The effect of accounting firm size and member rank on professionalism

The relationship between the number of employees in a firm, their rank, and the level of professionalism among firm members is evaluated in 19 accounting firms, involving 325 accountants engaged in public practice. Professionalism is measured using five individual traits plus a composite. Results indicate that one trait (i.e. a belief that the profession provides a service to society) and the composite were inversely related to firm size. Rank or position in the firm hierarchy demonstrated an even stronger, independent effect on three professionalism traits and the composite, with higher member rank associated with higher levels of professionalism. Issues related to the future study of professionalism among accountants are discussed.     

Cross Entropy Estimation of the Almost Ideal Demand System for Greek Consumption

Cross entropy is used to estimate the Almost Ideal Demand System for consumption in Greece. The entropy estimates are found to improve upon the SUR estimates. It is recommended that practitioners consider employing entropy based procedures in systems where the data set is small, where there are a large number of parameters, or where the data are deficient.     

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE SMALL FIRM: A REVIEW ARTICLE

H erbert G iersch (ed.) New Opportunities for Entrepreneurship . Tübingen: Mohr, 1984, pp. 262 + vi, DM62 (paperback). C yril L evicki     

Auditing in the Presence of Outside Sources of Information

We examine how an auditor's ability to terminate a multi-period client relationship provides the auditor with a real option whose value depends on the nature of informational asymmetry between the incumbent and other potential auditors. In particular, we isolate conditions under which the auditor's private and public sources of information behave as complements rather than substitutes. In such circumstances, increasing the likelihood of publicly provided information induces the auditor to expend more (rather than less)resources in private information gathering activities.     

Form, function, and finance: architecture and finance theory

At least at first glance, a bank’s customers ought to be concerned with only one thing—the price they must pay for the services they receive. Architecture beyond the merely functional ought to have no role, especially not in the modern global economy in which increasingly automated financial intermediation of all sorts appears to be approaching the ideals of pure competition and perfect efficiency. Even in these financially sophisticated times, however, symbols matter, and the message communicated by these symbols is one which cannot be communicated in any other way. It is necessary for a financial institution, and perhaps even the financial system itself, to have a strong visual presence. There is a visceral appeal of an architecturally distinguished building to the senses that speaks to us in a way that the cerebral appeal of pure information cannot.     

ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF BRAND ADVERTISING PROGRAMMES FOR U.S. ORANGE JUICE IN THE EUROPEAN MARKET: AN ERROR COMPONENT ANALYSIS

An econometric model is used to measure the impact of the Three-Party Programme on European demand for U.S. orange juice. The results show that the programme has helped expand the demand for orange juice in European countries and, from the viewpoint of the U.S. citrus industry, is an economically preferred way of generating additional exports compared with using price reductions to achieve additional sales.     

Editor's Introduction: Symposium on Free-Market Competitive Goals and Antitrust Policies

Review of Industrial Organization -