Management Accounting Research in the Wake of the Crisis: Some Reflections

This article offers some reflections on opportunities and challenges for management accounting research in the wake of the recent financial crisis, and especially the regulatory reforms and augmented disclosures the crisis has spawned. While challenging for the organizations facing them, I argue that especially the enhanced disclosures are likely to turn management accounting ‘inside out’ to a greater extent than has been the case before, which could be a boon for researchers studying hitherto mostly internal management accounting practices. As an undercurrent to the opportunities for research, however, I emphasize the importance of considering organizational design, comprised of both structure and culture, in understanding the inevitably intertwined effects of distorted incentives and information failings, among other problems that seem to all have contributed in some way to the crisis. In respect of the opportunities for management accounting research, I mainly discuss a continuing need to study incentives; a motivation to study risk management; an opportunity to reinvigorate budgeting research; and an invitation to study financial companies and the challenges of disclosures.     

流动性与公司财务政策的选择

本文以流动性对资产预期报酬率的影响为逻辑起点,以公司财务政策对公司权益资本和债务资本流动性的影响为基本视角,通过对相关收益与成本的剖析,对公司现行财务制度安排作出了合理的解释,并为公司财务政策的选择建立一个基于流动性的分析框架。     

Dismantling the myths about managerial (in)capabilities in micro-firms. SEAM intervention-research to develop management practices

Extant literature on SMEs currently offers an incomplete and deterministic characterisation of micro-firms (M-Fs) that are not growth-oriented start-ups, so very little is known about the actual functioning and internal challenges that hinder the adoption of management practices of these companies, and how to facilitate their management development. Using the Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM) as theoretical lens and SEAM intervention-research as methodology, the study uncovers myths in the managerial characterisation of micro-firms and suitable patterns of change management practices for them. Our research contributes to the study of M-Fs by being the first study specifically devoted to mature M-Fs, and by proposing a theoretical framework that shows the dynamic nature of the characteristics associated with M-Fs.     

International Variations in Transparency and Capital Structure: Evidence from European Firms

This paper documents the impact of national transparency regimes on corporate capital structure in 14 European countries. After controlling for relevant firm, industry, and national variables, we find that owner-manager agency cost-reducing transparency such as higher levels of analysts following is associated with lower corporate debt levels. In contrast, transparency that reduces owner-creditor agency costs that helps creditors control business risks (and creditors-to-owners wealth transfers), such as disclosure timeliness, institutional trading activities, and enforcement of anti-insider trading laws, are associated with higher corporate debt levels. Among other transparency measures, levels of financial and governance disclosures are negatively associated with debt ratios and higher levels of audit intensity and accounting disclosures are positively associated with debt ratios. Further, transparency factors are more important for large firms and for firms in services and high technology.     

STRATEGIC CONSEQUENCES OF EXECUTIVE SUCCESSION WITHIN DIVERSIFIED FIRMS

Systematic investigation of leaders and their influence on organizations has been a major area of research interest. In examining the upper echelon-organizational outcome linkage, researchers have come to focus on the issue of executive succession. This focus has been due in large part to an emerging theoretical perspective that managerial differences may explain much of the variance in organizational outcomes. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether or not top management succession affects subsequent corporate strategy. This article extends previous research efforts by longitudinally examining the linkage between executive succession and the extent of corporate strategic change across a sample of Fortune 1000 diversified firms. The findings confirm that the nature of executive succession has substantial consequences for corporate strategy. Firms have a greater likelihood of experiencing significant changes in strategy when they choose successors from outside the organization; firms that select their key executives by promoting from within are more likely to experience significantly less change in their corporate strategy. The results of this longitudinal investigation of the strategic outcomes of succession have significant implications for those in a position to select successors to the executive ranks.     

财务内控制度在企业发展中的重要作用

管理是人类的一种目的性很强的活动,控制活动在管理活动中有着十分重要的作用。通过控制可以确定各项措施能够被顺利的实施,从而保证企业的管理活动能够正常的为企业服务。财务内部控制对于维护企业财务安全,降低成本,避免资产损失有着十分重要的作用,同时它也是企业进行管理的基础。本文主要就财务内控对企业的作用进行论述。     

公司治理结构与财务困境相关性探究

公司治理结构特征是探究企业陷入财务困境原因不可忽略的重要范畴。对来自中国上市公司近期数据的研究表明,股权集中度和高管薪酬两个因素与企业陷入财务困境的可能性显著负相关,第一大股东较高的持股比例和管理层待遇有助于企业避免陷入财务困境。这种结果体现了中国转型经济背景下企业在公司治理和财务管理衔接上的特殊性。企业应该重视并构建符合自身的公司治理结构,以有效规避财务困境。     

Publication trends in the Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting: A retrospective review

This study uses bibliometric analysis to assess Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting (JIFMA's) evolution between 1989 and 2021. In this retrospective review, we investigate the journal's performance, authorship trends, and intellectual structure. The journal's international focus is primarily on cross-country studies and the effects of country-level factors on various accounting and finance outcomes. The collaborative network of JIFMA's authors has also grown substantially consistent with rise in research collaboration in general across the world. We identify nine major themes making up JIFMA's knowledge structure: (1) value relevance of accounting information relating to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, (2) voluntary corporate disclosure, (3) corporate use of financial derivatives, (4) corporate governance, (5) equity valuation, (6) stock return seasonalities, foreign equity ownership, and cost of capital, (7) earnings announcements and pecking order behavior, (8) triple-bottom-line disclosures, and (9) managerial ownership and earnings management. Our findings will likely benefit JIFMA's editorial board and other journal stakeholders including future researchers.     

权益性超额薪酬、CEO权力强度与真实盈余管理

基于公司治理角度,以2011—2016年沪深A股上市公司非平衡面板数据为样本,分析了A股上市公司真实盈余管理水平是否受到高管团队权益性超额薪酬的影响以及CEO权力强度和内部控制质量对两者关系的调节作用。研究发现,高管权益性超额薪酬与真实盈余管理呈显著正相关关系,CEO权力强度能够显著加强权益性超额薪酬对于真实盈余管理的正向影响,而高质量的内部控制整体上能够抑制权益性超额薪酬对于真实盈余管理的促进作用。     

内部控制研究范畴的经济学思考——内部控制研究的投资者及管理者视角

内部控制理论研究一直没有统一的理论研究框架。本文从经济学理论出发,从企业不同利益相关者视角对内部控制的范畴进行解读,提出内部控制研究范畴的界定应考虑不同需求方的利益。     

Corporate Risk Disclosure and Audit Fee: A Text Mining Approach

The aim of this study is to introduce an innovative text mining approach to assess firms' risks using unstructured textual disclosure from annual reports. Specifically, we use Natural Language Processing techniques to extract firms' self-identified risks including financial, strategic, operational, and hazard risks based on an enterprise risk management framework. We examine the association between these four risk measures derived from the risk factor section in 10-K filings and audit fees. The results show that audit fees are significantly and positively related to firm-specific financial, strategic, and operational risks, indicating the informativeness of corporate textual risk disclosures. This study provides direct support for the recent US reporting regulatory requirement of adding a new section on risk factors in corporate annual reports.     

Managers’ use of language in corrupt firms’ financial disclosures: Evidence from FCPA violators

This paper explores management’s use of language in financial disclosures of corrupt firms by looking at a sample of firms that have been prosecuted for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). We find that the management of FCPA violators use more negative, less litigious, more complex and less conservative language when disclosing financials than non‐violators. The language effect prior to an FCPA prosecution is driven by firms with low corporate governance performance. By contrast, firms with high corporate governance use less complex and more conservative language before an FCPA prosecution than firms with low corporate governance performance. Furthermore, we find that after an FCPA prosecution the language becomes less litigious and complex than before the FCPA litigation.     

Does audit report information improve financial distress prediction over Altman's traditional Z‐Score model?

We analyze empirically the usefulness of combining accounting and auditing data in order to predict corporate financial distress. Concretely, we examine whether audit report information incrementally predicts distress over a traditional accounting model: the Altman's Z‐Score model. Although the audit report seems to play a critical part in financial distress prediction because auditors should warn investors about any default risks, this is the first study that uses audit report disclosures for predicting purposes. From a dataset of 1,821 Spanish distressed private firms, we analyze a sample of distressed and non‐distressed firms and develop logit prediction models. Our results show that while the only accounting model registers a classification accuracy of 77%, combined models of accounting and auditing data exhibit considerably higher accuracy (about 87%). Specifically, our findings indicate that the number of disclosures included in the audit report, as well as disclosures related to a firm's going concern status, firms’ assets, and firms’ recognition of revenues and expenses contribute the most to the prediction. Our empirical evidence has implications for financial distress practice. For managers, our study highlights the importance of audit report disclosures for anticipating a financial distress situation. For regulators and auditors, our study underscores the importance of recent changes in regulation worldwide intended to increase auditor's transparency through a more informative audit report.     

企业数字化转型与高管薪酬契约有效性

以2008—2020年沪深A股非金融类上市公司为研究对象,实证检验企业数字化转型对高管薪酬契约有效性的影响。结果显示,企业数字化转型显著降低了高管薪酬-业绩敏感性,并增加了企业高管的超额薪酬。机制检验发现,企业数字化转型赋予了管理层集中的决策自主权,弱化了外部对管理层经营管理行为的监督力度,增强了管理层利用其高度集中的权力影响董事会薪酬契约制定的能力,获得了更多与企业业绩不匹配的私有收益,从而降低了高管薪酬契约有效性。异质性分析发现,在内部控制质量或信息披露质量较高的企业,企业进行数字化转型对高管薪酬契约有效性的负面效应会得到抑制。研究结论为全面认识企业数字化转型的经济后果提供了经验证据,同时也为数字化转型公司高管薪酬契约的制定提供了一定的参考。     

内部控制边界分析——三种代表性观点及其比较

审计学、管理学以及经济学分别从不同的视角研究内部控制。审计学视角的内部控制以保证财务报告的可靠性为目标,其内容限于岗位分工、账目核对、业务标准化控制和程序控制;管理学则以提高组织的效率和效果为依据,认为内部控制应包括业务标准化控制、程序控制、观念控制、决策机制和激励约束机制;经济学则以降低代理成本为目标并以代理理论为基础,认为内部控制包括决策机制、激励约束机制、权力制衡机制等。本文认为,以完善公司治理为目标、三种观点的整合是内部控制发展的必然趋势。     

Corporate cash holdings and total factor productivity – A global analysis

Studies concerning total factor productivity (TFP) have investigated the effect of TFP on economic growth from a country-level perspective, which is a critical issue in the macroeconomics field. Few studies have examined how corporate financial decisions influence TFP from a firm-level perspective. Specifically, no extant studies have investigated how cash holdings affect firm productivity. This study utilizes data for firms in 65 countries during 1993–2017 to investigate the effect of cash holdings on TFP from a corporate perspective. The findings show that firms with higher cash holdings can enhance TFP. The results hold after considering endogenous problems, financial constraints, financial crises, corporate governance, institutional quality, and financial development as well as various robustness tests. Furthermore, we examine whether firms consistently invest their cash holdings into research and development (R&D) expenditures enhances firm productivity. The evidence indicates that higher cash holdings lead to steady increases in R&D expenditure, which improves firms’ TFP.     

An investment perspective for hospital materiel managers

Materiel managers are making investments every time they authorize capital, supply, or personnel requisitions on behalf of their departments or organizations. While not as formal as external investments in securities or the like, internal investments are even more critical to the organization's success and carry the same fiduciary obligations. Generating an acceptable return is a necessity rather than an option as concerns internal investments; the same formal analysis that is applied to external investments should be extended to internal ones as well. Adopting an investment perspective is a critical first step in seeing internal initiatives as investments and obtaining an appropriate return.     

Tales in two countries: An insight into corporate environmental reporting in Denmark and the UK

The 1992 EC Fifth Action Plan, ‘Towards Sustainability’, expresses the Commission's commitment to ‘sustainable growth’. Detailed in the plan are requirements and areas of improvement which relate, predominantly, to environmental management. However, financial and environmental management conflict in important and fundamental areas. A failure of management practice and European policy to identify and address this conflict will not only prolong the ecological inefficiencies of industry but will isolate intent and action. This study examines this conflict with respect to training, operational time-horizons, opportunity costs, corporate governance and growth. The Annual Report is the authoritative statement of corporate performance, policy, objectives and culture. Although most reports do provide a broad if summary coverage of the main business activities, such reports are dominated by the needs of financial management. Extensive legislation and professional edicts dictate the contents of these financial reports. From the perspective of the Annual Report, it is a reasonable conclusion that financial performance is a part of whatever constitutes the core values of corporations. From this same perspective, it is also reasonable to infer that in many corporations environmental performance is not a part of corporate core values. This study compares and contrasts the Annual Reports of six environmentally significant companies in Denmark and the UK. The British environmental reports studied are thorough but separate from the Annual Report. On the other hand, the Danish firms incorporate all their environmental reporting within their Annual Reports. Which gives a better expression of a change in corporate core values?.     

对加强企业财务预算控制的思考

财务预算管理作为一种有效的管理手段及其在企业经营中的独到功能和作用,越来越受到企业界的重视。目前,许多企业都将财务预算管理作为深化企业改革,强化内部管理的一项工作,但是,在具体实施过程仍然存在一些问题需要解决。本文从分析这些问题入手,思考了企业进行财务预算管理的基本思路,并且提出了加强企业财务预算管理的具体对策和建议。     

Using life cycle approaches to enhance the value of corporate environmental disclosures

As the focus of environmental policy and management shifts from cleaner production at the process level towards greener products as a whole, stakeholders ask for transparency throughout the entire value chain. This article assesses the comprehensiveness and the value of currently reported quantitative environmental disclosures of 97 listed companies from the automotive, banking, pharmaceutical and electronic hardware sectors. Findings indicate that quantitative environmental disclosures have many limitations, including incompleteness and inconsistency regarding corporate activities and sites, and limited internal data coherence. For many sectors, corporate disclosures only cover a very small share of the total environmental burden of products. A stepwise procedure is proposed to verify and improve the quality and completeness of reporting using life cycle approaches. We present simple data quality tests, and we introduce the concept of the environmental influence matrix, which provides a solid basis for the identification and prioritization of key performance indicators and areas of action. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.