<p> External auditors do not have the capacity to detect corporate fraud, even though accounting scholars have agreed on the perceived importance of fraud detection. There is a need to integrate fraud detection courses and forensic accounting topics into undergraduate training. This study addressed the problem of external auditors&rsquo; detection of less than 5% of fraud cases resulting from their lack of fraud detection topics and courses from their undergraduate studies. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple-case study was to explore external auditors&rsquo; perspectives on expected competencies and fraud detection topics and courses from their undergraduate accounting programs and whether this education prepared them to detect corporate fraud. An exploratory, holistic, multiple-case study research methodology was utilized for the study. A purposive snowball criterion sampling was used to recruit 12 participants with bachelor&rsquo;s degree and at least 1 year of experience in the auditing field in Northern Illinois. The list of membership provided by professional accounting bodies was used to recruit the participants. The external auditors&rsquo; perspectives were captured as data using open-ended questions in a semi-structured face-to-face interview format. A five-phased research analysis was applied for qualitative data analysis with the help of NVivo 11 software to identify themes associated with the research questions. A total of sixteen themes, made of nine major themes and seven minor themes, emerged from the study and formed the basis of the findings. The results of the study indicated that external auditors have not detected corporate fraud in practice. Furthermore, fraud education received in the undergraduate accounting programs was not sufficient for corporate fraud detection. Competencies for corporate fraud detection in auditing practice were found to be low among external auditors and four strategies were suggested for integrating fraud education into college accounting programs. The outcome of this study supported recommendations for practical accounting application and future research was recommended for replication of study in other geographic locations to compare the perspectives of educators, management, and internal auditors with a focus on other frauds involving credit cards, payroll, fraudulent billing, inventory, and theft or stealing to build on, extend, confirm, or disconfirm them.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to apply the qualitative research method of descriptive single-case study design to explore the phenomenon of fraud in companies in the state of Arkansas by conducting face-to-face interviews with mid-level officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level officers, and reviewing company documentation in the retail, professional services, or manufacturing industries in Arkansas. The focus is to understand the phenomenon of fraud and company officers&rsquo; perceptions about tools for detecting and preventing fraud. Financial statement fraud tactics make up 9% of the fraud cases globally, which equates to a median loss of $1 million (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2014). The research method involves the triangulation of data from interviewing mid-level company officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level company officers, and reviewing organizational policy and procedure documents. Interviews will consist of at least 20&ndash;35 participants in a mid-level officer position to ascertain their perceptions about the fraud triangle as a tool and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE) as a framework, a questionnaire will be distributed to upper-level officers to confirm/disconfirm themes, and company historical documents will be reviewed. Because officers are accountable for the accuracy of financial reporting and the ethical conduct of employees, establishing methods for detecting and preventing fraud averts fraudulent acts such as the embezzlement, false reporting, or bribery. </p>

<p>The financial crisis of 2007-2009 was one in which many financial services firms participated in shortsighted and unethical behavior. About $11 trillion in household wealth were lost, 26 million Americans lost their jobs, and 4.5 million could not afford their mortgages These events and statistics show the prevalent lack of ethical leadership in the financial services sector. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of leadership ethics and its relationship to organizational success within the financial services industry. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine the relationship and test the predictive strength between corporate supervisors' use of key ethical variables and organizational success. Responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty were the predictor variables and organizational success was the criterion variable. One hundred and thirty six corporate supervisors from financial services sector in New York and Washington, D.C completed the survey questionnaires. The results of the study indicated that the four predictor variables have a significant and positive relationship with the criterion variable. The strongest relationship among the predictors and criterion variables were found between corporate supervisors' use of respect (r = 0.676, p< .001), corporate supervisors' use of honesty (r = 0.653, P<.001), followed by corporate supervisors' use of fairness (r = 0.589, P<.001), and corporate supervisors' use of responsibility (r = 0.577, p<.001). Additionally, the multiple linear regression analysis showed that that the variables were significant predictors of organizational success (R2 =0.525, F (4, 131) = 36.24, p< .001). The findings of the study concluded that ethical leadership is significantly related to organizational success. It contributed to the theoretical and operational knowledge within the fields of ethical leadership ,advancing the empirical and theoretical insight of the LMX theory, as well as providing new and pragmatic knowledge of the context of ethical leadership in the financial services industry Future research recommendations included (a) quantitative, study with a meta-analysis design,(b) an expansion of the target population beyond the financial services industry and (c) a phenomenology to explore lived experience of the variables in the study.

<p> There is a lack of empirical research on leadership. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the three components of the theory of reasoned action (TRA): (a) behavioral intention, (b) integration attitude, and (c) subjective norms as they relate to the commitment of the corruption component of occupational fraud (OF). The rationale of this study was to evaluate whether the influences of executive management related to the intent to commit corruption. The three independent variables were behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norms, and one dependent variable, corruption. The research questions examined the relationship between executive management&rsquo;s influences; behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norms and the intention of committing corruption as well as the extent to which an executive manager&rsquo;s moral reasoning influences such an intention. The hypotheses in the study were not formulated to establish cause and effect relationships nor to assign groups. This quantitative, nonexperimental study was also intended to recognize patterns and trends from the data and statistics of the results. A Pearson Coefficient Correlation was utilized as an analysis tool to recognize statistically significant correlations. An online survey was administered in fall 2016 to 76 participants who are in the executive management role of finance and accounting departments from different U.S. organizations. All 76 participants were included in the TRA analysis. However, due to the additional reliability test administered by the University of Alabama Center for Ethical Study (UACSED), only 63 participants were selected in the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2) statistical analysis. TRA utilized a Pearson Coefficient Correlation analysis to determine if a relationship exists between the independent variables (behavioral intention, integration attitude, and subjective norms) and a single dependent variable (corruption). The Pearson Correlation results indicated a strong significant positive relationship for the following: (<i>r</i>76) = 0.795 for the relationship between executive management&rsquo;s attitude towards the intention of committing corruption, (<i>r</i>76) = 0.713 the relationship between executive management&rsquo;s subjective norms towards the intention of committing corruption, and (<i>r</i>76) = 0.874 for the relationship between executive management&rsquo;s intention of committing corruption. The DIT2 results also indicated strong moral reasoning, illustrating high moral judgment of executive management and low intention of committing corruption based on the Maintaining Norms Score of 34.76 and a Personal Interest score of 32.12. The findings from this study could be used as a theoretical foundation for further research and subsequently bridge the gap in OF literature.</p><p>

<p> Two experiments in this dissertation examine the effect of a leader&rsquo;s emotional intelligence and its interaction with other constructs on the subordinate&rsquo;s intention to whistleblow. Results from the primary experiment indicate that when the leader is not involved in the observed accounting fraud, the subordinate is more likely to whistleblow to the leader if the leader has high emotional intelligence or high group prototypicality. The relationship between leader emotional intelligence and subordinate whistleblowing intention is stronger when the leader has high group prototypicality and is mediated by the subordinate&rsquo;s perceived leader-member exchange, trust in the leader, and job satisfaction. These mediations are stronger as well when the leader has high group prototypicality. In addition to the primary experiment, a supplementary experiment where the leader is involved in the observed accounting fraud demonstrate that the subordinate is less likely to whistleblow on the leader to the anonymous whistleblowing hotline if the leader has high emotional intelligence. Moreover, the subordinate is more likely to whistleblow if the consequence of the action is framed as being positive to the company than being negative to the leader when the leader has high emotional intelligence. Findings of these two experiments have strong practical implications in terms of corporate governance, internal control, and human resource management.</p>

A great deal of attention has been paid in the last several decades to improving the ethical decisions of public accountants. A variety of approaches to meeting this goal have been advanced, from increasing the coverage of ethics in the classroom, to improving the effectiveness of regulatory responses to breaches in ethical conduct. Little attention has been paid to researching accounting ethics from the perspective of ethical theory. This thesis adds to the relatively thin body of research in that area. Chapter one briefly covers the history of accounting ethics in the United States, from the organization of the American Association of Public Accountants in the early 20th century, to the relatively recent scandals surrounding Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen. This brief history is followed by an overview of the regulatory approach to improving ethical conduct, which leads into a discussion of the study of professional ethics in accounting and the importance of professional codes of ethics in regulating behavior. The background of the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct and several criticisms of the Code are then discussed. Chapter two offers a rationale for applying a framework of ethical theory to the study of accounting ethics, and discusses an important limitation of that approach. Chapter three presents an overview of those ethical theories most directly applicable to the study of accounting ethics, which will serve as a foundation for the analysis presented in chapter four. Chapter four analyzes the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct from the perspective of the ethical theories presented in chapter three. Finally, chapter five offers several suggestions for enhancing the moral reasoning skills of public accountants and accounting students.

Diversos comportamentos inadequados apresentados na literatura acerca da Ética na pesquisa, tais como fraude e plágio, são encontrados no processo de preparação e publicação de trabalhos científicos. Esses comportamentos podem ser originados, em grande parte, pela pressão que as instituições acadêmicas fazem sobre pesquisadores para a elevação da produção científica ou a que o próprio pesquisador se impõe para obter maior posto ou remuneração, conseguir ou manter seu status de aceitação pela comunidade científica, ou ainda, porque não percebem a natureza questionável dos seus atos. Alheios a esses acontecimentos, geralmente, os pesquisadores de Contabilidade têm desenvolvido seus estudos sem qualquer reflexão às questões éticas que envolvem o processo da pesquisa contábil. O propósito geral deste estudo foi examinar o posicionamento dos pesquisadores em Contabilidade em relação à má conduta na pesquisa científica, identificando a frequência de sua ocorrência e a intensidade dos fatores que influenciam a má conduta. A importância desse estudo poderá ser verificada quando se espera que os debates sobre ética na pesquisa sejam fomentados e sirvam de base para o desenvolvimento de estratégias que possam reduzir a má conduta na pesquisa. Usando a abordagem de método misto sequencial explicativo proposto por Creswell (2008), investigou-se a ocorrência de má conduta na pesquisa e os fatores que a ocasionam por meio de um survey aplicado a 85 pesquisadores presentes no Congresso USP de Controladoria e Contabilidade de 2009 seguido por entrevistas semiestruturadas aplicadas a oito pesquisadores experientes e de reconhecida competência. O perfil geral dos participantes do estudo foi constituído por 61,1% de mestres, mestrandos e doutorandos em Contabilidade, sendo que 67% desses tinham até nove anos de envolvimento com pesquisa. Oitententa e oito por cento de todos os participantes eram professores universitários, mas apenas 19% do total da amostra estavam vinculados a um programa stricto sensu e, entre esses, 81,2% tinham maior vinculação com instituições públicas e os demais, 18,8%, com instituições privadas. Dos professores não vinculados a um programa stricto sensu (69%), 67,2% estavam vinculados a instituições públicas e 32,8% a instituições privadas. Na perspectiva desses participantes os resultados da análise do survey revelaram que há evidências de envolvimento de pesquisadores em Contabilidade com práticas inapropriadas, mas que a frequência com que essas ocorrem é pequena, ou seja, tiveram ocorrência rara ou ocasional. Dentre as dezessete más condutas avaliadas quanto às suas ocorrências, \'Um autor divide o crédito do trabalho com colega que não contribui para fazê-lo, em troca de participação em trabalho em que também não vai contribuir\' e \'Um autor, para aumentar a credibilidade de seu artigo, amplia a seção de referências com citações de fontes que não leu, mas que viu citadas em outros artigos\' são, nessa ordem, os comportamentos mais frequentes. Os resultados também forneceram evidências que quanto maior o tempo de envolvimento com a pesquisa maior a frequência que os pesquisadores mostram crer e conhecer a ocorrência de má conduta, mas isso foi verdade apenas para \'Um professor se esforça para impedir que o trabalho de um pesquisador seja publicado\' que teve uma relação positiva e significante com o tempo de envolvimento na pesquisa. Os pesquisadores participantes do survey e os entrevistados creem que a necessidade de publicação é o fator mais importante para influenciar a má conduta na pesquisa. Para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados a necessidade de publicação está associada à Capes e ao sistema de avaliação imposto por ela. Educação foi considerado um importante meio para desencorajar má conduta na pesquisa tanto para participantes do survey quanto para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados. Ainda para esses últimos, é possível inferir-se que o atual estágio da qualidade da pesquisa contábil no Brasil é, em parte, reflexo das más condutas avaliadas neste estudo. / Diverse inadequate behaviors presented by the literature about Ethics in research, such as fraud and plagiarism, are found in the preparation and publishing process of scientific works. These behaviors may be mostly originated by the academic institutions\' pressure over researchers to raise scientific production or by the pressure researchers impose themselves to obtain a higher position or revenue, to get or to keep their scientific community acceptance status, or even because they do not realize the questionable nature of their actions. Aside from these happenings, generally, Accountancy researchers have developed their studies not pondering about the ethical issues that concern the accounting research. The present work\'s general purpose was to examine Accountancy researchers\' attitude related to scientific research misconduct, identifying its frequency of occurrence and its influential factors intensity. This study importance may be verified when it is expected that debates about ethics in research are stimulated and used as the basis for developing strategies which may reduce the research misconduct. From the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design proposed by Creswell (2008), the research misconduct occurrence and the factors that caused it were investigated by a survey applied to eighty five researchers attending USP\'s 2009 Controllership and Accountancy Congress, followed by semi-structured interviews taken from eight experienced and well-recognized competence researchers. The participants\' general profile in this study was constituted by Accounting graduate students, Masters, and Doctors (61,1%). A share of 67% from this number has been involved in research up to nine years. Eighty eight per cent of all participants were professors, although only 19% from the total were linked to a stricto sensu program and, among them, 81, 2 % were more connected to public institutions; the remaining ones, 18,8%, to private institutions. From the professors not connected to a stricto sensu program (69%), 67,2% were linked to public institutions and 32,8% to private ones. In these participants\' perspective, the survey result analysis revealed that there are evidences of Accountancy researchers\' involvement in inappropriate practices, in spite of its low occurrence frequency: they were considered rare or occasional. From the seventeen misconducts assessed by their occurrence, \"[A]n author shares a work\'s credit with a colleague that does not contribute to do it in exchange of participation in a work which he or she will not contribute as well\", and \"[A]n author, to increase his or her article\'s credibility, expands its reference sections citing unread resources observed in other articles\" are, in this order, the most frequent behaviors. The results also provide evidence that when the involvement with research is longer, the frequency that researchers show belief in and know about the occurrence of misconduct is higher, although it was true only for \"[A] professor struggles to impede a researcher\'s work to be published\", which had a positive and considerable relation with the time of involvement with research. The survey\'s participant researchers and the interviewees believe that the need of publication is the most important factor to influence a research\'s misconduct. To the experienced researchers interviewed, the need of publication is associated to Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and to the evaluation system imposed by it. Education was considered an important means to discourage misconduct in research both by the participants and by the experienced researchers interviewed. Thus, from the latter, it is possible to infer that the current stage of the Accountancy research quality in Brazil is partly a reflex from the misconducts assessed by this study.

Diversos comportamentos inadequados apresentados na literatura acerca da Ética na pesquisa, tais como fraude e plágio, são encontrados no processo de preparação e publicação de trabalhos científicos. Esses comportamentos podem ser originados, em grande parte, pela pressão que as instituições acadêmicas fazem sobre pesquisadores para a elevação da produção científica ou a que o próprio pesquisador se impõe para obter maior posto ou remuneração, conseguir ou manter seu status de aceitação pela comunidade científica, ou ainda, porque não percebem a natureza questionável dos seus atos. Alheios a esses acontecimentos, geralmente, os pesquisadores de Contabilidade têm desenvolvido seus estudos sem qualquer reflexão às questões éticas que envolvem o processo da pesquisa contábil. O propósito geral deste estudo foi examinar o posicionamento dos pesquisadores em Contabilidade em relação à má conduta na pesquisa científica, identificando a frequência de sua ocorrência e a intensidade dos fatores que influenciam a má conduta. A importância desse estudo poderá ser verificada quando se espera que os debates sobre ética na pesquisa sejam fomentados e sirvam de base para o desenvolvimento de estratégias que possam reduzir a má conduta na pesquisa. Usando a abordagem de método misto sequencial explicativo proposto por Creswell (2008), investigou-se a ocorrência de má conduta na pesquisa e os fatores que a ocasionam por meio de um survey aplicado a 85 pesquisadores presentes no Congresso USP de Controladoria e Contabilidade de 2009 seguido por entrevistas semiestruturadas aplicadas a oito pesquisadores experientes e de reconhecida competência. O perfil geral dos participantes do estudo foi constituído por 61,1% de mestres, mestrandos e doutorandos em Contabilidade, sendo que 67% desses tinham até nove anos de envolvimento com pesquisa. Oitententa e oito por cento de todos os participantes eram professores universitários, mas apenas 19% do total da amostra estavam vinculados a um programa stricto sensu e, entre esses, 81,2% tinham maior vinculação com instituições públicas e os demais, 18,8%, com instituições privadas. Dos professores não vinculados a um programa stricto sensu (69%), 67,2% estavam vinculados a instituições públicas e 32,8% a instituições privadas. Na perspectiva desses participantes os resultados da análise do survey revelaram que há evidências de envolvimento de pesquisadores em Contabilidade com práticas inapropriadas, mas que a frequência com que essas ocorrem é pequena, ou seja, tiveram ocorrência rara ou ocasional. Dentre as dezessete más condutas avaliadas quanto às suas ocorrências, \'Um autor divide o crédito do trabalho com colega que não contribui para fazê-lo, em troca de participação em trabalho em que também não vai contribuir\' e \'Um autor, para aumentar a credibilidade de seu artigo, amplia a seção de referências com citações de fontes que não leu, mas que viu citadas em outros artigos\' são, nessa ordem, os comportamentos mais frequentes. Os resultados também forneceram evidências que quanto maior o tempo de envolvimento com a pesquisa maior a frequência que os pesquisadores mostram crer e conhecer a ocorrência de má conduta, mas isso foi verdade apenas para \'Um professor se esforça para impedir que o trabalho de um pesquisador seja publicado\' que teve uma relação positiva e significante com o tempo de envolvimento na pesquisa. Os pesquisadores participantes do survey e os entrevistados creem que a necessidade de publicação é o fator mais importante para influenciar a má conduta na pesquisa. Para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados a necessidade de publicação está associada à Capes e ao sistema de avaliação imposto por ela. Educação foi considerado um importante meio para desencorajar má conduta na pesquisa tanto para participantes do survey quanto para os pesquisadores experientes entrevistados. Ainda para esses últimos, é possível inferir-se que o atual estágio da qualidade da pesquisa contábil no Brasil é, em parte, reflexo das más condutas avaliadas neste estudo. / Diverse inadequate behaviors presented by the literature about Ethics in research, such as fraud and plagiarism, are found in the preparation and publishing process of scientific works. These behaviors may be mostly originated by the academic institutions\' pressure over researchers to raise scientific production or by the pressure researchers impose themselves to obtain a higher position or revenue, to get or to keep their scientific community acceptance status, or even because they do not realize the questionable nature of their actions. Aside from these happenings, generally, Accountancy researchers have developed their studies not pondering about the ethical issues that concern the accounting research. The present work\'s general purpose was to examine Accountancy researchers\' attitude related to scientific research misconduct, identifying its frequency of occurrence and its influential factors intensity. This study importance may be verified when it is expected that debates about ethics in research are stimulated and used as the basis for developing strategies which may reduce the research misconduct. From the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design proposed by Creswell (2008), the research misconduct occurrence and the factors that caused it were investigated by a survey applied to eighty five researchers attending USP\'s 2009 Controllership and Accountancy Congress, followed by semi-structured interviews taken from eight experienced and well-recognized competence researchers. The participants\' general profile in this study was constituted by Accounting graduate students, Masters, and Doctors (61,1%). A share of 67% from this number has been involved in research up to nine years. Eighty eight per cent of all participants were professors, although only 19% from the total were linked to a stricto sensu program and, among them, 81, 2 % were more connected to public institutions; the remaining ones, 18,8%, to private institutions. From the professors not connected to a stricto sensu program (69%), 67,2% were linked to public institutions and 32,8% to private ones. In these participants\' perspective, the survey result analysis revealed that there are evidences of Accountancy researchers\' involvement in inappropriate practices, in spite of its low occurrence frequency: they were considered rare or occasional. From the seventeen misconducts assessed by their occurrence, \"[A]n author shares a work\'s credit with a colleague that does not contribute to do it in exchange of participation in a work which he or she will not contribute as well\", and \"[A]n author, to increase his or her article\'s credibility, expands its reference sections citing unread resources observed in other articles\" are, in this order, the most frequent behaviors. The results also provide evidence that when the involvement with research is longer, the frequency that researchers show belief in and know about the occurrence of misconduct is higher, although it was true only for \"[A] professor struggles to impede a researcher\'s work to be published\", which had a positive and considerable relation with the time of involvement with research. The survey\'s participant researchers and the interviewees believe that the need of publication is the most important factor to influence a research\'s misconduct. To the experienced researchers interviewed, the need of publication is associated to Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and to the evaluation system imposed by it. Education was considered an important means to discourage misconduct in research both by the participants and by the experienced researchers interviewed. Thus, from the latter, it is possible to infer that the current stage of the Accountancy research quality in Brazil is partly a reflex from the misconducts assessed by this study.

Strong ethics are critical to the success of each member of the business world, especially accountants. Because the work of accountants is utilized by both internal and external users and can have such widespread effect on the business community, it is imperative that this work is performed with the utmost accuracy, integrity and morality. The foundation for strong ethics begins before the accountant enters the workforce, and many colleges require dedicated ethics courses for accounting majors. The purpose of this project is to analyze the effectiveness of the ethics instruction, specifically in the absence of a required dedicated ethics course, at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Two surveys will be administered to a sample of ETSU students in several classes within the undergraduate and graduate accounting programs and the results will be analyzed to determine if students’ understanding of ethics has increased over the semester. The results of this thesis are intended to provide the ETSU College of Business and Technology with vital information about how to improve the ethics instruction for undergraduate accounting students.

Unethical behavior includes all decisions and actions counterproductive to an organization's mission and can cause irrevocable damage to the organization's professional reputation. The Securities and Exchange Commission reported 807 ethical violations in 2015. This study was underpinned by the ethical leadership theory, which emphasizes leadership decision making based on fair and just practices, for all involved parties. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the ethical decision-making best practices that not-for-profit accounting managers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area needed to strengthen the ethical decision-making process in their organizations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from 5 participants who were accounting leaders of not-for-profit organizations. The analysis of data involved coding techniques, while member checking ensured confirmability of participant responses. Three themes emerged from the analysis of data as the most effective in fostering an ethical climate within the organizations, notably: the importance of leveraging internal controls, staff education on ethical decision making, and the role of leadership in fostering ethical leadership. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing leaders with strategies to reduce the occurrence of fraud within organizations. The beneficiaries of this research may include not-for-profit leaders, accounting professionals, and business practitioners. The goals of these individuals are to aid companies in furthering their missions and ensure organizations remain operational and utilize ethical decision making.