The interaction between national and organizational cultures in accounting firms

This paper reports the results of an empirical study of the interaction between national and organizational cultures at the firm level. Using Hofstede's Value Survey Module, the concept of culture was operationalized in six accounting firms in The Netherlands. Three of these firms were local offices of international “Big Eight” accounting firms with a strong U.S.-orientation in their organizational philosophies and policies, whereas the other three firms were Dutch in origin and organization. All six firms work virtually entirely with Dutch employees. We were specifically interested in any influences of the U.S. culture upon the Big Eight firms. For two Hofstede's four cultural dimensions, i.e. Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity, significant effects of the U.S. culture upon the organizational cultures of the Big Eight firms were found. Further analysis showed that these results may rather be due to (self-)selection than to socialization mechanisms.     

Firm characteristics and selection of international accounting software

We report the results of a survey of international U.S. companies focused on the selection of international accounting software. We investigate the relationships among firm characteristics (size and degree of internationalization), international features of accounting software (multicurrency, multireporting, and multilingual), and general selection criteria (support and security, hardware and operating platforms, and flexibility and cost). We find that firms’ reported preferences for international features differ depending on size and degree of internationalization. However, the relationship between firm characteristics and general selection criteria is not significant. The implication from our results is that firm characteristics should be an important consideration in the selection and design of international accounting software.     

The Determinants of Financial Derivatives Use in the United Kingdom Life Insurance Industry

This paper examines the determinants of financial derivatives use in the United Kingdom life insurance industry. We estimate a probit regression model and a Heckman two-stage sample selection regression model using a sample of eighty-eight U.K. life insurers in 1995. Our results indicate that the propensity to use derivative instruments is positively related to a firm's size, leverage and international links, and negatively related to the extent of reinsurance. We also find that mutual life insurance firms have a greater propensity than stock firms to use derivatives. The positive relation with leverage and the negative relation with reinsurance support the hypothesis that U.K. life insurers use derivatives to offset risk, rather than as a speculative means of income generation. Firm size and organizational form are the main influences on the extent of financial derivatives use.     

Are fewer firms paying more dividends?: The international evidence

This study examines aggregate patterns of dividends and earnings for the two largest equity markets outside of the U.S. over 1990–2001. Although aggregate U.K. and Japanese dividends exhibit modest increases, neither the magnitude nor the trend is comparable to the U.S. experience. Further, we note important differences in the level of aggregate dividends between keiretsu, independent and hybrid firms. This suggests the importance of corporate organizational form in understanding Japanese dividend behavior over time. We find evidence of dividend concentration in the U.K., but not in Japan. Fewer firms are paying more dividends, but not everywhere. We find evidence of earnings concentration in the U.K., but such consolidation in Japan is limited to independent firms. Our analysis offers mixed results for the relation between a firm's earnings and its ability to pay dividends. Few U.K. firms with negative earnings pay dividends while 73% of comparable Japanese firms do. The U.K. economy rather than the Japanese, increasingly resembles a two-tier system with a small set of very high earners providing a disproportional percentage of aggregate dividends. Finally, our evidence suggests that the general stability of Japanese and U.K. payout practices is inconsistent with a reduced propensity to pay dividends.     

The effect of management incentives and cross-listing status on the accounting treatment of R&D spending

This paper investigates the effect of management incentives and cross-listing status on the accounting treatment of research and development (R&D) spending for a sample of Canadian hi-tech and biopharmaceutical firms. U.S. GAAP adopts an immediate expensing rule for all R&D spending except for software development costs for which technological feasibility has been established. Contrary to the U.S., Canadian and international standard setters recommend capitalization if development costs meet certain criteria. Because those criteria are largely based on management judgment, capitalization of R&D spending is an accounting choice that can be used for income manipulation or signaling.Using a logit model, we examine how the decision to capitalize R&D spending is influenced by the cross-listing status and several other key firm characteristics that are well documented in the accounting literature. We find that the probability of capitalizing R&D spending increases for cross-listed and non-cross-listed firms in the software industry. The probability of capitalizing R&D spending also increases for firms that are more leveraged, more mature, and have higher level of cash flows from operations. However, the probability of capitalizing R&D spending decreases for larger corporations, firms with more concentrated ownership and highly profitable firms. Overall our results indicate a preference for Canadian firms in the software industry to emulate U.S. accounting practices for R&D spending. They also suggest that firms use the decision to capitalize or expense R&D spending as an earning management tool to either meet debt covenants or to smooth income.     

我国现阶段会计师事务所组织模式研究

具有市场经济监督职责的会计师事务所是一种特殊的自主经营的企业组织形态。随着中国市场经济的迅速发展,提供独立、客观、公正的第三方审计和鉴证服务的会计师事务所应在各种制度上做出相应的调整与变迁。会计师事务所组织模式的选择,是行业其他制度变迁的原因,又是行业制度变迁的主要内容,关系到委托者、被审计者及会计师事务所各方经济权益的实现及法律责任的合理规避,因此,在独资型、公司制与合伙制中选择适应市场经济体制发展、与国际接轨、具有竞争力、符合注册会计师自身执业和道德规范的组织模式是现代会计师事务所值得关注的问题。会计师事务所的三种组织模式中,合伙制较公司制和独资型更合理有效,而有限责任合伙制更是当今国际社会推崇的组织模式。     

Comparing schools in the U.K. and New Zealand: individualizing and socializing accountabilities and some implications for management control

This paper contrasts educational reforms in New Zealand and the U.K. exploring the role of accountability in processes of management control. The paper focuses on the use of performance measurement in schools. Performance evaluation in the U.K. is, arguably, individualized, in New Zealand an organizational focus is retained The paper will seek to provide an account of the way that individuals have been called to account for their performance (Townley, 1996). Roberts' (1996) discussion of individualizing and socializing accountability is central because of its key claim that some forms of organizational accountability provide a separation of the strategic and moral consequences of action. This is seen as potentially damaging as it may free instrumental action from any form of ethical constraint, equally it may undermine any potential for collective action. In exploring this dimension we will examine the technologies of both financial accounting and management accounting which promote particular approaches to performance evaluation, accountability and control. Our argument raises questions as to the relevance of management accounting as a tool of control and whilst recognizing that financial accounting is also limited suggests that it is worth reconsidering its role in the context of a broader approach to performance evaluation.@e$g0     

Relevance of U.S.-GAAP for Japanese companies

We use differences in U.S.-GAAP and Japanese-GAAP accounting measures to evaluate the value-relevance of U.S.-GAAP reports. We show data provided in U.S.-GAAP financial statements of Japanese firms is value-relevant beyond that contained in domestic-GAAP statements. Our results complement extant research and support the proposition that U.S. reporting methods provide value-relevant data. Understanding the value-relevance of data from Japanese firms is important in its own right because of the major role these firms play in intenational markets. We also provide evidence on significant transnational firms that voluntarily provide U.S.-GAAP statements.     

Emerging Derivatives Markets: The Case of Chile

We compare the performance of firms affiliated with diversified business groups with the performance of unaffiliated firms in Turkey, an emerging market. We address the question of whether group-affiliated firms create internal capital markets or control large cash flows. Our findings indicate that group affiliation improves a firm's accounting performance, but not stock market performance. Deviation of cash-flow rights from voting rights has a negative but insignificant effect on accounting performance, but a significant effect on market performance. We also find that a firm's accounting, but not stock market, performance increases with the level of group diversification. Our results show that internal capital markets play an important role for the existence of business groups in an emerging market context.     

IAS Versus U.S. GAAP: Assessing the Quality of Financial Reporting in South Africa,the United Kingdom,and the United States

In this study, we investigate whether financial reporting, using International Accounting Standards (IAS) results in quality disclosures, given differences in institutional and market forces across legal jurisdictions. This study contributes to the global accounting debate by utilizing U.S.-based companies complying with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP) as a benchmark for measuring the quality of IAS as applied by South Africa (S.A.) and United Kingdom (U.K.) companies. Although South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States are common law countries with strong investor protection, South Africa's institutional factors and market forces vary from that of the U.K. and the U.S. South Africa's financial market is less developed than that of the U.K. and the U.S. We compare the discretionary accruals of firms complying with U.S. GAAP to the discretionary accruals of U.K. and S.A. firms complying with IAS. This allows a comparison between companies (S.A. and U.K.) operating under different institutional factors and market forces that have adopted IAS versus U.S. companies that report under U.S. GAAP. Our sample, consisting of U.S., S.A., and U.K. listed firms, contains 3,166 firm-year observations relating to the period 1999–2001. The results of our study indicate that S.A firms utilizing IAS report absolute values of discretionary accruals that are significantly greater than absolute values of discretionary accruals of U.S. firms utilizing U.S. GAAP. In contrast, U.K. firms utilizing IAS report discretionary accruals that are significantly less than the discretionary accruals of companies in the United States reporting under U.S. GAAP. This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the quality of financial information prepared under IAS and its dependency on the institutional factors and market forces of a country.     

Accounting,management and organizational change: A comparative study of local government

This is a study of management accounting in local government in the context of significant change (managerial, organizational and environmental). The study is based on four case studies: two in Scotland and two in New Zealand. The paper explores two competing theories of organizational life—the instrumental view as espoused by New Public Management proponents, and the socially constructed, as advocated by new institutional theorists. This study locates management accounting at the centre of these changes in New Zealand with a more limited role in the U.K. where there is evidence of institutional isomorphism.     

Empirical evidence on factors significant for employment in government accounting

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions of government agencies regarding the importance of selected job characteristics in entry-level accountants. We collected our data with a survey instrument which contained detailed questions on appearance, education, extracurricular activities, performance, and personality. Our sample consisted of federal agencies with a known proclivity to hire accounting graduates. In addition, for comparative purposes we also sampled the 11 largest U.S. public accounting firms. We mailed the instrument to both the treatment and the control group of firms. Our results indicated that a number of achievement, personality, and social factors were particularly important to each employer group. Interoccupational comparisons revealed minimal overlap in the factors of particular significance to both federal agency and public accounting firm recruiters. These findings suggest that different knowledge, skills, and personality traits might be crucial to students seeking employment with federal agencies as opposed to large public accounting firms.     

The Influence of U.S. GAAP on the Harmony of Accounting Measurement Policies of Large Companies in the U.K. and Australia

U.S. GAAP has increasingly become an influence on accounting practices in other countries, even aside from those traditionally considered under direct U.S. influence. The change arises from the large number of U.S. accounting standards, non-U.S. companies listing on U.S. stock exchanges, and the amount of U.S. direct investment abroad. As the impact of U.S. GAAP varies across countries, it may affect international accounting harmony. This idea is tested by examining the level of international harmony for eleven accounting measurement policies in matched pairs of large companies from Australia and the U.K., two countries with historically strong cultural and economic links. It is argued that, in recent decades, accounting practice in Australia, more so than in the U.K., has become increasingly U.S.-oriented. The concepts of harmony of Tay and Parker (1990) and Archer et al . (1996) are employed. International harmony is measured by the between-country C index and chi-square test; national harmony by van der Tas's (1988) H index. While considerable national harmony is found in the U.K. for seven and in Australia for five accounting policies, there is considerable or complete international harmony for only three policies. Evidence is presented of the influence of U.S. GAAP as one factor explaining the poor degree of U.K./Australia international harmony. Australian companies appear to follow U.S. GAAP to a greater extent than do U.K. companies. The state of partial harmony thus existing restricts international comparability of accounting reports and may cause problems for regulators.     

The organizational culture of public accounting firms: evidence from Taiwanese local and US affiliated firms

This study examines the organizational cultures of public accounting firms with data from US affiliated international accounting firms in Taiwan and Taiwanese local firms. Hypotheses are tested about the impact of the national culture of the US firms on their Taiwanese affiliates, and about cultural differences across function and rank. The study extends previous research by (1) examining an oriental country whose culture is significantly different from that of the US, (2) using the Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D. D., & Sanders G. (1990). Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 286–316 practices-based measure of organizational culture, and (3) examining the importance of the fit between employee preferences and organizational culture in influencing organizational commitment, job satisfaction and propensity to remain with the organization. Support is found for the cultural impact and fit hypotheses. Additonally, while culture is found to be relatively homogeneous across function, differences are found across rank.     

Cross-country evidence on the value of corporate industrial and international diversification

We provide evidence on the value of industrial and international diversification for more than 3000 firms from Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. Consistent with prior studies, we find that industrial diversification reduces firm value in the U.K. and the U.S. Furthermore, similar to the recent findings of Denis et al. [J. Finance 57 (2002)], we find that U.S. multinationals trade at a discount relative to firms operating only in the domestic market. This result is robust to different benchmarks used to measure the value of diversification. By contrast, we find that international diversification has no effect on the value of firms headquartered in either Germany or the U.K.     

The Need to Provide Internationally Comparable Accounting Information and the Application of IFRS: Empirical Evidence from German Private Firms

Abstract

Our study, which is based on a survey carried out among German private firms, aims to ascertain which characteristics determine private firms’ need for providing internationally comparable accounting information and whether or not those firms that perceive such a need actually apply IFRS voluntarily. The relevance of equity from foreign investors and inclusion within an international group are positively associated with this perceived need, whereas international operating activities and a firm’s size are not. Regarding the voluntary adoption of IFRS, both the perceived need and also the interaction between size and need are significant. Our results show that smaller firms, despite perceiving a need for providing their stakeholders with internationally comparable accounting information, often do not apply IFRS.     

Does International Accounting Network Membership Affect Audit Fees and Audit Quality? Evidence From China

Regulators suggest that small audit firms join international accounting networks to reduce their resource constraints in serving large clients and providing high-quality service. Bills, Cunningham, and Myers (2016) investigate the issue in the United States and find that both audit fees and quality are higher for members of international accounting networks (i.e., member audit firms). We investigate the effects of network membership on audit fees and quality in China, a relatively weaker institutional environment than the United States. Using data of Chinese listed companies audited by non-Big N audit firms from 2001 to 2010, we find that member audit firms charge 3.9% higher fees than nonmember audit firms, much lower than the 30% fee premiums charged by U.S. member audit firms. We do not find consistent evidence that audit quality is higher for member audit firms. Overall, our results demonstrate that China's weak institutional environment may overwhelm the quality control brought by international accounting networks and that it may weaken or even offset the benefits of audit firms' participation in these networks, resulting in smaller or even no effects of membership on audit fees and quality.     

Employee turnover likelihood and earnings management: evidence from the inevitable disclosure doctrine

We present evidence that managers consider employee turnover likelihood in their accounting choices. Our tests exploit U.S. state courts’ staggered recognition of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD), which reduces employees’ ability to switch employers. We find a significant decrease in upward earnings management for firms headquartered in states that recognize the IDD, relative to firms headquartered elsewhere. The effect of the IDD is stronger for firms relying more on human capital and for firms whose employees have higher ex-ante turnover likelihood, confirming the employee retention channel. Overall, our results support the view that retaining employees is an important motive for corporate earnings management.     

'Shopping Around' for Accounting Practices: The Financial Statement Presentation of French Groups

This article illustrates the progressive move away from traditional accounting practices through a study of the presentation of financial statements. Based on a sample of one hundred large French industrial and commercial groups over a ten-year period, and applying a logistic regression method, our survey confirms a trend among French companies, which are increasingly turning their backs on traditional national practices as regards the balance sheet format, the income statement format, the voluntary disclosure of a statement of changes in shareholders' equity and the cash flow statement format. This move towards 'alternative' practices is made possible by the flexibility of French regulation, and can probably be explained by the desire of French firms to attract more investment on international capital markets. However, this trend shows no signs of a clear orientation towards any particular accounting model (IAS, U.S. or U.K.). The behaviour of the French firms observed in our study can be considered as a kind of 'shopping around' for accounting practices.     

Does accounting quality change following a switch from U.S. GAAP to IFRS? Evidence from Germany

This study examines whether accounting quality changed following a switch from U.S. GAAP to IFRS. Using a sample of German high tech firms that transitioned to IFRS from U.S. GAAP in 2005, we find that accounting numbers under IFRS generally exhibit more earnings management, less timely loss recognition, and less value relevance compared to those under U.S. GAAP. In addition, after analyzing the accounting quality of firms that applied IFRS throughout the entire sample period, we find that, for the metrics suggesting a decline in accounting quality for both groups of firms, the change is significantly more pronounced for firms switching to IFRS from U.S. GAAP. Overall, our findings indicate that the application of U.S. GAAP generally resulted in higher accounting quality than application of IFRS, and a transition from U.S. GAAP to IFRS reduced accounting quality. Our findings provide the first evidence on the potential consequences of a switch from U.S. GAAP to IFRS.