Constituents in the judicial process such as jurors and lawyers who often play a critical role in the aftermath of an alleged financial reporting fraud have largely been ignored in the accounting literature. Literature in psychology suggests that both laypeople and highly trained professionals frequently over-attribute causality of an observed behavior to the disposition of the person performing that behavior. In doing so, these individuals underestimate the power of situations and fail to recognize important environmental factors that lead to a particular behavior. Within the context of fraudulent financial reporting, there is little understanding of how jurors and lawyers initially perceive and react to fraudulent behavior. Consequently, it is possible jurors and lawyers who are asked to evaluate the causality of a suspected fraudulent event, are inaccurate in their assessment of the causality of that event. This study addresses the question of whether or not the various constituents in the judicial process are biased in their attributions when evaluating causal factors related to financial reporting decisions. More specifically, it focuses on how individuals outside the profession of accounting, laymen jurors and corporate lawyers, make attributions when observing decisions related to fraudulent financial reporting, and whether or not these attributions differ from those made by corporate accountants. Further, after identifying differences in attributions, this study attempts to determine the causes of these differences; and whether recent changes in business culture have been effective in curbing financial reporting fraud. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a proliferation of high profile financial reporting frauds, and as a result, numerous changes have been made within the regulatory environment governing financial reporting. Many of these changes targeted overall business culture and a commitment to ethical financial reporting. By studying the attributions of corporate accountants we learn about their perceptions of the current environment and better understand their willingness to report something in a manner that would constitute financial reporting fraud. Evidence demonstrates that laymen, corporate lawyers, and corporate accountants differ in their attributions and that laymen are typically more biased when observing individuals and their financial reporting decisions. Laymen are also shown to lack awareness of recent changes in the financial reporting environment, have unrealistic expectations of the likelihood accountants are willing to intentionally misreport something, and are not as good at identifying appropriate and inappropriate financial reporting behaviors. Results also suggest recent changes in business culture and governance around financial reporting have been effective in convincing corporate accountants that environmental factors should not lead to, and are not a viable excuse for, fraudulent financial reporting. / Ph. D.

In accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission is required to propose and adopt clawback rules. After a financial statement restatement, a clawback is utilized to recover incentive compensation that was previously paid out to a manager based on the misstatement. My study investigates financial reporting executives' (FREs) decision-making after the external auditors have proposed a restatement that will lead to a clawback. I performed a web-based experiment that was electronically distributed to sixty FRE participants (i.e., CFOs, controllers, and treasurers) and manipulated executive compensation structure (i.e., a higher percentage of total compensation based on incentives or a lower percentage of total compensation based on incentives) and auditor industry specialization (i.e., industry-specialist or non-industry specialist) in a clawback environment. I hypothesized that higher incentives or the presence of a non-specialist auditor would cause FREs to be less likely to agree with an auditor's proposed restatement, more likely to involve the external auditor's national office, and more likely to request termination of the external auditors. Further, I posited that the two factors would interact for each of the three dependent variables. As predicted, my results reveal that FREs are less likely to agree with the restatement due to loss aversion when a higher proportion of their pay is incentive-based; however, auditor specialization does act to mitigate the influence of loss aversion by increasing their likelihood to accept the restatement. Additionally, I find that FREs are highly likely to request the involvement of the national office and very unlikely to request termination of the auditors across all conditions. In consideration of the upcoming clawback rules, this is a timely study that makes important contributions. First, I find an unintended negative consequence of clawback regulation, as my results indicate that clawbacks may exacerbate aggressive financial reporting decisions by FREs during a restatement negotiation. Further, I find that specialist auditors can act as effective monitors of FREs' behaviors in a clawback environment. Last, my results provide evidence for firms regarding the influence of executive compensation structures on FREs' decision-making in a clawback setting. / Ph. D.

This Dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay studies the causal impacts of compensation disclosure on executive compensation, turnover, and executives’ job responsibilities. We find that, after the SEC mandates the disclosure of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)’ compensation in 2006, CFO pay increases significantly relative to CEO pay, particularly in firms most affected by the mandate. CFOs are more likely to leave their firms following poor performance. The results are absent for the CEO or other executives, suggesting they are unique outcomes of enhanced CFO compensation disclosures. The evidence is consistent with more intense monitoring following the disclosure mandate. CFOs require additional compensation for the loss of private benefits due to greater monitoring and are subject to greater internal discipline. There is also some evidence that the CFOs hide bad news and lower corporate reporting quality after the mandate, suggesting that CFOs engage in more short-term behavior to boost their performance and avoid termination. The second essay of my dissertation focuses on the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle - the negative relation between estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the subsequent month returns documented by Ang et al (2006). We document a systematic pattern of temporary increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility for the quintile of stocks with the highest estimated idiosyncratic volatility in a given month. A large portion of this temporary increase in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility is reversed in the subsequent month. This temporary increase in the idiosyncratic volatility for the quintile of stocks with the highest estimated idiosyncratic volatility is associated with relatively large positive returns (positive abnormal returns) in the estimation month and relatively low returns (negative abnormal returns) in the subsequent month. Our evidence shows that these temporary increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the related positive and negative abnormal returns in the estimation and subsequent months, respectively, create a negative relation between the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent month returns documented in the prior literature (Ang et al. 2006). We find no significant relation between idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent returns for eighty percent of the stocks that do not exhibit large changes in idiosyncratic volatility despite large differences in the levels of their idiosyncratic volatility. Finally, there is no relation between the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent returns after a lag of 3 months when the abnormal returns associated with temporary changes are no longer present. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that there is no relation between the true underlying idiosyncratic volatility and expected returns, and that the previously documented negative relation between estimated idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent month’s returns is being driven by temporary one-month increases in the estimated idiosyncratic volatility and the associated abnormal returns for a subset of stocks. / Ph. D.

A significant portion of responsibility for the global socio-economic crisis referred by the authors as the "sustainability challenge" lies within the private sector. Hence to initiate a global transformation towards sustainability the participation of companies is essential. One way to engage the private sector to do that is through public policy. The European Union takes this approach with the European Green Deal and more specifically - the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) - which is the main focus of this research. The directive aims to enhance transparency, raise awareness and increase responsibility of the corporate societal and environmental impact. This thesis investigates the potency of CSRD to drive transformation. For this purpose this research employs a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) lens to evaluate the CSRD, identifying its strengths and weaknesses. The research is divided into two parts: the first assesses the frameworks' design using the SSD lens, while the second involves interviews to gain deeper insights and pinpoint design and implementation gaps. The study also presents an overview of the challenges encountered during the implementation of the CSRD and proposes potential solutions. The thesis concludes with recommendations and suggests directions for future research.

Frankfurt (Main), Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Bayreuth, 2007.

Financial reporting fraud is a concern for investors, regulators, external auditors, and the public. Although the responsibility for fraud detection lies upon management and those charged with governance, external auditors are likely to come under scrutiny if fraud scandals come to light. Despite the audit regulators efforts in fighting fraud, evidence from prior literature revealed that external auditors still need guidance in assessing and responding to fraud risks. Hence the current study aims at helping external auditors properly assess and respond to the risk of financial reporting fraud in an effort to increase the likelihood of detecting it. In order to achieve this, the current study sought to explore the significance of various fraud factors in assessing the risks of financial reporting fraud and examined how external auditors could assess these fraud factors. The current study also explored the likely motivations behind management fraud, the impact of management motivations on the financial statements, and how external auditors could assess the impact of management motivations. The data for the current study was collected from external auditors working at various audit firms in Egypt via the use of mixed research methods, namely through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the current study revealed that management motives are the most significant factor in assessing the risk of financial reporting fraud. Hence the current study suggests that external audit should be viewed in terms of management motivations rather than just the audit of financial statements figures and disclosures. The current study offers detailed guidance to external auditors in this area. The findings of the current study also revealed that management integrity is a significant factor in assessing the risk of financial reporting fraud and that rationalisation of fraud should be assessed as part of management integrity rather than a separate fraud risk factor. The current study found that fraud perpetrators capabilities are equally significant to the opportunity to commit fraud factor yet it is currently ignored by the audit standards and thus should be assessed as part of opportunity to commit fraud. The current study was the first to explore financial reporting fraud and the extent by which external auditors comply with ISA 240 in the Egyptian context. The current study offered recommendations to external auditors, audit firms, audit regulators, and the Egyptian government on how to combat financial reporting fraud. Potential areas for future research were also identified by the current study.

For many years, international financial reporting – and in particular the notes reporting – has been criticized in practice and academia for failing to provide information that is appropriate for its intended users. This criticism points to deficits with regard to the content and presentation and, thus, to the overall quality of the notes reporting. However, this criticism is predominantly anecdotal in nature as there is, as yet, scarcely any valid scientific evidence that supports these claims. This work addresses this research gap by elaborating what (notes) reporting quality is, what dimensions it consists of (conceptualization), how these dimensions can be measured (operationalization) and how they are empirically manifested (empirical evidence). For the latent construct of (notes) reporting quality, a formative measuring instrument to be used in an integrative content analysis is developed with which both dimensions of (notes) reporting quality – a content dimension (e.g., relevance) and a formal dimension (e.g., diction/readability) – can be measured and analyzed. This measuring instrument is validated both theoretically (argumentative reflection) and empirically (testing of hypotheses derivable from the underlying theories). The subsequent analysis of the notes reporting quality of a representative sample of German firms reveals that the above-mentioned criticism is well founded. Furthermore, the results point out both what specific deficits exist and where. The results of this work – the conceptualization, the operationalization and the empirical evidence – together form a starting point for developing, in the context of the (notes) reporting and its quality, valid insights/knowledge in research, ‘best practice’ solutions in practice and conceptually sound and target-oriented solutions in regulation.

This research report examines the cost and benefits of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) on South African companies who have had to comply due to them or their holding companies being listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as well as voluntary adaptors of the code. This report further seeks to identify best practices implemented by these companies.

In this thesis I investigate the economic determinants and consequences of corporate governance (broadly defined) in Canadian “comply or explain” governance disclosure regime. I find that the quality of governance in firms varies in the cross-section and is associated with firm value as economic theory suggests. Furthermore, I find the effectiveness of board and audit committee has a strong impact on the auditor-client management relationship in their negotiation over financial reporting. Such relationships then influence financial reporting quality and audit fees. Overall, my results support that the theorized advantages of “comply or explain” allow firms greater flexibility in tailoring their governance practice to their specific circumstances. Such tailored governance practice is more efficient and cost-effective and serves the interests of shareholders by 1) improving firm value; 2) constraining managerial opportunism; and 3) improving audit quality without incurring higher audit fees. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2013-07-26 11:29:18.86