Reasons women chartered accountants leave public accounting firms prior to achieving partnership status: A qualitative analysis

This paper reports on the stories told by 13 Canadian women Chartered Accountants (CAs)—why they pursued the CA designation and why they chose to leave public accounting firms. Their stories provide deeper insights into the previously reported reasons for female CAs leaving firms that are often reported within broad categories. Work-family issues received limited attention in the participants' stories. Two major themes emerged: the absence of stated aspirations/desire to become a partner; and frustrations with the intrinsic and monetary value of services delivered by public accounting firms. The implications of these findings for the profession and public accounting firms are examined and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Principles‐Based Reasoning about Accounting Estimates

This article proposes a key principle and related concepts for reasoning about accounting estimates. The reasoning is consistent with a principles‐based professional judgment framework proposed by Ross Skinner and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. The principle deals with reasonable ranges and related risk assessments in the audit of accounting estimates. It does so by using concepts first introduced by Boritz and Skinner and updates them for the requirements of CAS/ISA No. 540 and International Financial Reporting Standards. The article identifies the conditions for the existence of the benchmark ranges proposed by Smieliauskas in identifying fairly presented estimates. The need for a professional judgment framework and related guidance has been recognized recently by the International Federation of Accountants, a 2010 EU Green Paper, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a result of challenges auditors have been facing in the current reporting environment. This recognition echoes calls first made by Ross Skinner in his pioneering 1995 article, and reinforced by the FASB/IASB 2006 proposal for principles‐based accounting standards.     

Tourism politics and political science: A case of not so benign neglect

Tourism is today the second largest item of world trade. It is a source of bitter controversy and yet a topic of intense regional collaboration in both international and sub-national politics. It is a policy area infused with the most optimistic projections and the most vitriolic criticism. It is also almost totally ignored by political science. This paper presents a case for examining the politics of tourism by illustrating its intrinsic relevance to nearly every facet of the discipline. The paper also argues that in the absence of political science interest, important dimensions of the political costs and advantages of tourism have been neglected. As a consequence, the developmental potential of tourism has frequently collided unnecessarily with the public interest and even the long-run interests of the tourism industry.     

Attitudinal compliance with ecotourism guidelines

This study has developed and tested a conceptual framework to explain compliance attitudes of ecotour operators with industry guidelines. The results suggest that compliance with ecotourism principles is a function of a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors concerning ecotour operators, including the type of social and economic sanctions, gender of the respondents, perceived moral obligations, and revenue obtained from ecotourism. The key strategies for increasing compliance seem to lie in educating the tour operators and placing a call to their conscience. Some strategies for increasing compliance are suggested.     

Dark personality in dark times: How Dark Triad personality interacts with injustice and politics to influence detachment and discretionary behaviours

Using two-wave time-lagged multi-source data in two studies, we examine how Dark Triad personality (DTP) interacts with contextual variables to influence psychological detachment and discretionary behaviours. In Study 1 (N = 288), we examine the combined effects of DTP and perceived injustice on psychological detachment and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). In Study 2 (N = 461), we examine the combined effects of DTP and perceived organizational politics (POP) on counterproductive work behaviours (CWB) and psychological detachment. We found that Dark Triad personality was positively related to psychological detachment and CWBs and negatively related to OCBs. The effects of the DTP on psychological detachment, OCBs, and CWBs were stronger when perceived injustice and POP was high.     

The Eternal Debate Over Conservatism and Prudence: A Historical Perspective on the Conceptualization of Asymmetry in Financial Accounting Theory*

The recent revisions of conceptual frameworks (CFs) by the IASB and the FASB included changes to the status of prudence/conservatism, accompanied by a broader debate about the meaning and role of asymmetry in financial accounting theory (FinAT). This paper adopts a historical perspective to identify possible sources of the current controversies by examining how the discourse on asymmetry has developed over time. For this purpose, we trace the conceptualization of asymmetry in FinAT building from the 19th century until 2018, covering contributions to the US FinAT literature and the conceptual reasoning of standard setters (and their constituents) in the United States and at the international level. We identify four distinct constructs of asymmetry (ultra-, specified, discretionary, and neutral asymmetry) developed in FinAT under the headings of “conservatism” and/or “prudence.” Our analysis reveals that the respective historical circumstances strongly influenced which notion and role of asymmetry were commonly accepted in FinAT, while the arguments underlying the debates were going in circles and were characterized by an increasing level of abstraction over time. We conclude that the controversy about asymmetry is partially due to conceptual ambiguity but also due to different assumptions about the objective of financial reporting and attributes of the preparer, which are indicative of two conflicting paradigms shaping the FinAT discourse on asymmetry. Our findings point to gaps and limitations in the deductive CFs currently employed by the IASB and FASB. Our study highlights future research potential regarding the construction of the preparer in standard setting and analyses of the ways in which deductive CFs (fail to) translate into consistent standards.     

Targets' Accounting Conservatism and the Gains from Acquisition*

We present evidence on the effects of target firms' accounting conservatism in a merger and acquisition transaction. Conservatism is distinct from other accounting or accrual quality constructs examined in prior work. Its unique features can lead to potential benefits for both the targets and the acquirers. The use of conservatism by targets reduces acquirers' risks of acquiring underperforming assets or overpaying for well-performing assets. In addition, targets' conservatism results in greater production of verifiable information that can help the acquirers better estimate and realize synergies of the combined firm. Consistent with these arguments, we find that firms with greater accounting conservatism are more likely to receive a bid. We also find that targets' conservatism increases the deal premium and the announcement returns of both the targets and the acquirers, respectively. Overall, these results indicate that conservatism provides benefits to both sellers and buyers of equity in an acquisition transaction.