Australian Rural Accountants’ Views on How Locally Provided CPD Compares with City-based Provision

Abstract

This paper analyses Australian rural accountants’ attitudes and levels of satisfaction with continuing professional development (CPD), based on whether the CPD was delivered by a professional accounting body in a rural or metropolitan area. The paper responds to prior research that finds rural accountants are dissatisfied with professional accounting bodies [Rural and regional Australian public accounting firm services: Service provision, concerns and tensions. Australian Accounting Review, 23(23), 163–176]. Findings of a survey to which 156 rural accountants responded were that when CPD is delivered into the rural areas, there are greater levels of CPD satisfaction. The study also found that cost was significantly better for rural-delivered CPD and that when more rural-based CPD was attended differences became more significant across a number of satisfaction measures. The findings have important implications for both rural accountants and professional accounting bodies.     

Stadiums and Scheduling: Measuring Deadweight Losses in the Victorian Football League, 1920–70

Over a 50 year period, Australian Rules football's major league, the Victorian Football League, did not always use its largest and best-equipped stadium for regular season games between its most popular teams or schedule those teams to play twice in a regular season. We calculate deadweight losses from the use of capital goods (stadiums) and effects of match scheduling in this professional sports league. Such analysis has not been attempted previously because of the absence of a counterfactual. The welfare losses were significant but not sufficient to threaten the survival of a distance-protected cartel.     

Informal institutions and managers’ earnings management choices: Evidence from IFRS-adopting countries

In this study, we investigate the role of informal institutions (religiosity and culture) in determining managers’ choices of earnings management methods (accruals vs. real activities), after controlling for formal institutions (investor protection, enforcement quality and equity market development). Using an ethical perspective, we find that managers tend to choose an earnings management strategy that meets the prevailing social (informal) norms of the environment where the firm is headquartered. Specifically, our analysis shows that firms domiciled in countries with strong religious adherence and high-power-distance cultures prefer to manage their earnings ‘upwards’ through real activities rather than accruals. Overall, our results suggest that informal institutions determine managers’ earnings management choices at least as strongly as formal institutions do. It would therefore be misleading to analyze managers’ choices in managing earnings solely from the formal rules perspective without considering the role of informal constraints or vice versa.     

A Three‐Country Comparison of the Business Success versus Failure Prediction Model

Why do some businesses succeed and others end up bankrupt? There is great discrepancy in the literature as to which variables do in fact lead to success, thus, there currently is no theory. To move the field in that direction, this study tests the Lussier 15‐variable business success versus failure prediction model in Chile with a sample of 234 small businesses—131 failed and 103 successful. Results support the model's validity in Chile. Thus, the model has been tested with significant results in three very different parts of the world; first in United States (North America), then in Croatia (Central Eastern Europe), and now in Chile (South America). The model will reliably predict a group of businesses as failed or successful more accurately than random guessing in all three countries over 96 percent of the time.     

Abnormal inventory and performance in manufacturing companies: evidence from the trade credit channel

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - This paper examines the value of abnormal inventory and the channels through which firms decrease abnormally high inventory or increase abnormally...     

Accounting tele teaching lectures: issues of interaction and performance

This paper provides empirical evidence on two aspects related to using tele teaching to deliver accounting lectures. The first issue examines student opinion on whether tele teaching lectures provide educational interactions between the learner and the instructor similar to face-to-face teaching. The second issue examines the subject performance of students who were tele taught against a similar group that were lectured face-to-face. Results showed that students viewed the tele taught lectures as lacking in learner–instructor interactions however the performance differences were not significant.     

A citation analysis measuring the impact of Albrecht ＆ Sack （2000）

This educational note measures the impact of the Albrecht ＆ Sack （2000） monograph in accounting education literature from its publication date at the end of 2000. Impact refers to the number of times Albrecht ＆ Sack （2000） has been cited and referenced in the three leading US Accounting education journals, being Advances in Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education, and the Journal of Accounting Education. This educational note found that since 2001, and until 2007, ＂Albrecht ＆ Sack （2000）＂ has been cited in 29.3% of research papers, and the most cited chapter was Chapter 5-＂Improving accounting education＂. While Albrecht ＆ Sack （2000） has been widely cited, the impact in terms of policy changes, and changes to the accounting curriculum has yet to be eventuated. Indeed it may still be too early to examine impact beyond pure citation.     

A Case Study of Group Decision Method for Environmental Foresight and Water Resources Planning Using a Fuzzy Approach

Group decision-making (i.e., multi-expert) is an important subject in planning water resources. The inherent complexity and uncertainty of real world urge many experts to be involved in decision-making processes. This paper presents an application of the linguistic-label aggregation method in a real-life case study. The case was taken from a foresight exercise in Colombia (South America) concerning environmental and water resources planning in a river basin. The group decision-making problem is solved using a four-step approach based on (i) the evaluation of experts’ opinions, (ii) the aggregation of opinions for each alternative, (iii) fuzzy ranking, and (iv) final assessment. Two main issues that are new in our work is that we consider temporal linguistic labels and a fuzzy ranking procedure that is able to include the mean, the standard deviation, the fuzzy membership function and the frequency of experts’ opinions for each alternative. The approach is developed and implemented on a computational tool. Results show an efficient decision-making process, that is, the tool demonstrated to deal with shortest time frames and to increase the efficiency of the planning resources, mainly because allows the decision manager to focus on the establishment of criteria. The latter also leads to objectivity and eases the identification and discussion of elements of consensus in decisions that otherwise may be embedded in individuals’ interests.     

A cricket ground or a football stadium? The business of ground sharing at the Adelaide Oval before 1973

Before 1973, cricket and Australian Football used the Adelaide Oval for major games during their respective seasons. Football’s popularity as a spectator sport prompted its organising body to seek to build an improved stadium, but cricket authorities controlled the asset and acted to maintain its specialised character as a cricket ground. A case study of how the gains from a shared capital good are negotiated when asset controllers and users have different objectives is provided. A series of counterfactual scenarios based on football remaining at the Oval is constructed from archival sources and their outcomes projected based on data in financial reports.