Cross-Country Evidence on the Role of Independent Media in Constraining Corporate Tax Aggressiveness

Using an international sample of firms from 32 countries, we study the relation between media independence and corporate tax aggressiveness. We measure media independence by the extent of private ownership and competition in the media industry. Using an indicator variable for tax aggressiveness when the firm’s corporate tax avoidance measure is within the top quartile of each country-industry combination, we find strong evidence that media independence is associated with a lower likelihood of tax aggressiveness, after controlling for other institutional determinants, including home-country tax system characteristics. We also find that the effect of media independence is more pronounced when the legal environment is weaker, and when the information environment is less transparent. We contribute to the business ethics literature by documenting the role of independent media as an external monitoring mechanism in constraining corporate tax aggressiveness.     

Conditional Conservatism and Debt versus Equity Financing

Extant research suggests that conditional conservatism reduces information asymmetry between a firm and its shareholders as well as its debtholders. However, there is little evidence on whether conditional conservatism reduces information asymmetry differentially for shareholders and debtholders. We use the setting of a firm's choice between equity versus debt when it seeks a significant amount of external financing to examine this research question. We find that when firms raise a significant amount of external financing, the use of equity (versus debt) increases with the level of conservatism. We also find that the reduction in cost of equity associated with conservatism is greater for equity issuers than for debt issuers, but find no such difference when we examine cost of debt. In addition, we find that the positive effect of conservatism on the choice of equity issuance (versus debt issuance) is accentuated when the information asymmetry between the firm and its shareholders is more severe. Overall, our results suggest that conservatism reduces information asymmetry more between firms and shareholders than between firms and debtholders.     

How Does Sustainable Development of Supply Chains Make Firms Lean,Green and Profitable? A Resource Orchestration Perspective

This paper theorizes and tests the effects of sustainable development of supply chains on cost‐reduction (lean), environmental (green) and financial (profitable) performance. Based on the resource orchestration theory, we argue that internal, supplier and customer sustainable development each orchestrate different types of resource and therefore their effects vary. Structural equation modeling of data from a survey of 203 Thai manufacturers was used to test a new theoretical model. Results confirm that financial performance was achieved through cost reduction created by customer sustainable development supported by internal and supplier sustainable development. On the other hand, better environmental performance created by internal sustainable development generated no financial gains. However, internal, supplier and customer sustainable development positively affected each other, and by acting together they made firms lean, green and profitable. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

A Diagnostic on the West African Monetary Union

Deploying the classical optimum currency areas (OCA) theory and recent developments in the monetary literature, this paper evaluates the appropriateness of West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) as a monetary zone. Nine macroeconomic dimensions are investigated under which the first four items are quantified against a reference economy, namely the United States, the eurozone or China, while the rest are measured in absolute terms for time periods before and after the 2008‐2009 global financial crisis. Results could signify relative dominance of the three world's largest economies to the West African region. In addition to inherent asymmetries across the union, findings suggest the emerging Chinese yuan as an alternative to the euro as the monetary anchor.     

Effects of country-level legal,extra-legal and political institutions on auditing: A cross-country analysis of the auditor specialization premium

In this cross-country study of the specialist auditor premium, which spans the US and 12 other countries, we provide evidence that country-level institutional strength increases average audit fees, but reduces the incremental demand for specialist auditors. This finding supports the hypothesis that strong institutions and the demand for specialist knowledge act as substitutes in providing the requisite assurance of financial statements.     

Roz, Inc.: a case for extending management accounting coverage to managers'' information acquisition process

Observers of the modern business environment have emphasized that if management accounting is to remain relevant to the realities of the 1990s and beyond, it has to evolve beyond the traditional “gathering, assimilating and reporting function” to encompass the processes whereby information reaches managers. The objective of this teaching case is to assist extending management accounting coverage towards this process.In both Australia and Taiwan, we have successfully used this case to supplement text and end-of-chapter materials at both the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. The similarity of our teaching experiences between Australia and Taiwan, in conjunction with the generic nature of the case, suggest that it can be used in other national contexts with little or no modification.     

An Exploratory Study of Chinese Accounting Students’ and Auditors’ Audit-specific Ethical Reasoning

This study uses three audit-specific ethical dilemmas to assess the level of ethical reasoning between Chinese accounting students (as proxies for new entrants to the auditing profession) and experienced auditors. A sample of U.S. accounting students is used as a base for comparison. Consistent with expectations based on particularly salient aspects of Chinese national culture, we find the Chinese students’ levels of ethical reasoning to be significantly lower than those of their U.S. counterparts in the two cases that invoked these cultural attributes. In contrast, the Chinese students’ level of ethical reasoning is slightly higher than that of the U.S. students in the third, control case. We further find that the Chinese auditors’ levels of ethical reasoning are even lower than those of the Chinese students in two cases, while not being significantly different in the third. Together, these findings suggest that cross-national differences in auditors’ ethical reasoning depend on the nature of the ethical dilemma and caution against wholesale inferences about ethical reasoning levels in China.