The use of microcomputers in accounting education

Developments in the microcomputer industry promise to revolutionize American business. Recent projections show 1983 retail sales to be almost 8 billion dollars.Four years ago Brigham Young University began using microcomputers to assist in accounting education. This article explains how the micro is used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes and for administrative purposes.The micro is a very powerful tool that has many future uses in accounting education. Examples include: accounting and data base packages and as an auditing or research tool.The use of the micro, however, is not without problems. For example: funding, training, student assistance, and quality teaching materials.Accounting educators must train their students in the use of the microcomputer since failure to do so would result in their missing one of the most significant trends in American business.     

Scale and scope economies in the multi-product banking firm

The multi-product nature of the banking firm is examined utilizing the translog cost function. This analysis indicates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, natural monopoly, scale economies and product-specific decreasing costs are not robust characterizations of the banking industry. There is, however, evidence that the cost function is characterized by economies of scope. The implications of these results are discussed and extensions of this approach suggested.     

Is international trust performance predictable over time? A note

We examine whether past return measures have any significant predictive ability for future returns of UK unit trusts with international equity objectives. We find significant positive persistence between the past return performance of the trust relative to its investment sector and future trust returns relative to its sector. This result holds at short‐run and long‐run return horizons. The persistence is stronger in trusts that perform well relative to their sector. Our findings suggest that the past return performance of the trust relative to their sector provides a useful guide to future return performance relative to their sector.     

Audit Fees, Non-Audit Fees and Auditor Going-Concern Reporting Decisions in the United Kingdom

The accounting profession has come under increased scrutiny over recent years about the growing number of non-audit fees received from audit clients and the possible negative impact of such fees on auditor independence. The argument advanced is that providing substantial amounts of non-audit services to clients may make it more likely that auditors concede to the wishes of the client management when difficult judgments are made. Such concerns are particularly salient in the case of reporting decisions related to going-concern uncertainties for financially stressed clients.
 This study empirically examines audit reports provided to financially stressed companies in the United Kingdom and the magnitude of audit and non-audit service fees paid to the company's auditors. We find that the magnitude of both audit fees and non-audit fees are significantly associated with the issuance of a going-concern modified audit opinion. In particular, financially stressed companies with high audit fees are more likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion, whereas companies with high non-audit fees are less likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion. Additional analyses indicate that the results are generally robust across alternative model and variable specifications. Overall, evidence supports the contention that high non-audit fees have a detrimental effect on going-concern reporting judgments for financially stressed U.K. companies.     

Orderbook demand for corporate bonds

We examine the determinants of investor demand for corporate bond offerings using novel data on the primary market orderbook size. We find that credit risk and bond market presence are significant in explaining investor demand. These effects are more pronounced during the crisis periods including the global financial crisis and eurozone crisis as well as during the postcrisis periods. Our results also highlight the size of the bond investor order depends on information asymmetry costs and the benefit of diversifications, as investor demand is lower for new issuers as well as very frequent issuers. The levels of investor demand have important economic consequences for bond issuers as high investor demand shortens the time to subsequent bond issues and potentially reduces the firm's cost of capital at issuance.     

Accounting for Convertible Loan Stock: A Decomposition Approach

This paper examines the accounting treatment of convertible loan stock (CLS), a popular vehicle for raising finance during the past decade. At present, CLS is treated as part of a company's borrowing with the interest charge thereon deducted in arriving at the pre-tax profit in the profit and loss account. The Technical Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (1987) has proposed that the annual interest charge in the profit and loss account relating to CLS be adjusted so that the charge reflects ‘a fair interest cost’ and that the adjustment be treated in the balance sheet as a ‘payment received for an option’. To date that guidance appears to have been ignored by UK companies. Our approach is different from that of the Technical Committee. We recommend that the accounting treatment of CLS should reflect its economic substance and argue that it be decomposed into two components: a straight bond component and a component which offers the holder an option to convert into equity. The straight bond component should be shown as part of a company's borrowing and the conversion option component as part of the shareholders' funds. The different approaches to accounting for CLS are illustrated by means of a case study.     

沃顿商学院：许多东西比金钱更重要

约翰·亨斯曼。沃顿商学院的著名校友。白手起家建立起世界一流的企业。同时作为著名的慈善家。他斥资数亿美元。在世界各地为弱势群体捐款或是为大学生提供奖学金。最近。他来到中国畅谈了他的公司——亨斯曼化学公司的成长经验。在短短的35年时间里。亨斯曼从一家小公司成长为营业额达到130亿美元的跨国集团。工厂分布在全球43个国家。     

Investor Heterogeneity and the Cross-section of U.K. Investment Trust Performance

We use the upper and lower bounds derived by Ferson and Lin (2010) to examine the impact of investor heterogeneity on the performance of U.K. investment trusts relative to alternative linear factor models. We find using the upper bounds that investor heterogeneity has an important impact for nearly all investment trusts. The upper bounds are large in economic terms and significantly different from zero. We find no evidence of any trusts where all investors agree on the sign of performance beyond what we expect by chance. Using the lower bound, we find that trusts with a larger disagreement about trust performance have a weaker relation between the trust premium and past Net Asset Value (NAV) performance.     

An empirical investigation of technology acceptance in a field sales force setting

Gaining technology acceptance by salespeople is critical in modern organizations. Sales technology is an integral tool for enhancing customer-related information management and knowledge development. Knowledgeable salespeople are able to use the information and knowledge to practice adaptive selling, improve performance, and enhance their firm's competitive advantage in the marketplace. This study proposes and tests a model linking technology acceptance to adaptive selling and job performance of field salespeople. The results provide evidence that behavioral intentions to use technology positively affect salesperson performance through enhanced propensity to practice adaptive selling. Implications of the study for managers and researchers are discussed.