Institutionally, the accounting profession faces crises of public confidence which led the Cohen Commission to conclude that significant gaps exist between public expectations and audit performance. That commission placed primary responsibility for narrowing those gaps upon the accounting profession. This dissertation provides evidence of those gaps and suggests a methodology which facilitates systematic investigation of cognitive factors which mediate those gaps. / This study has the dual purpose of documenting expectations gaps empirically and investigating information-processing factors which mediate creation of these gaps. Ninety-two Certified Public Accountants (CPA'S) and 55 small business owners (SBO's) were provided with a series of eight caselets (hypothetical fact situations), seven of which described audit failures and one of which described an audit success. Subjects allocated responsibility for caselet outcomes among characteristics of the auditors involved in the caselets (auditor ability and auditor effort) and characteristics of the caselet environment (task difficulty and luck). Expectations gaps emerged in that the SBO sample assigned more responsibility to auditor characteristics than the CPA sample. / Psychologists concerned with causal judgment processes posit that three types of information are useful to arrive at informed judgments of responsibility. These types of information were systematically varied in a repeated-measures design and included (1) information about the consistency with which the described auditors failed (succeeded) in previous audits, (2) information about the degree of consensus among other auditors about the appropriateness of the audit procedures employed in the caselets, and (3) information about the distinctiveness, or uniqueness, of the type of audit activity described in the caselets. / Consistent with the predictions of prior psychological research, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that subjects processed these three types of information in a manner such that strong associations emerged between information inputs and responsibility judgment outputs. Auditors were held most responsible for caselet outcomes when their behavior was consistent across audits, when they did not use audit procedures that were commonly used by other auditors, and when the auditing task described was routine. / In addition to differences in the level of responsibility the two samples assigned to the auditors, the samples differed in their responsiveness to the information stimuli. The CPA sample relied quite heavily upon information about consensus among auditors over the procedures employed. Because of the similarity between consensus information and information about general acceptance, it was inferred that CPA's place too much reliance upon general acceptance as a standard of responsible audit performance. / From these analyses, projections were that: (1) expectations gaps exist, (2) the information-processing hypotheses of psychological research into causal judgment can predict these gaps across a variety of audit contexts, and (3) attempts to narrow expectations gaps should consider the likelihood that the public may not consider general acceptance as a particularly important defense of audit performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 1109. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

An empirical analysis of the effect of five financing instruments on the risk of the firm was conducted. This study utilizes the information provided in each firm's annual report along with stock and bond price information. The theories of Modigliani and Miller and Bowman form the basis for the analyses undertaken. An analysis of each financing instrument in isolation, along with a comprehensive analysis examining all five instruments simultaneously, is presented. / A theory relating the risk of the firm to its operating risk and incurrence of debt (leverage) is presented, along with arguments for and against the debt characteristics of the five variables (preferred stock, convertible debt, operating leases, unfunded pensions and deferred taxes). Empirically, a positive association between the financing variable and firm risk would support the pro debt position. The dependent variable was firm risk. Seven independent variables were used including the five financing instruments, the firm's ordinary debt, and the firm's operating risk. / Results indicate that deferred taxes and unfunded pensions are components of leverage, and are positively associated with the risk of the firm. Market values of equity and operating risk were found to be far superior to their accounting counterparts. In additional analyses, neither the form of the empirical model nor the fiscal year end of the firm was found to alter the results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-05, Section: A, page: 1358. / Major Professor: Kenneth S. Lorek. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The purpose of this study was to examine the time-series properties of accounting earnings at the industry level. The study utilized transfer function analysis to identify and estimate industry specific transfer functions. These functions utilized industry indices and macroeconomic time-series variables as input series. Several industry specific earnings models were identified for a broad sample of industries using both firm specific and cross-sectional approaches. Firms were grouped into industries based upon their four-digit Standard Industrial Classification codes. Several of these industry groupings displayed a high degree of heterogeneity among their earning-per-share series. For these industry groupings, identification of a common earnings model was not successful. In other groupings, distinctive patterns were detected in cross-sectionally derived crosscorrelation functions indicating a relatively high degree of homogeneity among their earnings series. For these industry groupings, the identification of a common earnings model was more successful. / Predictive ability testing was conducted by comparing forecasts of earnings to reported earnings over an eight quarter test period. Evaluations of predictive ability were made by examining forecast errors and forecast error rankings based upon six error metrics. This analysis provided results favorable to univariate earnings models when forecast error ranks were examined using non-parametric testing. Examination of forecast errors indicated that the transfer function models were more accurate on average. In both cases the firm specific version of the transfer functions dominated the cross-sectional model. Additionally, the use of macroeconomic time-series appears to improve forecast accuracy. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4181. / Major Professor: Kenneth S. Lorek. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-05, Section: A, page: 2871. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-06, Section: A, page: 3662. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-06, Section: A, page: 3657. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Accounting policy makers determine the level of accounting disclosure and have a need to assess the effect of their disclosure policies. Public disclosure of accounting information has a direct effect on stock price and an indirect effect induced by changes in the demand for private information. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between public and private information. An experimental market approach is used to manipulate the level of public disclosure and to isolate the disclosure's effect. / The markets are structured so that subjects receive a given level of public information prior to the market and private information can be acquired during the market. Hence, the dependent variables, the informedness of price and private information consumption, are determined endogenously. This market design allows the level of public disclosure to affect the dependent variables as well as permitting them to affect each other. As a result, both the direct and indirect effects of public disclosure can be assessed. / The test results of the study's three primary hypotheses indicate the existence of an inverse relationship between public and private information and between the informedness of price and the consumption of private information. The evidence also indicates that the informedness of price tends to increase with increases in the level of public disclosure. These results support the predictions of Verrecchia's theory and therefore demonstrate the theory's applicability to laboratory markets. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-01, Section: A, page: 0113. / Major Professor: William Hillison. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

This study develops a linear measurement structural equation model to study the relationship between accounting risk measures and market determined risk measures. Use of this model may reduce the risk of potential loss of information and/or erratic invalid inferences. / Extant literature in this area of research has produced conventional regression models which give inconsistent and conflicting results about the relationship between accounting risk measures and market determined risk measures. This study differs from previous research in several respects. First, the model introduced here takes specifically measurement error and multicollinearity problems endemic to this area of research into consideration. Secondly, besides contemporaneous relationship, incremental information content of accounting risk measures is also examined. Finally, replications of more important previous studies are conducted to compare with earlier findings. / Overall, compared with traditional regression approach this study finds that the new model produces much more clearcut and interpretable evidence about the relationship between accounting risk measures and market determined risk measures. All the financial constructs proxied by the accounting risk measures have the expected signs indicated by theoretical and/or analytical results. It is found that most, if not all, of the information contained in the selected accounting risk measures is impounded in contemporaneous market determined risk measures. There is only barely discernible incremental information content of these accounting risk measures. / Finally, replications of previous studies indicate that the instrumental variables approach in this area of research is not a viable methodology. It produces inconsistent, erratic and hard-to-interpret results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1510. / Major Professor: Kenneth Stanley Lorek. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 34-02, Section: A, page: 0454. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1972.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 34-10, Section: A, page: 6171. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1973.