Determinants of academic cheating behavior: The future for accountancy in Ireland

This paper considers the potential for improving the reputation of the Irish accountancy profession by exploring undergraduate accounting students’ intolerance of academic cheating as a predictor of future attitudes to unethical workplace practices. The study reports that females are significantly more intolerant of cheating than males. Further, with regard to ethical ideology, idealism was found to have a significant positive association with intolerance of cheating while relativism reported no association. It is anticipated that the growing admission of women to professional accountancy membership together with educational intervention to increase idealism may improve ethical attitudes and help restore the profession's reputation.     

Recent developments in the accounting profession in New Zealand: A case of deprofessionalization?

The international accounting literature is replete with references to the importance of professionalization of accounting in its development. While professionalization of accounting is progressing at a rapid rate in many developing countries, the recent developments in some western industrialized countries seem to suggest a different trend. This paper proposes to investigate these developments and provide a critical analysis focusing on one western industrialized country (i.e., New Zealand).Evidence is provided in the paper to show that (a) the boundaries between accountancy and other occupations are becoming increasingly blurred; (b) the dominance of accounting controls in organizations is being challenged; (c) the profession does not control access to accounting knowledge; and (d) the profession is unable to prevent government intervention in the areas of work standards, and bureaucratic controls in the work place. The paper argues that the recent changes in the accounting profession in New Zealand suggest a trend towards deprofessionalization.     

Rejoinder: Some thoughts on social and environmental accounting education

Abstract

Continuing professional development (CPD) is the educational and developmental work and learning that professionals undertake after they have qualified as members of their professional body. International Education Standard (IES 7), issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in May 2004, called on all professional accountants to develop and maintain competence that is relevant and appropriate for their work and their professional responsibilities. In order to comply with IES 7, ACCA and ICAEW implemented new policies for CPD effective from 1 January 2005, and CIMA and ICAS from 1 January 2006. Prior to these changes, CPD, which had originally been regarded purely as implicit within a professional accountant's ethical responsibilities, had come to be more regulated following legislative changes in the late 1980s. This is the first academic study to investigate the actual CPD activities of accountants in public practice in the UK. The questionnaire survey revealed that approximately 80% of members in public practice of ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW and ICAS engaged in levels of CPD that complied with the guidance in place before the new rules were introduced in 2005/06. The most frequently reported CPD activities were technical reading and course attendance. ACCA members have a broadly similar requirement under the new ACCA CPD policy. Most ACCA members in practice would continue to comply with the new policy requirements if their level of participation in CPD activities remains unchanged. However, up to 20% of such accountants are likely not to be compliant unless their participation increases. CIMA, ICAEW and ICAS have adopted a new approach to CPD based on outputs rather than inputs. These new requirements are also discussed.     

The necessary characteristics of environmental auditors: a review of the contribution of the financial auditing profession

The business community faces many pressures from the green consumer, environmental groups, employees and investors to accept its environmental accountabilities and to provide information about its environmental performance. This information is becoming increasingly important to a broad range of corporate stakeholders because it is a key resource in managing a business’s response to the issue of environmental accountability. Businesses need to ascertain whether potential responsibilities for environmental implications on business are considered within their companies. A number of arguments have emerged concerning the relevance of the financial auditing profession in contributing to this area of environmental concerns. The paper is principally concerned with (1) reviewing the literature in an attempt to answer the questions: (i) can the financial audit profession make a contribution in the area of environmental audits? (ii) are financial auditors in a position to assess environmental implications for business and take part in environmental auditing? (2) The paper goes on to suggest a general framework of the necessary characteristics of environmental auditors.     

Monitoring the accounting profession under the AICPA code of professional conduct: An analysis of state board of accountancy participation

We study state board of accountancy participation in monitoring the conduct of accounting professionals under the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct (CPC). In doing so, we examine all sanctions imposed by the AICPA under its CPC from 2008 to 2016 to determine the extent to which a state board’s reporting of violations to the AICPA is associated with its full, partial, or non-adoption of the AICPA’s CPC. Our findings suggest that widespread full adoption of the AICPA’s CPC might not result in enhanced state board participation in reporting violations to the AICPA, as might otherwise be expected. Indeed, we find that state boards that partially adopt the AICPA’s CPC report the most violations. We also highlight the variability of state board participation in monitoring the misconduct of accounting professionals and provide suggestions for enhanced monitoring.     

Considerations on the Evolution of the National Budget Functions: From Internal Relevance to External Value

The paper is concerned with the interrelationship between the national budget, the role of the State in the economy and the public financial situation existing during different historical periods beginning with the unification of Italy. The paper examines the functions of the national budget during the Liberal, Corporatist and Republican periods, and how these have changed as a result of institutional changes, and developments in the socio-economic situation which have influenced economic policy. We focus particularly on the public accountancy reform of 1923-1924 which, in combination with administrative reform, contained some important innovations. The system that emerged is found to have been clearly connected with that of the previous period, the innovations being based on the tenets of liberal ideology and the efficiency of the public administration. In this context the centralisation of the General Accounting Office in 1923 is seen as the result of actions begun during an earlier period. On the other hand, the national budget continued to carry out the functions of regulating the relationship between the various sections of the Government. Nevertheless, although the necessity was felt at this time to control the financial flows, it is only with the advent of the Republican State that the budget takes on an instrumental role in influencing the economy. During the Republican period, the relationship between the institutions and the economy changed, with public finance becoming the hub of economic development and the national budget developing a new function, with the use of government spending for macroeconomic purposes.     

Finding the core: Network structure in interbank markets

This paper investigates the network structure of interbank markets. Using a dataset of interbank exposures in the Netherlands, we corroborate the recent hypothesis that the core periphery model is a ‘stylised fact’ of interbank markets. We find a core of highly connected banks intermediating between periphery banks and pay particular attention to model selection. Our analysis can help improve systemic risk assessments, especially as more granular data is becoming available.     

对我国有关所得来源地判定标准修改的建议

所得来源地判定是确定非居民企业或个人的所得在我国是否应负有纳税义务的基本标准。本文分析了当前我国税法有关所得来源地判定标准存在的一些问题,并根据《OECD税收协定范本》、《联合国税收协定范本》以及我国与其他国家签订的税收协定,提出了修改我国税法中有关所得来源地判定标准条款的建议。     

Competence-based Approaches to the Assessment of Professional Accountancy Training Work Experience Requirements: The ICAS Experience

Most professional accountancy bodies' qualification processes encompass three components: a prescribed programme of professional education, some form of work experience, and a formal final examination to determine professional competence. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) suggests that purely theoretical and knowledge-based education does not meet the needs of all employers. Thus professional bodies are encouraged to find ways to deliver and assess relevant competences in the most appropriate manner. Despite educationalists suggesting that performance measurements based on direct observation within the work place are more effective at measuring competences than traditional paper-based examinations, assessment strategies within the accountancy domain remain conservative. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) was one of the first professional bodies to introduce a competency-based approach to work based assessment in 1999 and subsequently undertook a review of the process in 2004. The data collected for the review was undertaken by way of a questionnaire to authorized training offices, in-depth interviews with employers, and discussions which emanated from a Working Party which included internal ICAS employees, an academic and a representative from a large accountancy firm. This paper presents the findings of the review, discusses the pertinent issues in relation to work based assessment and outlines the changes that were made to the competency-based approach adopted by ICAS. It concludes with recommendations for future practice.     

Bridging the Gap: Engaging in Scholarship with Accountancy Employers to Enhance Understanding of Skills Development and Employability

Abstract

This paper reports on the author's experiences of working with accountancy employers to develop a deeper understanding of skills development and employability in the accountancy profession. It notes that while there is a well-developed literature that examines skills development amongst university accounting students, there is also evidence of a gap between skills development in the university setting and the reported experiences of new entrants into the accountancy profession. The paper examines the nature of this gap and attempts to bridge it, using the experiences of working together with employers. The evidence from this study is that accountancy employers seek new recruits with the capacity to establish professional credibility amongst colleagues and clients through their attitudes and behaviours, something subtly different from much of the literature, which focuses on the importance of discrete generic skills.     

Transforming identities: Accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood

This paper investigates the relationship between the experience of motherhood and employment within the UK accounting profession, by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work. Drawing from contemporary theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities of accountant and mother, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict the ways in which the self is experienced. It also explores the implications for both the self and the accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere of the home and the public sphere of employment. It suggests that as the identities of mother and accountant are entwined, they undertake a process of redefinition and transformation of the self.     

Student perceptions of the profession and its effect on decisions to major in accounting

Changes in the business environment have created a perceived need for more creative individuals in the accounting profession. This study asserts that to attract these people, we will have to change existing perceptions of the profession. To test this assertion, we examine the relationship between students' inherent creativity, perceptions of the accounting profession, and decisions to major in accounting. We also examine the extent to which experience in an introductory accounting course changed students' perceptions and major choices. Findings indicate that students hold traditional views of the profession and this deters interest. Business and accounting students tend to be less creative than the general university population. Experience in introductory accounting drew less creative students to the major despite changing perceptions toward more modern views. Overall, the results indicate that perceptions of precision and thoroughness in the profession and the heavy work load in the introductory course discouraged creative personalities from pursuing an accounting major.     

Communists Among Us in a Market Economy: Accountancy in the People's Republic of China

China is undergoing a unique experience. Its strategy to move the country to a market economy is based on “marketization” instead of “privatization.” The state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are intended to continue to be the mainstay of the economy. The recent accounting reform, a 16-point economic stabilization policy, and the decision to maintain the dominance of the SOEs were all promulgated in the same month. To put the recent accounting reform in perspective, four stages in the development of accounting theory since the Communist Revolution are identified. The first stage is Mao Tse-Tung's initial society, where the control function of accounting, in its narrowest sense, was emphasized. The Counter Revolution with the Post-Revisionist Era relaxed, at the macroeconomic level, the notion of control. The third stage of opening up the Chinese economy to outside capital combines allocative techniques, albeit limited, with Western accounting concepts, all blended with Chinese cultural values. The current stage of macroeconomic liberalization of state enterprises, which accompanied a major macroeconomic stabilization program, is a result of a number of demonstration effects that has further exposed the Chinese economy to various outside factors. Accordingly, such recent accounting reform introduces the concept of equity capital, provides a relatively sharper distinction between product cost and period cost, realistically incorporates the capital maintenance concept and allows a limited number of Westernized accounting standards, mostly adapted to accommodate traditional Chinese values. Accounting forms an indispensable component of an overall economic policy.     

论我国证券监管机构的域外管辖权——以科创板开放红筹企业上市为视角

美国在反欺诈、反贿赂的域外管辖权等公法部分的证券立法经验,对于我国红筹企业在科创板上市的管辖权完善具有积极的借鉴意义。与SEC相比,我国证券监管机构在跨境执法权限上的立法层级不高,调查取证等原则性规定的实际指导意义有限,在司法与执法互动的制度上仍待完善,双边合作监管等“软法”性质的跨境执法合作也比较少。有必要通过赋予证监会更多独立性,建立以司法互动为核心的跨境执法机制,加强柔性跨境执法合作等方式,完善我国证券域外管辖与跨境执法。     

从瑞幸事件看新证券法下强化财务造假监管

证券法此次修订大幅提高了对财务造假行为的惩戒力度,并新增域外效力条款,将证券法管辖范围延伸至境外发行和交易活动。对于中概股财务造假,管辖权的主张应在遵守国际礼让原则的前提下,结合境内市场和投资者利益受影响程度审慎为之。在发行注册制改革的背景下,提高发行上市企业质量的关键还是在于强化事中事后监管,特别是要提高民事和刑事追责力度,积极推进退市市场化、常态化。     

Acting in the public interest: accounting for the vulnerable

This article seeks to initiate research around the potential roles of the accounting profession for tackling the challenges of the vulnerable. Its backdrop is the current consideration of the profession’s public interest role. The importance of dialogue around the public interest role is evidenced by the increasing levels of vulnerability, even within developed countries. Accounting underpinned by broader values has potential to provide knowledge of issues relating to the vulnerable. However, the accounting profession has only engaged with such potential to a limited degree. The article overviews existing knowledge and areas within which more research is required. In order to illustrate the potential for such research, initial findings from two case studies of homelessness (an example of the vulnerable) provide evidence as to the importance, and challenges, of accounting for the vulnerable. This article highlights the need to: take a principles-based approach in defining the vulnerable, undertake an accounting that reflects the lives they value, acknowledge that there are different ways for addressing these issues, recognise that an absence of perfect numbers should not become a barrier to action, and that accounting for the vulnerable is one way that the accounting profession may discharge their public interest roles.     

CAP Forum on Enron: Professional Insecurity and the Erosion of Accountancy's Jurisdictional Boundaries*

This study examines attitudes about professionalism in accounting shortly before the debacles of Enron and Andersen. Interviews with experienced Canadian chartered accountants (CAs) conducted mostly in late 2000 and early 2001 indicate significant doubts about the notion of auditor independence and a relatively high degree of uncertainty about the future of the profession. Accountants also expressed significant difficulties in describing the basic features of what it means to be a professional accountant. On the basis of these observations, we introduce and detail the construct of “professional insecurity". Relying on Giddens's theoretical developments on the role of trust and systems of expertise in today's society, we reflect on the significance and implications of the professional insecurity of CAs, particularly its impact on accountancy's ability to hold on to its jurisdictional boundaries. Our thesis is that the difficulties that accountants experienced in their day‐today lives in sustaining a coherent sense of self‐identity were particularly stressful to them given people's fundamental need for coherence, and this significantly affected the capacity of their profession to hold jurisdiction.     

Migration and Social Replacement Incomes: How to Protect Low-Income Workers in the Industrialized Countries Against the Forces of Globalization and Market Integration

This paper discusses how an industrialized country could defend the living standard of its unskilled workers against the wage competition from immigrants. It shows that fixing social replacement incomes implies migration into unemployment. Defending wages with replacement incomes brings about first order efficiency losses that approximate the budget cost of the government. By contrast, wage subsidies involve much smaller welfare losses. While the exclusion of migrants from a national wage replacement program does not avoid the distortions in labor migration, the (temporary) exclusion of migrants from a national wage subsidy program makes it possible to reach the first best migration pattern despite the preservation of the welfare state.JEL Code: F15, F22, I38, H5, J61     

地下钱庄需求侧打击模式探索:山东实践

对地下钱庄交易对手进行查处,实现对地下钱庄供需两端的全面打击,有助于根除地下钱庄滋生土壤。但从需求侧打击地下钱庄面临实践经验少、跨区域执法管辖权不明等问题。国家外汇管理局山东省分局通过探索重大案件授权督办制度、深化汇警合作联动机制等措施实现了对地下钱庄交易对手的有效打击,为从根本上打击地下钱庄犯罪行为提供了有益借鉴。     

中注协副会长兼秘书长陈毓圭就中注协发布《中国注册会计师行业发展规划(2011-2015年)》答记者问

2011年9月4日,中注协正式发布《中国注册会计师行业发展规划(2011-2015年)》(以下简称《规划》)。针对《规划》制定的背景、主要内容、政策措施等,中注协副会长兼秘书长陈毓圭回答了记者的提问。《规划》明确了十二五时期行业发展的十大目标和十二项主要任务,指导和统领行业未来五年的全面发展。行业发展的十大目标是:行业诚信度和公信力明显提升、行业总收入翻一番、行业发展结构明显优化、人才培养满足加速发展需要、执业准则规则国际持续全面趋同、服务与管理信息化技术程度显著提高、大型事务所做强做大取得重大进展、中小事务所做精做专效果显著、走出去取得实质性突破、事务所体制机制实现根本转变。