Bridging the education–profession gap: The Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD) program

This paper provides a detailed discussion of an annual (and cost-effective) professional-development event we call the Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD). This program brings together, for a single day, students, accounting faculty, and accounting professionals in a conference-like setting. The conference format provides a unique, and formal, link between the classroom environment and the professional world students will be entering. The program is attended by accounting and non-accounting students from our university, senior students from area high schools, and undergraduate students from other universities in the area. Specific objectives of the program are to help students learn what it takes to become an accounting professional, to provide students with information that facilitates their career-choice decision, and to encourage networking and community-building activities. Assessment data indicate that the ASPD program is successful in terms of its stated objectives. The relatively low cost of operating the program makes it attractive for other accounting programs. The paper includes a set of recommendations for those faculty interested in implementing an ASPD program at their own institution.     

Globalization and the state–profession relationship: the case the Bank of Credit and Commerce International

Globalization of businesses raises major questions about the regulation of corporations, both in the national and international context. The debate is marked by two competing views. The ‘hyperglobalists’ claim that in a globalized world, nation-states cannot take effective actions to regulate multinational businesses, especially those relating to banking and finance. In response, the ‘skeptics’ accept the view that to regulate corporations, the nation-state has always had to restructure itself. However, they challenge the contention that globalization has reduced the power, functions and authority of the state. The paper contributes to the debate through an examination of some of the processes leading to the forced closure (and the aftermath) of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a bank that operated from 73 countries. It particularly focuses upon the role of the banking regulators and their reliance upon auditing technologies to regulate major banks. The paper sides with the ‘skeptics’ and argues that the nation states, especially major Western states, remain important players in the regulation of global businesses. It concludes that the nation-state’s capacity to regulate global enterprises is compromised by history, domestic concerns and relationships with class and capitalist interests rather than by globalization per se.     

A hybrid profession—the acquisition of management accounting expertise by medical professionals

This paper argues that medical expertise in Finland was “hybridised” in the first half of the 1990s. It examines the willing adoption of management accounting techniques by medical professionals in the context of the New Public Management reforms in Finland. It documents this process of adoption, charts some of its effects for the set of practices and legitimated competencies that make up the domain of medical expertise, and seeks to understand these by reference to the position of management accounting within the Finnish pedagogic and institutional setting. As a counterpoint, it notes the contrast with the UK, where medical professionals have been seen to resist the intrusion of accounting practices into the medical domain.     

The Hedge Fund and the Strategies

The hedge fund is a fund that can take both long and short positions, use arbitrage, buy and sell undervalued securities, trade options or bonds, and invest in almost any opportunity in any market where it foresees impressive gains at reduced risk. The st…     

Influence of the attitudes of Emirati students on their choice of accounting as a profession

The purpose of this paper is to determine the association between Emirati students’ intentions to major in accounting and their attitudes, their subjective norms, and their perceived behavioral control. The main findings of the study show that the attitudes as well as and the subjective norms of Emirati students towards accounting are significant indicators of intentions to choose the accounting profession for their careers. The study offers valuable insights for practitioners and educators who need to rectify any misconceptions among Emirati students about accounting by clarifying and promoting the actual outcomes and opportunities offered by this profession.     

The efficient markets hypothesis: The demise of the demon of chance?

Many commentators have suggested that economists in general and financial economists in particular have some responsibility for the recent global financial crisis. They were blinded by an irrational faith in a discredited Efficient Markets Hypothesis and failed to see the bubble in asset prices and to give due warning of its collapse. There is considerable confusion as to what this hypothesis is and what it says. The irony is that the strong implication of this hypothesis is that nobody, no practitioner, no academic and no regulator had the ability to foresee the collapse of this most recent bubble. While few economists believe it is literally true, this hypothesis is considered a useful benchmark with some important practical implications. Indeed, a case can be made that it was the failure to believe in the essential truth of this idea, which was a leading factor responsible for the global financial crisis .     

The Renaissance of the Big Cities—and the Opportunities for Berlin

Original Papers

The Renaissance of the Big Cities—and the Opportunities for Berlin     

The dynamics of “closure” amidst the construction of market,profession, empire and nationhood: An historical analysis of an Australian accounting association, 1886–1903

This paper argues that Weber's class-status-party model enables an in-depth understanding of the cross-border professionalization projects of accountants. Analysis of the activities of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants (VIC) from 1886 to 1903 shows that (a) the concept of monopolistic closure is imprecise; and (b) its activities were significantly shaped by multiple and changing divisions within the association, between it and competing colonial and imperial associations, the actions of ‘autonomous’ state agencies and wider political and communal tensions. Specifically, imperial discourses and institutions, which mutated when transplanted from the metropolitan centre to the penal (then productive) periphery, were material.     

The Olympic Games and the Development of Social undertakings

Sociologically, the Olympic Games belongs to the entire society where every citizen should be a beneficiary from the Olympic economy. The humanistic themes and     

The “four I's” of the international monetary system and the international role of the euro

This article highlights the main sources of negative externalities in the current international monetary system, through a “four I's” approach (instability, incertitude, inequity and insufficiency of the aggregate demand). It then questions the ability of the euro to contribute to a more balanced and sustainable international monetary regime. The euro cannot become a major international currency without long-term growth in the Eurozone, without the creation of a unified marketplace for public debt backed by the European Central Bank, and without shared desire to internationalize the euro, particularly as an invoicing currency for trade.     

The Global Financial Crisis and the European Single Market: The end of integration?

Using various versions of the Feldstein-Horioka (FH) coefficient, we measure the time-varying degree of capital mobility and economic integration in the European Union. Prior research shows high correlation between domestic investment and savings implying low capital mobility. This surprising result has led to subsequent research on the ‘Feldstein-Horioka puzzle’. Our empirical findings show that the puzzle is less puzzling with a coefficient of 0.52 in the period 1990–1995 in EU countries approaching its minimum value of 0.02 in the period 2003–2008. This clearly indicates that the FH coefficient is time-varying signalling a deepening of economic integration in the European Union. Yet, with the advent of the Global Financial Crisis the FH coefficient has increased to 0.26 underlining worrying signs of disintegration.     

The effect of ownership on the prudential behavior of banks – The case of China

Although the relationship between bank ownership and performance is the current focus of much research, this paper investigates the relationship between ownership and the prudential behavior of banks. Using Chinese data, I show that lending by state-owned banks has been less prudent than lending by joint-equity banks, but has improved over time. This is consistent with the hypothesis that accountability to shareholders and depositors gives joint-equity banks a better incentive than state-owned banks to engage in prudent lending, and with the hypothesis that the reform of the banking system has improved the incentive for state-owned banks to behave more prudently in their lending.     

The role of the business press in the pricing of analysts’ recommendation revisions

We investigate the information-dissemination role of the business press by examining the coverage of analyst recommendation revisions. Consistent with the press providing wider dissemination of analyst reports, we find evidence that coverage of analyst recommendation revisions significantly increases the initial market reaction to these revisions and decreases the subsequent price drift. Furthermore, we find that news flash coverage, rather than in-depth coverage, of a recommendation revision drives both the initial market reaction results and drift results. Finally, we show that broader press coverage influences the activities of large-trade institutional investors but not high-frequency traders. Overall, our findings suggest a complementary role between analysts and the business press: increased dissemination of recommendation revisions, rather than information creation on the part of the business press, serves to better inform the market about analyst recommendation revision decisions.

     

Does linkage fuel the fire? The transmission of financial stress across the markets

This paper develops an indicator of financial stress transmission, called Financial Stress Spillover Index (FSSI), to monitor the condition of financial system and to identify periods of excessive spillover that may lead to financial instability. Specifically, using the “spillover index” approach of Diebold and Yilmaz (2012), we modify and extend the financial stress indices proposed by Oet et al. (2011) to track both total and directional stress spillovers across the U.S. equity, debt, banking, and foreign exchange markets. Unlike other previous studies, the important linkages among these four major financial sectors in an interconnected world are directly taken into account by considering the average and time-varying connectedness of each individual market. The evidence suggests that there are important stress episodes and fluctuations across markets; the total cross-market stress spillovers were rather limited until the onsets of financial crises. As the crises intensified, so too did the financial stress spillovers; with significant stress carrying over from debt and equity markets to the others. In addition, our results indicate that FSSI has a significant predictive power for the economic activity and provides useful information for dating financial crisis.     

The omnipresent influence of the SEC in the work of the Accounting Principles Board, 1959–1973

During the tenure of the Accounting Principles Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission frequently played an influential role in its deliberations and in its process of establishing accounting principles, as a reminder to the Board of its obligation to serve the investing public. The object of this paper is to document these influences and therefore to explore why the APB seemed to fail in its mission.     

The impact of FIFA’s official announcements on the stock market of Qatar: The case of the 2022 World Cup

This study examines the impact of the FIFA’s official announcements on Doha Stock Exchange (DSE) of Qatar with respect to the 2022 World Cup. Using the abnormal unsystematic volatility method of Hilliard and Savickas (2002), our empirical findings reveal that the DSE market is sensitive to FIFA’s announcements about the 2022 World Cup. We find that four out of six FIFA announcements act as primary drivers to the DSE market volatility. The significant reactions of the DSE market to these announcements unveil the investors’ sentiments about the fate of the governmental and private expenditures on medium- and long-term projects undertaken in anticipation of hosting the 2022 World Cup. The results have some implications to investors in this newly emerging market related to this global sporting event. Any future announcements, good or bad, are likely to impact share prices in DSE market and trigger portfolio reallocation by local and international investors, leading to increased volatility.