Contemporary Accounting Research最新文献

{"title":"Earnings quality on the street","authors":"Urooj Khan,&nbsp;Venkat Peddireddy,&nbsp;Shiva Rajgopal","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12975","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We develop a composite firm-year earnings quality score (<i>EQSCORE</i>) that uses signals based on fundamental analysis. We obtain a proprietary data set of 613 reports about aggressive reporting practices over 2004–2009 for 230 unique firms from a research firm (RF). From these reports, we identify red flags of poor earnings quality relating to (1) sales quality, (2) margin quality, (3) cash flow quality, (4) corporate governance, (5) audit, and (6) others. We construct the <i>EQSCORE</i> using 51 signals employed by the RF and a novel approach that imitates the RF's process for discovering earnings quality. The <i>EQSCORE</i> outperforms existing composite models of earnings quality in identifying accounting and auditing enforcement releases and restated firm-years and predicts future stock returns. The corporate governance–related and audit-related red flags included in the <i>EQSCORE</i> complement accounting-based red flags and enhance the ability of the <i>EQSCORE</i> to identify firms with poor earnings quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2290-2324"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764408","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":"How does perceived ease of information access affect investors' judgments?","authors":"Deni Cikurel","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12979","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates how using technologies that increase the perceived ease of information access, such as search engines, can affect investors' judgments. Relying on the “Google effect” theory, I predict that using a search engine to access financial information will lead to shallower processing of that information, causing earnings fixation. The results of three experiments support this prediction and the theoretical process. Specifically, investors who access financials via a search engine are less likely to react to the information in the income statement other than earnings compared to those who do not use a search engine. In addition, search condition investors are more likely to mention earnings in their investment reasoning and find earnings more influential than the control condition investors. Furthermore, search condition investors believe that information is more likely to be available in the future and are more likely to reopen the income statement. A second experiment shows that the knowledge that the information will be easily reaccessed increases investors' earnings fixation. Finally, a third experiment provides evidence that using a search engine reduces the depth of information processing. This study extends accounting research by showing that using technologies that increase the perceived ease of information access can reduce investors' processing depth and information acquisition.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2325-2353"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764409","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":"Overloaded and overwhelmed: Weakened partner aspirations of women public accountants during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Beau Grant Barnes,&nbsp;Marc Cussatt,&nbsp;Derek W. Dalton,&nbsp;Nancy L. Harp","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12980","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12980","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite years of initiatives to improve gender equity in public accounting firms, women continue to be underrepresented at the partner level. Supporting women's aspirations to become partner is important to ensure there are more women in the pipeline of potential partners. However, we argue that challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to have negative downstream effects on accounting firms' efforts to improve female partner representation. Therefore, using a survey of 192 certified public accountants (CPAs), we develop and test a theoretical model that examines changes in women's partner aspirations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we predict that women experienced disproportionately higher role overload during the pandemic compared to men. We also rely upon COR theory to predict that higher levels of role overload will be associated with weakened partner-track motivations (i.e., less value placed on the advantages of the partner level and lower willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to pursue the partner level) and weakened partner aspirations. Consequently, we expect that women public accountants experienced weakened partner aspirations through higher role overload during the pandemic. Results support our predictions as we find that women experienced higher levels of role overload, which are associated with weakened partner-track motivations, which in turn are associated with weakened partner aspirations. In sum, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-pandemic gender equity challenges within public accounting firms. Fortunately, we also find that higher levels of supervisor support and coworker support help limit role overload and mitigate declines in partner aspirations. We discuss several insights that firms can use to mitigate post-pandemic declines in women's partner aspirations.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2260-2289"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.12980","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142764471","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":"Leader versus lagger: How the timing of financial reports affects audit quality and investment efficiency","authors":"Nanqin Liu,&nbsp;Xiao-Jun Zhang","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12967","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12967","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines how relative timing affects the quality of financial reports in a staggered reporting system in which some firms report earlier than others. We show that the audit quality of the leading firm exceeds that of the lagger. Investment efficiency also differs systematically across firms, depending on the relative reporting timing as well as the audit market structure. Audit regulations mitigate the misalignment of interests between auditors and investors but limit the effect of information spillovers. We characterize the socially optimal auditing standards and show how and why imposing minimum audit quality requirements complements and/or substitutes for adjusting auditors' legal liability. Overall, we show that a staggered reporting system dominates a simultaneous reporting system in enhancing audit quality and investment efficiency through regulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2163-2198"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142252905","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":"Performance effects of insulating and non-insulating cost allocations in stable and unstable production environments","authors":"Jason L. Brown,&nbsp;Geoffrey B. Sprinkle,&nbsp;Dan Way","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12978","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12978","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Firms allocate significant amounts of common costs, and these allocations have implications for performance evaluation and remuneration. Non-insulating cost allocations distribute costs based on same-period relative performance, creating a contemporaneous interdependence between managers that in turn adds uncertainty to the link between effort and performance. In contrast, insulating cost allocations are independent of relative performance during the period and can thus be determined with greater certainty ex ante. In an experiment, we predict and find that managers' effortful performance in a stable production environment—where the pre-allocation return for effort is constant—is higher when costs are allocated via an insulating allocation compared to when costs are allocated via a non-insulating allocation. We further find that in an unstable production environment—where the pre-allocation return for effort can vary from period to period—there are no differences in performance between the allocation methods when managers face a lower return for effort. Conversely, when managers face a higher return for effort in this environment, performance is greater when costs are allocated via an insulating allocation. Taken together, overall performance in the unstable production environment is greater when managers work under insulating cost allocations, suggesting the net effects of cost allocation methods are similar in each type of production environment. As such, our study identifies an important cost—lower effortful performance—of using non-insulating methods to allocate common costs.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2234-2259"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142252904","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":"Bank audit committee financial expertise and timely loan loss recognition","authors":"Diana Choi","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12977","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12977","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates the effects of audit committee financial expertise on the timeliness of banks' loan loss provisions. I employ two regulatory shocks that mandated audit committee expertise—the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act in 1991 (FDICIA) and a modified listing standard for NYSE and NASDAQ firms in 1999—as quasi-exogenous settings to investigate the effects of audit committee financial expertise on the timeliness of loan loss provisioning. Using a difference-in-differences research design, I find that the timeliness of loan loss provisions increases with audit committee financial expertise both for the FDICIA treatment group, which had larger banks than the control group, and for the NYSE and NASDAQ exchange treatment group, which had smaller banks than the control group. Further, I find that the results are stronger for banks that have lower regulatory scrutiny, are audited by Big 4 auditors, and do not have staggered boards. Finally, I find that audit committee financial expertise decreases discretionary loan loss provisions and financial restatements. Overall, these findings suggest the importance of audit committee financial expertise in loan-related matters, which is particularly relevant in the context of the recent Current Expected Credit Losses implementation.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2199-2233"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.12977","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142252981","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":"CAR 2024 Reviewer Recognition Program / Programme de reconnaissance des réviseurs 2024 de RCC","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12983","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12983","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Beginning May 1, 2020, with the strong support of our team of Editors, <i>CAR</i> implemented a reviewer recognition program. The purpose of the program is to annually recognize reviewers, nominated by the Editors, who regularly perform exceptionally high-quality and timely reviews. <i>CAR</i> has a long-standing tradition of providing thoughtful and constructive reviews, so to receive recognition under this program is a very noteworthy accomplishment. Of the 830 individuals who submitted high-quality reviews from July 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, the 17 listed below were selected by the Editors as being especially worthy of receiving recognition. Congratulations and thank you to each of them!</p><p>En date du 1^er mai 2020, grâce au solide soutien de son équipe de rédacteurs, <i>RCC</i> a mis en œuvre un programme de reconnaissance des réviseurs. Ce programme vise à souligner annuellement la contribution de réviseurs, nommés par les rédacteurs, qui effectuent régulièrement des révisions de qualité exceptionnelle dans les délais impartis. En regard de la longue tradition de <i>RCC</i> en matière de production de révisions judicieuses et constructives, le fait d'être reconnu dans le cadre de ce programme est un accomplissement remarquable. Parmi les 830 personnes qui ont soumis des révisions de grande qualité entre le 1^er juillet 2023 et le 1^er juin 2024, les rédacteurs ont jugé que l'apport des 17 personnes énumérées ci-dessous méritait tout particulièrement d'être souligné. Félicitations et merci à chacun de vous!</p><p>• Hamilton Scott Asay, University of Iowa</p><p>• Emily Blum, Texas A&amp;M University</p><p>• Dmitri Byzalov, Temple University</p><p>• James Chyz, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville</p><p>• Aytekin Ertan, London Business School</p><p>• Bingxu Fang, Singapore Management University</p><p>• Kurt Gee, The Ohio State University</p><p>• Jurian Hendrikse, Tilburg University</p><p>• Yu Hou, Queen's University</p><p>• Yongtae Kim, Santa Clara University</p><p>• Lian Fen Lee, Boston College</p><p>• Melissa Martin, University of Illinois Chicago</p><p>• Martin Messner, Universität Innsbruck</p><p>• Alexander Nekrasov, University of Illinois Chicago</p><p>• Nate Newton, Florida State University</p><p>• Steve Salterio, Queen's University</p><p>• Yuping Zhao, University of Houston</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 3","pages":"1417"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.12983","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142245062","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":"Control issues: How providing input affects auditors' reliance on artificial intelligence","authors":"Benjamin P. Commerford,&nbsp;Aasmund Eilifsen,&nbsp;Richard C. Hatfield,&nbsp;Kathryn M. Holmstrom,&nbsp;Finn Kinserdal","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12974","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12974","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this study, we examine auditors' reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are designed to provide evidence around complex estimates. In an experiment with highly experienced auditors, we find that auditors are more hesitant to rely on evidence from AI-based systems compared to human specialists, consistent with algorithm aversion. Importantly, we also find that a small amount of control (i.e., providing input to specialists) can mitigate this aversion, though this effect depends on auditors' personal locus of control (LOC). Providing input increases reliance on evidence from AI systems for auditors who believe they have little control over their outcomes (i.e., an external LOC). In contrast, auditors with an internal LOC are particularly hesitant to rely on AI-based evidence, and providing input has little impact on their reliance. Interviews with experienced auditors corroborate our findings and suggest auditors feel a greater sense of control working with human specialists relative to AI-based systems. Overall, our results suggest perceived control plays an important role in auditors' aversion to AI and that auditors' individual traits can affect this aversion.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2134-2162"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142179747","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":"Credit information sharing and investment efficiency: Cross-country evidence","authors":"Fangfang Hou,&nbsp;Muhabie Mekonnen Mengistu,&nbsp;Jeffrey Ng,&nbsp;Janus Jian Zhang","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12972","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12972","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Credit information sharing allows creditors to obtain borrowers' relevant credit information, and it can improve borrowers' investment outcomes that are funded by debt. Using reforms to European countries' public credit registries (PCRs) to capture mandated information sharing among creditors, we examine the impact of such sharing on firms' investment efficiency. We find that information sharing enhances firms' investment efficiency, which we measure by their investment-<i>q</i> sensitivity. This finding is consistent with credit information sharing enabling creditors to better screen borrowers to mitigate adverse selection and enhancing borrower discipline to avoid a bad credit record, which leads to the borrower making more efficient investments. We also document that the information sharing effect is more pronounced when firms rely more on debt financing, when the shared credit information is more accessible, when firms' information environment is more opaque, and when there is a greater information monopoly in the banking system. We offer supplementary evidence that the effect is also more salient when PCRs have characteristics that suggest more effective credit information sharing. Overall, our paper offers new insight into whether and how information sharing in credit markets enhances firms' investment efficiency. More broadly, it highlights how making more borrower information available to creditors can have important economic spillover effects on firm outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2099-2133"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.12972","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142179745","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":"Prospective evaluation of a new audit standard: Expert rhetoric and flexibility in cost-benefit analysis","authors":"Stephanie Donahue,&nbsp;Bertrand Malsch","doi":"10.1111/1911-3846.12973","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1911-3846.12973","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The objective of this research is to better understand experts' contributions to the prospective evaluation of a new audit standard—in this case, key audit matter (KAM) reporting. To this end, we assisted the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board by leading its consultation of 22 expert financial statement users. The methodology employed to observe our participants' opinions and cognitive processes involves thought protocol and interviews. By analyzing the rhetorical base of experts' prospective analysis, we show that our participants' arguments are often laden with postulates and lack data points, leading to generalizations. Sounder arguments entail more nuanced views but lead to uncertainties. We therefore highlight a tension between the rhetorical content of experts' insights and the calculative rationality of a cost-benefit analysis. We also find that experts with less cognitive flexibility are less likely to be supportive of the adoption of a standard implying a change of habits in the way they process information. This tension and cognitive bias generate a significant interpretive challenge to determine a clear and dominant stance in the consultation. We discuss the implications of these findings for the legitimacy of prospective evaluations and the conduct of cost-benefit consultations with experts. We also contribute to the literature on KAMs by substantiating concerns about the value of extended auditor reports to users.</p>","PeriodicalId":10595,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Accounting Research","volume":"41 4","pages":"2075-2098"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1911-3846.12973","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142179746","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}