Revision används som ett medel för att utomstående intressenter, exempelvis aktieägare, ska få en kvalitetsstämpel på den information som förmedlas av ett företags ledning. Om revisorerna vill påpeka någonting angående företagets redovisning eller förvaltning utfärdar de en så kallad oren revisionsberättelse. I denna studie undersöker vi om denna orena revisionsberättelse får någon effekt på företagets aktiekurs. Den problemformulering som besvaras är: Har en oren revisionsberättelse någon effekt på svenska publika företags aktiekurser? Tidigare forskning på området har nästan enbart genomförts i utlandet. Denna forskning har dock inte kommit fram till något entydigt resultat. Viss forskning hävdar att en oren revisionsberättelse har en negativ effekt på aktiekursen medan annan gör gällande att den inte påverkar. Ytterligare forskning menar att effekten en oren revisionsberättelse har på aktiekursen beror på faktorer som exempelvis informationsmiljö eller vilken typ av revisorsanmärkning det rör sig om. De teorier vi använder oss av berör främst förhållandet mellan aktieägarna och företagsledningen. Bland dessa teorier kan nämnas agentteorin och teorin om informationsasymmetri. Vi använder oss av en kvantitativ metod och gör en händelsestudie. En händelsestudie går förenklat ut på jämföra en akties verkliga avkastning med dess förväntade avkastning under en tidsperiod runt en specifik händelse. Händelsen i vår studie är offentliggörandet av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Vårt slutliga urval består av 101 observationer av orena revisionsberättelser från 64 svenska börsnoterade aktiebolag som fått minst en oren revisionsberättelse mellan 2004-2013. Vi testar först om det finns någon signifikant effekt på aktiekursen för samtliga observationer. Därtill testar vi även om det finns effekt på aktiekursen för olika branscher, börslistor, typer av orena revisionsberättelser och om den orena revisionsberättelsen inträffar för första gången. Resultaten visar att den orena revisionsberättelsen generellt inte har någon signifikant effekt på svenska publika företags aktiekurser. Vi finner en viss nedåtgående trend under dagarna efter händelsen. Trenden är dock inte statistiskt signifikant. Det väcks därmed ett visst tvivel kring om revisionsberättelsen uppfyller sitt syfte för aktieägarna. Resultaten visar också att effekten på aktiekursen inte nämnvärt skiljer sig åt mellan upprepade orena revisionsberättelser och de som kommer första gången. Inga andra test av hela händelseperioden rörande exempelvis bransch visar på statistisk signifikanta negativa effekter på aktiekursen. Dock finns det enskilda dagar under händelseperioden som visar på signifikans. Några direkta slutsatser av detta är emellertid svåra att dra utan vidare undersökning.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of management altering its tone in communications on participants' perceptions of management credibility. Management's tone in communicating with participants was manipulated using communications from management under two treatment conditions. In period one of the study management's tone was manipulated within the management statement on internal controls as required by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) Auditing Standards No. 2. In period one, participants had no knowledge of management's prior forecasting accuracy. Consistent with predicted hypotheses, the findings reveal that management can increase its credibility with participants by communicating its empathy, responsiveness, and understanding. Management's increased credibility was measured using both a validated credibility scale and by examining participants' reliance on management's forecasts. In period two of the study all participants had knowledge of management's forecast failure in period one. The results from period two found that tone could impact the rating of management's credibility when management had previously failed to meet a forecast but that tone had no impact on participant's changes in their earnings per share estimates after management had previously failed to meet a forecast.

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The evolvement of digital reporting has changed the way financial information is prepared and disseminated (Debreceny and Gray, 200 1 ). Previous research has shown that digital reporting has increased, particularly in the last five years, and this usage is characterised by greater volumes of business and financial information over that traditionally provided in print-based mode (Smith, 2003). The new opportunities and benefits offered by digital reporting are matched by challenges and implications not only for the preparers and auditors but also for users. It is expected that in the near future, financial reporting will move entirely from the primarily print-based mode to digital-based mode as the primary information dissemination channel (Oyelere et aI., 2003; Fisher et aI., 2004). Research in the area of digital reporting has been conducted in the past decade. Within this research, a considerable number of issues have been raised. These issues relate to various parties, such as policy makers, preparers, auditors, system designers and users. While several research questions and hypotheses concerning these parties have been posed and investigated, most of the research questions and hypotheses have been formed from a preparers' perspective, leaving the examination of issues from a users' perspective largely unexplored. This study focuses on users. It examines the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance in relation to decision quality, perceptions and cognitive information processing in the digital reporting environment. It aims to extend the digital reporting literature. This study extends the existing body of knowledge on digital reporting environment in several ways. First, this study examines the effect of presentation formats on the quality of users' decision making. This study follows Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993) who described 'decision quality' in the context of two cost-benefit dimensions in relation to decision makers' cognitive processes, namely decision accuracy and cognitive effort. Decision accuracy reflects the ability of a strategy to produce an accurate outcome while cognitive effort reflects the total cognitive expenditure incurred in completing a task. Second, this study examines users' perceptions of three digital presentation formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. This study compares subjects' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of the three presentation formats with their actual outcome. It also includes examining whether perceptions are an important factor in influencing preferred presentation format. Finally, this study examines whether digital presentation formats address the concern over functional fixation in the accounting context of 'recognition versus disclosure' in the reporting of financial information. This study used public accounting practitioners in New Zealand as participants. Sixty two subjects participated in the experiment, which involves an experiment exercise and a post experiment questionnaire. The results indicate that presentation formats impact on decision accuracy. This finding is consistent with previous studies conducted using non-digital presentation formats such as tabular and graphical in the psychology and information systems literature (Stock and Watson, 1984; Dickson et aI., 1986; Iselin, 1988; DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Mackay and Villareal, 1987; Hard and Vanacek, 1991; Stone and Schkade, 1991; Anderson and Kaplan, 1992; Bricker and Nehmer, 1995; Ramarapu et aI., 1997; Frownfelter-Lohrke, 1998; Almer et aI., 2003). The results, however, indicate that presentation formats do not impact decision makers' cognitive effort. These findings suggest that preparers, standardsetters and regulatory bodies should recognise that presentation format impacts on users' decision making processes and select appropriate formats that lead to improvement in decision making. Additionally, the results indicate that users' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the reporting technologies are similar across the three presentation formats. The results also show that users' perceptions do not necessary correspond to actual performance. Users' perceptions are found to influence their preferred presentation format. The findings of this study provide useful insights on users' perceptions, performances and preferences of the digital presentation formats. Such results provide a holistic and comprehensive view of the importance of perceptions and the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance. This is particularly relevant since if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, then there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of presentation. Finally, the results show that of the four recognised stages of information processing (i.e. acquisition, evaluation, weighting and judging information), functional fixation is found to only exist at the judgment stage. However, the effect of presentation format is only significant at information evaluation stage. The results indicate that the interaction between presentation formats and placement of information does not affect decision makers' information processing. This suggests that presentation formats do not solve the concern about recognition versus disclosure (functional fixation) in information processing stages. These fmdings are not consistent with Hodge et al. (2004) but are consistent with Luft and Shields (2001) who suggest functional fixation could not be alleviated because the accounting itself would affect the allocation of people's attention. This study extends the literature on presentation format by examining the quality of decision making arising from the use of different presentation formats in a digital reporting environment. It provides evidence that users' perceptions of ease of use of a presentation format do not necessarily correspond to their actual performance (cognitive effort) once a particular task has been performed. This study also provides evidence that the acceptance of a technology is highly dependent on the perceptions of that technology. Therefore, limited knowledge and appreciation of the capabilities of a technology may have the undesired effect of deterring use of the technology although it may improve performance.

The evolvement of digital reporting has changed the way financial information is prepared and disseminated (Debreceny and Gray, 200 1 ). Previous research has shown that digital reporting has increased, particularly in the last five years, and this usage is characterised by greater volumes of business and financial information over that traditionally provided in print-based mode (Smith, 2003). The new opportunities and benefits offered by digital reporting are matched by challenges and implications not only for the preparers and auditors but also for users. It is expected that in the near future, financial reporting will move entirely from the primarily print-based mode to digital-based mode as the primary information dissemination channel (Oyelere et aI., 2003; Fisher et aI., 2004). Research in the area of digital reporting has been conducted in the past decade. Within this research, a considerable number of issues have been raised. These issues relate to various parties, such as policy makers, preparers, auditors, system designers and users. While several research questions and hypotheses concerning these parties have been posed and investigated, most of the research questions and hypotheses have been formed from a preparers' perspective, leaving the examination of issues from a users' perspective largely unexplored. This study focuses on users. It examines the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance in relation to decision quality, perceptions and cognitive information processing in the digital reporting environment. It aims to extend the digital reporting literature. This study extends the existing body of knowledge on digital reporting environment in several ways. First, this study examines the effect of presentation formats on the quality of users' decision making. This study follows Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993) who described 'decision quality' in the context of two cost-benefit dimensions in relation to decision makers' cognitive processes, namely decision accuracy and cognitive effort. Decision accuracy reflects the ability of a strategy to produce an accurate outcome while cognitive effort reflects the total cognitive expenditure incurred in completing a task. Second, this study examines users' perceptions of three digital presentation formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. This study compares subjects' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of the three presentation formats with their actual outcome. It also includes examining whether perceptions are an important factor in influencing preferred presentation format. Finally, this study examines whether digital presentation formats address the concern over functional fixation in the accounting context of 'recognition versus disclosure' in the reporting of financial information. This study used public accounting practitioners in New Zealand as participants. Sixty two subjects participated in the experiment, which involves an experiment exercise and a post experiment questionnaire. The results indicate that presentation formats impact on decision accuracy. This finding is consistent with previous studies conducted using non-digital presentation formats such as tabular and graphical in the psychology and information systems literature (Stock and Watson, 1984; Dickson et aI., 1986; Iselin, 1988; DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Mackay and Villareal, 1987; Hard and Vanacek, 1991; Stone and Schkade, 1991; Anderson and Kaplan, 1992; Bricker and Nehmer, 1995; Ramarapu et aI., 1997; Frownfelter-Lohrke, 1998; Almer et aI., 2003). The results, however, indicate that presentation formats do not impact decision makers' cognitive effort. These findings suggest that preparers, standardsetters and regulatory bodies should recognise that presentation format impacts on users' decision making processes and select appropriate formats that lead to improvement in decision making. Additionally, the results indicate that users' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the reporting technologies are similar across the three presentation formats. The results also show that users' perceptions do not necessary correspond to actual performance. Users' perceptions are found to influence their preferred presentation format. The findings of this study provide useful insights on users' perceptions, performances and preferences of the digital presentation formats. Such results provide a holistic and comprehensive view of the importance of perceptions and the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance. This is particularly relevant since if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, then there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of presentation. Finally, the results show that of the four recognised stages of information processing (i.e. acquisition, evaluation, weighting and judging information), functional fixation is found to only exist at the judgment stage. However, the effect of presentation format is only significant at information evaluation stage. The results indicate that the interaction between presentation formats and placement of information does not affect decision makers' information processing. This suggests that presentation formats do not solve the concern about recognition versus disclosure (functional fixation) in information processing stages. These fmdings are not consistent with Hodge et al. (2004) but are consistent with Luft and Shields (2001) who suggest functional fixation could not be alleviated because the accounting itself would affect the allocation of people's attention. This study extends the literature on presentation format by examining the quality of decision making arising from the use of different presentation formats in a digital reporting environment. It provides evidence that users' perceptions of ease of use of a presentation format do not necessarily correspond to their actual performance (cognitive effort) once a particular task has been performed. This study also provides evidence that the acceptance of a technology is highly dependent on the perceptions of that technology. Therefore, limited knowledge and appreciation of the capabilities of a technology may have the undesired effect of deterring use of the technology although it may improve performance.

The evolvement of digital reporting has changed the way financial information is prepared and disseminated (Debreceny and Gray, 200 1 ). Previous research has shown that digital reporting has increased, particularly in the last five years, and this usage is characterised by greater volumes of business and financial information over that traditionally provided in print-based mode (Smith, 2003). The new opportunities and benefits offered by digital reporting are matched by challenges and implications not only for the preparers and auditors but also for users. It is expected that in the near future, financial reporting will move entirely from the primarily print-based mode to digital-based mode as the primary information dissemination channel (Oyelere et aI., 2003; Fisher et aI., 2004). Research in the area of digital reporting has been conducted in the past decade. Within this research, a considerable number of issues have been raised. These issues relate to various parties, such as policy makers, preparers, auditors, system designers and users. While several research questions and hypotheses concerning these parties have been posed and investigated, most of the research questions and hypotheses have been formed from a preparers' perspective, leaving the examination of issues from a users' perspective largely unexplored. This study focuses on users. It examines the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance in relation to decision quality, perceptions and cognitive information processing in the digital reporting environment. It aims to extend the digital reporting literature. This study extends the existing body of knowledge on digital reporting environment in several ways. First, this study examines the effect of presentation formats on the quality of users' decision making. This study follows Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993) who described 'decision quality' in the context of two cost-benefit dimensions in relation to decision makers' cognitive processes, namely decision accuracy and cognitive effort. Decision accuracy reflects the ability of a strategy to produce an accurate outcome while cognitive effort reflects the total cognitive expenditure incurred in completing a task. Second, this study examines users' perceptions of three digital presentation formats: PDF, HTML and XBRL. This study compares subjects' perceptions of usefulness and ease of use of the three presentation formats with their actual outcome. It also includes examining whether perceptions are an important factor in influencing preferred presentation format. Finally, this study examines whether digital presentation formats address the concern over functional fixation in the accounting context of 'recognition versus disclosure' in the reporting of financial information. This study used public accounting practitioners in New Zealand as participants. Sixty two subjects participated in the experiment, which involves an experiment exercise and a post experiment questionnaire. The results indicate that presentation formats impact on decision accuracy. This finding is consistent with previous studies conducted using non-digital presentation formats such as tabular and graphical in the psychology and information systems literature (Stock and Watson, 1984; Dickson et aI., 1986; Iselin, 1988; DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa, 1989; Mackay and Villareal, 1987; Hard and Vanacek, 1991; Stone and Schkade, 1991; Anderson and Kaplan, 1992; Bricker and Nehmer, 1995; Ramarapu et aI., 1997; Frownfelter-Lohrke, 1998; Almer et aI., 2003). The results, however, indicate that presentation formats do not impact decision makers' cognitive effort. These findings suggest that preparers, standardsetters and regulatory bodies should recognise that presentation format impacts on users' decision making processes and select appropriate formats that lead to improvement in decision making. Additionally, the results indicate that users' perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the reporting technologies are similar across the three presentation formats. The results also show that users' perceptions do not necessary correspond to actual performance. Users' perceptions are found to influence their preferred presentation format. The findings of this study provide useful insights on users' perceptions, performances and preferences of the digital presentation formats. Such results provide a holistic and comprehensive view of the importance of perceptions and the effect of presentation formats on decision makers' performance. This is particularly relevant since if more advanced forms of digital reporting are to be encouraged, then there is also the need for users to be made more aware of the benefits to be gained from the different forms of presentation. Finally, the results show that of the four recognised stages of information processing (i.e. acquisition, evaluation, weighting and judging information), functional fixation is found to only exist at the judgment stage. However, the effect of presentation format is only significant at information evaluation stage. The results indicate that the interaction between presentation formats and placement of information does not affect decision makers' information processing. This suggests that presentation formats do not solve the concern about recognition versus disclosure (functional fixation) in information processing stages. These fmdings are not consistent with Hodge et al. (2004) but are consistent with Luft and Shields (2001) who suggest functional fixation could not be alleviated because the accounting itself would affect the allocation of people's attention. This study extends the literature on presentation format by examining the quality of decision making arising from the use of different presentation formats in a digital reporting environment. It provides evidence that users' perceptions of ease of use of a presentation format do not necessarily correspond to their actual performance (cognitive effort) once a particular task has been performed. This study also provides evidence that the acceptance of a technology is highly dependent on the perceptions of that technology. Therefore, limited knowledge and appreciation of the capabilities of a technology may have the undesired effect of deterring use of the technology although it may improve performance.

The revaluation of non-current assets has become an accepted accounting practice in many countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. This practice has implications for the external auditor who must decide whether to accept a valuation as reasonable and how much evidence to collect to support the decision. This thesis represents the first study to examine audit decision making in this area. Because of the absence of prior research, a series of structured interviews was undertaken with audit partners to identify the main audit issues. The results of these interviews, together with the relevant literature, were used to identify some of the factors that may impact on audit judgments concerning revalued assets. Hypotheses were developed and two complementary experiments were designed to test them. These were based on the premise that client management may be motivated to revalue in order to improve the appearance of the balance sheet, thereby increasing the inherent risk of misstatement. A 2 x 2 between-subjects design was used for both experiments, and the dependent variables measured were estimates of the planned audit hours to be spent on the revalued assets and likelihood judgments that the valuations would be accepted as reasonable. Experiment One considered the situation where auditors are faced with two conflicting risks which are likely to exist simultaneously in the audit environment. These were the threat of litigation arising from the client's breach of a debt covenant and the risk of losing the client. The study examined auditors' responses to high and low levels of these risks on the audit of revalued owner-occupied property and an investment property. For the planned audit hours, results indicated a strong interaction effect between the two factors, with auditors planning to spend significantly more time on the audit of revalued assets when both the risk of breaching a debt covenant was high and the risk of losing the client was low. Similar results were found for the likelihood judgment that the valuations would be accepted as reasonable, except that for the investment property the results were only marginally significant. Experiment Two examined the impact of a proposal to issue shares to the public and the competence of the independent valuer on the audit of four classes of non-current assets. Results indicated that auditors would plan to spend longer on the audit of revalued assets when the client proposed to make a share issue and also when the competence of the valuer was lower. They were also less likely to accept the valuations as reasonable in these cases. However, an interaction effect between class of asset and competence of the valuer indicated that concern with some aspects of the evidence could override subjects' sensitivity to the competence of the valuer. An additional finding was a significant experience effect for the likelihood judgments, based on the number of audits, in which subjects had been involved, that had included asset revaluations. More experienced subjects were more likely than less experienced subjects to accept the valuations as reasonable.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of St. Gallen, 2008.