Financial Reporting in Poland: Privatization of Select Firms Traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (open access)

Financial Reporting in Poland: Privatization of Select Firms Traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Poland's transition from a centrally-planned economy (CPE) to a market economy began in 1989. Building a market economy out of the failures of a CPE represents an unprecedented process in the history of economic development. At the core of the transition is the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Many problems encountered during privatization are accounting related, and before privatization can occur valuation issues must be resolved. What has been the role of accounting in Poland's transition? Accounting is an interactive process that reflects and creates reality. The accounting process facilitates the calculation of the value created by a firm by attempting to trace the flow of resources through the value-creating process, and it identifies, measures, records, summarizes, and reports transactions. How these transactions are internalized determines how they flow through the accounting process, and, because the former SOEs are complex organizations in transition, decisions concerning when and how to record events can be diverse. The primary objective of this study is to provide insight into the accounting transition in Poland by addressing issues of ownership rights, valuation, financial reporting, and disclosure. The research question is: How is accounting transforming and being transformed in Poland? The research question is addressed in …
Date: December 1996
Creator: De la Rosa, Denise M. (Denise Mary), 1949-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Examination of the Effects of Experience and Missing Information on Tax Preparer Judgment (open access)

Examination of the Effects of Experience and Missing Information on Tax Preparer Judgment

This research examines how experience and missing information affect judgments of tax return preparers. Tax return preparers may often be faced with the problem of incomplete information, and their responses to this problem may be conditioned by whether or not they recognize information is missing. Based on the Holland et al.'s cognitive theory of induction as applied to tax judgment by Marchant et al., it was hypothesized that experienced tax preparers would correctly classify more items as to their relevance to a specific tax issue than novice tax preparers. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had no relevant information missing would be greater than the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had relevant information missing and were prompted that information was missing. Lastly, it was hypothesized that prompting that relevant information was missing would have a greater effect on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with lesser specific experience than it would on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with greater specific experience. The results suggest that experienced tax preparers do recognize the relevance of information to a greater degree than novice tax preparers. There was no significant …
Date: August 1996
Creator: Lewis, Judy D. (Judy Dianne)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Examination of the Accounting Debate over the Determination of Business Income: 1945-1952 (open access)

An Examination of the Accounting Debate over the Determination of Business Income: 1945-1952

George O. May's (1952) prescient statement that "if accounting had not already become, it was well on its way to becoming a political phenomenon" provides the motivation for this study. Changing socioeconomic relationships in the post-World War II period make it an ideal period to examine the politicalization of accounting. Keynesian economic policies justified active government intervention in the economy to manage demand and ensure full employment. No longer could it be assumed that competitive market forces would ensure that corporations produced goods and services at a socially optimal level or that income would be distributed equitably. Claims that accounting profit provides a measure of managerial efficiency are based on these premises. This dissertation examines the political dynamics of one particular accounting measurement debate--the debate over the determination of business income. Policies, such as wage/price controls, the excess profits tax, and the undistributed profits tax, brought the accounting income determination debate to center stage. The perseverance of the historic cost allocation model in the face of significant economic changes presents a fascinating glimpse of the important role accounting played in justifying continued reliance on the private property rights paradigm. I use retrodiction (reasoning from present to past) to examine why …
Date: December 1996
Creator: Pence, Diana Kay
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Confidence Levels and Retrieval of Procedures Associated with Accounts Receivable Confirmations (open access)

An Analysis of Confidence Levels and Retrieval of Procedures Associated with Accounts Receivable Confirmations

The study addresses whether differently ordered accounts receivable workprograms and task experience relate to differences in judgments, confidence levels, and recall ability. The study also assesses how treated and untreated inexperienced and experienced auditors store and recall accounts receivable workprogram steps in memory in a laboratory environment. Additionally, the question whether different levels of experienced auditors can effectively be manipulated is also addressed.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Rogers, Violet C. (Violet Corley)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Contextual Variables on Internal Auditors' Propensity to Communicate Upwardly (open access)

The Impact of Contextual Variables on Internal Auditors' Propensity to Communicate Upwardly

The author examined whether contextual variables impact internal auditors' self-assessed likelihood of whistleblowing. The author synthesized a theoretical framework and developed research hypotheses that predict relationships between the self-assessed likelihood of whistleblowing and (1) magnitude of the consequences (2) channels of communication and (3) type of wrongdoing. To test these hypotheses, the author provided internal auditors (n=123) with a scenario and asked them to self-assess the likelihood of reporting evidence of a malfacation to their internal audit director even though their audit manager told them to ignore the wrongdoing.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Tolleson, Thomas D. (Thomas Dale)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Factors Associated with Voluntary Disclosure of Management's Responsibilities for Internal Control (open access)

An Analysis of Factors Associated with Voluntary Disclosure of Management's Responsibilities for Internal Control

The purpose of this study was to identify company characteristics associated with the presence of disclosures regarding internal control in the annual report. Gibbins, Richardson and Waterhouse [1990] have developed a framework from which to examine financial disclosure,. These authors define two dimensions of a company's disclosure position; opportunism and ritualism. I examined the association between variables representing the dimensions identified by these authors and a company's decision regarding disclosure of a management report on internal control. I compared specific characteristics of companies disclosing this information to those of companies not disclosing. The dependent variable represented the presence or absence of disclosure. I used logit analysis to test the significance of the chosen characteristics relative to the decision to include or exclude a management report on internal control in the annual report. My results were consistent with the existence of ritualism with respect to this issue. Reporting on internal controls was associated with membership in the Financial Executives Institute, auditor choice, certain industry designations and prior inclusion of such a report. FEI membership was closely related to initial reporting decisions as well'. I found evidence of opportunism as well. The likelihood of reporting on internal controls was related to company …
Date: August 1992
Creator: Tanner, Margaret Morgan
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Ambiguity and Risk on the Auditor's Assessment of Inherent Risk and Control Risk (open access)

The Impact of Ambiguity and Risk on the Auditor's Assessment of Inherent Risk and Control Risk

The purpose of this study was to try to identify the impact of ambiguity and risk on the auditor's judgment about inherent risk and control risk when planning the audit. A second purpose was to determine how ambiguity tolerance/intolerance affects judgment.
Date: August 1993
Creator: Guess, Aundrea Kay
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accounting Measurement Bias and Executive Compensation Systems (open access)

Accounting Measurement Bias and Executive Compensation Systems

This dissertation presents empirical evidence intended to help answer two research questions. The first question asks whether executive compensation systems appear to exploit the bias in accounting-based performance measures in order to reduce the volatility in executive compensation and to allocate incentives more effectively across the range of activities performed by the executive. The second question asks whether compensation systems systematically differ between firms that use alternative accounting methods and whether any such systematic difference helps explain accounting choice. Parameters estimated in fixed-effects endogenous switching regression models were used to test the risk-shielding and incentive-allocation hypotheses. The models were estimated across a dataset consisting of 1151 executive-year observations of annual compensation paid to 222 top-level executives in 40 oil and gas firms. The dataset was partitioned by accounting method and separate models estimated for the full cost and successful efforts partitions. The tests provided modest support for the risk-shielding and incentive-allocation hypotheses, revealing that accounting measurement bias is used to focus incentives for effort in the exploration activity and to reduce executives' exposure to production risk. The design also allowed an estimate of the proportional change in compensation that was realized from the accounting choice actually made.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Boone, Jeffery Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Process Analysis of Lenders' Use of FAS 95 Cash Flow Information (open access)

A Process Analysis of Lenders' Use of FAS 95 Cash Flow Information

This study uses concurrent verbal protocol analysis to examine the decision processes of lenders as they evaluate the financial information of a loan applicant. Of specific interest is the lenders' use of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Board No. 95 (FAS 95), Statement of Cash Flows, in that decision process.
Date: May 1994
Creator: Reither, Cheri L. (Cheri Lynn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accounting Regulation and Information Asymmetry in the Capital Markets: An Empirical Study of Accounting Standard SFAS no 87 (open access)

Accounting Regulation and Information Asymmetry in the Capital Markets: An Empirical Study of Accounting Standard SFAS no 87

This study uses both basic and self-selection regression models to test three hypotheses about the effect of SFAS 87 disclosures on information asymmetry during 1985- 1987. Both types of models test the hypotheses after controlling for changes in the inventory holding and order processing costs of the spread, while the self-selection models also control for potential self-selection bias.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Lin, Wen-shan
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Relationship between Privatization, Culture, Adoption of International Accounting Standards, and Accounting in Egypt (open access)

The Relationship between Privatization, Culture, Adoption of International Accounting Standards, and Accounting in Egypt

This study explores how the Egyptian socioeconomic factors impacted the implementation of International Accounting Standards (IASs) in Egypt. Prior research concluded that developing nations have special needs when it comes to accounting and financial reporting and recommended nation-specific analysis. The author adapts Gray's (1988) model, which connects Hofstede's cultural dimensions with accounting practice, to fit the Egyptian environment.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Dahawy, Khaled M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of the 1986 and 1987 Qualified Plan Regulation on Firms' Decision to Switch from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution for Plans Larger than 100 Participants (open access)

The Impact of the 1986 and 1987 Qualified Plan Regulation on Firms' Decision to Switch from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution for Plans Larger than 100 Participants

The purpose of this research was to examine the United States population of plans with over 100 participants to determine the extent of the reaction away from defined benefit plans resulting from the 1986 and 1987 legislation.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Bradley, Linda Jacobsen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tax Compliance in a Social Setting: the Influence of Norms, Perceptions of Fairness, and Trust in Government on Taxpayer Compliance (open access)

Tax Compliance in a Social Setting: the Influence of Norms, Perceptions of Fairness, and Trust in Government on Taxpayer Compliance

Many taxing authorities, including those in the United States (U.S.), rely on voluntary tax compliance and continually search for ways to increase tax revenues. Most of these methods are costly and labor intensive, such as audits and penalties for noncompliance. Prior tax compliance research has heavily investigated the influence that economic factors, such as tax rates and penalties, have on individual compliance intentions. However, economic models fail to fully predict individual tax compliance. Psychology literature suggests that social factors may also play an important role in individual tax compliance decisions. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence that social and psychological factors have on individuals' tax compliance intentions. Specifically, a model of taxpayer compliance is hypothesized that suggests that norms, perceived fairness of the tax system, and trust in government have a significant influence on compliance intentions. Results of a survey of 217 U.S. taxpayers found support for the influence of social factors on tax compliance. This research concludes that social norms have an indirect influence on compliance intentions through internalization as personal norms. Specifically, as the strength of social norms in favor of tax compliance increase, personal norms of tax compliance also increase, and this leads …
Date: August 2013
Creator: Jimenez, Peggy D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Auditor Knowledge on Information Processing during Analytical Review (open access)

The Effect of Auditor Knowledge on Information Processing during Analytical Review

Auditors form judgments by integrating the evidence they gather with information stored in memory (knowledge). As they acquire experience, auditors have the opportunity to learn how different patterns of evidence are associated with particular audit problems. Research in experimental psychology has demonstrated that individuals with task-specific experience can match the cues they encounter with patterns they have learned, and form judgments without consciously analyzing the individual cues. Accounting researchers have suggested that auditors develop judgment templates through task-specific experience, and that these knowledge structures automatically provide decisions in familiar situations. I examined whether auditor knowledge leads to reliance on judgment templates. To test this thesis, I synthesized a theoretical framework and developed research hypotheses that predict relationships between task-specific experience (my surrogate for knowledge) and (1) measures of cognitive effort, (2) accuracy of residual memory traces, and (3) performance with respect to identifying potential problems. To test these predictions, I provided senior auditors with comprehensive case materials for a hypothetical client and asked them to use analytical procedures to identify potential audit problems. Subjects acquired information and documented their findings on personal computers using software that I developed to record their activities.
Date: February 1995
Creator: O'Donnell, Ed
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of the Accounting System of the Quincy Mining Company: 1846-1900 (open access)

An Analysis of the Accounting System of the Quincy Mining Company: 1846-1900

This historical study examines the evolution of the accounting system of the Quincy Mining Company between 1846 and 1900. The external financial reporting practices and internal accounting procedures of the firm are defined and interpreted in the context of three time periods that portray the formation, growth and maturation of the firm. Each period reflects unique economic and social conditions that are associated with changes in the firm's accounting system. A cross temporal analysis of these changes highlights three factors: the relationship between the accounting system and the labor force, the emergence of accounting as a control mechanism and the diminishing informational content of the firm's annual reports. Primary sources are used to document the perspectives of the Quincy management and to assess the motivations for accounting processes such as internal control, auditing procedures, responsibility centers and other managerial practices. This study addresses the inherent nature of accounting information and its relationship to the economic and social environment of an individual firm in the nineteenth century.
Date: December 1992
Creator: Michael, Rodney R. (Rodney Richard)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental Accounting: The Relationship Between Pollution Performance and Economic Performance in Oil and Gas Refineries (open access)

Environmental Accounting: The Relationship Between Pollution Performance and Economic Performance in Oil and Gas Refineries

A research study is undertaken to determine if economic incentives exist for noncompliance with regulatory standards, and if accounting related disclosure of regulatory enforcement actions is a determinant of environmental performance.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Mobus, Janet Luft
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cultural Influences on the ABC Implementation Under Thailand's Environment (open access)

Cultural Influences on the ABC Implementation Under Thailand's Environment

This study examines the influences of culture on the implementation of a U.S.-based Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in three Thai organizations.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Morakul, Supitcha
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Exploratory Investigation of the Origins and Regulatory Actions of the United Kingdom's Financial Reporting Review Panel (open access)

An Exploratory Investigation of the Origins and Regulatory Actions of the United Kingdom's Financial Reporting Review Panel

In 1990, the accounting profession and the British government worked together to establish a new regulatory framework for financial reporting in the United Kingdom (UK), the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and its two subsidiaries, the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) and the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP). The FRRP enforces companies' compliance with the ASB's accounting standards and the accounting provisions of the UK Companies Act. Only one study, Brandt et al. (1997), has examined the activities and effectiveness of the FRRP. This dissertation attempts to extend Brandt et. al (1997) and add to understanding of the origins and regulatory actions of the FRRP.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Styles, Alan K. (Alan Keith)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accounting for Human Resources: Implications for Theory and Practice. (open access)

Accounting for Human Resources: Implications for Theory and Practice.

Knowledge workers are an important resource for the typical modern business firm, yet financial reporting ignores such resources. Some researchers contend that the accounting profession has stressed reliability in order to make the accounting appear objective. Others concur, noting that accounting is an insecure profession and adopts strict rules when faced with uncertainty. Accountants have promulgated a strict rule to expense human resource costs, although many know that such resources have future benefits. Some researchers suggest that any discipline must modify its language in order to initiate change toward providing useful social ameliorations. If accounting theorists extend this idea to the accounting lexicon.s description of investments in human resources, investors and other accounting user groups might gain greater insight into how a firm fosters and nourishes human capital. I tested three hypotheses related to this issue by administering an experiment designed to assess financial analysts. perceptions about alternative financial statement treatments of human resources in an investment recommendation task. I predicted that (1) analysts' perceptions of the reliability (relevance) of the information they received would decrease (increase) as the treatment of human resources increasingly violated GAAP (became more current-oriented), (2) analysts exposed to alternative accounting treatments would report a lower …
Date: December 2001
Creator: Stovall, Olin Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Changing Role and Responsibilities of Audit Committees in the United States (open access)

The Changing Role and Responsibilities of Audit Committees in the United States

The corporate form that developed in the early 20th century created enormous pressure for corporate governance mechanisms to curb the power of corporate managers. Berle and Means, legal pluralists, warned about concentrating economic power in the hands of a small but powerful class of professional managers. They claimed this "new form of absolutism" required governmental oversight and viewed boards of directors as part of management, rather than monitors for shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that corporations establish a special board committee, made up of "nonofficer members" in response to the McKesson & Robbins scandal of the late 1930s. My dissertation examines the evolution of the U.S. corporate audit committee through three specific time periods: (1) 1920-1954; (2) 1955-1986; and (3) 1987 to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. My purpose is to determine if evolution of the audit committee throughout these periods has been a reform continually couched in symbolism or whether the audit committee concept has evolved into real reform, allowing proper corporate governance and mitigation of unchecked corporate power. My analysis is a traditional empirical analysis, relying on both primary and secondary sources to develop a coherent ordering of facts. I use narrative …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Teed, Dan Graham
System: The UNT Digital Library
Regulation and Political Costs in the Oil and Gas Industry: An Investigation of Discretion in Reporting Earnings and Oil and Gas Reserves Estimates (open access)

Regulation and Political Costs in the Oil and Gas Industry: An Investigation of Discretion in Reporting Earnings and Oil and Gas Reserves Estimates

This study investigates the use of discretion by oil and gas companies in reporting financial performance and oil and gas reserve estimates during times of high political scrutiny resulting from increases in energy prices. Hypotheses tested in prior literature state that companies facing the risk of increasing taxes or new regulations reduce reported earnings to reduce this risk. This study uses a measure of high profitability (rank order of return on assets relative to industry peers) to identify oil and gas companies more likely to manage earnings during the period from 2002 to 2008. Two measures of discretionary accruals (total and current discretionary accruals), and a measure of discretionary depreciation, depletion, and amortization (DDA) were used as indicators of discretion exercised in reporting earnings. Data on oil and gas reserve disclosures was also hand-collected from Forms 10-K to investigate whether managers use reserve estimate revisions to reduce reported earnings through increasing the annual depletion expense. Results suggest that both oil and gas refining and producing firms use negative discretionary accruals to reduce reported earnings. Results also indicate that profitability is an important determinant of the use of negative discretionary accruals by these companies regardless of the time period examined. There …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Kurdi, Ammr
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Experimental Examination of the Effects of Fraud Specialist and Audit Mindsets on Fraud Risk Assessments and on the Development of Fraud-Related Problem Representations (open access)

An Experimental Examination of the Effects of Fraud Specialist and Audit Mindsets on Fraud Risk Assessments and on the Development of Fraud-Related Problem Representations

Fraud risk assessment is an important audit process that has a direct impact on the effectiveness of auditors' fraud detection in an audit. However, prior literature has shown that auditors are generally poor at assessing fraud risk. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) suggests that auditors may improve their fraud risk assessment performance by adopting a fraud specialist mindset. A fraud specialist mindset is a special way of thinking about accounting records. While auditors think about the company's recorded transactions in terms of the availability of supporting documentations and the authenticity of the audit trail, fraud specialists think instead of accounting records in terms of the authenticity of the events and activities that are behind the reported transactions. Currently there is no study that has examined the effects of the fraud specialist mindset on auditors' fraud risk assessment performance. In addition, although recent studies have found that fraud specialists are more sensitive than auditors in discerning fraud risk factors in situation where a high level of fraud risk is present, it remains unclear whether the same can be said for situation where the risk of fraud is low. Thus, the purpose of my dissertation is to examine the effects …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Chui, Lawrence
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Empirical Investigation of the Lobbying Influence of Large Corporations on Selected FASB Standards (open access)

An Empirical Investigation of the Lobbying Influence of Large Corporations on Selected FASB Standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is a private sector rule making body. Congressional inquiries have questioned whether the setting of accountin standards should remain in the private sector. Congressional critics have charged that the FASB has been captured by special interests and recommended that a governmental agency assume responsibility for standard setting. Specifically, critics charge that large corporations capture the Big Eight accounting firms who, in turn, have captured the FASB. Previous capture studies have concluded that the standard setting process is pluralistic and that the FASB has not been captured. The studies have focused on the influence of the Big Eight to determine if the FASB has been captured. They assume if standards do not reflect the expressed preferences of the Big Eight, then Congressional criticisms are invalid. The studies also assume a unidirectional influence between participants in the process and have ignored the intensity of preferences of the respondents.The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical framework to specify selection of standards that would be expected to be subject to capture. This framework also recognizes the duo-directional nature of influence. The allegations of capture were tested using the standards selected in accordance with the theoretical framework. …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Beckman, Ronald J. (Ronald James)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Professional Commitment, Organizational Commitment, and Organizational-Professional Conflict in the Internal Audit Function Model: Development and Test (open access)

Professional Commitment, Organizational Commitment, and Organizational-Professional Conflict in the Internal Audit Function Model: Development and Test

This dissertation is a descriptive, exploratory examination of professional commitment, organizational commitment, and conflict between those commitments in the internal audit profession. That conflict has been suggested in prior studies as the source of dysfunctional outcomes such as increased role stress, high turnover, decreased job satisfaction, and the exercise of improper judgment leading to audit failures. The descriptive aspect of this study deals with the development of a more comprehensive structural model of the factors and relationships involved in commitment and conflict than has been developed by previous research dealing with accountants. The exploratory aspect deals with the testing and refinement of the developed model utilizing the internal audit profession as the field of examination. The model developed in this study is derived from the synthesis of factors suggested by role theory, the concept of side bets, the cosmopolitan-local construct, and the concept of commitment as a process. This research utilizes a questionnaire administered to 205 practicing internal auditors in order to test 30 hypothesized relationships. Path analysis is used to determine the significant direct relationships between variables with a process of theory trimming being conducted in order to produce more parsimonious structural models. Indirect relationships between significant variables are …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Quarles, Ross
System: The UNT Digital Library