The Communication Skills of Accountants: What we Know and the Gaps in our Knowledge

Abstract

This paper critically reviews 19 studies published between 1972 and 2012 that investigated the written and/or oral communication skills of practicing accountants. The core aim of the review was to identify skills considered important and highlight gaps regarding what is known about existing and desired communication skills in the accounting profession. Key findings include that most studies did not detail the basis used to select the skills examined, used very broad skill-set categories and/or did not sufficiently incorporate information already established in the literature. Differing views on the importance of communication skills were found between educators and accountants. Knowledge gaps identified relate to the communication skills considered most important at varying career stages and different career paths, the specific types of oral and written communication skills needed and the role and importance of oral versus written and informal versus formal communication skills. A fundamental concern is that much of the existing communication skills research is crucially out of date. Of the 19 studies reviewed, only three have been published in the past decade. This suggests that further research is needed in the area.     

异质性媒体与资本市场信息效率

新闻传媒通过其信息处理和传播功能 ,对资本市场的信息整合产生了重要影响.不同于以往的研究 ,文章深入新闻传媒行业内部 ,探讨了不同类别的媒体(中央媒体与各地方媒体)对中国资本市场信息效率的差异化影响.研究发现:中央媒体既可以直接提升资本市场信息效率 ,又可以通过削弱政治关联对资本市场信息整合的不利影响,间接改善资本市场信息效率;地方媒体虽然能够直接提升资本市场信息效率 ,但是无力削弱政治关联对资本市场信息整合的不利影响 ,其间接渠道并不起作用.这一结果考虑了媒体跟踪上市公司时可能产生的内生性问题 ,在一系列稳健性测试中始终存在.文章认为 ,相对于地方媒体 ,中央媒体在信息透明度较低情况下的信息获取和处理的能力优势 ,以及面对政治关联时保持客观报道的独立性优势,可以解释这一发现.     

基于指挥信息系统的通信部队指挥应用分析

随着指挥信息系统在全军的广泛运用,指挥方式由传统的"树状"改变为"网状"、"扁平状"。然而现通信部队在开展指挥信息系统训练、应用上还存在一定的短板,在提高整个部队的指挥能力上无法提供高效支持,文章对通信部队的指挥信息系统在实际运用上进行了初步分析,并指出了目前存在的不足,对如何提高通信部队利用指挥信息系统提高整体作战能力提出了对策和建议,对提高指挥信息系统在实际中的应用具有积极意义。     

基于多维频谱地图的干扰规避

针对复杂电磁环境下卫星移动通信系统可靠通信需求，利用频谱地图多维数据呈现优势，提出了基于多维频谱地图的干扰规避方法。通过建立卫星移动通信系统波束、时隙、子频带、干扰强度等多维信息关联的频谱地图，利用数据挖掘方法对频谱可用情况进行预测，基于预测结果及用户QoS(Quality of Service)需求生成干扰规避策略，通过星地联合频谱资源调配实现系统干扰规避。该方法为卫星移动通信系统干扰规避提供了一种全新的思路，可提升卫星移动通信系统干扰防护能力。     

Observing viewers’ self-reported and neurophysiological responses to message appeal in social media advertisements

PurposeMarketing research mainly uses self-reported method to record respondents' perceptions of creativity, and while self-reported method has its own merits, there exists some critique, particularly in terms of its ability to adequately capture the influence of message appeal on creativity. This paper studies how viewers’ responses to message appeals in social media advertisement compare in terms of self-reported responses versus responses taken through a neurophysiological method of Electroencephalograph (EEG).MethodologyTwo social media advertisements are displayed through a laboratory experiment to 17 subjects observing the subjects' neurophysiological reactions as well as their self-reported responses with regard to the commercials’ emotional, informational, and brand-related content.FindingsResults show that neurophysiological method offers unique details about emotional appeal, which the self-reported method fails to reflect. Furthermore, the neurophysiological measure identifies differences across the two target commercials in the emotional content part, which again are not identified through the self-reported method.OriginalityThis paper advances advertising research in social media literature by comparing content evaluation within advertisement through neurophysiological and self-reported measure. These findings have implications for marketers to use and measure message appeals in advertisement on social media to influence consumer response.     

Effects of crisis response tone and spokesperson's gender on employer attractiveness

Timely apologies to key publics on social media are becoming an important aspect of crisis recovery but little is known of how the spokesperson’s characteristics and the tone of apology may influence the outcome. Recognising the importance of the need to attract quality workforce, this study examines the impact of social media response to a preventable crisis on organisational attractiveness. Specifically, a 2 (message tone: corporate/formal vs. human/informal) x 2 (spokesperson’s gender: male vs. female) between-subjects factorial design was used to test the effectiveness of an apology. The results suggest a significant moderated mediation effect. We find that account acceptance mediates the relationship between message tone and organisational attractiveness, and this effect is conditional on gender of the spokesperson. The results are relevant to crisis managers and brand managers that seek to attract and retain talents.     

The micro-foundations of strategic ambidexterity: Chinese cross-border M&As,Mid-View thinking and integration management

Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) display several unique properties in relation to the ways in which their international business operations are organised and managed. Their seemingly puzzling ‘light-touch’ integration approach can be significantly understood from a strategic ambidexterity perspective: on the one hand, the ‘light-touch’ enables the exploitation of the targets’ existing knowledge bases; on the other hand, elements of the ‘light-touch’ facilitate the exploration of the new knowledge arising from the collaboration between targets and acquirers. However, an important theoretical gap remains: why do Chinese companies deploy such a strategic ambidexterity approach in their post-acquisition integrations? This paper aims to fill this gap by proposing Mid-View thinking as a micro-foundation of strategic ambidexterity in integration management from a cultural and philosophical perspective. To illuminate our conceptualization and argument, we conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with CEOs/high-level managers of acquired German companies. Communication approach and organizational control—as two critical aspects in integration management—reveal how Mid-View thinking can serve as a micro-foundation of strategic ambidexterity. We conclude this paper by presenting its theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and future research directions.     

Personality traits,basic individual values and GMO risk perception of twitter users

Abstract

The present study investigates how the most foundational factors to individual differences – personality traits and personal values – affect the perceived safety of genetic modification and their relative importance. Publicly available communication data from 522 Twitter accounts discussing genetically modified foods and their safety was processed in two steps. First, accounts were categorized by the researchers as viewing GM foods as either safe or not safe. Second, using the IBM Watson platform, the Twitter communication data were subjected to lexical analysis to assign scores according to the Five Factor Model for personality traits and Schwartz’s basic individual values to the individual accounts. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine how perceived GM food safety is linked to personality traits and individual values. Although both traits and values significantly contribute to explaining GM attitudes, personality traits strongly moderate the effect of individual values on risk perception.