Assessment of attitudes toward corporate social accountability in Britain

Few issues seem to have more long-term impact upon the relations between business and society than those of corporate attitudes toward greater public accountability, corporate behaviours in response to such attitudes, and societal reaction to those behaviours. Nevertheless, there has been relatively little rigorous behavioural research of managerial attitudes toward corporate social accountability. This empirical study researches the attitudes of management in Britain toward corporate social accountability. It assesses the corporate concern for social responsibility during the peak period of such concern by all interested parties (1974–1979). Vassilios P. Filios, B.B.A. (Athens), M. Soc. Sc. (Southampton), Ph.D. (Birmingham), has been a Research Associate of London Graduate Business School (1979–80) and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Birmingham (1978–80). During the last years he has been teaching at the Greek Productivity Centre and the Greek Management Association, management accounting to middle and top managers of Greek enterprises. He has also been involved in organizational consultative work. He has contributed with more than fifty articles to the Greek accounting and management journals. He is the author of three books, one in Socio-Economic Accounting, one on Cost Accounting Data for Management Decisions and the third on Public Sector Accounting. Articles of Dr. Filios have also appeared in Accounting and Business Research,in the Accounting Historians Journal,the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting,the Rivista Internationale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali,the Journal of Business Ethics, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Journal,etc. His research interests lie in the areas of Continental accounting evolution, E.E.C. accounting developments, and on socio-economic aspects of accounting.     

The ethics of the New Finance

This paper examines the normative ideas flowing from the contemporary theories that make up the New Finance. These theories include the Irrelevance Theorem, Efficient Market Hypothesis, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Options Pricing Model, and Agency Theory. The behavioral consequences that would ensue if everyone took the normative precepts of the New Finance seriously are subjected to a Kantian analysis to determine their ethical implications. It is concluded that the corporate world in the New Finance is a place where the firm can select any operating and financial strategies that it wishes, and the investors will respond immediately through a combination of homemade portfolio diversification, clever option positions, and carefully constructed agency relationships, all of which results in a pervasive nihilism. Recommendations are offered on how these features of the New Finance might be avoided or moderated. Dr. James O. Horrigan is the Forbes Professor of Management at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics of the University of New Hampshire. He has published articles on accounting and finance in the Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, and Journal of Finance.     

Cultural and socioeconomic constraints on international codes of ethics: Lessons from accounting

This paper provides a framework for the examination of cultural and socioeconomic factors that could impede the acceptance and implementation of a profession's international code of conduct. We apply it to the Guidelines on Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Federation of Accountants (1990). To examine the cultural effects, we use Hofstede's (1980a) four work-related values: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. The socioeconomic factors are the level of development of the profession and the availability of economic resources. We evaluate the applicability and relevance of the accounting guideline, and discuss the implications for accounting and other professions.Jeffrey R. Cohen is Assistant Professor of Accounting at Boston College. He is a CMA and a KPMG Peat Marwick Faculty Fellow. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Accounting Research, Decision Sciences, The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting. His work on ethics has appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting andThe CPA Journal.Laurie W. Pant is Associate Professor of Accounting at Suffolk University. She holds an MBA and DBA and an M.Ed. She is a CMA and serves on the editorial board ofIssues in Accounting Education. Her articles have appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting, The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting.David J. Sharp is Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Western Ontario. He received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. He is an ACMA and serves on the editorial board ofJournal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation. His articles have appeared in theMidland Corporate Finance Journal, Sloan Management Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting.     

Getting to the Bottom Line: An Exploration of Gender and Earnings Quality

For stakeholders, such as investors and lenders, to appropriately assess a company’s financial performance, the reported accounting earnings must closely reflect the economic reality of the organization’s financial activity throughout the reporting period. The degree to which reported earnings capture economic reality is called earnings quality. Managers have an ethical obligation to report high quality earnings to interested stakeholders in a timely matter. Accounting research has identified conditions within an organization, such as management compensation contracts and pending litigation that can impact earnings quality. We extend this line of research by exploring whether another characteristic of an organization, gender diversity in senior management, influences the quality of reported earnings. Companies with more women in senior management are found to be more profitable and have higher stock returns after initial public offerings than those with fewer women in the management ranks. Our findings suggest that the improved bottom line for companies with more women senior executives is not produced through the management of earnings or lower quality earnings. Instead, earnings quality is positively associated with gender diversity in senior management. Gopal Krishnan is an associate professor and holds the VSCPA Northern Chapter Professorship in Public Accounting at the School of Management at George Mason University. He has published several articles on corporate governance and the role of auditors in journals such as Accounting Horizons, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. Linda Parsons is an assistant professor at the School of Management at George Mason University. She is the author of several papers that examine the value relevance of accounting in the nonprofit sector, especially as it impacts decision-making by donors. Her work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting, and Journal of Accounting Literature.     

Social process auditing: A survey and some suggestions

In this paper the social indicators research is linked with accountability at corporate and national level. The case for auditing social measurements is advanced and a possible scheme is proposed. An analytical survey of all the related developments in social accounting is presented and certain conclusions are drawn. Finally, an interdisciplinary approach to accounting for the quality of life is critically examined in the framework of a mixed economy that today prevails in the western world. Vassilios P. Filios, B.B.A. (Athens), M. Soc. Sc. (Southampton), Ph.D. (Birmingham), has been a Research Associate of London Graduate Business School (1979–80) and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Birmingham (1978–80). During the last years he has been teaching at the Greek Productivity Centre and the Greek Management Association, management accounting to middle and top managers of Greek enterprises. He has also been involved in organizational consultative work. He has contributed with more than fifty articles to the Greek accounting and management journals. He is the author of three books, one in Socio-Economic Accounting, one on Cost Accounting Data for Management Decisions and the third on Public Sector Accounting. Articles of Dr. Filios have also appeared in Accounting and Business Research, in the Accounting Historians Journal, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, the Rivista Internationale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali, the Journal of Business Ethics, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Journal, etc. His research interests lie in the areas of Continental accounting evolution, E.E.C. accounting developments, and on socio-economic aspects of accounting.     

Ethical judgments on selected accounting issues: An empirical study

This study investigates the judgments made by accounting majors when confronted with selected ethical dilemmas that pertain to accounting practice. Drawing upon literature in philosophy and moral psychology, it then examines these judgments for potential gender differences. Five case studies, each involving a specific ethical dilemma that a practicing accountant might face, were administered to 151 acounting majors (males = 67; females = 84), in four sections of intermediate accounting II at a large, state university. The results suggest that although the vast majority of participants wouldnot engage in unethical behavior, a reasonable opportunity exists to improve the participants' ethical awareness. The results do not, however, support the existence of gender differences in ethical judgments. Keith G. Stanga is Distinguished Professor of Accounting at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His most recent publications include a book, Intermediate Accounting(3rd edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989, 1486 pp.), and articles published in the Journal of Accountancy, Accounting and Business Research, Accounting Horizons,and Advances in Accounting.Professor Stanga's teaching and research interests are in financial accounting. His most recent research topics have included the relevance of segment cash flow reporting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board's conceptual framework, and the last-in, first-out method of inventory costing. Richard A. Turpen is an Assistant Professor at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His primary teaching interest is in financial accounting, while his research focuses mainly on competitive issues in the market for audit services. Professor Turpen has published most recently in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.     

A validation and extension of a multidimensional ethics scale

Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) proposed and refined a multidimensional ethics scale. This study replicates and extends their work by examining the generalizability of the scale beyond marketing to accounting, and to subjects from across the United States and other countries. Results indicate that, in general, the scale holds for this different sample and context. However, an additional utilitarian construct emerged in the current study as important for accounting academics in their ethical decision-making. We also found that when we refined Reidenbach and Robin's measure of intention to make a particular choice, a social desirability bias or halo effect was identified. Methodological implications for business ethics research are also presented.Jeffrey R. Cohen is Associate Professor of Accounting at Boston College. He is a C.M.A. and a KPMG Peat Marwick Faculty Fellow. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Accounting Research, Decision Sciences andThe Organizational Behavior Teaching Review. His work on Ethics has appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting, andThe CPA Journal.Laurie W. Pant is Associate Professor of Accounting at Suffolk University. She holds an M.B.A. and a D.B.A. and an M.Ed. She serves on the editorial board ofIssues in Accounting Education. Her articles on Ethics have appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting andThe Organizational Behavior Teaching Review.David Sharp is Assistant Professor of Accounting at University of Western Ontario. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. He serves on the editorial board of theJournal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation. His articles have appeared inThe Midland Corporate Finance Journal andSloan Management Review.     

The Social Norms of Tax Compliance: Evidence from Australia,Singapore, and the United States

Tax compliance is a concern to governments around the world. Prior research (Alm, J. and I. Sanchez: 1995, KYKLOS 48, 3–19) has attributed unexplained inter-country differences in compliance rates to differences in social norms. Economics researchers studying tax compliance in the United States (U.S.) (see for example J. Andreoni et al.: 1998, Journal of Economic Literature 36, 818–860) have called for more attention to social (as opposed to economic) influences on tax compliance. In this study, we extend this prior research by explicitly examining the role of social norms [Cialdini, R. and M. Trost: 1998, The Handbook of Social Psychology (Oxford University Press, New York)] on tax compliance in three different countries. We test our research hypotheses using a hypothetical compliance scenario, which was administered in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. There were differences in compliance rates and social norms among the three countries. Factor analysis of the social norm questions identified three distinct social norm constructs. Two of these factors were significant in explaining tax compliance behavior. The first and most influential factor was taxpayers’ own personal moral beliefs, along with the beliefs of those close to them (e.g., friends and important others). The second significant factor represented societal views of proper behavior. We conclude that social norms help to explain tax compliance intentions and why tax compliance rates are higher than would be predicted by strictly economic models. Donna D. Bobek is an Associate Professor in the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on taxpayer and tax professional judgment and decision-making, with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. Donna has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting, Organizations & Society, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of the American Taxation Association, Advances in Taxation and Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research. John T. Sweeney is the Ted Saldin Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the Chair of the Department of Accounting at Washington State University. His research interests include accounting ethics and organizational justice. He has published in a number of accounting research journals, including Accounting, Organizations, & Society, The Accounting Review, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Research on Accounting Ethics. Robin W. Roberts is the Al and Nancy Burnett Eminent Scholar and Director of the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. His recent research focuses on ethics and regulation in the accounting profession and on corporate social responsibility. Robin has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting and the Public Interest, Accounting, Organizations & Society, Advances in Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting.     

Does East Meet West in Business Ethics: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces and summarizes selected papers from the first World Business Ethics Forum held in Hong Kong and Macau in November 2006, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University and by the University of Macau. Business Ethics in the East remain distinct from those in the West, but the distinctions are becoming less pronounced and the ethical traffic flows both ways. Gabriel D, Donleavy is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau teaching Business Ethics, Business Negotiation and Advanced Management. His work has been published in Critical Perspectives in Accounting, Corporate Governance, the Journal of Business Ethics, Advances in Applied Business Strategy, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Long Range Planning and the Asian Review of Accounting which he co-founded. Kit-Chun Joanna LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Labour Economics. Simon S.M. Ho is Dean and Professor at the School of Business and Director for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He founded the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the world’s first master programme in corporate governance & directorship in 2004. He published over 40 academic refereed articles in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting, Accounting & Finance, Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance.     

Review and analysis of the empirical research in corporate social accounting

This paper is an attempt to summarize and evaluate the current state of empirical research on corporate social performance and policy. The extreme complexity and scope of the area and the recency of much of the relevant work makes the study preliminary, partial, and a little presumptuous out of necessity given the previous absence of such a systematic summary and analysis of empirical research. The present effort, however, may be useful in facilitating and channeling future empirical research.No single work advances understanding very far. The aims of a scientific work are limited by the formal character of the theory, by the phenomena it encompasses, by the types of subjects it studies, and by the data it gathers.(Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon, in: Human Problem Solving, 1972) Vassilios P. Filios, B.B.A. (Athens), M. Soc. Sc. (South-ampton), Ph.D. (Birmingham), has been a Research Associate of London Graduate Business School (1979–80) and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Birmingham (1978–80). During the last years he has been teaching at the Greek Productivity Centre and the Greek Management Association, management accounting to middle and top managers of Greek enterprises. He has also been involved in organizational consultative work. He has contributed with more than fifty articles to the Greek accounting and management journals. He is the author of three books, one in Socio-Economic Accounting, one on Cost Accounting Data for Management Decisions and the third on Public Sector Accounting. Articles of Dr. Filios have also appeared in Accounting and Business Research, in the Accounting Historians Journal, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, the Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali, the Journal of Business Ethics, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Journal, etc. His research interest lie in the areas of Continental accounting evolution, E.E.C. accounting developments, and on socio-economic aspects of accounting.     

Moral Judgment and Causal Attributions: Consequences of Engaging in Earnings Management

Recent, well-publicized accounting scandals have shown that the penalties outsiders impose on those found culpable of earnings management can be severe. However, less is known about how colleagues within internal labor markets respond when they believe fellow managers have managed earnings. Designers of responsibility accounting systems need to understand the reputational costs managers impose on one another within internal labor markets. In an experimental study, 159 evening MBA students were asked to assume the role of a manager in a company and respond to a scenario in which another manager (the target manager) has the opportunity to engage in earnings management. Participants provided causal attributions, assessed the morality of the target manager, and indicated whether they would change their judgments about the target manager’s reputation. The study manipulated three between-subjects factors: (1) whether the target manager chose to engage in earnings management, (2) whether the company’s budgetary control system was rigid or flexible, and (3) whether the target manager’s work history was average or above average. We found that causal attributions are affected more by the budgetary systems when the target did not manage earnings than when the manager did. We also found that morality judgments were significantly associated with the target manager’s behavior, but not with the budgetary system. In addition, participants’ judgments about the target manager’s reputation were more strongly associated with morality judgments than with causal attributions. We discuss implications of the role of reputation in management control systems design. Steven E. Kaplan received his B.S. degree from Arizona State University and his graduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Professor Kaplan has published in numerous academic and professional journals, including Advances in Accounting, Cost and Management, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Accounting, and Auditing: A Journal of practice and Theory. His current research focuses primarily on auditor judgment. He is a member of the American Accounting Association. Professor Kaplan has two daughters, Leah and Serena. He enjoys trout fishing and bowling. James C. McElroy is University Professor and the Bill and Liz Goodwin Faculty Fellow in the Department of Management at Iowa State University. He has a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from the University of South Dakota and a B.S. from Jamestown College. Dr. McElroy has published over 55 refereed articles in a variety of journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Journal of Educational Computing Research and Computers in Human Behavior. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Labor Research, and Journal of Managerial Issues. His current research deals with personality and computer use, self handicapping behavior, and technology as a form of object language. Susan P. Ravenscroft is the Roger P. Murphy Professor Accounting and currently teaches managerial accounting and governmental and non-profit accounting. She and Professor Steve Kaplan have won the Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics. She has a PhD from Michigan State University. Dr. Ravenscroft’s research interests include ethics, pedagogical issues, and the social role of accounting information. Charles B. Shrader is a Bill and Liz Goodwin professor of Management in the College of Business at Iowa State University. His PhD and MBA degrees are from Indiana University. His current research interests include the relationships of strategy, diversity, and corporate social responsibility with organizational performance.     

Accounting ethics and education: A response

In this article we review the principal directions that an American Accounting Association committee has taken in the past three years to encourage the teaching of ethics in accounting programs and/or courses in higher education. We also (1) briefly comment on the place of accounting ethics in both higher education and continuing professional education and (2) provide some brief final comments.Dr. Stephen E. Loeb is Professor and Chairman of Accounting and the Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Auditing at the University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Loeb is co-editor of theJournal of Accounting and Public Policy.Dr. Joanne Rockness is an Associate Professor of Accounting at North Carolina State University. She has been a member of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee since 1988. Dr. Rockness has published in the areas of ethics and social responsibility in journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society,Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, andIssues in Accounting Education.The authors are respectively Chair (1991–92) and Chair (1990–91) of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee. The authors appreciate the comments of William W. May on portions of the paper. The opinions expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee.     

Ethics Programs, Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Satisfaction

Companies offer ethics codes and training to increase employees’ ethical conduct. These programs can also enhance individual work attitudes because ethical organizations are typically valued. Socially responsible companies are likely viewed as ethical organizations and should therefore prompt similar employee job responses. Using survey information collected from 313 business professionals, this exploratory study proposed that perceived corporate social responsibility would mediate the positive relationships between ethics codes/training and job satisfaction. Results indicated that corporate social responsibility fully or partially mediated the positive associations between four ethics program variables and individual job satisfaction, suggesting that companies might better manage employees’ ethical perceptions and work attitudes with multiple policies, an approach endorsed in the ethics literature. Sean Valentine (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Management in the college of Business at the University of Wyoming. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, organizational behavior, and human resource management. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Business Ethics. Gary Fleischman (Ph.D., Texas Tech University) is an Associate Professor and is the McGee Hearne and Paiz Faculty Scholar in Accounting at the University of Wyoming. His teaching expertise is in accounting and entrepreneurship and his research interests are in business ethics and behavioral business research. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, The International Journal of Accounting and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Ethical Exemplification and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct: An Empirical Investigation of Auditor and Public Perceptions

This research applies the impression management theory of exemplification in an accounting study by identifying and measuring differences in both auditor and public perceptions of exemplary behaviors. The auditors were divided into two groups, one of which reported self-perceptions (A-S) while the other group reported their perceptions of a typical auditor (A-O). There were two separate public groups, which gave their perceptions of a typical auditor and were divided based on their levels of accounting sophistication. The more sophisticated public group was comprised of bank loan officers (LO) while the less sophisticated public group consisted of investment club members (IC). Comparisons were made on 30 behaviors contained in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, which served as the basis for the research instrument. Profile analysis, a special form of MANOVA technique, was used to analyze the results. A-S perceptions were the highest of the four treatment levels and were significantly higher (i.e., more exemplary) than the perceptions of both the A-O and LO groups. The more sophisticated user group (LO) provided the lowest perceptions of the four treatment levels. For at least four of the six measures, the LO treatment group perceived the typical auditor to be less exemplary than both the IC and A-O treatments. There were no differences in perceptions between the A-O group and IC. Additional analysis revealed that auditors overrated the degree to which the public relied on financial statements. However, both public groups reported a reasonably high level of reliance on financial statements when making decisions. Philip A. Brown is an Associate Professor and Directtor of the Accounting Program at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He has a bachelor's degree from Harding University, an MBA from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. His research interests are in accounting ethics and in accounting education. He has published in Advances in Accounting, The Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, and others. He is a CPA in the State of Arkansas. Morris H. Stocks serves as the Dean of the Patterson School of Accountancy at the Universtiy of Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Trevecca Nazarene University, his Masters degree from Middle Tennessee State University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Mississippi. He is a behavioral accounting researcher and has published in Accounting, Organizations and Society, Accounting Horizons, Behavioural Research in Accounting, Decision Sciences Journal, Advances in Accounting, Advances in Accounting Information Systems, Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Advances in Taxation and others. W. Mark Wilder is KPMG Lecturer and Associate Professor of Accountancy at The University of Mississippi. His educational background includes a bachelor's degree in mathematics from The University of Alabama, an MBA from the University of South Alabama, and a Ph.D. in Accounting from Florida State University. He is a CPA in the State of Mississippi. Mark has published in Accounting Horizons, Advances in Taxation, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, the Journal of Computer and Information Systems, the CPA Journal, and others. In the past 2 years he has received several awards, including the top two campus-wide faculty awards at Ole Miss and also the MSCPA Outstanding Educator Award. In 2004 he was inducted into the Alabama Tennis Hall of Fame.     

Gender differences in determining the ethical sensitivity of future accounting professionals

This paper explores possible connections between gender and the willingness to tolerate unethical academic behavior. Data from a sample of 285 accounting majors at four public institutions reveal that females are less tolerant than males when questioned about academic misconduct. Statistically significant differences were found for 17 of 23 questionable activities. Furthermore, females were found to be less cynical and less often involved in academic dishonesty. Overall, the results support the finding of Betz et al. (1989) that the gender socialization approach dominates the structural approach. Elsie Coker Ameen is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Business at Coker College. Professor Ameen has published articles in The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Review of Financial Economics, and other journals. Daryl M. Guffey is an assistant professor at East Carolina University. He joined the faculty at East Carolina University in 1995. Dr. Guffey has published several articles in such journals as The Financial Review, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Review of Financial Economics, Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, and The Accounting Educators' Journal. Professor Guffey's research has been supported by a grant from the Ernst & Young Foundation. Jeffrey J. McMillan, Jr. is an associate professor of accounting at Clemson University. He joined the faculty of Clemson University in 1990. Dr. McMillan has published articles in such journals as The Accounting Review, Advances in Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, and The CPA Journal.     

Can business ethics enhance corporate governance? Evidence from a survey of UK insurance executives

This paper seeks to explore the implementation of corporate ethical culture and policies as an adjunct to formal forms of corporate governance. The insurance industry utilises a variety of external governance structures, but is almost unique in that stock companies (which are exposed to an external market for corporate control) and mutual companies (which are owned by a subset of their customers) are in active competition. A questionnaire survey of senior executives in U.K. insurance companies was undertaken to explore the implementation of ethical policies and codes, to investigate ethical attitudes, and to analyze the extent to which these policies and attitudes varied among companies. The results suggest that ethical policies have a higher profile and ethical attitudes and behaviour are more positive in mutual as opposed to stock insurance companies. These findings support the contention that a strong corporate ethical culture may be utilised to enhance formal corporate governance instruments. Stephen Diacon and Christine Ennew both work in the School of Management and Finance at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Dr. Diacon is Senior Lecturer in Insurance Studies and Director of the University of Nottingham Insurance Centre. Dr. Ennew is Reader in Marketing and Associate Editor of International Journal of Bank Marketing.     

Ethics in New Zealand organisations

The main objective of this study is to assess the state of business ethics in New Zealand organisations. The survey results suggest that top New Zealand companies give low priorities to ethical values. A number of suggestions have been put forward by the respondents to improve the corporate ethical environment. These include commitment of top management, written and published codes of ethics, comprehensive accounting standards and annual reporting and monitoring and an efficient legal and education system.Dr. Kazi Firoz Alam is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Management Accounting, Massey University, New Zealand. He has been teaching Accounting to MBA students since 1984 and has supervised students in different areas of accounting, including tax ethics. He has written three books on Accounting and Taxation and has published articles on Corporate taxation and Company Financial Policy, The Influence of Tax Incentives on Investment Decisions and Factors affecting Investing Decisions. Some of the journals where his publications have appeared includeMetu Studies in Development, Managerial and Decision Economics andInvestment Analysts Journal.     

Do the Numbers Add Up to Different Views? Perceptions of Ethical Faculty Behavior Among Faculty in Quantitative Versus Qualitative Disciplines

Faculty across a wide range of academic disciplines at 89 AASCB-accredited U.S. business schools were surveyed regarding their perceptions of the ethical nature of faculty behaviors related to undergraduate course content, student evaluation, educational environment, research issues, financial and material transactions, and social and sexual relationships. We analyzed responses based on whether instruction in the academic discipline focused mainly on quantitative topics or largely on qualitative issues. Faculty who represented quantitative disciplines such as accounting and finance (n = 383) were more likely to view behaviors such as selling complimentary textbooks and grading on a strict curve as more ethical than faculty representing more qualitative disciplines such as management and marketing (n = 447). In contrast, faculty in quantitative disciplines were more likely to view behaviors such as showing controversial media and bringing up sexual or racial charged matters as less ethical than their counterparts. Whereas these differences may be attributed to the respondents’ academic backgrounds, the large level of agreement on ethical behaviors raises questions about the growing influence of business disciplines that operate within more unified research and teaching paradigms. Linda Kidwell (PhD, Louisiana State University) is an associate professor in the Accounting Department at the University of Wyoming where she teaches auditing as well as accounting ethics. Her research interests include academic ethics, auditing ethics, and governmental auditing. Her research has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Teaching Business Ethics, CPA Journal, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and elsewhere. She has taught in the United States, Australia, and Canada. She has also been a frequent faculty mentor in the National Conference on Ethics in America held annually at the United States Military Academy (West Point). Roland Kidwell (PhD, Louisiana State University) is an associate professor in the Management and Marketing Department at the University of Wyoming where he teaches courses in new ventures, human resource management and general management. His current research interests include ethical issues involving family businesses and new ventures, social entrepreneurship, and workplace deviance such as withholding effort (free riding, shirking, social loafing) in organizational contexts. He is co-editor of a book of readings and cases, Managing Organizational Deviance (2005, Sage), and his research has appeared in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Psychology and elsewhere.     

A Critical Analysis of the Accounting Industry’s Voluntary Code of Conduct

The public accounting industry’s voluntary code of conduct in the United States is the American Institute of CPA’s Code of Professional Conduct. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the accounting industry’s current code is limited in its ability to serve the public interest in three respects. Specifically, the code is input-based, requires no third-party attestation of compliance with the code, and contains no public reporting process of code compliance/noncompliance at the accounting firm level. We propose that the accounting profession should reorient its largely input-based Code of Professional Conduct to include output-based performance measurements. We also conclude that third-party attestation of compliance with the profession’s code would help to promote compliance. Finally, we maintain that the accounting industry should initiate a public reporting process at the individual accounting firm level. Such a requirement would add a degree of public accountability as to whether a firm complies or fails to comply with the industry’s voluntary code of conduct. John D. Neill, Ph.D., CPA, is a professor of accounting at Abilene Christian University and has previously published articles in numerous journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Accounting Literature, Accounting Horizons, Advances in Accounting,theFinancial Analysts Journal,and theJournal of Accounting, Ethics, and Public Policy. O. Scott Stovall, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of accounting at Abilene Christian University and has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Management Accounting Quarterly, and Cases from Management Accounting Practice. Darryl L. Jinkerson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management and chair of the Management Sciences Department at Abilene Christian University and was formerly the Director of Assessment and Measurement for Arthur Andersen.     

The Corporate Social Performance Content of Innovation in the U.K.

This article investigates the influence of innovation on the relationship between corporate strategy and social issues. Specifically, we employ firm-level data for a large sample of U.K. companies drawn from a diverse range of industrial sectors to investigate, given innovation, the determinants of both the probability that the innovation brings reduced environmental impacts and/or improved health and safety, and the strength of this effect. In this connection, we find evidence of a dichotomy between product and process innovations, and roles for firm size, industrial sector, a foreign market presence, access to various information sources (e.g. universities and government research organisations) and the extent to which activities are constrained by regulation. Furthermore, we find a tendency for the influences of many of these factors to vary between older and newer firms. Stephen Pavelin is a Reader in Economics at the University of Reading, UK. His current research agenda focuses upon the application of economic analysis to key issues relating to corporate social responsibility, such as the effect of corporate social performance on the reputation and financial performance of firms. Recent publications include articles in the Journal of Management Studies, the Journal of Business Research, the International Journal of Industrial Organisation, the Journal of Business Ethics, Financial Management, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Business Ethics: A European Review and the European Management Journal. Lynda A. Porter is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Reading, UK. Her current research agenda focuses upon public policy issues in international economics, including FDI promotion and international competition in corporate tax rates, but also encompasses corporate social responsibility- largely focussing upon CSR issues that pertain particularly to international business. Her most recent publication appeared in the Journal of Business Research.