Exploring Diversity in Accounting through Faculty Journal Perceptions*

The accounting research community has frequently been described as being both diverse and focused on local issues. At the same time, increasing pressure is being placed on researchers to publish in internationally highly regarded journals. Since faculty evaluations depend on journal rankings, such rankings need to take into account the diversity of the research community. Therefore, this study examines how contextual factors such as a researcher's location and research orientation may influence journal quality perceptions and readership patterns based on an international sample of 1,230 accounting academics. The perceived quality of journals is measured across a number of dimensions, including journal familiarity, average rank position, percent of respondents who classify a journal as top tier, and readership. The results support that a significant variation in journal quality perceptions exists based on a researcher's geographic origin, research orientation, and affiliation with a journal.     

Equilibrium Earnings Management,Incentive Contracts,and Accounting Standards*

In this paper, we model earnings management as a consequence of the interaction among self‐interested economic agents ‐ namely, the managers, the shareholders, and the regulators. In our model, a manager controls a stochastic production technology and makes periodic accounting reports about his or her performance; an owner chooses a compensation contract to induce desirable managerial inputs and reporting choices by the manager; and a regulatory body selects and enforces accounting standards to achieve certain social objectives. We show that various economic trade‐offs give rise to endogenous earnings management. Specifically, the owner may reduce agency costs by designing a compensation contract that tolerates some earnings management because such a contract allocates the compensation risk more efficiently. The earnings‐management activity produces accounting reports that deviate from those prescribed by accounting standards. Given such reports, the valuation of the firm may be nonlinear and s‐shaped, thereby recognizing the manager's reporting incentives. We also explore policy implications, noting that (1) the regulator may find enforcing a zero‐tolerance policy ‐ no earnings management allowed ‐ economically undesirable; and (2) when selecting the optimal accounting standard, valuation concerns may conflict with stewardship concerns. We conclude that earnings management is better understood in a strategic context that involves various economic trade‐offs.     

Avoiding Accounting Fixation: Determinants of Cognitive Adaptation to Differences in Accounting Method*

Much research over the last 30 years has provided evidence that individuals display accounting fixation; that is, their cognitive process does not appropriately adapt to cross‐sectional or temporal differences in an accounting method. This paper presents the results of a quasi‐experimental test of the hypothesis that cognitive adaptation to a change in accounting method is an ordinal interactive function of three person characteristics: relevant accounting knowledge, general problem‐solving ability, and intrinsic motivation to appropriately engage in the decision task. Based on a product‐pricing decision task in which participants are provided with product costs reported by two generally employed product‐costing methods (activity‐based costing [ABC] and volume‐based costing), the results show that the majority of participants did not change their cognitive behavior when there was a change in the costing method. Further, those participants who did adapt to the change in accounting method, and thus avoided accounting fixation, did so by debiasing costs reported by volume‐based costing but not by ABC. Finally, these adapters generally exhibited high values for all three of the person characteristics compared with those who did not adapt.     

Accounting Recognition,Moral Hazard,and Communication*

Two complementary sources of information are studied in a multiperiod agency model. One is an accounting source that partially but credibly conveys the agent's private information through accounting recognition. The other is an unverified communication by the agent (i.e., a self‐report). In a simple setting with no communication, alternative labor market frictions lead to alternative optimal recognition policies. When the agent is allowed to communicate his or her private information, accounting signals serve as a veracity check on the agent's self‐report. Finally, such communication sometimes makes delaying the recognition optimal. We see contracting and confirmatory roles of accounting as its comparative advantage. As a source of information, accounting is valuable because accounting reports are credible, comprehensive, and subject to careful and professional judgement. While other information sources may be more timely in providing valuation information about an entity, audited accounting information, when used in explicit or implicit contracts, ensures the accuracy of the reports from nonaccounting sources.     

Accounting Discretion and Managerial Conservatism: An Intertemporal Analysis*

Accounting discretion and the principle of conservatism are two salient features embedded in financial reporting systems. Arguably, the practice of conservative accounting choices can never be well understood without incorporating their effect on future periods (the intertemporal effect). This paper provides one explanation for managerial conservatism in a two‐period agency model with hidden information (a binary project type) and hidden actions (the agent's efforts). A piece‐wise linear incentive scheme with accounting earnings as the performance measure is employed. The agent's discretion is the choice of a depreciation method. Discretion is valuable if and only if the agent's marginal productivity of a “bad” project is greater than that of a “good” project, but not to an extreme degree. A conservative depreciation method decreases current compensation in exchange for a “bet” on future compensation and, hence, serves as a commitment device for the agent to signal that the prospect is indeed good. The accounting mechanism replicates the performance of the optimal direct mechanism.     

Social Networks Analysis in Accounting and Finance*

Social network analysis (SNA) examines whether interactions between individuals, teams, and organizations result in network structures and patterns that can explain important outcomes, including firm performance, management reporting behaviors, investor beliefs, and audit outcomes. This paper reviews the growing body of work on SNA in accounting and finance research, focusing on 162 articles published between 2000 and 2021, and offers a roadmap that may help move this literature forward. Our survey summarizes the elements of SNA, organizes this literature within a theoretical framework, and provides a thematic discussion of the context and contribution of the selected studies. We also discuss opportunities and challenges for future research. Finally, we include an empirical illustration of the key concepts and tools of SNA. We believe that SNA will continue to offer an interesting avenue for conducting high-impact and cross-disciplinary research in accounting and finance.     

论会计诚信危机的原因与治理对策

会计信息失真已成为当前严重影响社会经济生活正常秩序的突出问题,会计诚信危机的原因是错综复杂的,面对诚信危机,应正确了解和认识会计诚信,营造有利于会计诚信的内部环境,重塑会计诚信须加快完善公司治理结构,提高会计失信成本,应将会计诚信建设纳入整个社会的信用体系建设。     

心智账户理论综述:实证、因素与应用

作为行为金融学的基础理论之一,Thaler提出的心智账户是强调人们心理上对决策结果进行记账、编码、估价和预算的行为过程,且心智账户的损益核算遵循前景理论的价值函数特征。与传统金融学的财富可替代性假设相悖,心智账户给出了传统理论无法解释的众多市场非理性行为的深刻洞见。基于对心智账户理论的提出、特征、影响因素、理论应用等方面最新文献的梳理,本文综述认为:心智账户理论的未来发展,必须致力于构建其神经元理论基础,同时扩展动态参照点的研究方法;最后,建立具有中国社会文化特征的居民心智账户及其理论体系。     

Inferring Accounting Information from Corporate Financing Choices: An Examination of Security Issuances in the Banking Industry*

This study examines the impact of regulatory capital and several of its determinants (i.e., earnings, loan loss provisions, charge‐offs and growth) on bank managers' financing decisions and investors' interpretations of those decisions. The analysis is related to two streams of research. We add to the corporate finance literature that seeks to explain the market's reaction to security issuances by developing and testing a refined set of predictions of the demand for debt and equity capital using a sample of capital‐regulated firms (banks). We extend the accounting literature that links regulatory capital‐management decisions with bank performance by examining whether investors infer that performance. We find that bank managers' financing choices reflect their private information regarding the levels of regulatory capital, earnings, and charge‐offs in the issuance year. We document a negative market reaction to capital‐increasing issuances and a positive reaction to capital‐decreasing issuances. A cross‐sectional analysis of that market reaction indicates that investors infer managers' expectations of earnings in the issuance year.     

两种增长核算方法的比较——兼论中国地区差距的决定性因素

运用增长核算来分析我国地区经济差距的决定性因素时,存在资本产出比和资本劳动比两种分解方法,不同的分解方法会得出不同的结果。研究表明,资本产出比分解方法相对于资本劳动比具有两个方面的优势:(1)核算的无偏性;(2)更具直观性的经济含义和政策启示。而且,它不仅适用于劳动增进型技术进步,同样还适用于希克斯中性技术进步和资本增进型技术进步。实证分析表明,全要素生产率对中国地区差距起着决定性作用。     

Contemporary Accounting Research: A Retrospective between 1984 and 2021 using Bibliometric Analysis*

This study critically evaluates research published by Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR) between 1984 and 2021 using bibliometric analysis. We examine the following: (i) CAR's publication quality and the factors associated with its citations and (ii) CAR's scope regarding research diversity, methods, authors geographical dispersion, and collaborative networks. The methodology permits observation of finer collaboration details and research patterns not apparent by simply categorizing the data. We use tools such as performance analysis, coauthorship analysis, bibliographic coupling, and regression analysis. The bibliometric analysis shows improvement in CAR's CiteScore and source-normalized impact per paper over time, consistent with publishing high-quality research. Our analysis reveals that authors' geographical affiliations, research subject areas, and research methods are not systematically associated with citations across our various subsamples. A notable exception is that research on audit topics generates more citations than studies examining financial accounting topics. Other factors significantly and positively associated with citations include article age, article length, number of authors, order of author names, and number of references. We also show that CAR has become more diverse regarding author affiliations, subject areas, and research methods than most leading accounting journals. Only Accounting, Organizations and Society emerges as more diverse, thereby serving as a benchmark for CAR in the future. CAR should consider focusing on high-interest areas to boost citations and tightening its acceptance criteria.     

短期投资与交易性金融资产会计核算的比较分析

《新企业会计准则第22号—金融工具确认和计量》中,交易性金融资产核算的内容包括旧投资准则中的短期投资和短期债券投资。旧准则规定,短期股票投资和短期债券采用成本法进行核算;而新准则规定,对于交易性金融资产采用公允价值进行计量。由于应用了全新的计量方法,增加了相应理解的难度,本文结合实例阐释交易性金融资产的相应会计核算变化。     

文化价值观对会计估计职业判断影响的实证研究——以新疆地区维吾尔族、汉族和回族为研究对象

本文以新疆地区维吾尔族、汉族和回族会计人员为研究对象,研究了这三个民族文化价值观的差异对会计人员会计估计计量的影响。研究结果发现:面对相同的经济事项,这三个民族会计人员的会计估计计量结果存在着显著的差异,且会计估计计量结果的差异还受到不确定环境呈现方式的影响。研究结果表明:会计人员解释和运用会计准则的方式受其文化价值观的支配和影响,因此,会计准则的国际协调决不是仅仅通过发布一套与国际惯例一致的会计准则就可以完成的。     

Earnings,Book Values,and Dividends in Equity Valuation: An Empirical Perspective*

This paper revisits Ohlson 1995 to make a number of points not generally appreciated in the literature. First, the residual income valuation (RIV) model does not serve as a crucial centerpiece in the analysis. Instead, RIV plays the role of condensing and streamlining the analysis, but without any effect on the substantive empirical conclusions. Second, the concept of “other information” in the model can be given concrete empirical content if one presumes that next‐period expected earnings are observable.     

Accounting for Flexibility and Efficiency: A Field Study of Management Control Systems in a Restaurant Chain*

While some field studies have suggested that management control systems can be used simultaneously to make organizations more efficient and more flexible, the contingency literature has found it difficult to address this issue in the absence of a clear and comprehensive typology for analyzing more processual uses of management control systems. This paper distinguishes between enabling and coercive (Adler and Borys 1996) uses of management control systems. Coercive use refers to the stereotypical top‐down control approach that emphasizes centralization and preplanning. In contrast, enabling use seeks to put employees in a position to deal directly with the inevitable contingencies in their work. The design principles that underlie the enabling use of management control systems are repair, internal transparency, global transparency, and flexibility. Through a detailed analysis of a single‐case field study carried out over a two‐year period, we illustrate how management pursued the objectives of efficiency and flexibility by using management control systems in enabling ways. We suggest that the four design principles of enabling use can facilitate field studies of management control systems, but that they can also be used to define an enabling typology for contingency researchers to analyze the ways in which organizations simultaneously pursue efficiency and flexibility through their management control systems.     

沪京深三地金融国际化比较

上海、北京和深圳三地近年来在金融中心建设和金融业发展方面都取得了突出的成就,金融业增加值突飞猛进,对全国的辐射服务能力显著提升.本文从金融机构、金融业务、金融人才和金融环境四个层面,对三地的金融国际化现状进行描述,并与伦敦、纽约、香港、新加坡等知名国际金融中心相互比较,分析总结沪京深三地在金融国际化方面的优势和不足,由此提出沪京深三地提升金融国际化水平的一些政策建议.     

中国会计走向国际化的SWOT分析及对策

本文对我国会计走向国际化进行SWOT分析,并立足国情,从不断完善会计准、则营造良好法制环境,完善社会主义市场经济会计模式,提升从业人员素质,完善人才培养体系,扩大对外交流等路径提出了对策建议。     

国企改制中的财务会计问题探微

国企改制中的财务会计工作是十分重要的,但是在国企改制过程中却出现了一系列财务问题,为了推进国企改制的顺利进行,确保国有资产的安全,必须进行清产核资、界定产权、正确处理好股权设置以及防止国有资产流失等问题。     

从GDP核算看实体经济与虚拟经济

GDP是各国(地区或地方)反映生产总规模的核心指标。准确核算GDP需要有完整的基础资料和完善的核算方法,前者要按《国民经济行业分类》要求设计完整的统计制度;后者要在此基础上分清GDP与实体经济、虚拟经济的关系,再在SNA要求的基础上根据各国实际设计完整的核算方法。从GDP核算看,经济交易过程交易物的有用性是实体经济。实体经济生产形成GDP。