This study explores the risks and consequences of the reliance on visualizations in performance measurement for the sake of the simplicity and actionability of performance information. Despite the mounting interest in the visual aspects of accounting, little is known about what can happen when visuals are so embedded in organizations that they become a key semiotic resource for communicating performance

We study the New York City taxi market to examine whether an excise tax hike on cigarettes corresponds to smoker taxi drivers more frequently cheating their customers. Increased cheating could be motivated by both financial pressures and as a reaction to unfair treatment (as surveyed smokers view cigarette tax hikes as quite unfair). We examine this question using detailed ride-level data where we

Because of their complexity and principle-based nature, the creation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) engendered significant uncertainty that modified the order of things within large accounting firms. This motivated them to establish Professional Practice Function (PPF) units to try to ensure a credible degree of consistency in applying IFRS across a wide range of financial reports

Global practices such as offshoring and expatriation of employees increase cross-cultural interactions within and across firms. In this paper, we use three experiments to investigate the effects of cultural differences on employees' interpretations of employers' contract choices. Applying insights from attribution theory, we predict that cultural differences will reduce the likelihood for employees

Accounting studies document that performance evaluations may cause evaluatees to experience job-related stress and suggest there is a positive relationship between the frequency of such evaluations and stress. In this paper we aim to modify this suggestion. Since performance evaluations also involve a periodic discharge of accountability for evaluatees, we expect that low evaluation frequency may cause

We examine executive bonus contracts in corporate bankruptcies. Introduced in 2005, Section 503(c)(1) of the United States' Chapter 11 corporate bankruptcy code regulates key employee retention plans (KERPs) but does not restrict performance incentive plans (PIPs). We find that, following the adoption of this reform, the likelihood of approval of KERPs and their coverage decrease, while those of PIPs

The received narrative about accounting organisation largely originates from within the walls of the profession, assuming closure, and is not sufficiently informed by an understanding of the actions, experiences and perspectives of those who did not engage in the professional project. Our data offer another perspective, that of the majority of accountants in the field, who prospered for a prolonged

The importance of curtailing undesirable behaviors and, ultimately, self-focused work climates in organizations is undeniable. This study examines how management control systems (MCSs), as a crucial part of a firm's formal ethical infrastructure, can contribute to this objective. We conceptualize an ethically focused MCS as one that communicates ethical values and motivates employees to act accordingly

Accounting research on tax has primarily focused on documenting the income shifting strategies of multinational corporations. However, no studies, as far as we are aware, have hitherto explored how large accountancy firms manage their own tax affairs despite being huge economic entities in their own right. Using a unique private firm dataset of Big 4 affiliated firms from 30 European countries we examine

Audit academics and policymakers express ongoing concerns about limited knowledge transfer between audit research and policymaking. We use theory-based knowledge transfer norms to evaluate eight practices used by audit academics to transfer research knowledge to policymakers. The discontinued PCAOB-AAA Auditing Section “Research Synthesis Project” came closest to enacting these theory-based knowledge

Prospect theory is often used to predict individuals’ risky tax decisions. For example, individuals who are in a tax due (refund) position are predicted to engage in more (less) tax noncompliance. This is known as the “withholding phenomenon”. However, tax noncompliance is not just risky, it is also unethical. We hypothesize that because there is an ethical component inherent in this risky decision

Women remain significantly underrepresented at partnership level in accounting firms. The past three decades witnessed a steady increase in investment and research in gender equality in the profession, but there is a scholarly reluctance to focus specifically on motherhood despite the fact that four in five women will have children in their lifetime and experience inequality and discrimination as a

We advance social identity theory in the context of corporate governance research by evaluating how experiences outside the audit committee (AC) relate to AC members’ (ACMs’) professional identities and how these identities then map into ACMs’ responsibilities, how ACMs perceive that they add value, and how ACMs aid in the resolution of difficult judgments and decisions. We identify and evaluate four

We examine whether knowledge sharing can enhance the efficacy of implicit, trust-based incentives. Using a stark laboratory experiment, we find support for theory suggesting that individuals believe that their knowledge is an important part of their identity, making it costly to share, but facilitating greater trust that recipients of this knowledge will reciprocate with future rewards. Utilizing participants

This paper aims to examine how organisational ‘space’ is implicated in gendering practices in auditing and contributes to impeding the entry or progress of women within the profession. Specifically, we investigate how women auditors experience a formal segregation in the workplace in Big Four audit firms located in Saudi Arabia. Drawing upon and developing Lefebvre’s (1991) work on the ‘production

Using an experiment, I examine whether managers have preferences for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a capital budgeting setting and the factors that influence the extent to which they act on these preferences. I find that managers have and act on preferences for CSR by reporting to implement higher cost CSR investments that reduce firm profit even when they have financial incentives not to

To foster positive relationships with clients, audit firms often assign “relationship partners” (hereafter RPs) to engagements. Yet, little is known about RPs’ influence on disagreements that arise during fieldwork. We conduct an experiment with financial executives to examine the influence of RP intervention during auditor-client negotiations, and whether such influence depends on the extent to which

The dissemination of knowledge in audit firms is a critical process that has gone relatively unexamined by researchers. Using social network analysis to quantify the knowledge-seeking networks in a Big 4 audit firm in the U.S., we examine the association between the types and patterns of knowledge-seeking ties and individual auditor performance. Our initial finding is that auditor job performance is

To facilitate digital corporate reporting and enable computers to ‘read’ accounting information, standard-setters must construct a taxonomy to assign contextual ‘metadata’ that codifies disclosures arising from accounting concepts, standards and practices. But digitalisation poses a problem for corporate reporting. Within internationally accepted accounting practice, ‘principles-based’ standards give

This study is about auditors’ role as regulatory intermediaries in the international accounting standard-setting process. Drawing from the socio-legal literature, we use a theoretical framework combining the Regulator-Intermediary-Target (RIT) model and the legal endogeneity theory that sheds light on auditors’ role in fostering the emergence of an agreed-upon meaning of a standard. While standards

We use U.S. data from a global accounting firm to investigate how two key elements of audit teams –workloads and staffing continuity – affect the audit. We find that heavier team workloads are associated with lower audit quality, particularly when team members have lower performance ratings or have total workloads that exceed 60 h per week. In addition to finding evidence of employee burnout, we also

Existing studies have developed increasingly sophisticated accounts of the performative agency of valuation devices and their effects on markets and organizations. In particular, research has focused on the work of different actors to legitimize valuation devices and ensure their adoption, which then leads to performativity. This paper extends work on the legitimacy and performativity of valuation

We study the relation between a manager’s growth mindset and their use of resource management practices. Growth mindset is based on implicit person theory and is an established and measurable psychological construct. It refers to a person’s deeply held beliefs about whether, in general, people can learn, develop, and change throughout their lives or whether “who they are” is relatively fixed by initial

This paper is the first to investigate the role of work-life balance in financial analysts’ performance and career advancement. Using a large sample of Glassdoor reviews by financial analysts, we find a significant non-linear relation between perceived work-life balance and analyst performance and analyst career advancement. Specifically, when perceived work-life balance is relatively low, an increase

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that a male favoring pay gap exists in every one of its member countries. To reduce the gender pay gap, governments and investors are demanding that companies disclose gender pay information. While companies seem to resist these demands, there is little evidence about how investors might react to the disclosure of gender pay

In recent years, standard setters worldwide have considered how to enhance financial statement users’ understanding of the estimation uncertainty contained in many financial statement items. Our study examines two disclosures expected to help investors evaluate the reliability of subjective fair value estimates: a quantitative sensitivity analysis (QSA) and the auditor’s quantitative materiality threshold

In view of the increasing coronavirus death toll around the globe, centralized governments have been put under the spotlight to account for the deaths in the sovereign states they represent. But could it be a problem if we simply hold governments accountable for deaths by demanding accurate and transparent accounting of the total? Is there a better way to account for deaths in a pandemic without ignoring

We experimentally investigate how increases in legally required minimum wages affect wage offers, wage premiums (i.e., the excess of wages over the minimum wage), and employee effort. Prior research has documented a gift-exchange relationship between firms and employees, whereby higher wage offers lead to higher effort. However, when the minimum wage increases, expectations regarding gift wages may

This paper examines the possibilities and limits of social accountability, characterized by face-to-face interactions between organizational actors and beneficiary others. We explore how social accountability is produced in and through visibility relations which recognize or may expose the other. We examine the consequences of such changing visibility relations on social accountability in two case

Our study examines whether implementing a novel approach for incentivizing employees to engage in behavior desired by the company is associated with changes in employee behavior. We use proprietary data from a company using an online learning platform where employees could voluntarily participate in daily training. Employees who complete daily training modules and correctly answer quiz questions earn