Thesis (M. Com.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Accounting numbers are not only the products of peripheral economic events, but, by and large, can be consciously influenced from the effects of calculated business decisions and the selective applications of alternative reporting procedures. In academic parlance, the term accounting quality, or lack thereof, is often used to describe the extent to which these convoluting influences create a disparity between economic fundamentals and their numerical portrayal. This doctoral thesis speaks to three aspects of accounting quality; (i) Earnings Thresholds: A Re-Examination of the Role of Earnings Management, (ii) Earnings Manipulation and the Investigation of 'Red Flag' Accounting Ratios, and (iii) An Empirical Analysis of Standard and Poor's (S&Ps) Core Earnings metric. Each topic is outlined in a separate research paper.

Thesis (MBus) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print ( leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 658 LU)

Thesis (M.S.)--California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2008. / Adviser: William Trappen. Includes bibliographical references.

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a forward-looking product costing method. Unlike traditional volume-based approaches, which are historically oriented, ABC concepts guide managers in seeking the best strategies to pursue in the future. This product costing method can be a valuable tool in planning and managing costs not only in the manufacturing area, but also in all aspects of business operations, from product design to distribution. Although its main advantage is its ability to provide more realistic product cost information for financial reporting purposes, use of ABC can lead to a better understanding of the strategic linkages existing between the various cost areas in the organisation. It enables managers to have a holistic view of cost management. ABC was developed to better understand, manage and control the overheads. The brief fundamental of ABC is: Products consume activities, activities consume resources, and resources consume costs. Based upon this fundamental principle, ABC can trace the cost from resources to activities that are consumed by product manufacturing processes as well as from activities to products. ABC investigates the transactions that trigger cost instead of concentrating solely on measures of physical volume or a certain amount of labour hours. Compared to the traditional costing systems, ABC can not only answer how much product cost is but also tell executives the factors triggering costs and the way to manage costs. ABC helps managers make better decisions about product design, pricing, marketing, and mix and encourages continual improvement. Unlike the traditional method, instead of using the single pre-determined overhead rate to absorb the indirect cost to products, ABC uses actual incurred cost to v determine the product cost. By tracing the absorption process of indirect cost, ABC would provide more information to management and help it find better ways to manage costs. However, the cost drivers used in ABC are constants but the cost driver rates are continually changing. ABC still uses predetermined cost drivers so it has the same fundamental problem as the traditional methods for estimating.

No description available.

Activity-Based Costing is presented in accounting text books as a costing system that can be used to make valuable managerial decisions. Accounting journals regularly report the successful implementations and benefits of activity-based costing systems for particular businesses. Little experimental or empirical evidence exists, however, that has demonstrated the benefits of activity-based costing under controlled conditions. Similarly, although case studies report conditions that may or may not favor activity-based costing decision making, controlled studies that measure the actual influence of those conditions on the usefulness of activity-based costing information are few. This study looked at the decision usefulness of activity-based costing information under controlled, laboratory settings. An interactive computer simulation tested the ability of 48 accounting majors to optimize profits with and without activity-based costing information and tested to see if presentation format or decision framing would influence their outcomes. The research showed that the activity-based costing information resulted in significantly better profitability decisions and required no additional time. Presentation in graphic (bar charts) or numeric (tabular reports) format did not influence profitability decisions but the graphs took longer for analysis and decision making. Decision framing influences were shown to beneficially affect profitability decisions but did not require additional time. Decision framing was especially helpful with the non-activity based costing information; it had no significant effect on activity-based costing performance. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the influence of traditional institutions on dominant economic institutions and on formal organisational practices. The aim is to provide a cultural, political and economic explanation of management control practices in a rural Egyptian agro-manufacturing setting. It delineates the state of 'institutional complexity' in an organisational field. Exploring inherent political volatility at the macro level, the work also investigates political aspects of economic organisations and the intermediary role of individuals who deal with these institutions. Theoretically, it triangulates institutional logics and labour process theories, linking higher-order institutions with mundane labour practices observed in the case study. It shows how workers use cultural institutions in resisting management, and how various institutional logics interact in shaping the company's management control practices. The institutional logics perspective helps capture the heterogeneity in the organisation, and clarifies how management control practices may carry a range of cultural meanings. Methodologically, the thesis adopts a post-positivistic case study approach. Empirical data were solicited in a village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. This traditional communal setting enabled the researcher to capture the influence of multiple institutional logics on organisational practices. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations. The thesis concludes that, especially in LDCs agro-manufacturing settings, societal institutions play a central role not only in the design and implementation of management control systems but also in the mobilisation of labour resistance. Control can be effectively practiced, and be resisted, through such social systems. This thesis affirms the influence of individual agency and subjectivity on institutional logics. It contributes to literature by investigating institutional logics in a traditional communal context, in contrast to the highly investigated Western contexts; depicting the state of 'institutional multiplicity' in the field; and providing an inclusive definition of the social in the area of management accounting.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-140). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.