Accounting Information and Joint Arrangements

The accounting profession has recently issued a standard (AAS19) on production sharing agreements and has signalled impending regulation of accounting for other types of joint arrangements. Here we discuss the nature of joint arrangements and the role that accounting information plays in causing such arrangements to exist, determining their legal form, safeguarding the interests of the contracting parties, and protecting other interested parties likely to be disaffected by the arrangement.     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF DISTRESS PREDICTION MODELS FOR CORPORATE LENDING

Three literatures on financial distress prediction are reviewed and evaluated in terms of their usefulness in credit analysis. These are (1) bankruptcy prediction models initiated by Altman, (2) behavioural studies of the ability of loan officers and others to make accurate predictions of bankruptcy and (3) attempts to simulate loan officers' judgements. It is concluded that techniques based on judgement simulation are likely to be the most effective decision aids.     

Consumer online privacy concerns and responses: a power–responsibility equilibrium perspective

We use the Power–Responsibility Equilibrium (PRE) framework and advance that consumers balance perceived deficits in privacy protection by power holders (businesses and regulators) with defensive actions. In our model, consumer privacy concern is the endogenous mediating entity linking business policy and regulatory perceptions to negative online user responses. The model was empirically tested and confirmed in an experimental setting. In a second study, we added the nature of consumer information involved into a sub-model. Here, we investigated the moderating role of information sensitivity and congruency on the business policy–concern relationship across three industry contexts. Both hypothesized two-way interactions were confirmed, suggesting that a strong business policy is effective in reducing concern when low sensitivity data are gathered, but insufficient in reducing concern for highly sensitive data. Furthermore, concern increased dramatically when sensitive data were collected that were incongruent with the business context.