Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 33-06, Section: A, page: 2557. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1972.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 34-07, Section: A, page: 3613. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1973.

Evidential matter is acquired by auditors through observations, inquiries, confirmations, and documentation. Specifically, the information includes physical, documentary, mathematical, visual, oral, and analytical evidence. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide empirical evidence on the analysis and interpretation of types of audit evidence. The study relies upon psychological research into the manner in which informational attributes intervene in the judgment process to produce predictable biases in the interpretation of audit evidence. / The results of two experiments concerning auditor judgments as they relate to various facets of analytical review procedures (ARP's) are reported. Drawing from psychological theory and previous empirical evidence, a model is developed to predict differences in choice behavior of experienced auditors. During the planning phase of the audit, auditors use both vivid evidence (observations and discussions) and abstract data (analytical review). The first experiment examines auditor judgments concerning the planning time assigned to an audit across varying task conditions, including positive or negative information signals concerning analytical review results and auditor observations. This second experiment investigates differences in auditor perceptions during the substantive testing phase of the audit. The differences in interpretation of tests of detail (TD) versus ARP's is analyzed based on the assumption that TD provide causal information and ARP's provide predictive information. This second experiment also examines the potential differences which may exist in the framing of choices. Different formats of equivalent statistical information are given to subjects to determine if different responses result. / The results presented reveal no tendency to discount analytical review evidence over individuating data collected through observations. No support is found for a distinction between interpretation of statistical results of ARP's and TD. In addition, this study reveals that auditors do discriminate between reliability estimates and diagnosticity estimates but in the opposite direction than that implied by a normative prediction model. Further research is called for which improves on the theoretical and methodological considerations of this study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2742. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

Responding to the recent concern expressed by society and the accounting profession about ethics, accounting researchers have attempted to investigate the level of ethical behavior by accountants. While the current state of ethical behavior is important, accountants' ability to detect ethical problems that may not be obvious should also be studied and understood. The purpose of this research is to address three questions: (1) are auditors alert to ethical issues?; (2) if so, how important do they perceive them to be?; and (3) what factors affect their sensitivity threshold and the perceived importance of the issues? This study defines ethical sensitivity as the ability to interpret a given situation and realize that a moral problem exists. / CPAs responded to an experimental instrument comprised of three auditing scenarios, each dealing with a different ethical problem. The accounting and/or auditing problems presented were also different, and the information relating to the ethical problem was embedded in each case. Multiway contingency tables were used to analyze the data; responses were categorized as mentioning or not mentioning the ethical issue, and those who mentioned it were categorized according to the terms used (value-laden or non-value-laden). / Factors useful in predicting whether a subject will mention an ethical issue include the nature of the ethical issue, the issue's severity and the subject's age. Employment position, expertise, prior exposure to a similar ethical issue and education level were not found to be significant. The nature of the ethical issue was also a significant factor in determining the type of description as well as the absolute importance given to the ethical issue, but employment position was again nonsignificant. / Furthermore, very few subjects used value-laden terms to discuss the issues that are not specific to the code. A large majority of subjects (84.8%) mentioned the independence issue in value-laden terms, while much smaller percentages used value-laden terms to describe the plant relocation and tax evasion issues (4.5% and 7.5%, respectively). / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0873. / Major Professor: Charles D. Bailey. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study develops five multinomial logit models to classify firms into one of four states of financial health: healthy, bonds downgraded to a "C" rating, bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, and liquidation. The predictive variables are selected from fourteen accrual accounting ratios and eight broadening variables (cash flow data, dividend data, stock price data, industry data, and economic data). Each of the five models predicts the financial health of firms one, two, and three years in advance. A holdout sample from a different time period is employed to validate the results. The estimation sample and holdout sample consist of over 400 firms each. / Contributions of the study stem from several sources. First, the use of a broader information set permitted the evaluation of several predictor variables, such as the cumulative market adjusted return, not employed in previous research. Second, the use of factor analysis led to the finding that predictive models which employ a subset of the original predictor variables (original variable models) did a much better job classifying healthy firms than did those models which used factor scores as predictors (factor score models). In contrast, factor score models clearly outperformed original variable models in classifying financially distressed firms. Third, the need for better information sources regarding the precise date of Chapter 11 filing or the announcement of the intent to liquidate the firm was revealed. Greater emphasis in comparison of this date to the date of release of financial statements sometimes resulted in forcing the model to forecast the actual bankruptcy or liquidation event one year farther out than implied by the model. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-11, Section: A, page: 3993. / Major Professor: Thomas F. Schaefer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Certified Public Accountants' perception of uncertainty and risk is an important issue in the study of accounting practice. One method of classifying risk assumes that all risk environments are not the same but can be separated according to the type of risk encountered, pure or speculative. This study examines the relationship between uncertainty and risk and the possibility of a risk dichotomy using the responses of single practitioners to situations involving uncertainty and risk. Risk types and individual characteristics are investigated in an attempt to identify specific demographic traits that affect risk behavior. Correlation analysis, multiple regression, and logistic regression are used to study these relationships. The results may provide the answers to questions regarding the willingness of CPAs to accept risk in one situation while avoiding risk in another. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1508. / Major Professor: William Hillison. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-09, Section: A, page: 4327. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

<p>This paper examines the role of earnings management for firms that report at least three consecutive years of annual earnings increases (hereafter earnings string firms). Specifically, I examine how levels of earnings management change as earnings string firms approach the end of their earnings string patterns. My results show that earnings string firms engage in income-increasing earnings management consistent with an attempt to stretch these earnings string patterns. I also examine whether the cumulative effect of income-increasing earnings management activities during the earnings string period reduces the ability of these firms to continue reporting earnings increases. I do not find evidence to suggest that earnings string firms, on average, break their earnings string patterns because they ran out of accounting flexibility. However, there are two instances which the accumulated effect of income-increasing earnings management increases the likelihood of ending the earnings string. The two instances relate to firms which repeatedly engage in income-increasing earnings management throughout the earnings string period, and firms whose pre-managed earnings decline in the last year of the earnings string period. Finally, I show that firms that resume a subsequent series of reporting at least three consecutive years of annual earnings increases, on average, exhibit similar earnings management behavior. That is, these firms also increasingly resort to income-increasing earnings management toward the end of their second (or third) earnings strings.</p> / Dissertation

<p>While a considerable body of research examines the determinants of financial reporting decisions, much of the heterogeneity in financial reporting outcomes is not explained by firm and industry factors. Guided by the Upper Echelons perspective of Hambrick and Mason (1984), I examine the relation between the presence of a financial expert, defined as either a CEO or a CFO with an accounting background and earnings quality. I propose that the coupling of decision rights and domain-specific knowledge supports the team's influence discretionary reporting choices, controlling for incentives, corporate governance and firm-specific factors. I find that in the pre Sarbanes Oxley era, executive teams with financial expertise have higher discretionary earnings quality as measured by smaller absolute abnormal accruals; however, this relation is eliminated in the period following Sarbanes Oxley. Building on research that proposes that accruals management and real activities management are substitutes, I examine four proxies for real activities management and do not find evidence of a relation between firms with executive teams with financial expertise and these proxies for real activities management.</p> / Dissertation

I demonstrate how the presence of institutional investors impacts the volume effect of dividend yield around ex-dividend days. Dividend yield proxies for the tax-disadvantaged portion of security return while the level of institutional ownership proxies for the degree of tax-induced investor heterogeneity. Cross-sectional tests support the tax-motivated trading hypotheses: (1) Ex-day excess trading volume increases in dividend yield and this positive relation is a concave quadratic function of the level of institutional ownership. (2) The volume effect of dividend yield peaks when the level of institutional ownership is at 32.18%--lower than 50%, implying that institutional investors may be more risk tolerant than individual investors. (3) Across tax regimes, some support is also found for the ex-day tax-motivated trading hypotheses. These results, combined with studies supporting dividend tax capitalization, suggest that tax matters in valuation and it impacts both stock price and investor trading patterns around ex-dividend days.