票据业务的资金化运作趋势分析及建议

近年来,商业银行票据业务呈现资金化运作的趋势,在利率走势、交易方式、盈利模式等方面与资金业务越来越接近。文章在分析票据业务资金化运作趋势的特点及其成因的基础上,从加强对宏观经济和市场的研究、创新票据产品和业务等角度就进一步完善商业银行票据业务经营提出建议。     

The evolution of management accounting routines in small businesses: a social construction perspective

This paper explores the development of management accounting in small firms through a social construction perspective. Taking Dirsmith’s (1998) (Dirsmith, M. W. 1998. Accounting and control as a solution to technical problems, political exchanges and forms of social discourse: the importance of substantive domain, Behavioural Research in Accounting, 10 (Supplement), 65–77) lead we examine the evolution of control and decision-making processes within four growth-orientated service sector businesses. Key to the perspective is the notion of the owner–manager and his/her employees as creators of management accounting routines that form through a cycle of action, externalization and habitualization. These routines still remain in the control of the originator and are flexible in nature. As the business grows these routines may become objectified into localized management accounting ‘facts’ and they may also be challenged by externally imported accounting conventions. This paper explores the creation of idiosyncratic accounting knowledge and the effects of its transmission over the history of the businesses.     

Corporate governance and risk management: The role of risk management and compensation committees

This paper examines the role of compensation and risk committees in managing and monitoring the risk behaviour of Australian financial firms in the period leading up to the global financial crisis (2006–2008). This empirical study of 711 observations of financial sector firms demonstrates how the coordination of risk management and compensation committees reduces information asymmetry. The study shows that the composition of the risk and compensation committees is positively associated with risk, which, in turn, is associated with firm performance. More importantly, information asymmetry is reduced when a director is a member of both the risk and compensation committees which moderate the negative association between risk and firm performance for firms with high risk.     

On the Value of Municipal Bond Insurance: An Empirical Analysis

Using a large sample of municipal bond data from 2001 to 2010 in the U.S., this paper documents the time variation of the value of municipal bond insurance, estimated from the insured and uninsured bonds yield at issue differentials. We find that insured municipal bonds carry significant lower yields at issue compared to those of the equivalent uninsured bonds before 2008. However, this cost saving disappeared with the aftermath of the subprime credit crisis. We find that the supply of bonds and the level of market interest rates to have significant positive impacts on the time‐varying value of bond insurance. We also detect asymmetric response of these yield differentials to rises and declines of market interest rates. Economic intuition suggests that the value of municipal bond insurance is a function of business cycles but our tests support the contrary, which may be explained by the habitat preference of municipal bonds issues.     

Earning investor trust: The role of past earnings management

Does earnings management, even though legal, hinder investor trust in reported earnings? Or do investors regard earnings management as a way for firms to convey private information, or simply as a neutral feature of financial reporting? We find that past abstinence from earnings management increases investor responses to future earnings surprises. Importantly, this effect occurs in industries where investor trust has recently been violated, and where managers would in the past have had incentives and opportunities to misrepresent earnings. Overall, investors seem to interpret the extent to which management resists temptations for misreporting as a “litmus test” of trustworthiness.     

社会信用体系理论的传承脉络与创新

为保证信用交易规模的扩大和规范市场经济秩序,中国采用独创的社会信用体系方式建立市场上的失信惩戒机制,并建立起大征信系统和政府信用监管系统。中国的社会信用体系建设实践是在理论指导下展开的,理论先行于实践,有效地指导了社会信用体系的建设工作。介绍社会信用体系理论的主要研究成果,阐明社会信用体系框架设计和其运行理论形成的过程,包括核心理念、指导思想、设计考虑、影响因素等,以及该理论的逐步完善过程,认为在技术层面上,社会信用体系理论的形成基于三项基础理论,即信息经济学、企业信用管理理论和广义的征信技术。同时,阐述企业信用管理理论、信用评级技术、企业征信技术和个人征信技术的渊源以及它们在中国的发展和创新情况,并在介绍主要研究成果的基础上,分析中国在上述理论和技术领域的长短优劣,力图理清社会信用体系及其相关理论的传承脉络与创新点,探讨理论和技术创新研究的路径和方法。     

Factors influencing the role of management accounting in the development of performance measures within organizational change programs

Many companies are undergoing organizational changes encompassing innovative approaches to organizing production processes, restructuring work practices and developing new planning and control mechanisms. This paper explores the role that management accounting played in the development of performance measurement systems within five organizations implementing change programs. The major case study is of a large manufacturing firm undertaking changes which included the development of team structures, the adoption of a customer-focused strategy and the implementation of new performance measurement systems. In this company, a lack of integration of operational performance measures with strategic priorities contributed to poor integration of team activities with overall strategy. The paper proposes five interrelated factors that may help explain the extent to which management accountants contribute to the development of integrated performance measures and change programs. Case evidence drawn from a further four firms is presented to provide some validation of conclusions drawn from the primary case study.     

Insurance and catastrophes: The changing role of the liability system

Insurance catastrophes are increasingly the result of actions by human beings rather than nature. Chief among these insurance changes has been the surge in tort liability insurance costs. Unfortunately, the courts have misunderstood the mechanisms for transmitting these costs throughout the economy. A principal deficiency is that the structure of liability has been inconsistent with the courts' assumption that the losses could be borne by consumers or parties other than the insurer.Commentary on presentation by Richard Zeckhauser, Insurance and Catastrophes, Geneva Lecture, Paris, France, May 12, 1995.     

New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1

This article examines one of the most significant phenomena of the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries—the emergence of New Public Management (NPM). NPM has been widely adopted, internationally. However, its adoption is based on governments having faith in its deployment to transform their public sectors using private sector performance criteria. In this article, the case is advanced that the widespread use of NPM is often a cruel disappointment for governments. This is demonstrated by focusing on four key elements of NPM, as practised in the early twenty‐first century—the role of management consultants, the development of e‐government, the emergence of the ‘audit society’ and the increasing importance of risk management.     

Reversing an impairment loss and earnings management: The role of corporate governance

This paper examines whether the reversal of a previously recognized impairment loss provides an opportunity for earnings management, and whether such behavior is associated with managers' incentives. It also examines whether a corporate-governance mechanism can mitigate this behavior. Since 2005, listed companies in Taiwan have been required to comply with accounting standards, equivalent to International Accounting Standards (IAS) No. 36 “Impairment of Assets,” which allow reversals of asset-impairment losses. Data on a sample of 55 firms that reversed impairment losses between 2005 and the first quarter of 2007 were matched by industry and size with 55 control firms. Empirical results show that firms recognizing more impairment losses are more likely to reverse impairment losses when doing so would avoid an earnings decline in a subsequent period, which is consistent with the “cookie jar” reserve hypothesis. We also show that such behavior is more pronounced for firms with higher debt ratios, consistent with earnings management being associated with the incentive to avoid violation of debt covenants. However, an effective corporate governance mechanism could mitigate such behavior. Our study may contribute to the debate on global convergence with IFRS, especially convergence between IFRS and U.S. GAAP with respect to the “Impairment of Assets,” by providing a rationale for the latter's prohibition of reversals. It may also contribute to the corporate-governance literature by showing the effect of governance mechanisms on deterring earnings management.     

The dynamics of earnings management in IPOs and the role of venture capital

We investigate the dynamics of earnings management (EM) in IPOs and the role of venture capitalist (VC) in hampering such practice. We study the behavior of EM in four phases: Pre-IPO, IPO, Lock-up and Post-lock-up. We find that VC-sponsored firms tend to do more EM in the Pre-IPO period, and less in two subsequent periods. These results are distinct for those of Wongsunwai (2013), for which, VC-sponsored firms do less EM only in the IPO period. We also find that VC and non-VC-sponsored firms do EM around the IPO in distinct fashions. Non-VC-sponsored firms inflate earnings during the IPO period and deflate in the Lock-up and Post-lock-up periods. VC-sponsored firms inflate earnings in the Pre-IPO period and deflate earnings only in the Lock-up period. Our results are robust with respect to how one measures EM and the statistical methods used.     

社会互动对家庭商业保险参与的影响——来自中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据的实证分析

本文基于中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,探讨了社会互动对家庭商业保险购买行为的影响。研究发现:社会互动显著提高了家庭商业保险参与的可能性与参与程度,并且在控制了内生性之后,这种促进作用依然显著;同时本文通过金融知识和商业保险信任度等变量验证了社会互动影响家庭商业保险参与行为的两种作用渠道;异质性分析表明,社会互动对于东部和中部地区、中等学历、高收入水平、低参与率社区中家庭的促进作用更大。本文的研究为我国商业保险市场的发展提供了一个新的社会特征视角,重视社会互动的促进作用,加强保险业诚信建设,以此推动我国商业保险业健康快速发展。     

The societal relevance of management accounting: An introduction to the special issue

This essay introduces the special issue of Accounting and Business Research exploring the societal relevance of management accounting and locates the individual contributions within this research agenda. In contrast to prevailing, managerialist conceptions of relevance, the discussion is guided by an over-riding ambition to turn management accounting research “inside out” to examine the effects of management accounting practices on a broader range of constituencies and interests in society and the formation of such practices beyond individual organisations. I start by charting the development of extant and emerging debates on the relevance of management accounting research and practice and then outline some pertinent research themes worthy of further exploration. In doing so, I pay particular attention to emerging research illustrating how management accounting becomes implicated in the external regulation and governance of organisations, the shaping of markets and the wider, societal consequences of such processes. I also discuss some theoretical and methodological implications of exploring such topics.     

Environmental management control systems: The role of contextual and strategic factors

This study examines the role of contextual and strategic factors in the development of environmental management control systems in manufacturing companies. In particular, the authors test the roles of perceived ecological environmental uncertainty, perceived stakeholder pressures, and the degree of corporate environmental proactivity on the development of environmental management control systems. The main results from a survey of 256 manufacturing companies suggest that companies that perceive greater ecological environmental uncertainty are less inclined to develop a proactive environmental strategy, environmental information system, or formal environmental management control system. Market, community, and organizational stakeholders motivate environmental proactivity, as well as the development of different environmental management control systems. Regulatory stakeholders only encourage the development of an environmental information system.     

The explanatory role of factor portfolios for industries exposed to foreign competition: evidence from the Swedish stock market

Our purpose is to find factors that are important for expected returns and risk of Swedish industrial portfolios during 1980–1997. The tested factors are supposed to be essential for a small open economy. We take into account the small sample problem that surfaces in the form of firms dominating the value weighted test portfolios. An extreme bound analysis (EBA) investigates the robustness of the estimated parameters. Principal component analysis is used to assess the importance of the factors in explaining return covariances. Our overall conclusion is that the market portfolio, which refers to the world as well as the Swedish market portfolio, is almost sufficient for explaining expected returns and risk.     

Real-time crisis management: Testing the role of accounting in local governments

At a time of a global crisis with unprecedented depth and breath, this paper explores the role of accounting in real-time crisis management at local level by investigating how national stakeholders assessed the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, one of the most affected countries. The paper aims at augmenting knowledge on the intersection between weathering crisis and accounting. Calculative practices play an important role to help manage crises since they may foster or undermine relief and recovery efforts. Results show how decision makers used cash accounting disregarding more complete information with a wider and longer-term perspective, against some stakeholders’ and scholars’ advice.     

The impact of enterprise risk management on the marginal cost of reducing risk: Evidence from the insurance industry

We test the hypothesis that practicing enterprise risk management (ERM) reduces firms’ cost of reducing risk. Adoption of ERM represents a radical paradigm shift from the traditional method of managing risks individually to managing risks collectively allowing ERM-adopting firms to better recognize natural hedges, prioritize hedging activities towards the risks that contribute most to the total risk of the firm, and optimize the evaluation and selection of available hedging instruments. We hypothesize that these advantages allow ERM-adopting firms to produce greater risk reduction per dollar spent. Our hypothesis further predicts that, after implementing ERM, firms experience profit maximizing incentives to lower risk. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that firms adopting ERM experience a reduction in stock return volatility. We also find that the reduction in return volatility for ERM-adopting firms becomes stronger over time. Further, we find that operating profits per unit of risk (ROA/return volatility) increase post ERM adoption.     

On the emergence of strategic management accounting: An institutional perspective

Strategic management accounting (SMA) has been presented as an efficacious approach to strategy formulation and implementation. It also suggests accountants move away from purely financial concerns to give consideration to wider business issues. Management accounting change has attracted significant research attention in recent years. This case study explores the issues which surround change and which enable the adoption of SMA and the repositioning of management accountants to become more strategic. The empirical enquiry is based in one company through a prolonged series of interviews and meetings which enabled activities over a number of years to be reviewed. This revealed an increasing strategic role for management accountants in informing strategic decision‐making and how this role came into being. The research is informed by institutional theories and neoinstitutionalism in particular, to interpret the external and internal influences on the change in roles of some management accountants and the outputs of their work.     

Professional accountants and the development of a management accounting service for the small firm: barriers and possibilities

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study examining the potential for the provision of a management accounting service for smaller companies by accountants in professional practice. The study aimed to determine the management information needs of owner-managers, the type and frequency of information preferred and the capacity of professional accountants to contribute to these needs. The owner-managers of 15 smaller companies were asked to participate in semi-strucutured interviews during which their use of computers to provide management accounts, their relationship with their accountant and their financial skills were discussed. The respondents were presented with a range of management information including statutory final accounts, interim accounts, cash statements, ratios and graphical comparisons of monthly turnover figures in order to assess their financial information skills and needs. The study found that companies used computers for the preparation of management accounting information, but usually not to their full potential. The financial awareness of owner-managers varied considerably. There was a favourable response to the presentation of ratios and graphs, however, it was felt that an explanation or interpretation of financial information by their accountant would be a useful addition to improve their understanding and therefore aid their business. The study concludes that there appears to be significant potential for accountants to expand the management accounting services they provide to smaller companies, especially where information is presented as ratios or graphs and accompanied with an appropriate narrative interpretation. This would also increase the financial skills of their clients and result in an increased demand for management accounting services.     

A Levinasian ethics critique of the role of management and control systems by large global corporations: The General Electric/Nuovo Pignone example

This essay extends [Shearer, 2002] Levinasian critique of the role of financial accounting with its neo-classical underpinnings in today's global market capitalism. It expands on Levinas's ethics-of-being-for-the-other by emphasizing how he developed his radical ethics by drawing on the ancient Jewish texts, an ethics that gives place of privilege to ontology rather than epistemology in contrast to much conventional Western philosophy. The essay illustrates the potential of his ethics for mounting a critique of the use of management and control systems by global corporations. It provides General Electric's takeover of the Italian company Nouvo Pignone as an instance. The systems are an essential element in the expansionary strategies of these massive enterprises that have come to dominate the world. The essay concludes that GE's instantiation of its generic management and control systems into the firms it acquires runs afoul of a Levinasian ethics. That many large global corporations employ similar systems and tactics highlights the urgent need for a broader accountability on the part of such organizations than economic efficiency and producing profits to report to capital markets. Levinas's ethics, thusly, presents a space of entry to expose and confront the economic commodification of employees scattered across the world.