Earnings Quality under Rules‐ versus Principles‐based Accounting Standards: A Test of the Skinner Hypothesis / LA QUALITÉ DES RÉSULTATS SELON QUE LES NORMES COMPTABLES SONT AXÉES SUR LES RÈGLES OU SUR LES PRINCIPES: VÉRIFICATION DE L'HYPOTHÈSE DE SKINNER*

We provide preliminary evidence, consistent with Skinner (1995), that Canada's relatively principles‐based GAAP yield higher accrual quality than the United States' relatively rules‐based GAAP. These results stem from a comparison of the Dechow‐Dichev (2002) measure of accrual quality for cross‐listed Canadian firms reporting under both Canadian and U.S. GAAP. However, we document lower accrual quality for Canadian firms reporting under U.S. GAAP than for U.S. firms, which are subject to stronger U.S. oversight, reporting under U.S. GAAP. The latter results suggest that stronger U.S. oversight compensates for inferior accrual quality associated with rules‐based GAAP. Consistent with the positive effect of Canada's principles‐based GAAP and the offsetting negative effect of Canada's weaker oversight, we find no overall difference in accrual quality between Canadian firms reporting under Canadian GAAP and U.S. firms reporting under U.S. GAAP. Our results imply that (1) policymakers who wish to compare the effectiveness of oversight across jurisdictions must control for the GAAP effect; and (2) accounting standard‐setters who wish to compare the effectiveness of principles‐ versus rules‐based GAAP must control for oversight strength.     

Developing a Community of Practice: Michael Gaffikin and Critical Accounting Research

This paper demonstrates the role of a community of practice in academic endeavour, focusing on the influence of place and the role of thought leaders in guiding academic development. This is illustrated with reference to the influence of Emeritus Professor Michael Gaffikin in establishing a critical accounting community of practice at the University of Wollongong (UOW) through his PhD supervisions. Social network analysis (SNA) is used to visualize the 43 PhD supervisions undertaken by Gaffikin during his career, and subsequent PhD supervisions of his students, and students of those students. SNA illustrates the structure of relationships, and the paths through which scholars learnt from one another, which we combine with qualitative analysis of recollections, acknowledgments, and doctoral theses. We demonstrate the role of Gaffikin, as the intellectual thought leader, and UOW, as the intellectual place, in the development of the critical accounting community of practice. The development of critical accounting scholarship was a function of Gaffikin's intellectual and professional leadership, which he executed through PhD supervision, the annual Doctoral Consortium, and his direction at UOW. This paper highlights the importance of local communities for the development of research agendas, and the influence of PhD supervisors on the professional development of students.     

Cross‐Firm Real Earnings Management

Our analysis is rooted in the notion that stockholders can learn about the fundamental value of any firm from observing the earnings reports of its rivals. We argue that such intraindustry information transfers, which have been broadly documented in the empirical literature, may motivate managers to alter stockholders’ beliefs about the value of their firm not only by manipulating their own earnings report but also by influencing the earnings reports of rival firms. Managers obviously do not have access to the accounting system of peer firms, but they can nevertheless influence the earnings reports of rival firms by distorting real transactions that relate to the product market competition. We demonstrate such managerial behavior, which we refer to as cross‐firm real earnings management, and explore its potential consequences and interrelation with the practice of accounting‐based earnings management within an industry setting with imperfect (nonproprietary) accounting information.     

Setting consolidated reporting standards for local government

Under a corporatization trend, traditional financial reporting is generally considered unable to offer a complete view of the economic and financial activities of a group of public entities. Consequently, several reforms and standards have been introduced related to consolidated financial reports. Through interviews with key actors, the authors analysed the normativity process for issuing consolidated reporting standards for local governments in three European countries: Italy, Spain, and Sweden.     

Sex role socialization and perceptions of student academic dishonesty by male and female accounting faculty

We examine differences between male and female accounting faculty members’ perceptions of academic dishonesty and their uses of controls to prevent academically dishonest behaviour. We use socialization concepts to motivate our examination of these differences. Specifically, we find that females generally perceive academic dishonesty to be a more significant problem than do males, females see individual incidences of academic dishonesty as more frequent and more significant than do males, and female academics report they exercise controls to prevent academic dishonesty more frequently than do male academics. These findings are consistent with differential sex role socialization for women and men. We also find that male and female accounting academics’ perceptions converge with professional training and teaching experience, suggesting moderating impacts of professional and/or organizational socialization on perceptions of academic dishonesty. Lastly, we document some differences in how male and female accounting academics respond to known incidences of academically dishonest behaviour.     

Educating digital natives for the future: accounting educators’ evaluation of the accounting curriculum

The global digital revolution has irrevocably transformed societies and industries. The accounting profession is predicted to experience a significant change in the future, due to technological developments. Practices will be automated and related positions obsolete, thus accounting graduates need to be educated for new and different tasks and positions. The current study focussed on these expected changes and how accounting profession, practice and, consequently, education will be affected and adjusted to these new technologies in an evaluation approach. A qualitative methodology was employed, investigating accounting educators’ perceptions of these developments. Semi-structured interview data and online accessible empirical data, such as podcasts, were analysed in two coding cycles. The findings illustrate that while significant changes are expected, participants’ opinions vary regarding the necessity of adjusting the accounting curriculum. Supportive changes include amending respective courses to emphasise classic skills, such as problem-solving, and contemporary skills, such as new technologies, to illustrate developments practically.     

Burnout among university accounting educators in Australia and New Zealand: determinants and implications

Increased teaching workloads combined with pressures to publish in limited outlets has intensified the burnout potential among accounting educators in Australia and New Zealand. However, amongst the few studies on tertiary accounting education, the focus has so far been only on burnout arising from student contact intensity. We broaden this literature by examining how other worklife characteristics contribute to burnout. Based on 158 responses from Australian and New Zealand accounting academics, we find evidence for emotional exhaustion due to high workload. However, professional efficacy continues to remain high. Qualitative responses offer deeper insights on how various burnout factors are interrelated.     

在进一步解放思想中深化改革

纵观世界历史,人类社会的进步总是由思想解放引领的。从思想的形成过程和人类自身的认知规律来看,人的思想总是会受到“内因”和“外因”的束缚,因此,需要打破阻碍或束缚人们准确认识客观现实的各种藩篱,使思想和实际相符合,使主观和客观相一致。中国四十年的改革开放史就是一部思想解放史。因为实现了“三个确立”,并且正在冲破“三个思维定势”,我们得以为中国经济起飞和持续发展提供不竭动力。进入新时代,解放思想必须实实在在地落到解决深层次问题上,需重点关注三个方面：一是推动中国理论体系发挥重大作用,二是完善符合中国实践的公平正义保障体系,三是发展构建命运共同体需要的新国际交往思维。     

Genetic risk and value

A conceptual truth about risks is that they involve a possible and future adverse effect or a negative value of some kind. The genetic risks that individuals may face in the health care setting differ in some crucial respects to other kind of risks. The aims of this paper are to analyse the notion of value in the context of genetic risk in the setting of health care, and to suggest a conception of the evaluative aspect of genetic risk that is fruitful for genetic risk information. Two influential and relevant approaches to value, preferentialism and the capability approach, are discussed in the light of certain distinctive features of genetic risk and a third, a sensibility theory of value is suggested. According to this view, the concept of risk is a so-called ‘thick’ evaluative concept that has both a world-guiding function as well as an action-guiding or normative function. It is argued that this provides a more promising way to think about genetic risks in the clinical setting.     

The raw material basis of global value chains: allocating environmental responsibility based on value generation

A new approach to allocate environmental responsibility, the ‘value added-based responsibility’ allocation, is presented in this article. This metric allocates total environmental pressures occurring along an international supply chain to the participating sectors and countries according to the share of value added they generate within that specific supply chain. We show that – due to their position in global value chains – certain sectors (e.g. services) and countries (e.g. Germany) receive significantly greater responsibility compared to other allocation approaches. This adds a new perspective to the discussions concerning a fair distribution of mitigation costs among nations, companies and consumers.