{"title":"Is there a dark side of competition? Product market competition and auditor-client contracting","authors":"Tianpei (Constance) Li , Stephanie Walton","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study establishes the informational value of a company's product market competition, derived from qualitative nonfinancial disclosures, in the audit contracting process. Greater product market competition could either serve as means of mitigating agency costs between managers and shareholders or heightening managerial rent-seeking activities and the incentive to distort disclosures. Consequently, greater competition could either increase or decrease audit engagement risk. We find that greater product market competition is associated with greater engagement risk. Auditors respond to the higher risk by assessing greater audit fees. Although auditors respond by charging higher fees and dedicating greater effort to these engagements, we nonetheless find that audit quality is negatively affected by greater competition. Our findings are consistent with the dark side hypothesis of product market competition. Overall, our study provides evidence that company-level competition effects convey valuable information to auditors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 100658"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50197534","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":"Discussion of: The effect of client gender and negotiation style on auditors' proposed audit adjustments","authors":"Jillian Alderman","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100675","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100675","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article provides a discussion of the Hamrick, Schafer, and DeZoort (2023) study published in <em>Advances in Accounting.</em> The discussion first provides an overview of the study and strengths of the article. Constructive commentary follows, centered on understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the study's findings and the measurement of process variables to deepen our understanding of why these findings occurred. Additionally, I encourage expanded research using alternative methodologies to increase external validity of the study's findings. The commentary concludes with a discussion of future research opportunities to extend the study's compelling results, highlighting the importance of expanding our understanding of social stereotypes and gender dynamics in the auditor-client negotiations process.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 100675"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47033017","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 relationship between R&D intensity, conservatism, and management earnings forecast issuance","authors":"Yezen Kannan , Ashraf Khallaf , Kimberly Gleason , Ibrahim Bostan","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100662","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100662","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>R&D-intensive firms suffer from high information asymmetry and high proprietary costs and are prone to exhibit bottom-line losses given the unconditional conservative accounting treatment of R&D expenses. We examine how R&D intensity influences the issuance of management earnings forecasts (MEFs) across levels of accounting conservatism, controlling for proprietary costs and other earnings guidance determinants. We provide insights into how managers view the tradeoffs of using MEF disclosures to lower information asymmetry versus the costs of releasing proprietary information to competitors and the loss of reputational capital that could arise from providing inaccurate forecasts. We find that although R&D intensity and conditional conservatism are negatively related to the issuance of MEFs, as shown in prior research, at high levels of research intensity and the accompanying uncertainty about future payoffs, the negative association between conditional conservatism and MEF issuance is mitigated. These findings point to a role for conditional conservatism as a credibility enhancer for managers of R&D intense firms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"62 ","pages":"Article 100662"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48563181","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 external auditor coordination influence internal auditor effort?","authors":"Porschia Nkansa","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The purpose of this study is to investigate how the level of controls testing coordination with the external auditor affects internal auditors' effort. The internal auditor's planned substantive testing audit hours are the measure of effort in this study. Regulators and stakeholder organizations have encouraged more collaboration between external and internal auditors to improve audit efficiency. The effect of external auditor coordination on internal auditors' planned audit hours has important implications for audit efficiency and effectiveness. An experiment is conducted with 112 internal auditors to examine the hypothesized effect. The study uses a 2 <span><math><mo>×</mo></math></span> 2 between-subjects design and manipulates fraud risk and external auditor coordination. Consistent with my prediction, I find that coordination moderates the relationship between fraud risk and planned audit hours. The results illustrate that although high external auditor controls testing coordination decreases internal auditors' planned substantive testing audit hours, internal auditors are more sensitive to responding to fraud risk when external auditor controls testing coordination is high.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100684"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882611023000433/pdfft?md5=987a49f8367767af09b8f0f0c5913dfc&pid=1-s2.0-S0882611023000433-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44586522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Differential responses to tax regulation: The case of Schedule UTP","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Schedule UTP<span> was instituted by the Internal Revenue Service to obtain more detailed information about firms' uncertain tax benefits (UTBs) that are required to be reported on a firm's financial statements. We document that the reaction of firms was not uniform. We provide evidence that post Schedule UTP, firms with higher political costs lower their UTBs more than average firms but do not increase their cash taxes paid. In addition, we look at firms reporting zero or missing UTBs before Schedule UTP was implemented. We find that these firms paid more in cash taxes after the introduction of Schedule UTP. From a policy standpoint, schedule UTP affects significant subgroups of firms in different manners.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100688"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46357635","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":"Conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings and the implications for the disclosure of non-GAAP earnings","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100686","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100686","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We examine whether and how the degree of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings influences managers' decisions to disclose non-GAAP earnings. Conditional conservatism imposes a downward bias and may negatively affect the information content of GAAP earnings. However, prior research documents that non-GAAP earnings exhibit higher persistence, predictive ability, and information content than GAAP earnings. Consequently, we argue that companies may disclose non-GAAP earnings to circumvent the constraints imposed by conditional conservatism. Our evidence is consistent with the existence of a positive association between the degree of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings and the decision by firms to disclose non-GAAP earnings. We also document a positive association between the extent of conditional conservatism in GAAP earnings and both the magnitude of non-GAAP exclusions and frequency of non-GAAP disclosures.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100686"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46069823","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":"Generalist CEOs and the readability of the 10-K report","authors":"Rachana Kalelkar , Hongkang Xu , Duong Nguyen , Zheng Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100680","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100680","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>In this paper, we investigate the association between the general managerial ability of CEOs and the readability of 10-K reports. We find that the readability of 10-K reports is lower for firms managed by CEOs with general managerial ability. Our result is robust to change analysis, an alternate readability measure, various fixed effects, an </span>instrumental variable approach, a propensity score approach, and an entropy balancing approach. Our additional analysis reveals that general managerial ability is negatively associated with the readability of management discussion and analysis (MD&A). Moreover, the disclosure tone of 10-K reports and MD&A is conservative when firms are managed by generalist CEOs. Our findings also reveal that CEO tenure moderates the positive association between the general ability index and Gunning Fog index of 10-K reports. Finally, we find that high investment level and misstatement strengthen the association between the general ability index and the readability of 10-K reports, thus supporting the obfuscation hypothesis. We, therefore, conclude that firms incur costs in the form of lower disclosure quality when they opt for a generalist CEO.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100680"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48069594","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}
Nusrat Farah , Md Shariful Islam , Amanuel Tadesse , William McCumber
{"title":"Impact of audit committee social capital on the adoption of COSO 2013","authors":"Nusrat Farah , Md Shariful Islam , Amanuel Tadesse , William McCumber","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100685","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100685","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study aims to examine the effect of audit committee social capital, measured using network centrality from social network theory, on the adoption of the COSO 2013 updated internal control framework (COSO 2013). Drawing on social capital literature, we argue that well-connected audit committees have informational advantages and reputational concerns which prompt them to learn more about best industry practices and adopt those practices in their own organizations. As predicted, we find organizations that have well-connected audit committees are more likely to adopt COSO 2013 and do so in a timely manner. Additional analysis indicates that our findings are driven by overall audit committee connectedness and not by the connectedness of committee chairs, committee financial experts, or committee members, and hold only for accelerated filers. Further, we find, contrary to conventional wisdom, that audit committee connectedness prompts KPMG client organizations to adopt COSO 2013. The results hold even after controlling for CEO and CFO connectedness and are robust to endogeneity concerns. By linking audit committee connectedness with COSO 2013 adoption, we add to the literature investigating the effect of audit committee characteristics on firm compliance with internal control framework updates.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"64 ","pages":"Article 100685"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45877049","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 association between ethical leadership and environmental activity management: The mediating role of employee environmental empowerment","authors":"Sophia Su, Kevin Baird, Thanh Phan","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examines the association between ethical leadership and environmental activity management (EAM) [environmental activity analysis (EAA), environmental activity cost analysis (EACA) and environmental activity-based costing (EABC)] and the mediating role of employee environmental empowerment in such an association. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire from 400 middle and lower-level Australian managers. The results reveal that the relationship between ethical leadership and EAM transpires indirectly, with ethical leadership found to be positively associated with employee environmental empowerment which in turn, exhibits a positive association with the use of all three levels of EAM (EAA, EACA and EABC). Such findings highlight the importance of ethical leadership as a means of enhancing employee environmental empowerment, and subsequently increasing the extent of use of EAM. Accordingly, organisations should endeavour to encourage ethical leadership through leadership training programs and/or the recruitment of appropriate ‘ethical’ leaders. In addition, as employee environmental empowerment fully mediates the association between ethical leadership and the extent of use of EAM, organisations should look to enhance employee environmental empowerment through providing employees with greater opportunities: to discuss and be involved with the development of new environmental management practices; to be actively involved in the development, management and evaluation of environmental management practices; and/or to be involved in strategic decision making regarding environmental management practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100682"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45141892","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 licensing and certification roles of the CPA license in the gig economy","authors":"Nicholas Krupa","doi":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100683","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.adiac.2023.100683","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>U.S. employers, including the Big Four accounting firms, are increasingly using gig economy platforms to hire accounting labor. One factor that employers may consider when hiring accountants in the gig economy is the CPA license. The CPA license has two potential roles: 1) a licensing role, which enables the license holder to perform exclusive jobs; and 2) a certification role, which signals that the license holder is a high-quality accountant. Although prior research finds that CPAs earn a wage premium in the traditional economy, it is unclear whether this relationship will hold in the gig economy. CPA-privileged jobs may not be available in the gig economy, thereby diminishing the importance of the licensing role. Furthermore, unlike the traditional economy, the gig economy has sophisticated reputational feedback systems that provide detailed information about a worker's prior job performance, which could substitute to some extent for the CPA license as a signal of accountant quality. Using a novel dataset, I find that CPAs earn a wage premium in the gig economy when they and their non-CPA counterparts have no reputational feedback. However, the CPA wage premium diminishes in the presence of reputational feedback and disappears in the presence of negative reputational feedback, indicating that reputation can substitute to some extent for the CPA license as a signal of accountant quality. These results have significant implications for accountants, institutions that issue credentials, and academic research related to licensing, certification, and signaling.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46906,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Accounting","volume":"65 ","pages":"Article 100683"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46788132","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}