Contemporary Accounting Research最新文献

{"title":"From Words to Actions: The Impact of Specificity and Causality in Narrative Feedback on Employee Performance Improvement\u0000 Des paroles aux actes : incidence de la spécificité et de la causalité dans la rétroaction narrative sur l'amélioration du rendement des employés","authors":"Jan Lampe,&nbsp;Utz Schäffer,&nbsp;Daniel Schaupp","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70067","url":null,"abstract":"<p>With the widespread use of narrative feedback in companies, understanding how such feedback can be valuable for employee performance improvement is important. Drawing on proprietary data from an e-commerce company, we investigate the role of specificity and causality—two key language characteristics for self-regulation and learning. Our findings suggest that neither specificity nor causality is always beneficial; instead, their effects depend on whether the feedback refers to strengths or weaknesses. Specifically, employees are more likely to improve when they receive more specific narrative feedback on their strengths, consistent with employees engaging in more systematic exploration when feedback provides concrete references to desirable behaviors. In contrast, we find that increases in the specificity of narrative feedback on weaknesses can have negative performance consequences, as employees who are confronted with many specific examples of undesirable behaviors may attempt too many behavioral changes at once, undermining learning and improvement. Furthermore, employees are more likely to improve when feedback on their weaknesses uses more causal language, suggesting that explanations of why certain behaviors were ineffective help employees understand and correct those behaviors. Our study informs HR leaders, supervisors, and experts responsible for designing management control systems by showing that narrative feedback should be specific when describing strengths, but more selective and richer in causal explanations when addressing weaknesses.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1777-1803"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70067","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regulatory Intermediation in Times of Crisis: The Impact of Independent Oversight on the Functioning of Professional Accounting Bodies\u0000 Intermédiation réglementaire en temps de crise : incidence de la surveillance indépendante sur le fonctionnement des organismes comptables professionnels","authors":"Brendan O'Dwyer,&nbsp;Roel Boomsma,&nbsp;Chris Humphrey","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70056","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The rise of independent oversight of the accounting profession has attracted considerable research attention. Much of this research has studied how professional accounting bodies and the Big 4 firms have shaped the mandate and capabilities of independent oversight bodies. Less is known about how independent oversight has affected the workings of professional accounting bodies, particularly their capacity to simultaneously govern and represent their members. This paper advances our understanding of this dynamic through a longitudinal, interpretive case study of how the Dutch professional accounting body, the NBA (the Royal Netherlands Institute of Chartered Accountants), adapted and developed its regulatory intermediary role during a lengthy period of intense oversight by the Dutch regulator, the AFM (the Authority for the Financial Markets), and shifting levels of Big 4 firm discord. Drawing on extensive archival materials and insights gained from in-depth interviews with key participants, the study advances existing theorizations of the work of regulatory intermediaries by highlighting both their functional variability and fragility. In responding to recurring crises and critique, the NBA's intermediary role shifted from facilitation to curation and ultimately to orchestrating the Big 4 firms' regulatory response. Such shifts were neither smooth nor predictable—characterized by a sense of “role limbo” as the NBA battled to bolster its identity and authority when sidelined by the AFM or dictated to or impeded by the Big 4 firms. In examining such shifting intermediation and contesting levels of influence, the NBA's governance and representation functions emerge as more symbiotic than oppositional, with the NBA using its fulfillment of one as a means of strengthening its execution of the other. Overall, the paper's analysis uncovers the functional fragility of the NBA, which questions whether repeated calls for professional accounting bodies to rediscover their public interest mandate have adequately appreciated the complex, contested nature of the regulatory environment in which they operate.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1562-1593"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70056","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Falling Roe and Relocation of Skilled Women\u0000 La remise en cause de l'arrêt Roe et le déplacement des femmes qualifiées","authors":"Yupeng Lin,&nbsp;Michael Shen,&nbsp;Rui Shi,&nbsp;Jean (Jieyin) Zeng","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70069","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We examine the impact of abortion restrictions on the geographic mobility of college-educated skilled women. Exploiting the staggered adoption of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws across US states that restrict women's access to abortion, we find that skilled women who relocate exhibit a greater propensity to move to states without TRAP laws (non-TRAP states) than they did prior to the TRAP law adoption. This pattern is stronger among women in more liberal and less religious areas than among women in more conservative and more religious areas. These findings are consistent with the view that relocation decisions are often driven by the alignment between personal values and the local policy environment. We use the audit industry as a specific setting to address the implications for employer performance. We find that TRAP law adoption increases female auditor turnover at local offices relative to same-firm offices in non-TRAP states, and the resulting loss of human capital lowers audit quality.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1682-1712"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Survey of the Archival Audit Literature\u0000 Une revue de la littérature en matière d'audit fondée sur les données archivales","authors":"Clive Lennox,&nbsp;Chan Li,&nbsp;Yiqian Wang","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<p>External audits enhance the credibility of financial statements and are a cornerstone of capital market integrity. However, the growing and complex auditing literature poses challenges for researchers. This survey synthesizes and critically evaluates archival audit research published in top accounting journals from 1995 to 2025, organizing over 600 studies into three core areas: the audit market, audit quality, and audit personnel and processes. We offer new conceptual insights into the audit market, emphasizing that audit assurance is unobservable and that audit fee studies generally estimate reduced-form models rather than separate demand and supply functions. On audit quality, we expand upon DeAngelo's definition to include the auditor's responsibility to assess ex ante risk. We suggest an alternative three-dimensional definition of audit quality that is more closely aligned with professional standards. We also clarify common misconceptions arising from conflating audit quality with financial reporting quality. Finally, we review the growing literature on audit personnel and call for more research into underexplored roles of personnel in the early stages of the audit process. Our survey contributes by reframing key constructs, identifying limitations in common proxies, and suggesting future research directions to advance our understanding of how audits function and shape financial reporting outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1179-1252"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70046","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behind Closed Doors: Interaction Rituals and the Building of Social Ties in Private Company-Investor Meetings\u0000 À huis clos : rituels d'interaction et construction de liens sociaux lors des réunions privées entre sociétés et investisseurs","authors":"Per Ahblom,&nbsp;Carl Henning Christner,&nbsp;Andrea Mennicken","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70066","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines private meetings between company managers and institutional investors as part of the broader financial reporting environment. Using direct observations of 39 such meetings across four large, listed companies—complemented with the study of preparatory work and internal documents—the paper investigates how these meetings help build and maintain relationships between companies and investors. The analysis shows that the importance of these meetings lies not primarily in the exchange of new information but in the creation of familiarity, focused engagement, and exclusivity, which strengthen social ties and reinforce participants' positions in the capital market. Drawing on interaction ritual theory, the paper identifies three forms of ritual work through which these outcomes are produced: assembly work, conversational work, and bodily work. The study contributes to research on the social embeddedness of capital markets and suggests that private reporting meetings should be understood not only as informational events but also as relational mechanisms that shape access, trust, and network persistence.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1713-1741"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70066","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analyst Integrity\u0000 L'intégrité des analystes","authors":"Zhaoyang Gu,&nbsp;Rubin Hao,&nbsp;Jing Xue,&nbsp;Chunqiu Zhang","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70053","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We empirically investigate the impact of financial analysts' integrity on their information outputs and career success. Using analysts' off-the-job behavior, specifically their legal records, to proxy for analyst integrity, we predict and find that weak-integrity analysts engage more in opportunistic behaviors, including “speaking in two tongues” and earnings forecast walk-down. These analysts obtain favorable management access and make more accurate earnings forecasts. Further analyses indicate that while the market as a whole does not distinguish weak-integrity analysts from others, sophisticated investors discount their information outputs. Weak-integrity analysts also experience less favorable career outcomes. Our results have important implications for investors, professional bodies, employers, and regulators.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1742-1776"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seek and Ye Might Not Find: The Effects of Contract Framing on Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Seeking\u0000 Qui cherche ne trouve pas toujours : les effets liés à la formulation des contrats sur le partage et la recherche de renseignements","authors":"Ta-Tung (Stephanie) Cheng,&nbsp;Xi (Jason) Kuang,&nbsp;Brian Vansant,&nbsp;Suyun (Sue) Wu","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70054","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We conduct two experiments to examine whether and how the framing (bonus vs. penalty) of a target-based incentive contract affects knowledge sharing and knowledge seeking. In the first experiment, we predict and find that penalty-framed contracts increase employees' stress due to the fear of potential loss, which in turn reduces their willingness to share knowledge. Additionally, consistent with loss aversion, employees under penalty-framed contracts are more likely to seek knowledge than those under bonus-framed contracts. The second experiment corroborates our theoretical arguments by demonstrating the crucial role of stress in reducing knowledge-sharing behavior. The results show that, when stress is alleviated through an informal control mechanism, penalty-framed contracts no longer reduce knowledge sharing. The implications of our findings for research and practice are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1504-1527"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70054","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prosocial CEOs and Accounting Manipulation\u0000 Le comportement prosocial des PDG et la manipulation comptable","authors":"Mei Feng,&nbsp;Weili Ge,&nbsp;Zhejia Ling,&nbsp;Wei Ting Loh","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70049","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines the association between CEOs' prosocial tendency and their firms' likelihood of accounting manipulation. We measure CEOs' prosocial tendency based on their involvement with charitable organizations. We find that prosocial CEOs are less likely to engage in accounting manipulation, as proxied by material non-reliance restatements and SEC or US Department of Justice enforcement actions. The effect is more pronounced when CEOs are involved with charities that directly aim to improve the welfare of others and when they face stronger incentives to misreport. These results continue to hold in analyses of changes in CEOs' prosocial tendency around turnover events. Taken together, our findings suggest that CEOs' prosocial tendency, a fundamental personal trait, plays a significant role in shaping the quality of accounting information.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1253-1282"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70049","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tax Payments in Loss Firms\u0000 Paiements de l'impôt sur les sociétés affichant des pertes","authors":"Alexander Edwards,&nbsp;Adrian Kubata,&nbsp;Terry Shevlin","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70064","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In a broad sample of publicly traded firms, we observe that the share of firms annually reporting pre-tax book losses increased from about 20% to 40% during 1988–2023. We also observe that 68% of those loss firms have positive cash tax payments (taxpaying loss firms). The amount of taxes paid by these loss firms is substantial and increasing over time. Surprisingly, we observe that taxes paid increase with the magnitude of pre-tax losses. This study seeks to understand the prevalence of taxpaying loss firms. We examine whether both the extensive margin—the likelihood that a loss firm pays taxes—and the intensive margin—the magnitude of taxes paid—are explained by firm characteristics. We find that multinational status, state taxes, consolidation differences, goodwill impairments, asset write-downs, extraordinary items, discontinued operations, depreciation differences, the frequency and magnitude of losses, and firm size are key determinants of both the likelihood and the amount of taxes paid by loss firms. We find that the decrease in the statutory tax rate included in the <i>Tax Cuts and Jobs Act</i> of 2017 did not decrease the tax burden on loss firms.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 3","pages":"1338-1375"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70064","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149011584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Value of Values: Does Focusing on Sustainability Provide a Competitive Advantage in Forecasting Earnings?\u0000 La valeur des valeurs : mettre l'accent sur la durabilité confère-t-il un avantage concurrentiel dans la prévision des résultats ?","authors":"Salman Arif,&nbsp;Nargess M. Golshan","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We identify sustainability-focused analysts using recent advances in machine learning combined with conference call transcripts. Sustainability-focused analysts issue more accurate earnings forecasts, and the stock market reacts more strongly to their revisions. The forecasting advantage of sustainability-focused analysts is amplified for material sustainability issues, small firms, and growth firms. Consistent with a learning curve in understanding how sustainability issues relate to future performance, we find that less experienced analysts are less likely to focus on sustainability and that they reap fewer benefits in forecast accuracy when they do so. Our results suggest that far from being an inefficient use of time and resources, focusing on sustainability provides a competitive advantage in one of the most pivotal steps in valuation: forecasting earnings.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"43 2","pages":"779-816"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.70031","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148203102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}