Ramesh Ruben Louis, Noor Adwa Sulaiman, Z. Zakaria
{"title":"Accounting firms’ talent management practices: perceived importance and its impact on auditors’ performance","authors":"Ramesh Ruben Louis, Noor Adwa Sulaiman, Z. Zakaria","doi":"10.1108/par-12-2020-0206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-12-2020-0206","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Prior literature on talent management (TM) in the audit setting has suggested several practices that may affect auditors’ performance. However, the study is limited in terms of a measurable set of comprehensive constructs of TM in the audit setting, as well as the impact of comprehensive TM constructs on auditors’ performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine TM practices perceived to be important by auditors for auditors’ performance.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Data were obtained from 307 survey questionnaires received from auditors of large- as well as small- and medium-sized firms.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The study respondents perceived TM attributes related to supervision and review practices as the most vital for auditors’ performance. This category was followed by attributes related to ethics management practices along with training and development. The findings reveal that respondents generally perceived lower significance for attributes pertaining to work–life balance (WLB) and establishing a TM policy for auditors’ performance. While both top management and staff members of audit firms regarded WLB and establishing a TM policy to be of lower significance, top management placed greater importance on attributes related to ethics management, while staff perceived training and development attributes to be more critical.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study examined a comprehensive set of TM practices (establishing a TM policy, recruitment, ethics management, training and development, supervision and review, remuneration, WLB and succession planning) and assessed the perceptions of audit practitioners on the significance of these practices on auditors’ performance.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47560157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bridging the employability skills gap: going beyond classroom walls","authors":"L. Tan, Fawzi Laswad, F. Chua","doi":"10.1108/par-04-2021-0050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-04-2021-0050","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose\u0000Employability skills are critical for success in the workplace, even more so in this era of globalisation of economies and advancement in technologies. However, there is ample evidence of the gap between the skills acquired by graduates at universities and the skills expected by employers in the workplace. Applying the modes of grasping and transforming the experience embodied in Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT) (1976, 1984), the purpose of this paper is to examine the development of employability skills of accountancy students through their involvement in two extracurricular activities: community accounting and an accountancy club.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Underpinned by Kolb’s (1976, 1984) four modes of ELT and work-integrated learning to develop professional competencies required for future work, an online survey of accounting students was conducted to assess their reflections on involvement in these two aforementioned extracurricular activities over a two-year period.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The findings indicate that the students had developed useful cognitive and behavioural skills from their participation in these extracurricular activities. These findings are consistent with the literature on internships and service-learning, both of which have been associated with transferable skills development.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Prior studies focused on in-classroom learning activities or internships to help students develop various essential skills required in the workplace. However, extracurricular activities have received little attention in the accounting education literature. This study provides insights into skills accounting students can gain from extracurricular participation in community accounting and an accountancy club.","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48525782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does the expertise of outsourced IAF providers affect audit efficiency? Empirical evidence from an emerging market","authors":"S. Baatwah, W. Omer, Khaled Salmen Aljaaidi","doi":"10.1108/par-04-2021-0044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-04-2021-0044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to examine the effect on audit efficiency of outsourced internal audit function (IAF) providers with industry and/or firm-specific expertise. Drawing on relevant studies from external and internal audit literature, the authors assume that such IAF providers are associated with greater audit efficiency as proxied by audit report lag and audit fees.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Based on a sample of firms listed on the Omani capital market during 2005–2019, the pooled regressions are used to test the developed hypotheses. The authors use the market share approach to identify outsourced IAF industry expertise providers and tenure to measure the firm-specific expertise of outsourced IAF providers.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The authors find that industry outsourced IAF providers are not associated with shorter audit report lag and lower audit fees. The authors also find that firm-specific expertise outsourced IAF providers are associated with a greater reduction in audit report lag and audit fees. These conclusions are robust under a battery of analyses. The significant contribution of firm-specific expertise outsourced IAF providers to audit efficiency is incremental when abnormal audit report lag and audit fees analysis is conducted.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The results are the first to attest to the contribution of outsourced IAF with firm-specific expertise. They also show that industry expertise held by outsourced IAF providers does not contribute to audit efficiency.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47481570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effects of state ownership and tax rate cuts on accounting conservatism: evidence from Vietnam","authors":"B. Le, Paula Hearn Moore","doi":"10.1108/par-12-2020-0209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-12-2020-0209","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint effects of state ownership and tax rate cuts on accounting conservatism, considering the different levels of foreign ownership in the context of Vietnam.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The paper uses ordinary least squares regressions and a data set of 405 firms covering the period 2007 to 2019. The manuscript uses three measures of accounting conservatism: Basu’s 1997 timeliness of earnings, Basu’s 1997 earnings persistence and the book-to-market ratio.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000State-owned enterprises (SOEs) adopt less accounting conservatism than non-SOEs; however, the result is only robust in firms with foreign ownership being lower than the foreign ownership median. Firms increase accounting conservatism in the year immediately prior to the year that the tax rate cuts become effective. An SOE possesses an unusual conflict both as a taxpayer and in having its controlling interest held by the government, which is both a tax creator and a tax collector. Interestingly, the increase in accounting conservatism prior to the year of the tax rate cuts is more pronounced for non-SOEs than SOEs.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000This research is beneficial to investors and policymakers where the government is both the taxpayer and tax collector and in emerging markets where foreign investment is local firms’ important financing.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To the best knowledge, this study is the first in examining the joint effects of state control and tax rate cuts on accounting conservatism.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48109678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David K. Ding, Julie Harrison, Martien Lubberink, Chris Van Staden
{"title":"Guest editorial","authors":"David K. Ding, Julie Harrison, Martien Lubberink, Chris Van Staden","doi":"10.1108/par-10-2021-0171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-10-2021-0171","url":null,"abstract":"In this regard, the UN is concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic may “increase inequality, exclusion, discrimination and unemployment in the medium and long term”, since there is evidence that vulnerable groups in society (including poor people and indigenous peoples) face the health and economic impacts of the virus disproportionately (UN, 2021). In the light of the urgency of the climate change crisis, see for example the IPCC report of 2021 (IPCC, 2021), it is important to continue this momentum towards a lower carbon economy. [...]as accounting and finance educators, we need to assess what impact the changes in the professions and the nature of work will have on how our students are educated. The authors examine this policy change in the context of the wider history of the accounting for deferred taxes in New Zealand and show how it had an immediate, material impact on company financial statements.","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43981132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of emerging technologies on accounting curriculum and the accounting profession","authors":"T. Wang","doi":"10.1108/par-05-2021-0074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-05-2021-0074","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000In this commentary, the author uses the development of data analytics curriculum at DePaul University as an example to highlight possible challenges and share the experience. In addition, seven different possible future research directions are identified so the readers are able to understand more about the impact of emerging technologies on the accounting profession and accounting curriculum.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Challenges and experience when developing data analytics curriculum at DePaul University are discussed. In addition, seven different possible future research directions are identified so the readers are able to understand more about the impact of emerging technologies on the accounting profession and accounting curriculum.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper expresses the author’s viewpoints regarding the impact of emerging technologies on accounting curriculum and the accounting profession.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47827641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gross profit manipulation in emerging economies: evidence from India","authors":"Mani Bansal, Ashok Kumar, Vivek Kumar","doi":"10.1108/par-06-2020-0083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-06-2020-0083","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to explore peer performance as the motivation behind gross profit manipulation through two different channels, namely, cost of goods sold (COGS) misclassification and revenue misclassification.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Gross profit expectation model (Poonawala and Nagar, 2019) and operating revenue expectation model (Malikov et al., 2018) are used to measure COGS and revenue misclassification, respectively. The panel data regression models are used to analyze the data for this study.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The study results show that firms engage in gross profit manipulation to meet the industry’s average gross margin, implying that peer performance is an important benchmark that firms strive to achieve through misclassification strategies. Further results exhibit that firms prefer COGS misclassification over revenue misclassification for manipulating gross profit, implying that firms choose the shifting strategy based on the relative advantage of each shifting tool.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000The findings suggest that firms that just meet or slightly beat industry-average profitability levels are highly likely to engage in classification shifting (CS). Thus, investors and analysts should be careful when evaluating such firms by comparing them with other firms in the same industry.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000First, this study is among earlier attempts to investigate CS motivated by peer performance. Second, this study investigates both tools of gross profit manipulation by taking a uniform sample of firms over the same period and provides compelling evidence that firms prefer one shifting tool over another depending on the relative advantage of each shifting tool.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41527492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect of mandatory sustainability disclosure announcements:cross-country evidence","authors":"Zhongtian Li, Jing Jia","doi":"10.1108/par-09-2020-0141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-09-2020-0141","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose\u0000This study aims to examine whether announcements of mandatory sustainability disclosure affect corporate sustainability performance (CSP).\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The authors use a quasi-experiment provided by mandatory sustainability disclosure announcements that occurred in 21 countries from 2006–2016. A difference-in-differences method is adopted. The authors restrict the drawing of all candidate treatment and control firms to a pool of firms that did not disclose sustainability information one year before the announcements.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The authors find that the announcements of mandatory sustainability disclosure are positively related to CSP. The positive effect is more pronounced for firms in countries with higher anticipation effects and lower awareness effects. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of the announcements is more pronounced in a country where the rule of law is higher and stakeholders are less likely to initiate communication about sustainability with firms, and with fewer active participants in and signatories to the United Nations Global Compact initiative. The findings hold under different robustness analyses.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The study enriches the knowledge about the effect of the announcements of comprehensive mandatory sustainability disclosure by analysing the consequences of these announcements. In the contribution to this growing stream of research, the authors provide evidence on the consequences of the announcements based on a cross-country sample and importantly, focusses on the non-economic consequences.","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48884146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determinants of de jure adoption of international financial reporting standards: a review","authors":"Maria Ming Bengtsson","doi":"10.1108/par-10-2020-0193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-10-2020-0193","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to systematically review extant studies on what makes a country fully, partially or not adopt international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and categorize these factors into meaningful categories. In so doing, this study facilitates policy-making for accounting and economic standard setters and also points out conflicting viewpoints in the current literature, thus, opportunities for future research.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This paper is a literature review on academic studies that examine factors influencing national adoption of IFRS. The reviewed articles are limited to published, peer-reviewed papers only.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Overall, the review suggests that although a wide range of determinants on national adoption of IFRS has been identified, prior literature consists of conflicting viewpoints on what influence national accounting policies toward IFRS, thus, highlighting areas in which there are needs for future research.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000First, this study focuses only on the de jure adoption of IFRS. Second, the study focuses mainly on research findings, not theory use in the extant literature.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study, which provides a comprehensive review of studies on de jure IFRS adoption.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43105491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting at your service: university survival recovery and revolution from COVID-19","authors":"Frederick Ng","doi":"10.1108/par-09-2020-0172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/par-09-2020-0172","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to discuss the roles of accounting for university survival, recovery and revolution from the COVID-19 pandemic. It constructively critiques the use of compliance and cost-centric accounting to inform crisis response and proposes roles for accounting to better serve decision-making in a crisis.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This paper discusses limitations about how accounting information was used in a university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes potential roles for accounting across crisis phases. These proposals recognise requirements arising from the university’s regulatory environment and apply concepts from intellectual capital accounting and service-dominant logic.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000This paper proposes that in the survival phase, accounting can mitigate rash responses by clarifying the crisis’s impact and stakeholder alignment. In the recovery phase, accounting can inform resourcing decisions by balancing signals from accounting about staff expense and capital investment. In the revolution phase, accounting helps develop the business models needed to adapt to changing student needs, hybrid teaching delivery and importance of intellectual capital.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000The case study discusses the early stages of a university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not provide a comprehensive analysis of success or failure of accounting in a crisis. The case raises directions for accounting to clarify the ambiguities in objectives and cause-and-effect relationships from the pandemic.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000This paper proposes actions for accounting to support the survival, recovery and revolution of the university sector from the pandemic. The actions cover stakeholder engagement, university sector governance and strategic planning.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper proposes a lifecycle of accounting roles at different stages of the COVID-19 response that reflects requirements from the university’s regulatory environment and draws on intellectual capital and service-dominant logic literature.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46088,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Accounting Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46226562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}