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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
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
Environmental Determinants and Choice of Project Evaluation Techniques in US and UK Firms (open access)

Environmental Determinants and Choice of Project Evaluation Techniques in US and UK Firms

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a theory that helps explain the conditions under which firms select certain project evaluation techniques. This study uses contingency theory to analyze the impact of environmental uncertainty on the choice of project evaluation techniques. In addition to a direct measure of uncertainty, several dimensions of uncertainty are included in this study. These dimensions of uncertainty include control structure, method of financing, foreign assets, method of growth, and product domination. This study also analyzes the use of project evaluation, management science and risk management techniques in US firms over time and in UK firms over time in order to compare to prior research. A comparison of firms in the two countries are also provided. The primary method of data collection was a survey instrument. Data were also collected from annual reports and various other public sources. The variables that appear significant in the choice of project evaluation technique in US firms are environmental uncertainty, control structure, method of financing, foreign assets, and product domination. The variable that appear significant in the choice of project evaluation technique in UK firms is method of financing. US firms favor discounted cash flow techniques although this study …
Date: May 1996
Creator: Smolarski, Jan M. (Jan Mietek)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Different Forms of Accounting Feedback, Cost Aggregation and Pricing Knowledge on Profitability and Profit Estimation (open access)

The Effect of Different Forms of Accounting Feedback, Cost Aggregation and Pricing Knowledge on Profitability and Profit Estimation

This study extends a research stream calling for further research regarding pricing and accounting feedback. Marketing executives rely heavily on accounting information for pricing decisions, yet criticize accounting feedback usefulness. To address this criticism, this research integrates the cognitive psychology and accounting literature addressing feedback effectiveness with pricing research in the marketing discipline. The research extends the scope of previous accounting feedback studies by using a control group and comparing two proxies of subject task knowledge; years of pricing experience and a measure of the cognitive structure of pricing knowledge. In addition, this research manipulates task complexity by using two different accounting systems. These systems vary in the number of cost pools used in allocating overhead, resulting in differentially projected cost and profit information. A total of 60 subjects participated in a computer laboratory experiment. These subjects were non-accountants with varying amounts of pricing knowledge. Subjects were randomly assigned to six experimental groups which varied by feedback type (no accounting feedback, outcome feedback only, or a combination of outcome and task properties feedback) and task complexity (high or low number of overhead cost pools). The subjects attempted to (1) maximize profits for a product during 15 rounds of pricing decisions, …
Date: May 1997
Creator: Smith, David M., 1961-
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of the Incremental Information Gain in Combining Economic, Socio-Political, and Joint-Decision Characterizations in a Study of Accounting Choice: the Case of SFAS 106 (open access)

An Analysis of the Incremental Information Gain in Combining Economic, Socio-Political, and Joint-Decision Characterizations in a Study of Accounting Choice: the Case of SFAS 106

Typical accounting studies attempting to explain accounting method choice employ positive theoretical hypotheses and test for association between adoption method or adoption timing and economic measures that focus upon specific firm stakeholders. Such studies addressing the adoption and impact of SFAS 87, "Employer's Accounting for Pensions," yield mixed and contradicting results. Various researchers have suggested that traditional economic analysis often fails to capture important explanatory variables and is far too simplistic. The purpose of this study is to expand analysis by evaluating a particular accounting choice by means of three different characterizations. SFAS 106, "Employers' Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other than Pensions," allows management to choose between two very different methods of adopting the standard. The principal question explored in this study is: why did managers of firms that employ defined benefit postretirement plans for benefits other than pensions choose to adopt SFAS 106 using a particular method? The research question is explored by means of three different characterizations: 1) a traditional economic characterization; 2) a sociopolitical characterization); and 3) a joint decision characterization. Logit methodology is used with method of SFAS 106 adoption as the binary dependent variable of interest. Results indicate that all three characterizations are important in …
Date: August 1996
Creator: Baker, Pamela Smith (Pamela Smith Elaine)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of the Cost Accounting Literature of the United States from 1925 to 1950 (open access)

An Analysis of the Cost Accounting Literature of the United States from 1925 to 1950

This research examines the assertions made by Johnson and Kaplan (1987) that cost accounting lost relevance after 1925 due to the dominance of financial accounting, to an academic preoccupation with financial accounting, to the disappearance of engineers and to a managerial emphasis on financial measures of net income and earnings per share. Additionally, the research looks at environmental effects on cost accounting, both economic and governmental.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Vollmers, Gloria Lucey
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Test of Alfred Chandler's Theory of Corporate Control (open access)

A Test of Alfred Chandler's Theory of Corporate Control

Alfred Chandler, in Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (1990), suggests that the acquisition of targets is an alternative to direct investment in research and development (R&D). Chandler suggests that the failure of accounting to recognize investment in R&D as an asset may have made R&D less attractive. This study focuses on the relationship between investment in R&D and capital expenditures and a set of partitions based on Chandler's three technology types ("hightech," "stable-tech," and "low-tech") and three possible merger activity classes (acquirer next year, target next year, and neither acquirer nor target next year). Chi-square contingency tables are used to test the independence of merger class and technology type, a frequency test. Regression is used to test the relationship between R&D and sales and between capital expenditures and sales, with the sample partitioned by technology type and by merger class in a 3-by-3 research design. The sample is 23,146 firm years from 1974-1988 for 2,659 firms categorized into industry groups based on Chandler's criteria. The financial data are from COMPUSTAT data files. The frequency of being an acquirer is the same for high-tech and stable-tech firms (11.2 versus 11.5 percent of firm years) and higher for low-tech …
Date: August 1996
Creator: Schmidt, George Leo
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Corporate Accounting and Reporting Practices in Bahrain (open access)

An Analysis of Corporate Accounting and Reporting Practices in Bahrain

The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine the factors that have shaped the corporate financial reporting practices in Bahrain. Prior researchers have offered two explanations, environmental factors and cultural importation, for the emergence of financial reporting practices in developing countries. The environmental explanation suggests that a nation's financial reporting practices will be shaped by its socioeconomic structure. The cultural importation explanation states that the desire for international legitimacy creates incentives for developing nation to adopt Western financial reporting practices. Bahrain provided an excellent environment in which to examine the two explanations since its public and closed corporations have similar economic characteristics. Only public corporations are legally required to publish financial reports. I posited that public corporations would try to gain legitimacy for their published reports by adopting Western standards, while closed corporations would not have a similar incentive. I used an interpretive framework to analyze the Bahrain socioeconomic environment and to examine the general financial reporting practices of Bahraini corporations. I found that closed corporations provided data responsive to the Bahraini environment. Public corporations, however, adopted International Accounting Standards. My analysis supported prior researchers7 findings that colonialism, the need for international legitimacy, and international audit firms were important …
Date: December 1993
Creator: Abdul-Rahim, Hassan M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Information Content of Supplemental Reserve-Based Replacement Measures Relative to that of Historical Cost income and its Cash and Accrual Components of Oil and Gas Producing Companies (open access)

The Information Content of Supplemental Reserve-Based Replacement Measures Relative to that of Historical Cost income and its Cash and Accrual Components of Oil and Gas Producing Companies

This study examined whether three reserve-based quantity replacement measures and three reserve-based value replacement measures have incremental information content beyond that of historical earnings and its cash and accrual components. This study also examined whether the cash and accrual components of earnings have incremental information content beyond that of earnings.
Date: May 1992
Creator: Spear, Nasser A. (Nasser Abdelmonem)
System: The UNT Digital Library