three accounting journals representative of current empirical behavioral accounting research are analyzed for their power (1 – b), or control of Type II errors (b), and compared to research in other disciplines. Given this study’s findings, additional attention should be directed to adequacy of sample sizes and study design to ensure sufficient power when Type I error is controlled at a=.05 as a baseline. We do not suggest replacing traditional significance testing, but rather augmenting it with the reporting of b to complement and interpret the relevance of a reported a in any given study. In addition, the presentation of results in alternative formats, such as those suggested in this study, will enhance the current reporting of significance tests. In turn, this will allow the reader a richer understanding of, and an increased trust in, a study’s results and implications.

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National Culture and the Implementation of High-Stretch Performance Standards: An Exploratory Study

Chee W. Chow
San Diego State University

Tim M. Lindquist
University of Northern Iowa

Anne Wu
National Chengchi University

Abstract

 

This study explores how national culture affects employees’ reaction to different modes of implementing high-stretch performance standards. An experiment was performed using Chinese and U.S. nationals to represent cultures that diverge on two relevant dimensions: power distance and individualism/collectivism. Consistent with culturally based expectations, Chinese nationals more readily accepted imposed high-stretch performance standards—relative to U.S. nationals—as manifested by the degree to which they performed up to those standards. Also, differences were found between Chinese and U.S. nationals’ satisfaction with high-stretch performance standards under autocratic vs. consultative participation in the standard-development process. However, further analysis was unable to dismiss the possibility that this result, which was based on subjects’ self-reports on Likert-scale questions, could have been an artifact of cross-national, response-set bias. Other findings indicated that national-culture effects arose in more complex ways than were originally conceived.

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Return to BRIA 2001Contents

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A Research Note on the Effects of Gender and Task Complexity on an Audit Judgment

Janne Chung
York University

Gary S. Monroe Edith
Cowan University

Abstract

 

This study examines the effects of gender and task complexity on the accuracy of audit judgments. Because research in cognitive psychology and marketing suggests that females may be more accurate decision makers in complex decision tasks, we hypothesize that there will be a significant interaction between gender and task complexity on the accuracy of an audit judgment. A 2 × 2 full factorial experiment (males/females by high-/low-task complexity) was carried out. The number and consistency of cues was manipulated to create the high- and low-complexity conditions. Participants were required to judge whether an inventory balance was fairly presented based on case material that contained a material misstatement in the inventory account balance. The results support the hypothesis.

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Linking Participative Budgeting Congruence to Organization Performance

B. Douglas Clinton
Central Missouri State University

James E. Hunton
University of South Florida

Abstract

 

This study proposes and tests a research framework that links the perceived need for participation (PNP) and the degree of participation allowed (DPA) to organizational consequences. We examine the extent of agreement between PNP and DPA, which is defined as the degree of participation congruence (DPC), and link DPC to organizational performance. Survey data were collected from 386 accountants across three industries. Consistent with prior research, the correlation between organizational performance indicators and DPA was weak in this study, as was the correlation between PNP and organizational outcomes. However, the correlation between the DPC and organizational performance indicators was uniformly positive and significant. Research findings suggest that participation congruence may be a critical success factor in designing an effective participative budgeting strategy.

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Role Stress, the Type A Behavior Pattern, and External Auditor Job Satisfaction and Performance

Richard T. Fisher
Lincoln University

Abstract

 

This study examines the relationship between elements of role stress and two important external auditor job outcome variables: job satisfaction and performance. The study extends prior research by examining the moderating influence of the Type A behavior pattern on these relationships. The need to re-examine the linkages between the elements of role stress and both job satisfaction and job performance using theoretically based moderators, such as the Type A behavior pattern, has been highlighted in the role-stress literature. Analysis of survey data confirmed that both role conflict and role ambiguity are significantly negatively associated with auditor job performance and job satisfaction. However, the expected moderating role of the Type A behavior pattern on the relationships between the components of role stress and job satisfaction and auditor job performance was not found. Interestingly, however, a direct positive relationship between the Type A behavior pattern and both job outcome variables was apparent. The latter result suggests that, among audit professionals, Type A individuals tend to outperform and be more satisfied with their employment than Type Bs.

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Mitigating the Common Information Sampling Bias Inherent in Small-Group Discussion

James E. Hunton
University of South Florida

Abstract

 

Gathering problem-relevant information through small-group discussion is one method for initial decision making. A collective information sampling (CIS) model offered by Stasser and Titus (1987) suggests that two inherent biases, the common information sampling bias and a related recency effect, act in concert to suboptimize the efficacy of group discussion. The objectives of this exploratory study are to refine the predictive validity the CIS model and test a group intervention technique designed to mitigate the common information sampling and recency biases.

Analysis of the evidence from a laboratory and field experiment suggests that the refined CIS model accurately predicted the distribution of information items entered into group discussion. While the control groups exhibited both the common information sampling bias and primacy effect, these biases were mitigated in the treatment groups after receiving an intervention technique called Shared Cognition Awareness Training (SCAT). Results obtained from this exploratory research indicate that the refined CIS model can offer researchers a useful prediction tool and the SCAT intervention technique presents a relatively straightforward means of invoking a more complete exchange of potentially valuable information during small-group discussion.

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An Examination of Perceived Barriers to Mentoring in Public Accounting

Steven E. Kaplan
Arizona State University

Annemarie K. Keinath
Indiana University Northwest

Judith C. Walo
Central Connecticut State University

Abstract

 

While both mentoring and peer relationships exist among some auditors in public accounting, little is known about these relationships. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on perceived barriers to mentoring and peer relationships in public accounting. Analysis of responses indicated three interpretable factors representing barriers to forming mentoring relationships. First, participants without a mentor perceived greater barriers from access to mentors and from willingness of the mentor. Gender differences were significant in all three factors. Partners perceived barriers from access to mentors to be lower than those perceived by the other ranks. Finally, willingness of the mentor was perceived to be a greater barrier by local firm participants than by intermediate or Big 5 firm participants.

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Multiple Dimensions of Organizational Commitment: Implications for Future Accounting Research

Alice A. Ketchand
Sam Houston State University

Jerry R. Strawser
University of Houston

Abstract

 

Organizational commitment (OC) is a concept that seeks to capture the nature of the attachments formed by individuals to their employing organizations. Beginning with Porter et al. (1974), prior researchers have attempted to identify what factors influence the formation of OC in individuals and how OC (once formed) influences important organizational consequences. Recent research in the industrial/organizational psychology and organizational behavior literature has identified the existence of multiple dimensions of OC and found different relationships between these dimensions and important organizational consequences. However, with some isolated exceptions (Ketchand and Strawser 1998; Kalbers and Fogarty 1995; Caldwell et al. 1990), accounting research has examined only one dimension of OC. This manuscript summarizes previous research in the industrial/organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and particularly accounting literature regarding the identification of various dimensions and subdimensions of OC and the relationships of these dimensions and subdimensions with important antecedents, correlates, and consequences. In light of these findings, suggestions are provided for accounting researchers to evaluate: (1) the role of multiple dimensions of OC in influencing attachment to the organization, (2) how changes in the public accounting work environment affect the role of OC, and (3) how OC research can provide practical results for public accounting firms.

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A Descriptive Analysis of the Content and Contributors of Behavioral Research In Accounting 1989–1998

Michael Meyer
Southeastern Louisiana University

John T. Rigsby
Mississippi State University

Abstract

 

This paper provides a description of the topical content and research methods used in BRIA during its first ten years using a modified Birnberg and Shields (1989) taxonomy of the “schools” of behavioral research, leading to an analysis of the impact of BRIA on the accounting literature. The authors and their schools of affiliation and degree are then examined. Next, cites used in BRIA are analyzed, and the most-cited authors, articles, and journals are indicated. The journals cited in BRIA are also ranked, both by total citation count over the ten-year period, and using a modal citation age in BRIA of four years, to show a change in the citation pattern in BRIA. In addition, we examine the extent to which BRIA is cited in four leading accounting journals, i.e., The Accounting Review; Contemporary Accounting Research; Accounting, Organizations and Society; and AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory. Finally, findings and conclusions of the study are discussed.

 

 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

2000, Volume 12

• Organizational Design and Manipulative Behavior: Evidence from a Negotiated Transfer Pricing Experiment - Dipankar Ghosh
• Antecedents and Consequences of Burnout in Accounting: Beyond the Role Stress Model - Timothy J. Fogarty, Jagdip Singh, Gary K. Rhoads, and Ronald K. Moore
• Group Decision Making: The Impact of Opportunity-Cost Time Pressure and Group Support Systems - Vicky Arnold, Steve G. Sutton, Stephen C. Hayne, Charles A. P. Smith
• The Use of Foresight Decision Aids in Auditors’ Judgments - D. Jordan Lowe, Philip M. J. Reckers
• The Role of Ambiguity in Auditors’ Determination of Budgeted Audit Hours - A. Kay Guess, Timothy J. Louwers, Jerry R. Strawser
• The Development of Two Measures to Assess Accountants’ Prescriptive and Deliberative Moral Reasoning - Linda Thorne
• Effects of Information Load on Capital Budgeting Decisions - Monte R. Swain, Susan F. Haka
• Participation and Performance in Capital Budgeting Teams - Peter Chalos, Margaret C. C. Poon
• The Use of and Selection Biases Associated with Nonstatistical Sampling in Auditing - Thomas W. Hall, James E. Hunton, Bethane Jo Pierce
• An Examination of the Positive Test Strategy in Auditors’ Hypothesis Testing - Bonita K. Peterson, Bernard Wong-On-Wing
• A Research Note Concerning the Dimensionality of the Professional Commitment Scale - Peggy D. Dwyer, Robert B. Welker, Alan H. Friedberg

 

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

 

Organizational Design and Manipulative Behavior: Evidence from a Negotiated Transfer Pricing Experiment

Dipankar Ghosh
University of Oklahoma

Abstract

 

This research examines the implications of complementarity of organizational design involving two key factors associated with transfer pricing, sourcing and compensation structure, on the behavior of negotiators determining transfer prices. The results demonstrate that the transfer pricing policy is perceived as unfair when organizational designs are not complementary compared to when the designs are complementary. Further, in the absence of complementary designs, the manipulative disposition of negotiators is a significant predictor of which negotiator will achieve higher outcomes in dyadic negotiations of transfer prices. Thus, the motivation of organizational members is not simply an exogenous variable to which the organizational design needs to be altered, but is endogenous to the system, being in part the result of the organizational design. This has implications for control systems since both the organization designs that define the scope of control systems and the behavior due to organizational designs are antecedents to the behavior from control systems.

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Antecedents and Consequences of Burnout in Accounting: Beyond the Role Stress Model

Timothy J. Fogarty
Case Western Reserve University

Jagdip Singh
Case Western Reserve University

Gary K. Rhoads
Brigham Young University

Ronald K. Moore
Pocatello, Idaho

Abstract

The burnout condition of employees is a well-known phenomenon in psychology and several applied business disciplines. Despite some degree of recognition in the practice community, little explicit recognition of this topic appears to exist in the accounting literature. This paper develops the burnout construct for the accounting occupation, in part by showing that it has not been captured by other concepts in the literature. In addition to showing that burnout is directly related to several of the familiar behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in public accounting practice, this paper proposes that burnout is a key mediator of the impact of role stressors on critical outcomes. Within a national sample of accountants, the burnout condition is found to partially mediate the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload on satisfaction, performance, and turnover intentions. To some extent, burnout is capable of separating the functional and dysfunctional aspects of the role stressors on these job outcomes. In order to provide greater direction for future research, a separate treatment of each of the three dimensions of burnout is provided.

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Group Decision Making: The Impact of Opportunity-Cost Time Pressure and Group Support Systems

Vicky Arnold
Steve G. Sutton
Texas Tech University

Stephen C. Hayne
Arizona State University West

Charles A. P. Smith
SPAWAR Defense Center

Abstract

 

This paper reports on an experimental study designed specifically to examine the impact of opportunity-cost time pressure on group decision making during completion of an audit judgment task. In Phase I of the study, trained audit students, working in groups, completed a series of materiality judgments in both the presence and the absence of time pressure. In Phase II of the study, the experiment was replicated with a second set of subjects where communication was assisted through the use of a Group Support System (GSS).

The results of Phase I indicate that the groups became more efficient in their information search strategy, but chose to accelerate their decision-making approach rather than alter the information load from the available cues. These actions are consistent with underlying theory and result in a significant decrease in decision quality under time pressure. Phase II provides similar results for information processing, and also indicates that use of the GSS led to slower processing of information cues and a corresponding increase in time required to reach a group decision. Additionally, a comparison of the two groups indicates that the GSS may have impeded the decision quality.

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The Use of Foresight Decision Aids in Auditors’ Judgments

D. Jordan Lowe
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Philip M. J. Reckers
Arizona State University

Abstract

 

A major cause of the expectation gap may be attributable to the different time frames in which auditors and judges/jurors view auditor performance. In our legal system, hindsight judgments are used to evaluate auditor decisions performed in foresight. The effect of outcome knowledge is to create a gap between hindsight and foresight perspectives. The purpose of this research is to evaluate whether it is possible to alter auditors’ foresight expectations to approximate a hindsight perspective. Specifically, we propose that foresight strategies embedded into two separate decision aids could mitigate hindsight effects. An experiment was conducted with 131 audit seniors from one of the Big 5 public accounting firms. Our results indicate that one of the decision aids was effective in mitigating hindsight effects. These results suggest that auditors’ ex ante decision process can be altered so their judgments approximate those of ex post evaluators. This has implications for audit legal liability as it suggests that rather than focusing exclusively on influencing judges’ and jurors’ expectations in hindsight, it may be expedient to also modify auditor expectations in foresight.

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The Role of Ambiguity in Auditors’ Determination of Budgeted Audit Hours

A. Kay Guess
St. Edward’s University

Timothy J. Louwers
Louisiana State University

Jerry R. Strawser
University of Houston

Abstract

 

This is a study which investigates the role of ambiguity on auditors’ consideration of risk factors and subsequent determination of budgeted audit hours during the planning stages of audit examinations. Eighty-five practicing auditors responded to an experimental case that provided background information regarding factors affecting inherent risk and control risk for a hypothetical audit and also requested them to estimate the number of planned audit hours for the engagement. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Dusenbury et al. 1996), our results indicated that both ambiguity and risk play significant roles in the auditor’s determination of the extent of substantive testing; however, the effect(s) of ambiguity are limited to engagements characterized by lower combined levels of risk. Some of our results are inconsistent with previous findings by Nelson and Kinney (1997), who reported a symmetric (moderating) effect of ambiguity on auditors’ decisions, suggesting that the influence of ambiguity may be dependent upon the decision context examined.

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The Development of Two Measures to Assess Accountants’ Prescriptive and Deliberative Moral Reasoning

Linda Thorne
York University

Abstract

 

The purpose of this study is to develop two measures of accountants’ prescriptive moral reasoning and deliberative moral reasoning. Past accounting ethics research adopting a cognitive-developmental perspective has focused on understanding the factors that promote accountants’ development of cognitive moral capacity. Cognitive moral capacity does not necessarily correspond to the moral reasoning that accountants apply to the resolution of ethical dilemmas in the work place. Cognitive moral capacity describes the most sophisticated moral reasoning of which an individual is capable, whereas moral reasoning describes the actual cognitive assessment an individual applies to a particular ethical dilemma. There are two different types of moral reasoning: prescriptive reasoning and deliberative reasoning. As applied to the ethical decision process of accountants, prescriptive reasoning is analogous to an accountant’s formulation of his or her professional judgment of the ideal resolution to an ethical dilemma, and deliberative reasoning is analogous to an accountant’s intention to exercise professional judgment to resolve an ethical dilemma. To develop two accounting-specific measures of prescriptive and deliberative moral reasoning, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) was selected as a prototype. Professional accountants and experts were used to ensure the cases and scoring of the measures elicited a representative moral reasoning process of accountants, according to a cognitive-developmental perspective. The validity and reliability of the accounting-specific measures are comparable to that found in the DIT. The results of comparisons of scores on the accounting-specific measures to their DIT scores suggests that accountants do not resolve ethical dilemmas at their cognitive moral capacity. Thus, the accounting-specific measures of moral reasoning may be useful in future research to investigate factors and approaches that will encourage accountants to resolve ethical dilemmas at their cognitive moral capacity.

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Effects of Information Load on Capital Budgeting Decisions

Monte R. Swain
Brigham Young University

Susan F. Haka
Michigan State University

Abstract

 

This study examined information load effects on information-processing behavior for 36 experienced and 48 inexperienced capital budgeters. Six capital investment choice scenarios were sequentially presented to each participant using a computerized process-tracing methodology. The amount of information attending each of the six choice tasks was randomly varied and indicators of the information search strategy employed were traced.

This is an extension of the information load effect to the capital budgeting domain. Results from this study are three-fold. First, consistent with related research, capital budgeters reduce the proportion of information searched and increase the variability in their search patterns as the information load increases. Second, contrary to prior research, our results suggest some adjustments to previous evidence demonstrating an effect of information load on the direction of search patterns. Finally, although information load interacts somewhat with an individual’s level of experience, the results did not clearly confirm that capital budgeting experience affects information search processes.

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Participation and Performance in Capital Budgeting Teams

Peter Chalos
University of Illinois at Chicago

Margaret C. C. Poon
City University of Hong Kong

Abstract

 

Increasingly, organizations rely on cross-functional teams in the development of capital budgeting projects. To date, no studies appear to have examined conditions that affect team performance. Using structural equation analysis, this study of 177 managers in 55 capital budgeting teams examined the mediating effects of information sharing and budget performance emphasis between team budget participation and performance. A structural model provided a strong fit of the hypothesized relationships. The posited mediating effects were significant, suggesting the importance of contextual variables upon team performance. The effect of hierarchical controls on team performance was also examined. No performance effects were found.

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The Use of and Selection Biases Associated with Nonstatistical Sampling in Auditing

Thomas W. Hall
University of Texas at Arlington

James E. Hunton
University of South Florida

Bethane Jo Pierce
University of Texas at Arlington

Abstract

 

This study investigated the extent to which nonstatistical sampling procedures are used by practicing auditors and tested the most popular form of nonstatistical sampling for evidence of selection biases. Respondents to a survey of practicing auditors reported that nonstatistical procedures are used in approximately 85 percent of all audit sampling applications. Within the domain of nonstatistical sampling, approximately 90 percent of the applications utilize a form of nonstatistical sampling known as haphazard selection. In a laboratory experiment, audit samples chosen via haphazard selection were tested for the existence of selection biases. These samples were found to exhibit selection biases in favor of larger, more brightly colored, and more conveniently located population elements, as well as elements with fewer adjacent neighbors. In extreme cases, selection likelihoods for certain population elements were approximately eight times larger than likelihoods for other elements. Study results suggest that organizations using haphazard selection procedures and standard-setting bodies in the accounting profession should reexamine the acceptability of haphazard selection and further develop guidelines for its use.

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An Examination of the Positive Test Strategy in Auditors’ Hypothesis Testing

Bonita K. Peterson
Montana State University

Bernard Wong-On-Wing
Washington State University

Abstract

 

Studies on the extent of confirmation bias among auditors have obtained mixed results. Based on Klayman and Ha (1987, 1989), this study is an examination of confirmation bias in terms of a positive test strategy. The results suggest that inconsistent findings of prior studies may be attributed to the failure to consider intermediate hypotheses. Auditors in this study employed a predominantly positive test strategy. Moreover, contrary to prior implications, the strategy was found to be a useful heuristic for determining the truth of a hypothesis in some conditions.

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A Research Note Concerning the Dimensionality of the Professional Commitment Scale

Peggy D. Dwyer
University of Central Florida

Robert B. Welker
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

Alan H. Friedberg
Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

 

Accounting researchers investigating the construct of professional commitment have generally measured professional commitment using a 15-item scale. A previous study of the psychometric properties of that scale suggested that the scale may capture more than one dimension of commitment. The present study was designed to examine additional psychometric properties of the 15-item professional commitment scale. Analysis of responses collected from 159 practicing accountants suggests that the professional commitment scale contains potentially spurious dimensions. The 15-item scale was pared down to a five-item scale that may provide a more clearly interpretable and parsimonious measure of affective professional commitment.

 

 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1999, Volume 11

• A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Audit Task Structure, Professional Rank and Decision Aids for Behavioral Research - Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi
• Budgeting and the Management of Role Conflict in Hospitals - Sue E. Comerford and Margaret A. Abernethy
• Supervision Practices and Audit Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis of GAO Audits - Parveen P. Gupta, Narayan S. Umanath, Mark W. Dirsmith
• A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Managers’ Project Evaluation Decisions - Paul D. Harrison, Chee W. Chow, Anne Wu, Adrian M. Harrell
• The Role of Procedural and Declarative Knowledge in Performing Accounting Tasks - Paul J. Herz and Joseph J. Schultz, Jr.
• The Influence of Budget Goal Attainment on Risk Attitudes and Escalation - Linda V. Ruchala
• Taxpayer Preference Between Income Tax and Consumption Tax: Behavioral Life Cycle Effects - Raymond A. Zimmermann, Patricia Eason, Mary Gowan

 

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Audit Task Structure, Professional Rank and Decision Aids for Behavioral Research

Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi
Bentley College

Abstract

 

The primary objective of this paper is to provide a descriptive database on task structure, minimum professional rank and decision aids applicable to perform each task in a comprehensive inventory of audit tasks. In addition, analysis of the data and insight are provided as a means of motivating future behavioral research, particularly in areas of expertise, staff training and assignment, and decision aid development. To achieve these objectives, a comprehensive inventory of audit tasks was developed and presented to audit managers and partners for their assessment of task structure, professional rank and decision aids. The data are presented by various audit phases and in detail for each of the 332 audit tasks investigated.

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Budgeting and the Management of Role Conflict in Hospitals

Sue E. Comerford and Margaret A. Abernethy
University of Melbourne

Abstract

Economic, political and social pressures have created an environment where it is considered critical for professionals performing health care services to extend their role to encompass the financial management of hospital resources. Prior research has argued that this dual role can potentially have adverse organizational consequences, through the creation of role conflict. Professionals tend to have a high commitment to professional values but a low commitment to managerial values and, thus, directly involving them in financial controls, such as budgeting, is likely to lead to role conflict. This paper argues that role conflict is not inevitable in this circumstance. It extends prior research by testing the proposition that individuals with a high professional orientation will not necessarily experience role conflict when involved in budgeting, provided they are committed to the managerial goal set. An empirical study, based on data collected from health care professionals in a large Australian public teaching hospital, was undertaken to test this proposition. The results support the position taken in the paper.

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Supervision Practices and Audit Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis of GAO Audits

Parveen P. Gupta
Lehigh University

Narayan S. Umanath
University of Cincinnati

Mark W. Dirsmith
Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

 

Generally accepted auditing standards promulgated by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and AICPA (1982) require the supervision of auditors. Earlier research on auditor supervision yielded relatively weak and conflicting results, and little effort has been devoted to examining the relationship between audit tasks, supervision practices, and the effectiveness of actual audit teams. In addition, this prior research examined auditors solely from public accounting firms, with virtually no attention being paid to auditors within the GAO.

Using work unit contingency theory, it is hypothesized here that when supervision practices (expressed in terms of bureaucratic, personal and group modes of control) fit the level of complexity and interdependence of audit tasks, as well as audit team size, audits will be performed more effectively. To evaluate this hypothesis, we administered test instruments to 299 auditors from 96 actual GAO audits. Using canonical correlation analysis, we found that GAO audit team effectiveness is significantly higher when the supervision practices fit the nature of the interdependence relations, as well as the size of the audit team. The study concludes by explaining the implications for practice and future research.

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A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Managers’ Project Evaluation Decisions

Paul D. Harrison
University of South Carolina

Chee W. Chow
San Diego State University

Anne Wu
National Chengchi University (Taipei)

Adrian M. Harrell
University of South Carolina

Abstract

 

In the current era of intensifying competition and globalization, an increasingly important issue is how to ensure timely responses to continuing or discontinuing a declining or unprofitable project. There also exists a need to know how project evaluation decisions will differ across national settings.

This study contributes insights into this question by testing how private information, the potential for personal gain and national culture affect decision makers’ choice of whether to continue or discontinue a project projected to become unprofitable in the future. Experimental data from 230 U.S. and Chinese nationals indicated that: (1) when they had private information and the potential for personal gain, both national groups had a greater propensity to continue the unprofitable project, and (2) the Chinese subjects had less of an inclination to continue the unprofitable project than their U.S. counterparts. These results imply that both national culture and attributes of the employment setting affect employees’ behavior, which in turn affects firm profitability.

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The Role of Procedural and Declarative Knowledge in Performing Accounting Tasks

Paul J. Herz
Western State College of Colorado

Joseph J. Schultz, Jr.
Arizona State University

Abstract

 

Cognitive research in accounting and auditing has focused on expertise and how that expertise is obtained. Implications include expert system construction, training and personnel assignment. Determining experts and eliciting their knowledge, however, is threatened by the dissociation between declarative and procedural knowledge. Gauging declarative knowledge relies on one’s ability to verbalize pertinent facts or processes; measuring procedural knowledge is more subtle as it relies on “automatic” linkages to performance that gradually deny access to declarative knowledge. This distinction limits experienced auditors’ ability to demonstrate their knowledge via ordinary recall or recognition measures commonly used in accounting studies.

Sixty-six advanced accounting students performed a structured accounting task in a computerized experimental setting to document the role of procedural knowledge within an accounting context. The participants practiced various combinations of the task to allow for development of “expertise,” and, subsequently, for testing of several propositions.

Findings indicate general support for the role that procedural knowledge plays in the accounting arena. These results suggest that more emphasis should be placed on performance in determining expertise, that caution should be exercised in eliciting experts to build expert systems, and that ACT* theory may represent a sound framework for studying such matters.

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The Influence of Budget Goal Attainment on Risk Attitudes and Escalation

Linda V. Ruchala
University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Abstract

 

This study is an investigation of whether individuals who are not achieving budget goals will make riskier project investment decisions than individuals who are attaining budget goals and whether bonus-based compensation exacerbates this effect. This study also explores whether making riskier investment decisions extends to project escalation when expected value analysis would suggest that such continuance is not advantageous to achieving budget goals. Finally, the relationship between the duration of effort and project escalation is tested.

A two-period interactive computer experiment was conducted using 60 student subjects to test the research hypotheses. A two-factor, between-subjects design crossed two forms of performance-based compensation (bonus-based and profit-sharing) with achievement and nonachievement of a budget goal. Baseline risk attitudes, choice of investment projects, and the decision to continue a failing project were measured in this study, as was the duration of effort. The results support the proposition that individuals make riskier investment decisions when they are not achieving budget goals. Subjects not meeting budget goals and compensated with bonus-based incentives made the riskiest investment decisions. The increased willingness to take risks does not extend to project escalation. Individuals who took more time to analyze the investment options were less likely to escalate.

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Taxpayer Preference Between Income Tax and Consumption Tax: Behavioral Life Cycle Effects

Raymond A. Zimmermann
Patricia Eason
The University of Texas at El Paso

Mary Gowan
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

 

Public opinion surveys have documented a shift in the characterization of the income tax as the fairest tax in 1972 to the least fair tax in 1994. One potential explanation for this shift lies in Shefrin and Thaler’s (1988) Behavioral Life Cycle Hypothesis (BLCH). According to Shefrin and Thaler (1988), BLCH individuals maximize lifetime satisfaction as they advance through the life cycle by (1) exercising increased self-control in deferring consumption to later periods; (2) mentally segregating income into distinct accounts which carry different marginal propensities to consume; and (3) adjusting their saving rate on the basis of perceived gains/losses in these accounts. Anything that is perceived to permanently affect relative prices between these accounts would affect savings returns.

Given that the primary difference between income and consumption taxation lies in the taxation of savings yields, the relative price of saving is often affected by changes in tax law. BLCH individuals might view increased income taxes as a penalty on their own productive performance (i.e., diminished returns on accumulated savings). If true, BLCH suggests that individual preference between increases in income taxes vs. consumption taxes might depend, in part, on a person’s position in the life cycle. In an aging population, the results of this study suggest that shifting public preference from income taxation to consumption taxation may be related to changing demographics.

 

 

Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1998, Volume 10 Supplement

• Foreward - Seleshi Sisaye
• Part I. Evolution of Behavioral Approaches in Accounting Research
• • The Ascendancy of the Behavioral Paradigm in Accounting: The Last 20 Years - Thomas R. Dyckman
• Part II. Social and Behavioral Sciences Applications in Accounting and Management Control Research
• • An Overview of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Approaches in Management Control Research - Seleshi Sisaye
  • Some Reflections on the Evolution of Organizational Control - Jacob G. Birnberg
  • Contingency Theory, Management Control Systems and Firm Outcomes: Past Results and Future Directions - Joseph G. Fisher
  • Accounting and Control as Solutions to Technical Problems, Political Exchanges and Forms of Social Discourse: The Importance of Substantive Domain - Mark W. Dirsmith
  • Cost Management and Management Control in Health Care Organizations: Research Opportunities- John H. Evans III
• Part III. Experimental Economics in Behavioral Accounting Research
• • Using an Experimental Economics Approach in Behavioral Accounting Research - Donald V. Moser
  • Bargaining Strategy and Accounting Information About Opponents’ Payoffs: Bargaining in a Hall of Mirrors - Joan L. Luft, Susan F. Haka and Brian Ballou
  • Commentary by John H. Evans III
• Part IV. Decision Aids in Auditing
• • Anchoring Effects Associated With Recommendations From Expert Decision Aids: An Experimental Analysis - Tamara K. Kowalczyk and Christopher J. Wolfe
  • Commentary by Douglas F. Prawitt
  • Influencing Decision Aid Reliance Through Involvement in Information Choice - Stacey M. Whitecotton and Stephen A. Butler
  • Commentary by Richard W. Houston
• Part V. Exploratory Study in Group Behavior
• • Sources of Process Gain and Loss From Group Interaction in Performance of Analytical Procedures - Jean C. Bedard, Stanley F. Biggs and James J. Maroney
  • Commentary by Eric N. Johnson
• Part VI. Research on International Issues
• • The Effect of CEO Disclosure Beliefs on the Volume of Disclosure About Corporate Earnings and Strategy - A. Jane Craighead and Jon Hartwick
  • Commentary by Jane M. Cote
• Part VII. Research Note: Career Issues in CPA Firms
• • The Role of Peer Relationships During CPA Firm Mergers - Philip H. Siegel, Alan Reinstein, Khondkar E. Karim and John T. Rigsby
  • Commentary by Sandra C. Vera-Muñoz

 

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

 

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FOREWORD

Volume 10, 1998 of Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA) (Supplement) contains selected research papers that were presented at the Fourth Annual American Accounting Association (AAA) Accounting, Behavior and Organization (ABO) Research Conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Westin William Penn Hotel, May 8-10, 1997. The decision to publish these papers is based upon feedback received from referees, discussants and participants at the conference.

The papers in the Supplement are grouped into seven subject areas: evolution of behavioral approaches in accounting research, management control, experimental economics, auditing, and international accounting among others. These papers utilize various research methodologies: experiments, surveys, in-depth interviews, protocol analysis, field studies and archival research. They represent the various research methods currently used by behavioral accounting researchers. As such, these papers provide a forum for discussion and future research in their respective subject areas.

A number of individuals have contributed to the success of the conference. Publication of this Supplement would not have been possible without the support of W. Steve Albrecht, President of AAA (1997/98) and the AAA Executive Committee. I am particularly indebted to Steve, the AAA Executive Committee members, and the ABO Board of Trustees (Andrew D. Bailey, Mary S. Stone and Jan R. Williams) for making the necessary financial arrangement with the ABO Section to publish the Supplement. Mr. Craig Polhemus, AAA Executive Director, provided generous assistance for the 1997 ABO Research Conference and the publication of this Supplement. His administrative staff, Debbie Gardner, Jim De La, Beverly Harrelson, Roland LaTulip and Mary Cole; and the AAA Meeting Coordinators, Dee Strathan and Debbie Gouwens, have provided technical and logistic support both for the conference and the Supplement. Joe Schultz has been instrumental in facilitating the completion of the conference. The ABO Board of Officers has supported and authorized the conference and the Supplement.

I am particularly grateful to members of the ABO Section and other AAA sections for their support and involvement at the conference as paper presenters, discussants, moderators and reviewers. I would like to thank the manuscript referees for their assistance in reviewing the papers on a timely basis, and am including the names of all referees who reviewed papers both for the conference and the Supplement.

I have benefited from my close working relationship with Jacob G. Birnberg and his experience as Editor of BRIA during 1995/1997. I am indebted to his suggestions for matching reviewers with their subject areas and grouping papers by topical areas for both the conference and the Supplement. Eileen Stommes provided editorial assistance in the preparation of the Supplement.

Duquesne University has assisted my efforts in organizing the conference. I would especially like to thank Thomas J. Murrin, Dean of the Palumbo School of Business; and Kenneth L. Paige, Coordinator of Accounting Program for their support of the project. Linda Cuda and Chris Koenig have provided secretarial support. My graduate assistants, Dilum Wijekon and Janna Miller, have been respectively involved in both the conference and the Supplement. I am grateful to them and to my colleagues in the ABO Section for their support of my endeavors. Their unfailing support made the timely completion of this project possible. Seleshi Sisaye, Duquesne University Editor, BRIA Supplement-Volume 10, 1998

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The Ascendancy of the Behavioral Paradigm in Accounting: The Last 20 Years

Thomas R. Dyckman, Cornell University

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to trace the growth of the behavioral paradigm in accounting. By examining the change in several measurable variables, I show that there has been a substantial increase in the impact of this paradigm over the period studied. This growth is documented by increases not only in the number of faculty selecting the behavioral designation to identify their area of interest, but also by the percentage who self identify. The increasing impact of the behavioral paradigm is also supported by an increase in the number and proportion of the articles using this approach that appear in the more prestigious accounting journals. I also document a series of events that have occurred over a more extended period of time that supported and contributed to the rise of behavioral science in the activities of accounting scholars. Finally, I take a look to the future.

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An Overview of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Approaches 
in Management Control Research

Seleshi Sisaye, Duquense University

Abstract

This section of the supplement contains four papers that discuss social and behavioral sciences applications in accounting and control research. The authors apply macro perspectives at the group and organizational levels. This paper provides an overview of the differing approaches/perspectives used by the authors and describes their implications for future research on management control systems. The paper suggests that using multidisciplinary approaches in social and behavioral sciences would enrich future research on accounting and control systems in complex organizations.

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Some Reflections on the Evolution 
of Organizational Control

Jacob G. Birnberg, University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

The focus of control systems has shifted from the problem of controlling the individual/task to the problem of controlling the organization. This change is due to the dynamic nature of the environment within which organizations now exist. This paper discusses the impact of that change on the organization’s control system. The primary impact has been on the role of feedback in the system. Feedback no longer serves to facilitate the control system’s convergence to equilibrium. In a dynamic setting, feedback is the vehicle through which “adaptive controls” and “playfulness” facilitate change and alter the nature of controls.

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Contingency Theory, Management Control Systems
and Firm Outcomes: Past Results and Future Directions

Joseph G. Fisher, Indiana University

Abstract

This paper examines the link between contingency theory and management control systems. Contingency theory states that the design and use of control systems is dependent upon the context of the organizational setting. A better match between the control system to the contingency variable is hypothesized to result in increased organizational performance. This paper identifies contingent control variables, defines the boundaries of control systems, and categorizes prior work by the analysis complexity. Even though this research stream has provided useful insights, many of the results are tentative and less than definitive. This paper concludes by proposing ways to strengthen contingency theory results.

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Accounting and Control as Solutions to Technical Problems, 
Political Exchanges and Forms of Social Discourse: 
The Importance of Substantive Domain

Mark W. Dirsmith, Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to offer suggestions for future research in accounting and control. It proceeds by first describing the three domains that comprise research—the conceptual, research methods and substantive domains—and suggests that our understanding of accounting and control may perhaps be best extended by intensively focusing on the substantive domain, or social/organizational setting of interest, and then drawing in relevant theoretical frameworks and methods. The paper then discusses the multiple roles of accounting and control systems as technical solutions to problems, political exchanges and forms of social discourse, and the research methods that may be used to study these roles.

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Cost Management and Management Control 
in Health Care Organizations: Research Opportunities

John H. Evans III, University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

Healthcare organizations today face a myriad of challenges as they attempt to adapt to demands for improved quality and reduced cost. Their responses to these pressures provide accounting, behavior and organization (ABO) researchers an excellent laboratory in which to examine changes that also confront many other service organizations. Distinctive features that make this laboratory an appealing one are the existence of systematic, large-scale databases, the special role of teams and physicians and the current state of cost accounting information. Current empirical research in this area is described and categorized with an eye toward future research opportunities.

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Using an Experimental Economics Approach 
in Behavioral Accounting Research

Donald V. Moser, University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

The paper begins with a brief comparison of the research perspectives of experimental economists vs. those of most behavioral accountants who conduct experiments. This is followed by a detailed description of two specific studies. The first study provides an example of the experimental economics approach, while the second study provides an example of the integration of this approach into a behavioral accounting study. These studies are used to illustrate the standard techniques and procedures used in experimental economics and compare them to those used in conventional behavioral accounting experiments. The potential costs and benefits of integrating aspects of the experimental economics approach into behavioral accounting experiments are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of how such an integrative approach could significantly increase the impact of behavioral accounting experiments.

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Bargaining Strategy and Accounting Information
About Opponents’ Payoffs: Bargaining in a Hall of Mirrors

Joan L. Luft and Susan F. Haka 
Michigan State University 
Brian Ballou, Auburn University

Abstract

Although accounting information is widely acknowledged to provide the basis for many contractual agreements, the impact of accounting information characteristics on bargaining behavior has received little research attention. The results reported in this manuscript demonstrate that the amount of uncertainty inherent in accounting information signals can impact bargaining behavior. In particular, offers and counteroffers observed in a bilateral bargaining setting, where accounting-based information about an opponent’s payoffs was less certain, are consistent with bargainers acting and opponents responding as if offers and counteroffers were strategic rather than informational. In more certain settings, however, bargainers were more likely to use offers and counteroffers to reveal reservation price information and opponents were more likely to believe bargainers’ offers revealed relevant information about bargainers’ preferences. We hypothesize that bargainers’ reflections (as in a hall of mirrors) of each other’s cognitions are impacted by the uncertainty of the signals generated by the accounting information system.

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Anchoring Effects Associated With Recommendations 
From Expert Decision Aids: An Experimental Analysis

Tamara K. Kowalczyk, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 
Christopher J. Wolfe, Texas A&M University

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of recommendations from an expert system on the judgment behavior of system users in an auditing task. Specifically, two experiments were conducted to determine whether the provision of such recommendations is associated with anchoring effects among users. “Anchoring” is a term used to describe a judgment bias that occurs when individuals cannot ignore certain knowledge when processing information in decision making. In each experiment, auditing students used an expert system that assisted in the evaluation of whether there existed substantial doubt about a company’s ability to continue as a going concern. We compared the assessments of users provided recommendations from the system to those not provided recommendations. The results provide evidence that anchoring effects can occur with the provision of recommendations from the expert decision aid. An important implication of these results is that anchoring on the advice of an expert decision aid can result in improper attention given to audit evidence that is inconsistent with the recommendation. Results from this and similar studies that examine the implications of expert system use on decision behavior can be useful in the development and implementation of effective intelligent decision aids.

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Influencing Decision Aid Reliance 
Through Involvement in Information Choice

Stacey M. Whitecotton, Arizona State University 
Stephen A. Butler, University of Oklahoma

Abstract

Prior research suggests that accounting decision makers are often unwilling to rely on decision aids, limiting their intended effectiveness. This study examines involvement in the aid’s development as a mechanism for decreasing decision-makers’ resistance to decision aids. We investigate whether the act of choosing the information for the decision aid increases decision aid reliance, and then examine the resulting impact of involvement on performance. As expected, decision makers were more willing to rely on a decision aid based on information they had selected than were decision makers without this type of involvement. However, the information chosen resulted in decision aids with lower predictive accuracy than the optimal decision aid. Although there were no significant differences in absolute performance related to information choice, there were significant performance improvements relative to the quality of the decision aid. These results highlight the importance of evaluating both decision aid reliance and predictive validity in determining decision aid success.

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Sources of Process Gain and Loss 
From Group Interaction in Performance 
of Analytical Procedures

Jean C. Bedard, Northeastern University 
Stanley F. Biggs, University of Connecticut 
James J. Maroney, Northeastern University

Abstract

Many business tasks are performed by people interacting in groups. While research on the effects of group interaction on task performance has been called for, few such studies have been done. Most studies conducted in audit settings stress that group interaction should result in performance gain. However, psychology literature also indicates that group interaction could result in reduced performance as a result of process loss. This paper explores decision processes of interacting audit groups and individual auditors when conducting analytical procedures. A model of group performance adapted from Steiner (1972) (Steiner's model) helps frame group process gain and loss issues. Decision process data are gathered from groups of auditors using think-aloud verbal protocols. Group decision processes and performance are compared to those of individual auditors from a prior study. Results indicate that groups exhibited some process gain (e.g., from knowledge pooling), which contributed to improved performance. However, process loss caused several groups to fail to select a correct hypothesis that had been considered, thereby preventing them from achieving their full potential. Specific sources of process gain and loss contributing to differential group performance are discussed, along with implications for audit practice regarding maximizing process gain and reducing process loss.

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The Effect of CEO Disclosure Beliefs 
on the Volume of Disclosure 
About Corporate Earnings and Strategy

A. Jane Craighead, Concordia University and McGill University 
Jon Hartwick, McGill University

Abstract

This study investigates the association between managerial disclosure beliefs and firms’ disclosure activities. It adopts a cognitive perspective that posits beliefs underlie the performance of behaviors (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975); hence, managerial disclosure beliefs will be related to a firm’s voluntary disclosure practices. Managerial disclosure beliefs were measured through a survey of 68 CEOs of Canadian public companies. Firm disclosures were measured by the volume of disclosures about corporate earnings performance and changes in future corporate strategy contained in the Canadian Business and Current Affairs database.

The results show that managerial disclosure beliefs predict more than 20 percent of the variance in the volume of both earnings disclosures and strategy disclosures. Specifically, we found that firms with CEOs who believe that disclosure has certain benefits (for example, reductions in the firm’s cost of raising capital, or investors’ costs of gathering information) disclose more than other firms. Further, the CEOs of high disclosure firms believe that the market makes significant use of multiple sources of information, such as analysts’ forecasts of future earnings and information about corporate strategy, in valuing the firm. On the other hand, low disclosure firms were found to have CEOs who believe that the market is fixated on earnings per share data. These results indicate the importance of managerial disclosure beliefs in explaining why firms disclose differently on a voluntary basis.

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RESEARCH NOTE: 
The Role of Peer Relationships 
During CPA Firm Mergers

Philip H. Siegel, Long Island University 
Alan Reinstein, Wayne State University 
Khondkar E. Karim, Long Island University 
John T. Rigsby, Mississippi State University

Abstract

This paper analyzes peer relationships in work settings by examining 16 peer relationships in a southwestern city shortly after the merger of two international accounting firms. We conducted a field study to examine why individuals form and keep peer relationships within the context of organizational and task uncertainty created by a merger. We found the functions performed by peer relationships were almost exclusively concentrated in the psychosocial area during the merger. The utilization of peer relationships was spread broadly across the firm, irrespective of education, experience or organizational level. The formation and maintenance of peer relationships appears to be an important reaction to the uncertainty and learning requirements imposed by the merger process.

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Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1997, Volume 9 Supplement

• The Effects of Interference and Availability From Hypotheses Generated by a Decision Aid Upon Analytical Procedures Judgments - John C. Anderson, Steven E. Kaplan and Philip M. J. Reckers
• Commentary by Dana R. Hermanson, Kennesaw State University
• The Relationship Between an Individual's Values and Perceptions of Moral Intensity: An Empirical Study - Gail B. Wright, Charles P. Cullinan and Dennis M. Bline
• Commentary by Michael K. Shaub Hillsdale College
• Some Determinants of Analysts' Forecast Accuracy - Dipankar Ghosh and Stacey M. Whitecotton
• Commentary by D. Eric Hirst University of Texas at Austin
• The Effects of Audit Structure and Experience on Auditors' Decisions to Isolate Errors - Heather M. Hermanson
• Commentary by Jane Kennedy
• The Effects of Justification, Task Complexity and Experience/Training on Problem-Solving Performance - C. Janie ChanG, Joanna L. Y. Ho and Woody M. Liao
• Commentary by Marlys Gascho Lipe
• Auditors' Uncertainty Representation and Evidence Aggregation - Theodore J. Mock, Arnold M. Wright, Mary T. Washington and Ganesh Krishnamoorthy
• Commentary by Jane Kennedy
• Auditor Judgments: The Effects of the Partner's Views on Decision Outcomes and Cognitive Effort - Christine E. L. Tan, Christine A. Jubb and Keith A. Houghton
• Commentary by Karim Jamal

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The Effects of Interference and Availability From Hypotheses 
Generated by a Decision Aid Upon Analytical Procedures Judgments

John C. Anderson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 
Steven E. Kaplan and Philip M. J. Reckers, Arizona State University

Abstract

This study tests the influence (upon analytical procedures judgment) of having auditors focus on explanations from an error vs. non-error dominated list of explanations. The audit judgment studied was the probability of misstatement due to error or irregularity, based on an unexpected fluctuation in the inventory turnover ratio. A laboratory experiment was conducted using experienced audit seniors and managers, in varied client environments. As predicted by interference and availability theory, having auditors focus on errors from an error dominated list resulted in an increase in auditors' likelihood assessment of error. On the other hand, having auditors focus on non-errors from a non-error dominated list did not significantly decrease auditors' likelihood assessment of error. Results suggest that focusing auditor attention on externally generated errors can make error hypotheses more available and increase the subsequent likelihood assessment of error, and focusing auditor attention on externally generated non-errors does not significantly lower error availability.

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The Relationship Between an Individual's Values and 
Perceptions of Moral Intensity: An Empirical Study

Gail B. Wright, Charles P. Cullinan and Dennis M. Bline 
Bryant College

Abstract

The accountants' ethical decision-making process occurs in a contextually rich environment which includes the moral imperative of a particular issue (i.e., moral intensity), the values systems of moral agents, and professional influences such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Code of Professional Conduct. Jones (1991) theorized that issue characteristics, collectively called moral intensity, affect the agent's decision process. Weber (1993) suggests that values may also affect the agent's response to an ethical dilemma. This paper explores the relationship between a moral agent's values system and his or her perceptions of moral intensity. Results indicate that among issues of lower moral intensity, the accountant's values preferences influence perceptions of moral intensity. These results imply that differences in individuals' values preferences are most likely to influence the ethical decision-making process when dealing with issues for which there is a lower moral imperative.

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Some Determinants of Analysts' Forecast Accuracy

Dipankar Ghosh, University of Oklahoma 
Stacey M. Whitecotton, Arizona State University

Abstract

Financial analysts often make predictions concerning annual earnings, and there is evidence to suggest that some provide more accurate forecasts than others. Despite their importance as both users of information and agents for its dissemination in financial markets, little is currently known about the factors which cause these differences in financial analysts' forecast accuracy. This study provides evidence on this issue by addressing three research questions. First, does ability affect performance in a financial forecasting task? If so, does the effect persist after controlling for experience? Finally, does a decision aid mitigate the effect of ability on earnings forecasting performance?

The results show that two measures of ability, perceptual ability and tolerance for ambiguity, were significantly related to earnings forecasting accuracy. Moreover, these effects were very persistent and not easily overcome by either experience or a decision aid. The decision aid was moderately successful at reducing the effect of tolerance for ambiguity, but not perceptual ability. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed.

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The Effects of Audit Structure and Experience 
on Auditors' Decisions to Isolate Errors

Heather M. Hermanson, Kennesaw State University

Abstract

This study examines the effect of audit firm structure, control risk and task-related experience on auditors' decisions to project sample errors to the population or to treat sample errors as isolated occurrences. One hundred forty-one practicing auditors from five Big 6 firms evaluated six error scenarios and indicated whether they would project or isolate each error. Results indicated that greater audit firm structure and task-related experience were associated with increased likelihood of projection. Control risk was not related to error projection. These results contribute to a growing body of research attempting to understand the auditor's judgment process in evaluating sample evidence.

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The Effects of Justification, Task Complexity 
and Experience/Training on Problem-Solving Performance

C. Janie Chang, California State University, San Marcos
Joanna L. Y. Ho, University of California, Irvine
Woody M. Liao, University of California

Abstract

Accounting decision problems require decision makers to not only recognize decision rules but to also apply such decision rules to solve complex problems. This study examines the effects of justification conditions and individuals' general experience and training on problem-solving performance, and whether these effects are contingent on task complexity. Three hundred twelve subjects (145 MBA and 167 undergraduate business students) participated in a laboratory experiment. MBA and undergraduate students were treated as two different subject groups because of their differences in general experience and training. Subjects were randomly assigned to a justification or a no-justification condition and were asked to respond to two sets of three problems. The first set tested their understanding of three basic decision rules. The second set tested their application of the decision rules to solve three complex accounting problems. The results show that general experience and training significantly affected performance. Surprisingly, a justification requirement increased effort but did not significantly improve performance, regardless of task complexity.

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Auditors' Uncertainty Representation and Evidence Aggregation

Theodore J. Mock, University of Southern California and University of Maastricht 
Arnold M. Wright, Boston College
Mary T. Washington, Governors State University
Ganesh Krishnamoorthy, Boston College

Abstract

Although probabilistic reasoning is an appropriate approach to consider uncertainty, prior research has found little evidence that auditors use explicit probabilistic reasoning processes. In this study, two Bayesian and one Classical judgment models are derived for a task where 12 auditors evaluated the likelihood of a material error. Evidence of use of these models comes from two sources: verbal protocols and comparisons with predictions based on the three models.

The protocol evidence indicates that seven subjects exhibit reasoning consistent with a Bayesian representation and five with a Classical Statistical representation. However, in aggregating the evidence, those employing a Bayesian representation were found to make risk judgments most consistent with a Classical model. By examining two phases of uncertainty evaluation, this study is able to isolate behavior in the representation phase from that in the aggregation phase. The results suggest a need for training or decision aids in the aggregation phase.

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Auditor Judgments: The Effects of the Partner's 
Views on Decision Outcomes and Cognitive Effort

Christine E. L. Tan, Christine A. Jubb and Keith A. Houghton
University of Melbourne

Abstract

There are political, social and economic incentives embedded within the audit setting which provide stimuli for compliant behavior of subordinate auditors to that preferred by the superior auditor. This study examines this compliant behavior under conditions of accountability. Specifically, this study examines whether subordinate auditors, when they are held accountable for their decisions, align their views with those expressed by the evaluative audience;emtheir superiors. In addition, the degree of cognitive effort associated with this compliance is examined. An experiment involving 70 auditors from one Big 6 firm required the subjects to complete a preliminary risk assessment of inventory obsolescence for five separate inventory items. All auditors were informed that they might have to verbally justify their decision outcomes to the partner and/or the researchers. The risk assessments of the auditors' superior were manipulated. Generally, the risk assessments of the superior significantly influenced the subordinates' risk assessments and the amount of cognitive effort exerted by the subordinate, accountable auditors.

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Behavioral Research in Accounting
Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1996, Volume 8 Supplement

• America Online/On a Roll:  A Case Study in Investigative Accounting -  Abraham J. Briloff
• Ethics Research and Research Ethics - James C. Gaa
• Ethics and Accounting Research: The Issue of Truth - Karen L. Hooks and Joseph J. Schultz, Jr.
• Comments by Jack L. Krogstad
• An Analysis of Moral and Social Influences on Taxpayer Behavior - Dennis M. Hanno and George R. Violette
• Comments by Peggy A. Hite
• Personal and Organizational Culture Effects on Auditor Independence - Carolyn A. Windsor and Neal M. Ashkanasy
• An Evaluation of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale as a Measure of Ethical Sensitivity: Implications for Accounting Ethics Research - Jeffrey R. Cohen, Laurie W. Pant, and David J. Sharp
• Comments by Judy Tsui
• Ethics, Experience, and Professional Skepticism: A Situational Analysis - Michael K. Shaub and Janice E. Lawrence
• Comments by Mary S. Doucet and Thomas A. Doucet
• Experimental Evidence on Independence Impairment Conditions: Aggregate and Individual Results - Jeffrey W. Schatzberg, Galen R. Sevcik, and Brian Shapiro
• Comments by Jacob G. Birnberg
• Ethics and Environmental Auditing: A Comparison of the Levels of Moral Reasoning and Environmental Auditors and Public Accountants - Devaun Kite, Timothy J. Louwers, and Robin R. Radtke
• Comments by Paul Munter
• Experimental Investigation of Ethical Standards and Perceived Probability of Audit on Intentional Noncompliance - Dipankar Ghosh and Terry L. Crain
• Partner Behavior and Audit Quality Reduction Acts: Vies of Partners and Senior Managers - Joseph V. Carcello, Dana R. Hermanson, and H. Fenwick Huss
• Comments by Robert G. Ruland

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

 

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Ethics and Accounting Research: The Issue of Truth

Karen L. Hooks and Joseph J. Schultz, Jr.

Abstract

Many accounting studies use a behavioral paradigm as their underpinning. Clearly, both internal and external validity are necessary to make a behavioral accounting study useful for application. Until recently, there has been little concern in the accounting literature for how deception of research participants affects these two necessary conditions for usefulness (Lord 1992; Dopuch 1992; Gibbins 1992).

This paper explains how we weighed the need for valid results against the ethical dilemma of using deception. In arriving at our decision to use deception, we review considerations about the importance of the research issue and the limited appropriate scientific methods available. We also review social science arguments that have been used to support the application of deceptive methods in other studies. By example, we show that two different scientific approaches resulted in completely different results. Notably, the actual behavior observed in the approach employing deception supported the theoretical hypothesis; the non-deception, opinion-based method did not.

We believe that an understanding of the assessments we mad in designing our study may be helpful to other researchers facing the same types of decisions. In addition, we hope our paper will stimulate discussion on appropriate and ethical procedures for research designs that include deception. 

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An Analysis of Moral and Social Influences on Taxpayer Behavior

Dennis M. Hanno and George R. Violette

Abstract

Developing an integrative model of tax compliance behavior requires the identification of the underlying moral and social influences on taxpayers. In this study, a social psychological model is used to identify the salient beliefs that are related to tax compliance decisions. The model, the theory of reasoned action [Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; and Ajzen, 1988], hypothesizes that a behavior can be predicted by the intention to perform the behavior, and that intention is influenced by personal evaluations and social pressures related to performing the behavior. The results indicate that both self-reported and hypothetical compliance behaviors were related to the intention to comply. In addition, compliance intentions were highly associated with beliefs relating to behavioral outcomes and normative perceptions. Specifically, differences in compliance intentions and behavior were traced to differences in beliefs about the importance of fulfilling personal moral and civic obligation.

 

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Personal and Organizational Culture Effects on Auditor Independence

Carolyn A. Windsor and Neal M. Ashkanasy

Abstract

Research has established that auditorsí moral reasoning development and just world beliefs influence their independence behavior when in conflict with client management. The present study extends these findings by investigating the relationships between organizational culture in Big 6 accounting firms and the two personal constructs identified in earlier work (Windsor and Ashkanasy 1995). Results supported hypotheses that personal constructs are related to organization culture values, although organizational culture dimensions did not separate auditors of differing independence decision-making style. Follow-up interviews with senior audit partners suggest that acculturation processes in accounting organizations result in aggressive and outcome-orientated values, which constrain the association between organizational culture and personal decision-making styles.

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An Evaluation of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale as a Measure of Ethical Sensitivity: Implications for Accounting Ethics Research

Jeffrey R. Cohen, Laurie W. Pant, and David J. Sharp

Abstract

This paper relates the multidimensional ethics scale and factor analysis method of Reidenbach and Robin (1990), Flory et al. (1992) and Cohen et al. (1993) to Restsís (1986) four-component model of ethical decision-making. We believe that the scale items and factor scores measure moral awareness, the first of Restís four components. Using a sample of Canadian auditing professionals, we demonstrate how the regression coefficient of ethical evaluation on these individual factor scores measures respondentsí ethical evaluation of the importance of various criteria, which corresponds to Restís second component (making a moral judgment), and that the importance and awareness measures differ. We believe that this measure of importance is related to moral development, and therefore could be related to the Defining Issues Test, (a commonly used measure of moral development in accounting ethics research). We suggest that these previously independent approaches to measuring individual morality could be integrated.

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Ethics, Experience, and Professional Skepticism: A Situational Analysis

Michael K. Shaub and Janice E. Lawrence

Abstract

A model of auditorsí professional skepticism is developed in this study by adapting Kee and Knoxís [1970] model of trust and suspicion to apply to auditors. This model defines professional skepticism as a function of (1) ethical disposition, (2) experience, and (3) situational factors. Structural equations modeling is used to evaluate the relationship of these factors to professional skepticism. The model is tested using auditors (n=156) from a single Big-6 firm. Each auditorís skepticism is measure and analyzed in nine different high(low)-risk situations. The results indicate auditors endorsing situation ethics are less skeptical and less concerned with professional ethics. CPAs exhibit less skeptical behavior than their uncertified colleagues. Situations increasing skepticism include the existence of (1) a related party transaction, (2) client financial stress, (3) prior client inaccuracies, and (4) poor client-auditor communication. Results also indicate auditorsí skepticism is counteracted when 

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Experimental Evidence on Independence Impairment Conditions: Aggregate and Individual Results

Jeffrey W. Schatzberg, Galen R. Sevcik, and Brian Shapiro

Abstract

Auditor independence and ethical behavior are closely related, and both are influenced by economic incentives. This paper reports some exploratory results from experimental markets that investigate three general economic conditions that have been identified by the theoretical literature as necessary for an impairment of independence. Consistent with predictions, a lower frequency of independence impairment (auditor misreporting) was observed when any of the necessary conditions was absent than when all three conditions were present. However, some subjects maintained their independence even when all three necessary conditions were present, while other exhibited an impairment of independence in the absence of one or two of the three necessary conditions. These results document that the joint existence of all three conditions cannot be interpreted as strictly sufficient for an impairment of independence, and that each condition cannot be interpreted as strictly necessary. One possibility is that the varia

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Ethics and Environmental Auditing: A Comparison of the Levels of Moral Reasoning and Environmental Auditors and Public Accountants

Devaun Kite, Timothy J. Louwers, and Robin R. Radtke

Abstract

This exploratory study examines the differences in moral reasoning levels among environmental auditors, other internal auditors, and public accountants. It is posited that auditors with higher levels of moral reasoning (as measured by Restís (1979) Defining Issues Test) may self-select into environmental auditing assignments. Conversely, auditors with lower levels of moral reasoning may be assigned to environmental audits by the company to protect corporate interests. Fifty-two practicing environmental auditors (as well as 26 internal auditors) participated in the study by completing and returning the experimental survey and the Defining Issues Test (DIT). While results did not support the hypothesis that environmental auditors have higher mean scores on the DIT than other practicing accountants, further analysis revealed that auditors who requested an environmental auditing position had significantly higher DIT scores than those assigned to the position.

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Experimental Investigation of Ethical Standards and Perceived Probability of Audit on Intentional Noncompliance

Dipankar Ghosh and Terry L. Crain

Abstract

The experimental study presented here demonstrates that individual and situation factors are psychologically salient aspects in tax noncompliance. Specifically, a taxpayer who is more ethical or who perceives tax audit probability to be high will have lower intentional noncompliance, and vice-versa. However, these two variables partly moderate each otherís effect, with intentional noncompliance being particularly large when a taxpayer has low ethical standards and has low perceived tax audit probability. The results underline the suggestion of prior research to examine both direct and interaction effects of personality traits, like ethical standards, and environmental variables affecting economic gain from noncompliance, such as perceived probability of tax audit. The participants in this study were undergraduates majoring in business and all had in-class experience in preparing individual tax returns.

The research question and the design of the experiment in this research were very specific in their scope to avoid confounding the results. For example, the impact of other theoretical variables (such as risk preference of taxpayers, tax rates, and penalty rates) that affect compliance decisions was controlled for in the experiment. Ethical standards were measured using the Mach IV instrument. An attempt was made to separate intentional from unintentional noncompliance as they are separate constructs. Finally, audit probabilities were perceived by the taxpayer, in contrast to being objectively manipulated using too high and unrealistic numbers.

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Partner Behavior and Audit Quality Reduction Acts: Vies of Partners and Senior Managers

Joseph V. Carcello, Dana R. Hermanson, and H. Fenwick Huss

Abstract

Prior research on audit quality reduction acts has generally focused on non-managerial personnel in CPA firms. This study gathers perception data on the existence, extent, and possible factors associated with inappropriate partner behavior. A questionnaire addressing these issues was mailed to a national sample of senior managers and partners employed in auditing positions with public accounting firms.

A large majority of the respondents had never observed four of the five inappropriate behaviors examined. However, approximately 25 percent of respondents indicated that they had observed one or more instances of inadequate workpaper review. Two economic factors (large client size and the presence of a fixed-feel audit contract) were most strongly associated with GAAP and GAAS violations. 

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Behavioral Research in Accounting

Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1994, Volume 6

• Auditor Attendance to Negative and Positive Information: The Effect of Experience-Related Differences, B. Anderson and M. Maletta
• The Effects of Audit Task on Evidence Integration and Belief Revision, D. Kerr and D. Ward
• Identification of Auditors' Propositions Related to Assessments of Management Estimates, G. Klersey
• The Effects of Independence Allegation on Peer Review Evaluation of Audit Procedures, J. King, R. Welker and G. Keller
• The Impact of Responsibility and Framing of Budgetary Information on Group-Shifts, R. Rutledge and A. Harrell
• Measuring Auditors' Reliance on Internal Auditors: A Test of Prior Scales and a New Proposal, A. Campbell
• Behavioral Determinants of Auditor Aggressiveness in Client Relations, J. Cohen, L. Pant and D. Sharp
• Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty: Are the Scales Measuring Separate Constructs for Accountants?, T. Gregson, J. Wendell and J. Aono
• The Effect of Experience on Consensus of Going-Concern Judgments, J. Ho
• Examination of Contextual Effects and Changes in Task Predictability on Auditor Calibration, R. Mladenovic and R. Simnett
• The Effect of an Anticipated Performance Evaluation on Willingness to Perform: The Intervention of Self-Presentational Motives, R. Palmer and R. Welker

 

This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

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Auditor Attendance to Negative and Positive Information: The Effect of Experience-Related Differences

Brenda H. Anderson and Mario Maletta

Prior audit judgment research indicates that auditors exhibit a preferential attendance to negative evidence in their decision making processes [Kida, 1984; Trotman and Sng, 1989; Butt and Campbell, 1989; Anderson and Kida, 1990]. This study examines whether experience-related differences play a role in this tendency to focus on negative data. Specifically, we investigate whether auditors with low levels of audit experience attend to more negative (and less positive) audit evidence than auditors with higher levels of experience, and whether less experienced auditors make more negative audit planning judgments than more experienced auditors. The study employs an analysis of variance design using three subject groups: audit seniors, staff auditors, and auditing students. The experimental task involves an evaluation of control risk in the sales/receivables area.

The results indicate that experience plays a primary role in auditor attendance to negative audit evidence but does not affect attendance to positive information. Auditing students and staff auditors were found to attend to more negative evidence than audit seniors. This focus on negative data was further reflected in auditor control risk assessments in that auditing students rated control risk to be higher than audit seniors. The results indicate that the less experience auditors possess, the more they focus on negative information and the more negative they are in making audit judgments.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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The Effects of Audit Task on Evidence Integration and Belief Revision

David S. Kerr and D. Dewey Ward

This paper reports the results of a study investigating the effects of audit task on auditors' evidence integration processes and subsequent belief revision. Hogarth and Einhorn [1992] recently proposed a belief-adjustment model which predicts that evaluation-type tasks will produce data which fit additive summation integration models, while estimation-type tasks are expected to produce data which fit nonadditive averaging integration models. Results of the experiment are consistent with these predictions.

This study found that the degree of nonadditivity in auditors' judgment processes is affected, in a predictable manner, by characteristics of the audit task. One implication of the results is that nonadditive, configural cue utilization by auditors may be more common than suggested by previous research. A second implication is that the effect of a given piece of audit evidence on auditors' judgments may depend on whether the audit task is an estimation-type or a evaluation-type task.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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Identification of Auditors' Propositions Related to Assessments of Management Estimates

George F. Klersey

One of the most difficult areas of audit judgment is the evaluation of management estimates. The problem facing CPA firms is that individual auditors bring different experiences to the evaluation task. These differences can lead to disparate opinions and may ultimately result in errors in judgment regarding the estimates. To investigate this problem, practicing auditors provided judgments and recalled case materials to elicit their propositions (basic knowledge units) related to the collectibility of trade accounts receivable. Results based on the use of discourse analysis indicate that recalled propositions can be categorized into meaningful information sets that are related to auditors' levels of experience and judgments. In particular, while all auditors recalled some of the same propositions, specific differences were noted based both on their level of experience and judgment. In addition, experienced auditors were more likely to disagree with management's collectibility assertion than inexperienced auditors.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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The Effects of Independence Allegation on Peer Review Evaluation of Audit Procedures

James King, Robert Welker and Gary Keller

This paper reports the results of a study which examined whether an allegation of lack of independence influenced peer review assessment of audit work quality. Forty-nine experienced auditors reviewed an attestation engagement performed by auditors from a small accounting firm. In one experimental condition (n=25), each subject was told that the request for peer evaluation was made as a consequence of an allegation that the auditors lacked independence. In the other experimental condition (n=24), each subject was told that the request was a routine tri-annual peer review. The results supported two hypotheses: (1) knowledge of the allegation negatively influences a peer reviewer's evaluation of the employed audit procedures, and (2) the effect of the allegation on a final assessment of audit quality is attributed primarily to differences in evaluations of those procedures.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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The Impact of Responsibility and Framing of Budgetary Information on Group-Shifts

Robert W. Rutledge and Adrian M. Harrell

Considerable research has found that group decisions are either more or less risky as compared to previous decisions made by individual group members. This study proposes and tests two conditions that may influence whether group decisions become more or less risky: (1) the framing of decision alternatives, and (2) the level of responsibility for a prior related decision. The results suggest that both framing and responsibility affect the initial risk-taking of individuals in a predictable manner, and that subsequent group decisions will enhance this risk-taking. Implications for decision making in organizations are discussed.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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Measuring Auditors' Reliance on Internal Auditors: A Test of Prior Scales and a New Proposal

Annhenrie Campbell

Use of the work and/or personnel of a client's internal audit department in the annual independent audit is commonly termed "reliance." Reliance in experimental cases is often measured with a simple, ad hoc scale. This study examines whether auditors actually think of reliance activities in terms of a single scale of increasing values. The question is addressed by attempting to create a reliance scale from 52 subjects' paired comparison of seven reliance scenarios. A consistent scale resulted suggesting the subjects shared a common concept of reliance. The findings supported the use of Likert and interval scales of reliance in previous studies and provide an illustrated scale for future use.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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Behavioral Determinants of Auditor Aggressiveness in Client Relations

Jeffrey Cohen, Laurie Pant and David Sharp

Aggressiveness by auditors in client relations could lead to ethical problems by possibly impairing the independence or the appearance of independence of auditors. This study employs a widely used social psychology model, the theory of reasoned action [Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; and Ajzen, 1988], to identify the behavioral determinants of auditor aggressiveness in client relations. The model posits a relationship between behavior and intention to perform that behavior. Intention, in turn, is determined by two antecedent factors, attitude and subjective norm. The results from the responses of sixty-two audit managers indicate that the model's overall fit was good and its two variables were highly associated with the aggressiveness intention variable.

Comparisons were also conducted between more and less aggressive auditors on individual questions comprising attitude and subjective norm. For the attitude questions, differences emerged in respondents' perceptions of the likelihood that certain outcomes would occur if one is aggressive. In every case, more aggressive auditors believed that there was a greater (lesser) likelihood of positive (negative) outcomes as a result of aggressive behavior. Examining the individual subjective norm questions, differences occurred in respondents' perceptions of whether important referents, such as peers and business contacts, would approve of aggressiveness in client relations.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty: Are the Scales Measuring Separate Constructs for Accountants?

Terry Gregson, John Wendell and June Aono

A sample of (N=216) certified public accountants was surveyed using modified versions of Rizzo et al.'s (1970) role ambiguity and role conflict questionnaire and Duncan's (1972) perceived environmental uncertainty questionnaire to determine whether these concepts are measurements of distinct constructs. The question of the distinctness of the scales has important implications for the integrity of prior research. The items which comprised each of the questionnaires were examined using latent variable analysis. The results indicated the construct validity of role ambiguity and role conflict, and support was found for the distinctness of role ambiguity, role conflict, and perceived environmental uncertainty.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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The Effect of Experience on Consensus of Going-Concern Judgments

Joanna L. Ho

Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 requires that auditors evaluate the going-concern status of each client. Determining whether a firm will continue as a going concern can be a complex process. Since many data items are potentially relevant, the task is relatively unstructured. In spite of these cognitive demands, previous studies suggest significant agreement among auditors' going-concern judgments. Results of this study reveal a lack of consensus among both experienced and less experienced auditors who were given information for a problem firm. This lack of consensus may explain why auditors often disagree on the appropriate audit report for a problem firm. Also reported are models of the judgment processes of both experienced and less experienced auditors. Auditors in both groups placed more emphasis on the current liquidity and expected profitability of the client than on other financial indicators. Moreover, experienced auditors generated more positive going-concern judgments.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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Examination of Contextual Effects and Changes in Task Predictability on Auditor Calibration

Rosina Mladenovic and Roger Simnett

Research on calibration is mainly located in the psychology literature, where the general finding is that individuals are overconfident in their judgments. On the other hand, the results of studies examining auditor calibration suggest auditors are less confident, tending towards underconfidence. There appear to be two competing explanations for the divergence, namely task predictability [Lichtenstein et al. 1982] and contextual effects of auditing [Solomon et al. 1985]. This study aims to reconcile these findings by obtaining auditors' and non-auditors' responses to both auditing and general knowledge questions across different levels of task predictability. This enables the consideration of both the task predictability and the contextual effects explanations in a single experimental design. When examining the explanations separately, both appear to account for the observed differences in calibration. However, when task predictability is controlled for, most of the task contextual effect disappears while some subject contextual effect remains. The findings of this study suggest that task predictability is a means for explaining and reconciling the conflicting findings of the audit and psychology calibration literatures.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

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The Effect of an Anticipated Performance Evaluation on Willingness to Perform: The Intervention of Self-Presentational Motives

Richard J. Palmer and Robert B. Welker

Prior research has identified anticipated performance evaluations as fraught with negative motivational implications for the evaluatee. The purpose of this laboratory experiment was to show that the performance of a task while anticipating a performance evaluation can stimulate either a positive or negative sentiment and that the direction of the sentiment depends upon the protective or acquisitive self-presentational orientation of the evaluatee. Forty-seven accounting students addressed a complex tax problem after being told that the results of their performance would be reviewed by their major professors. Self-presentational orientations within the subjects were induced by altering the performance standard level against which the evaluators would judge each subject's work. The results supported the hypothesis that, given a desire to impress the evaluators, individuals who perform a task for acquisitive purposes will be more willing to continue to participate in the task than their protective counterparts.

  Return to BRIA 1994, Volume 6 Contents

 

 

Behavioral Research in Accounting

Published annually by the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the AAA

1992, Volume 4

• The Relative Effectiveness of Different Types of Feedback in Performance Evaluation, M. Hirst and P. Luckett
• Managerial Roles and Budgeting Behavior, N. Macintosh and J. Williams
• Alternative Pension Liability Disclosure and the Effect on Credit Evaluation: An Experiment, H. Sami and B. Schwartz
• A Multi-Attribute Investigation of Elicitation Techniques in Tests of Account Balances, M. Abdolmohammadi and A. Wright
• An Investigation of the Causal Ordering of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Turnover Models in Accounting, T. Gregson
• The Analytic Hierarchy Process: An Empirical Examination of Aggregation and Hierarchical Structuring, R. Harper, Jr., N. Apostolou and B. Hartman
• Using an Unfolding Technique to Determine the Lowballing Tendency of Auditors, D. Marxen
• Accuracy and Consensus in Accounting Studies of Decision Making, D. Murray and R. Regel
• A Note on the Effect of Prior Probability Disclosure and Information Representativeness on Subject Predictive Accuracy, M. van Breda and K. Ferris
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  This page was last updated on September 06, 2005 .
  Please send comments on the ABO Website to ABO Section Webmaster Charles_Davis@baylor.edu.

  The Relative Effectiveness of Different Types of Feedback in Performance Evaluation

  Mark K. Hirst and Peter F. Luckett

  There is substantial evidence in the accounting literature regarding the beneficial effects of feedback as a means for improving motivation and promoting task learning. However, some research has been critical of the role of outcome feedback in assisting decision makers learn about judgment tasks, and hence, improving judgment performance. In this study we argue that, under certain conditions, outcome feedback can be effective in assisting judgment performance. Specifically, the conditions imposed here are that the task is perfectly predictable and that decision makers have high initial knowledge about the task. A laboratory experiment was conducted in which 48 subjects from an audit firm undertook a performance evaluation task under different feedback treatments (no feedback, outcome feedback, task properties feedback, and both outcome and task properties feedback). Results indicate: (1) all feedback groups outperform the no feedback group; (2) initially, judgment performance is higher where task properties feedback is provided; and (3) where outcome feedback is provided, judgment performance improves over time. Furthermore, these findings are shown to be attributable to an increase in task learning.

   

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  Managerial Roles and Budgeting Behavior

  Norman B. Macintosh and John J. Williams

  The research reported herein investigates the association of managers' budgetary behavior, managerial roles, and departmental performance. The study surveyed 201 managers in 22 large public sector organizations. The results of a canonical correlation analysis indicates two distinct gestalts of managerial roles and budgetary behavior--some managers use budgeting systems in a strategic way while others use them defensively. The study also suggests a significant difference in managers' budgetary behavior in high performing units as compared with low performing ones. The findings also contradict Mintzberg's proposition that managers eschew formal accounting and information systems.

   

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  Alternative Pension Liability Disclosure and the Effect on Credit Evaluation: An Experiment

  Heibatollah Sami and Bill N. Schwartz

  This paper reports the results of a study investigating the disclosure effects of alternative pension data presentation. In a repeated measures design, subjects sequentially evaluated four sets of loan applications and determined the interest rate, the maximum loan amount, and the probability of repayment. The results indicate a statistically significant response to the degree of leverage, the magnitude of the pension liability, and the pension disclosure method.

   

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  A Multi-Attribute Investigation of Elicitation Techniques in Tests of Account Balances

  Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi and Arnold Wright

  Individuals often need to consider prior beliefs in making judgments. For example, in a sample size decision for tests of account balance, auditors need to specify a point estimate of the expected error or account balance regardless of the sampling method used. Methods of probability assessment (elicitation techniques) have been proposed as means of indirect assessment of the expected error or account balance. Based upon a review of the literature, this study proposes a multi-attribute model as a direction of research in this area. Accordingly, four promising elicitation techniques are evaluated in the context of a test of account balances. Ninety-two practicing auditors from three large accounting firms participated in an experiment preceded by a one-hour training session on the use of probability assessment methods. Subjects then used the methods to quantify prior probabilities of accounts receivable balances in two versions of a sales and collection cycle case study. The results indicate that while all four methods are highly reliable across cases, they do vary significantly on attributes of cost, ease-of-use and consensus. Implications for audit research and practice are discussed.

   

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  An Investigation of the Causal Ordering of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Turnover Models in Accounting

  Terry Gregson

  In turnover studies in accounting, the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been inconsistently specified. Sometimes satisfaction is viewed as an antecedent of commitment, sometimes commitment is viewed as an antecedent of satisfaction, and sometimes a causal order is not proposed. Two sets of previously published data were analyzed [Lachman and Aranya, 1986b; Colarelli et al., 1987] with structural equation methodology to examine the causal ordering and importance of organizational commitment and job satisfaction on the relationship between various independent variables and turnover. The results indicate that both job satisfaction and organizational commitment should be included in models that predict turnover, and that a causal link exists between satisfaction and commitment. The model with satisfaction antecedent to commitment does a better job of predicting turnover than the model in which commitment is antecedent to satisfaction.

   

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  The Analytic Hierarchy Process: An Empirical Examination of Aggregation and Hierarchical Structuring

  Robert M. Harper, Jr., Nicholas G. Apostolou and Bart P. Hartman

  This research investigates the hierarchical formulation and aggregation process involved in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Middle management executives utilized AHP to conduct firm analyses using a hierarchy of financial ratios. Results confirm the potential sensitivity of AHP to its hierarchical structural and related linear aggregation. This sensitivity cautions one to construct hierarchies grounded in theory.

   

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  Using an Unfolding Technique to Determine the Lowballing Tendency of Auditors

  Dale E. Marxen

  In accounting, as in the social sciences, researchers have primarily relied on bipolar (or Likert-type) scales to assess subjects' attitudes toward social objects. However, assumptions necessary to employ these scales are routinely violated. As a consequence, it is uncertain whether these scales are measuring what they purport to measure. This paper introduces a technique for scaling subjects' attitudinal responses which does not rely on the use of bipolar scales and their attendant assumptions. Subjects are required only to preference order five statements. Whether or not a scale underlies their responses, and if so, the scale's format, are determined from the collected data, not assumed a priori. The scale developed herein to measure the lowballing tendency of auditors is also shown to be a valid measure of this construct using a variety of validation methods.

   

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  Accuracy and Consensus in Accounting Studies of Decision Making

  Dennis Murray and Roy W. Regel

  This paper presents a conceptual discussion of the measurement of consensus and an examination of some of the measures used by Ashton [1985]. The analysis reveals that consensus is a group-based concept which should not be measured on an individual or individual-pair basis. Within-case accuracy and consensus measures are developed and used in an across-cases research design employing Ashton's data. The results indicate that consensus is a reasonable proxy for accuracy when each executive's decision is individually implemented, but is a valid surrogate only at quite high levels of consensus when the group's mean prediction serves as the basis for action.

   

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  A Note on the Effect of Prior Probability Disclosure and Information Representativeness on Subject Predictive Accuracy

  Michael F. van Breda and Kenneth R. Ferris

  One stream of Human Information Processing research has focused on the utility of accounting information, particularly financial ratios, for subject prediction-making, usually of corporate failure. Several methodological controversies have surrounded this research involving the effects of prior probability disclosure and information representativeness on subjects' predictive accuracy. This research note attempts to provide additional evidence on these issues.

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