诚信与合伙会计师事务所合伙文化建设

一、诚信是合伙会计师事务所合伙文化建设的目标之一 有人认为合伙制会计师事务所的合伙文化应以诚信为目标,这是由合伙所组织形式、业务性质决定的,也是合伙所得以形成和发展的核心基础,当前合伙所所处的外部环境也要求以“诚信”作为合伙文化的建设目标。我同意以上观点,同时认为合伙制事务所环境体现合伙文化的个性特点,     

事务所合伙文化的三个层次

笔者认为,合伙制会计师事务所的合伙文化可以分为表层文化、中层文化、内层文化。表层合伙文化表层合伙文化主要研究合伙行为文化、合伙形象文化。合伙文化既是合伙制会计师事务所的文化现象和文化行为,也代表着其管理方式。合伙行为方式也是一种文化现象,不同的合伙行为方式受制于不同的合伙文化品格;合伙行为是有规律的,对合伙行为规律的研究,我们称之为合伙行为文化。它包括合伙经营、教育宣传、人际关系活动、文娱体育活动中产生的文化现象。1.合伙行为文化是合伙文化的重要组成部分从内容看,合伙制会计师事务所合伙行为主要包括两大类:…     

浅议合伙制会计师事务所内部治理结构

建立有效治理结构,以确保独立审计质量。本文通过总结合伙会计师事务所治理结构的特点,结合我国实际情况,提出我国合伙制会计师事务所改进与完善我国会计师事务所内部治理,应从制度和政策上积极引入有限责任合伙制和增加特殊的普通合伙制形式、建立合伙会计师事务所共同治理结构以及建立健全各项内部管理制度。     

有限责任合伙制——会计师事务所的理性选择

对合伙方式选择的分析 合伙制按照责任承担范围不同，可分为普通合伙制和有限责任合伙制。普通合伙制是我国选择合伙制的事务所最早实践的类型。它是根据《中华人民共和国注册会计师法》和《合伙会计师事务所设立及审批试行办法》的规定，由2名以上符合规定的合伙人，以书面协议形式，共同出资、共同执业，对债务承担无限连带责任设立的合伙事务所。     

英、美、中三国会计师事务所组织形式演变研究

本文以英、美、中三国的会计师事务所为研究对象,深入追踪与分析其组织形式的产生过程与法律规定,同时从命名含义、法律责任以及合伙文化等方面,对外国"有限责任合伙制"与我国"特殊的普通合伙制"进行比较,从而得出我国"特殊的普通合伙制"是具有中国特色的、适合中国国情的新型会计师事务所组织形式这一结论,并对现阶段我国会计师事务所采用"特殊的普通合伙制"组织形式的关键性问题进行了深入分析,为我国会计师事务所做大做强和走出去战略的有效实施提供有益素材。     

合伙文化与会计师事务所的发展

关于合伙文化与合伙制会计师事务所合伙文化是一种特定的观念和价值体系,构成人们在合伙工作、生活中的行为方式,是人们在社会历史发展中形成的关于合伙活动的知识体系以及获得这种知识体系的理论研究和实践探讨的方法。合伙文化作为一种社会亚文化,受制于社会文化,同时又对社会文化具有反作用。作为一种知识体系,其中包含了大量的精神文化和制度文化。合伙活动在社会活动中始终存在,而且越来越重要,人们已经开始研究合伙活动这种独特的知识体系,这说明合伙也就成为一种社会文化。合伙制会计师事务所成功的重要前提是,合伙人之间的关系要像…     

浅谈合伙会计师事务所合伙文化与合伙制度

在会计师事务所合伙文化研究中,很多人往往把合伙文化与合伙制度混为一谈,分不清二者在合伙会计师事务所中的地位和作用.我们可以把合伙文化分成三个层次:合伙物质文化、合伙制度文化和合伙精神文化.这种从广义角度界定的合伙文化,把合伙制度包含在内,即认为合伙制度也是一种合伙文化.但如果我们从狭义角度研究合伙文化,合伙制度只是合伙文化的载体.进一步讲,把合伙文化作为一种新的管理方式研究,合伙制度与合伙文化属于两个不同的管理层次和管理方式.合伙文化管理高于合伙制度管理,合伙制度更多地强调监督与控制,是合伙会计师事务所倡导的“文化底线”,即要求全体员工必须做到.合伙文化更多地强调价值观、理想信念和道德的力量,强调内在的自觉与自律,是“文化高境界”.     

论事务所合伙文化建设——对河南合伙会计师事务所的调查分析

一、对河南会计师事务所合伙文化的调查河南省目前共有会计师事务所360余家,其中合伙制会计师事务所150余家,占40%左右,大多都是1998年事务所脱钩改制后成立,不少是近三年成立的。这些合伙所成立时间都不长,规模也不大,多数只有5名     

中国会计师事务所组织形式变迁研究

本文以中国会计师事务所的组织形式变迁为研究对象,深入分析了中国不同阶段会计师事务所组织形式选择的原因,并对有限责任制,合伙制,特殊普通合伙进行了对比分析,从而得出,特殊普通合伙制是适合中国现阶段会计师事务所发展的组织形式这一结论。为我国会计师事务所做大做强战略的有效实施提供有益素材。     

法律制度、声誉机制与有限合伙制

有限合伙制在我国的探讨与实践 合伙制大家并不陌生，比如一些律师事务所和会计师事务所现在就是采用合伙制的形式，合伙各方都负无限连带责任。针对这种合伙制存在诸如收益与风险不能配比等问题，已有人提出转向有限合伙的建议，所谓有……     

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。     

会计师事务所品牌建设中的文化内涵——基于会计师事务所与一般企业的比较分析

会计师事务所的人合特征、社会责任和专业属性决定了其在品牌建设方面有着与一般企业不同的要求和内涵。会计师事务所品牌建设的核心是文化的建设,文化建设包括择善固执的诚信文化、戒慎恐惧的风险文化和执经达变的执业文化三个方面。作为一个市场主体,会计师事务所也需要进行品牌建设并在市场中推广,本文就以品牌建设和推广为导向的会计师事务所社会与企业属性中的文化内涵作一些分析,寻找具有会计师事务所特质的品牌建设与推广策略与方式。     

Corruption culture and accounting quality

This paper examines the impact of corruption culture on accounting quality (AQ) of listed firms at the municipal level in China. We consider municipalities with (without) corrupt top government officials as having high (low) corruption culture. To isolate the effect of corruption culture, we use the arrest of corrupt officials (the events) to capture the change in local corruption culture, and apply the difference-in-difference method to compare AQ of firms operating in the jurisdictions of corrupt officials pre and post the events, compared to control firms. We find that AQ of firms affiliated with corrupt officials is higher after the events, which is robust to the placebo test, time-trend analysis, and various robustness tests. We complement the literature by showing that the increase in AQ is greater for firms associated with more powerful officials and having stronger connections with corrupt officials. Moreover, the positive effect on accounting quality is stronger in the post-2012 period. Further, we document that firms improving AQ after the events issue more SEOs and have lower cost of capital. Finally, analyses on channels firms used to improve AQ show that firms switch to higher quality auditors, have better internal control, and issue more management forecasts. This study has implications for policymakers in countries that suffer from corruption.     

“Holier-than-thou” perception bias among professional accountants: A cross-cultural study

Theoretical conceptions of culture in accounting research are controversial, ranging from highly deterministic, quantified and componential perspectives (such as Hosfstede's five dimensional model) to those that suggest continual changes in cultural values brought about by forces of acculturation. This paper makes a contribution to cross-cultural accounting research by examining the influence of competing theoretical perspectives of culture and acculturation on “holier-than-thou” perception bias. “Holier-than-thou” perception bias leads to individuals perceiving themselves as acting more ethically than comparable others when confronted with ethically uncertain work-related behaviours. This study contributes to cross-cultural accounting research by surveying Australian and Indian professional accountants from big four accounting firms. We firstly seek to establish the prevalence of “holier-than-thou” perception bias in both cultural settings. Secondly, we examine the differential and competing influences of culture and acculturation on perceptions of accountants from the two countries on measures of this bias. Data was collected through a survey questionnaire administered to samples of senior accountants from the big accounting firms in Australia and India. The questionnaire comprised an auditor-client conflict and two whistle-blowing scenarios and used two questions to measure the magnitude of the bias. The results show that “holier-than-thou” perception bias exists among accountants within each of the two countries. However, the magnitude of the bias was not significant between the countries. The results support the theory of acculturation in big accounting firms. Our findings have implications for accounting research where the presence of “holier-than-thou” perception bias needs to be considered in cases where respondents are questioned on socially sensitive issues. The findings may be useful to accounting researchers, managers of multinational enterprises in general, and big-four accounting firms in particular. Our conceptual framework applied in this study is innovative and provides a template for assessing current controversies in cross-cultural accounting research.     

Cultural tightness and accounting conservatism

This study investigates the effect of intrastate cultural tightness-looseness (CTL) on accounting conservatism, using firms located in 50 states of the United States, from 1988 to 2016. It finds that firms located in culturally tight states prefer to take a cautious approach to reduce uncertainty of future economic events by increasing accounting conservatism compared to those located in culturally loose states. Moreover, we find that the positive effect of cultural tightness on accounting conservatism is more pronounced as product market competition increases. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that intrastate CTL has differential impacts on accounting conservatism in the same national culture, and product competition strategically reinforces the positive effect of CTL on accounting conservatism.     

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.     

Organizational culture in public accounting: Size, technology, rank, and functional area

This study examines the nature of organizational culture in public accounting and demonstrates that different aspects of culture exist across and within public accounting firms. Organizational culture is defined in terms of values shared by members of an organization (or organizational sub-unit) that manifest themselves in the practices of that organization. Practices particularly important to the development and maintenance of culture include selection and socialization. The hypotheses state that different aspects of organizational culture vary across public accounting firms of different size and technology, and public accountants of different rank and functional area. These hypotheses are tested and largely supported with responses to a paper and pencil instrument, the Values Survey Module (Hofstede, Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation, 1982), which was completed by 338 public accountants across the United States. Implications for accountants and future research are also discussed.     

An Exploratory Study of Profit Reporting Differences of Publicly Owned Professional Service Firms and Partnerships

There has been a trend for large professional service firms (PSFs) to move away from the traditional partnership structure to other ownership forms such as publicly owned companies. Research on the relative performance of these ownership forms has been constrained by the lack of availability of financial information for partnerships, and proxy revenue‐based measures used have resulted in conflicting findings. This paper seeks to guide future research by exploring accounting reporting differences between partnerships and publicly owned PSF companies in order to identify adjustments required for comparison and implications for performance measures used. This paper reviews the literature and examines the annual reports of two Australian publicly owned accounting companies and one large accounting partnership; pre‐initial public offering pro forma reporting in the prospectus of one of the companies identifies significant profitability reporting differences across ownership forms. The findings also suggest that the lower revenue per professional and per person for publicly owned PSFs found in prior studies may be offset by significantly lower salary costs. The paper concludes that significant value can be achieved by further analysis of profitability across ownership forms and suggests data requirements to inform the development of further case studies and large‐scale surveys of financial performance.     

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.