Hierarchical Differences in Audit Workpaper Review Performance*

This paper investigates the performance of senior and staff auditors in the identification of conceptual and mechanical errors during workpaper review. In this study, we begin to examine the potential for effectiveness and efficiency gains by involving staff (assistant) auditors in the review process. We find that senior auditors were more accurate than staff auditors in identifying conceptual errors contained in a hypothetical set of workpapers just reviewed. However, staff auditors were more accurate than senior auditors in identifying mechanical errors. Highlighting the benefits of a hierarchical review, composite groups consisting of a staff auditor and a senior outperformed composite groups consisting of two seniors or two staff auditors. The study finds that the differences in review performance between managers and seniors found in Ramsay 1994 generalize to lower levels of experience. Considering our results in conjunction with Ramsay 1994, we show a progression to a more conceptual review template as the rank of the reviewer moves from staff to senior to manager. The paper provides some guidance to audit firms that are presently introducing major changes to the way in which the review process is carried out, including the inclusion of reviews by staff auditors.     

Managing Perceptions of Technical Competence: How Well Do Auditors Know How Others View Them?*

We investigate factors that influence an auditor's accuracy in knowing how subordinates, peers, and superiors view his or her own technical competence (metaperception). Extant literature on reputation management in auditing contexts depicts preparers of audit workpapers as strategic agents (subordinates) who stylize workpapers and engage in behaviors that enhance their reputations with reviewers (superiors). These superiors, in turn, are represented as strategically engaging in coping behaviors in response to such stylization attempts. One of the necessary conditions for auditors to enhance their reputations on a sustainable basis is accurate metaperception. We report the results of an experiment that investigates determinants of auditors' metaperception accuracy. Our participants comprise teams of audit partners, managers, and seniors who work together in the field. Each auditor performs two tasks of varying complexity and then predicts whether other team members can accurately perform the task and how other team members assess his or her performance on the tasks. Results show that accuracy in knowing what others think of one's technical proficiency (metaperception) is generally high, particularly when the predictor auditors are partners and managers; however, metaperception accuracy is asymmetric and varies depending on the predictor auditor, the target auditor being predicted, and task complexity. Implications are discussed.     

An Examination of Moral Development within Public Accounting by Gender,Staff Level,and Firm*

Abstract. This study extends prior research on the average level of moral development in public accounting by examining five large accounting firms and three staff levels. The research is important because it highlights the need to include auditors from several firms in research designs, provides evidence of differences in moral development among public accounting firms, and profiles the professions' average level of moral development for three levels. The data are from 494 managers and seniors (204 females and 290 males) from five Big Six firms. Using the Defining Issues Test (Rest 1979a) to measure moral development, several results were noted. First, the results indicate a difference in the average level of moral development among firms, suggesting that use of subjects from only one firm inhibits the generalizability of findings regarding moral development. Second, female managers are at a significantly higher average level of moral development than male managers. In fact, the average scores for male managers fell between those expected for senior high school and college students. The data suggest that a greater percentage of high-moral-development males and low-moral-development females are leaving public accounting than their respective opposites. These results indicate that the profession has retained, through advancement, males who are potentially less sensitive to the ethical implications of various issues. The analysis also indicates that Kohlberg's (1969) theory of moral development is not biased towards the thought processes of males because female auditors did not score lower on the Defining Issues Test.     

Patterns of China's industrialization: Concentration,specialization, and clustering

This paper presents a few stylized facts on the patterns of China's industrialization by computing a set of multi-dimensional measures on industrial concentration, regional specialization, and clustering based on census data at the firm level in 1995 and 2004. Our results show that China's rapid industrialization is characterized by the following patterns: industries have become more spatially concentrated; regions have become increasingly specialized; and firms have become more interconnected, both within industries and within regions. In addition, the number of firms is growing faster in clustered areas than non-clustered ones. Together these patterns suggest that China's industrialization process is largely cluster-based—a phenomenon in which a large number of highly interconnected firms are located within a well-defined geographic region.     

Conception on Building up the Market Review Disciplinary with Chinese Characteristics ——And on the Surviving Space of Market Reviewers

Market review is a kind of mental activity for people to follow the development of market .The producers, operators, managers and consumers are usually the reviewers of the market. Market review penetrates into every aspect of market activities, and becomes an important field and skill for people to know the market, control the market and develop the market. In the time of well-developed market economy, market review has increasingly become professional, standard, for the market and directive. Reviewing the market gives birth to the market review disciplinary, and market review gives birth to market reviewers. The complete subject system of marketing should include scientific theories and methods of market review. The characteristic of Chinese market has determined the character of market review disciplinary and the destiny of market reviewers.     

Does an Audit Judgment Rule Increase or Decrease Auditors' Use of Innovative Audit Procedures?

The current audit environment encourages auditors to conduct defensive auditing procedures in lieu of using new, innovative, and potentially more effective audit procedures, due to concerns these procedures may be second-guessed in litigation or by audit inspectors such as the PCAOB. As a result, auditors may prefer traditional “generally accepted” procedures over innovative procedures that are potentially more effective. We test recent proposals that an Audit Judgment Rule (AJR) encourages the use of innovative, and potentially more effective, audit procedures analogous to the similar Business Judgment Rule that affords legal protections to corporate directors. Under an AJR, litigators or audit inspectors could not second-guess auditor judgments, even if they perceive that alternate judgments would have ordinarily been reached, provided the auditor's judgment was made in good faith and in a rigorous manner. However, the AJR's requirements that auditors must defend the rigor of their innovative judgments could potentially backfire and lead auditors to select more traditional procedures. Under the framework of goal activation theory, we conduct an experiment with audit managers and seniors and find that an AJR makes auditors less likely to select innovative audit procedures, particularly when audit risk is high. They do so despite believing the innovative procedures to be more effective than the traditional procedures. Findings from a supplementary experiment with experienced auditors further suggest that national office affirmation of the reasonableness of the procedures does not help overcome this effect. Overall, our findings suggest that an AJR may have the unintended consequence of further increasing auditors' focus on more traditional, and potentially less effective, audit procedures.     

The Materiality of Accounting Errors: Evidence from SEC Comment Letters

We gain unique insights into materiality judgments about accounting errors by examining SEC comment letter correspondence. We document that managers typically use multiple quantitative benchmarks in their materiality analyses, with earnings being the most common benchmark. In most of the cases we review, managers deem the error immaterial despite its exceeding the traditional “5 percent of earnings” rule of thumb, often in multiple periods and by a large degree. Instead of attempting to conceal these overages, managers tend to forthrightly acknowledge them, often asserting that the benchmark is abnormally low during the violation period. We find that 17–26 percent of these “low benchmark” assertions are suspect (although none of these “low benchmark” assertions are challenged by the SEC). We also document substantial variation in the extent to which qualitative factors are mentioned as considerations. The SEC generally is deferential toward managers' arguments and judgments but is more likely to challenge immateriality claims when managers admit there are qualitative factors that indicate errors are material.     

LATIN AMERICAN EXPORT SPECIALIZATION IN RESOURCE‐BASED PRODUCTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR GROWTH

Given Latin America's general specialization in resource‐based products, this paper focuses on the question of whether or not a country specialized in resource‐based products can have high rates of export and economic growth. To examine this question, an attempt is made to develop and apply a new taxonomy to a sample of resource‐based products exported by Latin American countries to the United States. This taxonomy is based on the role played by prices in the mechanism through which countries compete in specific international product markets. Resource‐based products are then classified as homogeneous, differentiated, or highly differentiated goods. The paper argues that exports of countries specialized in differentiated or highly differentiated goods tend to be much more dynamic than of those specialized in homogeneous goods.     

Audit Analytical Procedures: A Field Investigation*

Abstract. Analytical procedures have become an increasingly important part of financial statement auditing over the last 10 years. First recommended for audits by the Auditing Standards Board in 1978, analytical procedures are mandated for planning and overall review purposes by Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 56. In response to increased concerns about audit efficiency and effectiveness, analytical procedures are increasingly being used in place of and as a supplement to substantive tests of details. Despite their increased use, little is known about how analytical procedures are performed in practice. The purpose of this study is to describe how auditors perform analytical procedures at the planning, substantive testing, and overall review stages of the audit. To accomplish this, we conducted a series of interviews with 36 audit professionals at various levels of experience and responsibility (i.e., seniors, managers, and partners) representing all the U.S. Big Six accounting firms. The contributions of our study are threefold. First, by contributing to a more complete understanding of how analytical procedures are performed, we provide the basis for accounting researchers to identify current analytical procedure problems/issues and, thus, perform more relevant research. Second, we provide the Auditing Standards Board members with relevant information about current practice for their deliberations on revised guidance for analytical procedures. Third, we provide educators with a characterization of analytical procedures as performed in practice, thereby facilitating their classroom coverage of this important topic. Résumé. Depuis une dizaine d'années, les procédés analytiques jouent un rôle de plus en plus important dans la vérification des états financiers. D'abord recommandés en 1978 par l'Auditing Standards Board pour les vérifications, les procédés analytiques sont exigés par le Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) n° 56 pour la planification et l'examen global. Compte tenu des préoccupations accrues que soulèvent l'efficience et l'efficacité de la vérification, l'on fait de plus en plus appel aux procédés analytiques en remplacement et en complément des procédés de corroboration détaillés. Malgré cette utilisation croissante, le mode d'application concrète des procédés analytiques est peu connu. Les auteurs se sont donné pour but de décrire comment les vérificateurs appliquent les procédés analytiques aux étapes de planification, d'application des procédés de corroboration et d'examen global de la vérification. Pour y parvenir, ils ont procédé à une série d'entrevues avec 36 experts de la vérification possédant divers degrés d'expérience et assumant divers niveaux de responsabilités (premiers vérificateurs, chefs de groupe et associés), qui représentaient les six principaux cabinets d'experts comptables des États-Unis. L'étude contribue à l'avancement des connaissances de trois façons. Premièrement, en permettant de mieux comprendre comment les procédés analytiques sont appliqués, elle munit les chercheurs en comptabilité des éléments nécessaires au diagnostic des problèmes ou des questions actuellement soulevés par les procédés analytiques et, partant, à la réalisation de travaux de recherche plus pertinents. Deuxièmement, elle offre aux membres de l'Auditing Standards Board de l'information pertinente relative aux méthodes courantes afin d'alimenter les délibérations relatives à l'orientation à donner aux procédés analytiques. Troisièmement, elle munit les enseignants d'une définition des procédés analytiques tels qu'ils sont appliqués concrètement, ce qui facilitera l'étude de cette importante question en classe.     

Managerial Discretion and Task Interdependence in Teams

This study investigates whether task interdependence in teams alters the effectiveness of managerial discretion in motivating team performance. Teams are particularly useful when employees' tasks are interdependent—that is, when the degree to which the increase in team performance resulting from a team member's effort depends on the effort and skills of the other team members. The reason is that the more interdependent tasks are, the more employees need to coordinate their actions and help one another to achieve their objectives. Prior research analyzing settings where task interdependence is absent suggests that providing managers with discretion over team bonus allocation can improve team performance relative to equal team bonus allocations because it strengthens the link between contributions to team output and rewards. Economic theory suggests that managerial discretion will also improve team performance when task interdependence is present and information is efficiently used. However, we use behavioral theory to predict that managerial discretion is less effective in the presence of task interdependence, because managers do not fully incorporate all relevant information into bonus decisions and because managerial discretion hurts coordination and helping, which is particularly problematic under task interdependence. We find that while discretion over compensation has a positive effect on team performance relative to equal bonus allocation when task interdependence is absent, it has a negative effect when task interdependence is present. Additional analyses provide support for our underlying theory. Results of our study contribute to both theory and practice by suggesting that, ironically, managerial discretion may be most useful when the potential benefits of employing teams are lowest and least useful when the potential benefits are highest. Our results help explain why firms often grant managers only partial or no discretion over team members' compensation.     

老年人的乡村游实证研究——以上海为例

近年人们对老年旅游与乡村旅游的研究一直比较多,但有关老年人的乡村旅游的专门研究还很少,而这样的研究对于开发合适的老年旅游产品和丰富乡村游客源市场具有重要意义。本文采用2006年4、5月份对上海老年人进行的问卷调查数据和访谈,用实证的方法对老年人乡村游的需求、动力因素和信息渠道选择进行分析,具体提出了一些针对老年人乡村游的产品开发和宣传促销的建议。     

在线评价发布网站对消费者购买意愿影响的实证研究

随着互联网对人们生活的渗透,在线评价作为消费者选择评估的依据,对购买决策产生重要影响。正面评价对企业销量产生直接影响,部分商家通过贿赂、威胁等手段强迫消费者给予正面评价,因此,中立态度的第三方点评网站尤为重要。但第三方点评网站并不是十全十美,由于其用户发布评价不存在限制,因此也存在一些非中立信息。围绕在线评价可信度与消费者购买意愿的影响因素,主要考察了网站类型对这两方面的影响因素进行探讨,其次考察了评价质量对它们的影响,进一步考察了不同性别消费者的差别。采用实验法进行研究,通过对自变量(网站类型及评价质量)不同水平的操控,设置了四种实验情景,分别是第三方点评网站与高质量评价的组合、第三方点评网站与低质量评价组合、销售网站与高质量评价组合、销售网站与低质量评价组合。利用双因子方差分析、事后检验对假设以及研究问题进行检验和考察。文章最后归纳了对理论的贡献,并根据研究结论提出第三方点评网站未来发展建议及企业营销启示。     

Firm Efficiency in Cambodia's Garment Industry on the Eve of the Multi‐Fiber Arrangement Termination

Applying a frontier analysis to 2004 firm‐level data, the present paper investigates firm efficiency and its determinants for Cambodia's garment industry. The study finds that firm experience and remuneration are crucial for improving scale efficiency and overall technical efficiency, while effective use of capital and adequate labor‐skill development are important for enhancing a firm's technical capabilities. Foreign‐owned enterprises with a relatively larger share of foreign labor outperform local firms. However, the present study does not reveal evidence of any advantages of a cluster‐type concentration in Phnom Penh and export markets, nor of any positive impacts of product specialization. The findings imply a need to support skill development for workers and local managers at the middle management level, and to streamline foreign direct investment measures to attract greater numbers of efficient foreign enterprises, so as to promote the development of the garment industry as a whole.     

The Role of Informal Controls and a Bargaining Opponent's Emotions on Transfer Pricing Judgments

While accounting research has demonstrated the role of a decision maker's own emotions during judgments, psychology research proposes that others’ emotions provide an informational signal to assess an opponent's limits, cooperativeness, and toughness during bargaining. We examine how a bargaining opponent's emotions provide information signals that can be used by a selling division manager during transfer pricing decisions and whether informal control system choices by corporate management to foster cooperation can create a context that influences how managers react to these signals. In an experiment, when informal controls to encourage cooperation were absent (less collaborative environment), managers’ selling price estimates were more conciliatory when the opponent was described as displaying negative emotions than when described as displaying positive emotions. However, when informal controls to cooperate were present (more collaborative environment), managers’ selling price estimates were more conciliatory when the opponent displayed positive rather than negative emotions. Path analyses suggest that managers’ perception of their opponents’ signals is the mechanism by which opponents’ emotions influence transfer‐price decisions. This study highlights the role of others’ emotions as information signals during accounting bargaining and provides insight into the context dependency of opponents’ emotions under various control system structures.     

The Disposition of Audit‐Detected Misstatements: An Examination of Risk and Reward Factors and Aggregation Effects*

While professional standards indicate that auditors have the responsibility to both detect and report material errors, empirical evidence shows that auditors waive approximately 50 percent of material errors (Wright and Wright 1997). Unlike prior research that has examined factors that may affect auditors' decisions to waive single material misstatements, the current study examines auditors' propensity to waive proposed adjusting journal entries (henceforth PAJEs) that exceed materiality, either individually or in aggregate, under several different aggregation contexts. These contexts are represented in the form of different cases that vary in terms of the materiality and income direction of the individual and aggregate PAJEs. The current paper posits that auditors will be more likely to waive PAJEs in excess of materiality (i.e., make a “non‐GAAS” decision) when there is potential reward for doing so or when there is little litigation risk from doing so. The case decisions of 155 audit partners and managers indicate that they are not affected by potential reward (Client's Relative Fees), but are affected by potential risk (the Client's Financial Health, the PAJE's Subjectivity, and the PAJEs' Aggregate Directional Effect on Income). However, these factors are not equally influential across all aggregation contexts. Additionally, auditors are more likely to make non‐GAAS decisions when they are evaluating immaterial PAJEs that aggregate to a material level than when they are evaluating a single material PAJE.     

Technological specialization in industrial countries: Patterns and dynamics

Technological Specialization in Industrial Countries: Patterns and Dynamics. — This paper employs distribution dynamics and patent data to study the empirical dynamics of technological specialization in industrial countries. Large countries spread innovation activities across a wider range of technologies, and their specialization level in a field displays lower probability to move around its initial level (country size effects). Mobility is high and asymmetric: it is difficult to improve specialization in very disadvantaged technologies, while high comparative advantages revert towards lower specialization levels. These findings undermine the theory of technological accumulation and path dependence, its implication of persistence in trade specialization patterns and the effectiveness of targeted industrial and technology policies.     

好口碑就有好印象吗?社交媒体中奢侈品牌口碑社会属性的负面效应

社交媒体中奢侈品牌口碑的社会属性较为凸显,口碑发布者的先赋地位会影响消费者对奢侈品牌的态度。先赋地位是指个体依赖于性别、原生家庭等先天资源所获得的社会地位。本研究从社会比较的视角,探究口碑发布者先赋地位逆转口碑效价法则的机理和边界,揭示出好口碑却带来坏印象的负面效应。研究结果表明,当口碑发布者具有先赋社会地位时,其正面口碑反而引发口碑接收者的恶意妒忌情绪,使接收者产生负面品牌态度。而且,当口碑接收者有较低社会流动性感知,或口碑内容具有较高品牌显著性时,口碑发布者先赋地位的负面效应更为凸显。本研究改变了社交媒体情境强化口碑效价法则的片面认知,在实践中有助于更深层次地理解社会阶层分化感知对消费者态度的影响,并为奢侈品牌的社交媒体营销提供管理建议。     

State‐owned Enterprises: NWSC's Turnaround in Uganda

Abstract: Oversight agencies in the water sector emphasize performance monitoring based on outputs, such as customers served, volume delivered, and service quality. However, bureaucratic tendencies can curtail operational innovation and creativity. In situations where managers lack full operating knowledge and capacities, proactive and consultative monitoring and regulation can yield benefits. This study reviews the results of Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation's (NWSC) approach to performance monitoring (and ‘self‐regulation’). The purpose of this study is to outline corrective actions undertaken by the NWSC Management and Staff to turn around performance, the sequencing of those steps, and the outcomes from this reform program. The NWSC focuses on promoting improvements in technical processes and input selection. Improvements in service quality and network expansion resulted from aligning performance improvement initiatives with the organization's financial performance and team development. The program's success required managing organizational rigidities and moving towards full cost‐recovery. In particular, organizational incentives and information flows encouraged managers to reduce rules and procedures that hindered strong performance. African proverbs are interspersed throughout the article to underscore key themes and lessons for those designing, implementing, and evaluating infrastructure sector reform initiatives.     

The effects of the planning memorandum,time pressure and individual auditor characteristics on audit managers' review time judgments*

Abstract. This study examines audit managers' review time effort (as reflected in their time estimates for working paper review) and the extent to which this effort is directed by another important audit manager activity: initial audit planning. Initial audit planning is manipulated by identifying certain audit areas as critical in the planning memo. Time pressure and individual auditor characteristics also are examined because auditing literature suggests that they may affect managers' review. The analysis is based on the responses, to an audit case, of 73 audit managers from ten large accounting firms. The results indicate that: 1) the managers exhibit reasonable agreement in budgeting over half of audit management time to review, 2) the initial audit plan directs their subsequent review, 3) time pressure does not significantly affect their estimated review times, and 4) firm affiliation, auditor experience level, and initial planning effort are associated with differences in managers' review practices and perceptions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for practice and further research.