The case study described in this thesis involves a process improvement project in the Tax Department of a Certified Public Accounting firm. A process map was created by interviewing employees involved in the process. A process analysis identified problems and possible solutions. The Partners in the firm decided to streamline the process for simple tax returns in order to make them more profitable. This study examined what impact, if any, the process improvement intervention had on key financial and operational measures. Results indicated that the tax returns prepared in the new process were faster, cheaper, and more profitable. This study indicates that organizations conducting process improvement interventions can beneficially affect key financial and operational measures.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edilberto_Ponce_Braconi.pdf: 1503578 bytes, checksum: 7c83d32fdf6af0d4629d66a37ae20da1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-12-04 / Study on companies of countable services of the city of S??o Paulo, that it presents an analysis of the capacity technique that the same ones possess to assist the process of strategical planning of its customers. With the constant increase of the market requirements, the planning of its activities is each more common time to all the organizations, of short, medium and long run. This if becomes essential so that the organizations can reach its objectives with bigger level of competitiveness. The planning lack has led great numbers of companies to lock up its activities in precocious way. The majority of the managers of companies who had had its locked up activities, it points as the main consequence of this precocious closing of its activities, the planning lack. The companies of countable services are the only assessorship that the majority of the organizations can contract or contracts at the beginning of its activities. From there the center problem appears of the research that is, to know if the companies of countable services of the city of S??o Paulo they possess capacity technique to assist the process of strategical planning of its customers. The work consisted of constructing a theoretical recital on strategical planning and companies of countable services that were capable to give I subsidize through the identification of a set of abilities necessary to assist the process of strategical planning of an organization. After this stage was constructed a script to analyze these abilities in the searched companies. Contacts with 82 companies with headquarters in the city of S??o Paulo had been made, of which 40 had agreed to participate of the research. After it collects and analysis of the data supplied for these companies, one evidenced that the companies research possess 70% of the abilities raised in this study, however the study it did not obtain to trace a dependence relation enters these abilities presented for the searched companies and the related variable in the study. The statistical tests had presented little significance in the presented relations of dependence. One also perceives that the companies of countable services although to have capacity technique to assist the process of strategically planning of its customers, in its majority they are rare or never called to participate of this process, as results of item 4.4.6 and 4.4.8 of this study. / Resumo: Estudo sobre empresas de servi??os cont??beis da cidade de S??o Paulo, que apresenta uma an??lise da capacidade t??cnica que as mesmas possuem para assessorar o processo de planejamento estrat??gico de seus clientes. Com o constante aumento das exig??ncias de mercado ?? cada vez mais comum a todas as organiza????es o planejamento de suas atividades, de curto, m??dio e longo prazo. Isso se torna imprescind??vel para que as organiza????es possam alcan??ar seus objetivos com maior n??vel de competitividade. A falta de planejamento tem levado grande numero de empresas a encerrarem suas atividades de maneira precoce. A maioria dos gestores de empresas que tiveram suas atividades encerradas, aponta como a principal conseq????ncia deste encerramento precoce de suas atividades, a falta de planejamento. As empresas de servi??os cont??beis ?? a ??nica assessoria que a maioria das organiza????es pode contratar ou contrata no inicio de suas atividades. Da?? surge o problema central da pesquisa que ??, saber se as empresas de servi??os cont??beis da cidade de S??o Paulo possuem capacidade t??cnica para assessorar o processo de planejamento estrat??gico de seus clientes. O trabalho consistiu em construir uma fundamenta????o te??rica sobre planejamento estrat??gico e empresas de servi??os cont??beis que fosse capaz de dar subsidio atrav??s da identifica????o de um conjunto de compet??ncias necess??rias para assessorar o processo de planejamento estrat??gico de uma organiza????o. Ap??s esta etapa foi constru??do um roteiro para an??lisar estas compet??ncias nas empresas pesquisadas. Foram feitos contatos com 82 empresas com sede social na cidade de S??o Paulo, das quais 40 concordaram em participar da pesquisa. Ap??s coleta e an??lise dos dados fornecidos por estas empresas, constatou-se que as empresas pesquisas possuem 70% das compet??ncias levantadas neste estudo, por??m o estudo n??o conseguiu tra??ar uma rela????o de depend??ncia entre estas compet??ncias apresentadas pelas empresas pesquisadas e as vari??veis relacionadas no estudo. Os testes estat??sticos apresentaram pouca signific??ncia nas rela????es de depend??ncia apresentadas. Percebe-se tamb??m que as empresas de servi??os cont??beis apesar de ter capacidade t??cnica de assessorar o processo de planejamento estrat??gico de seus clientes, em sua maioria s??o raramente ou nunca chamadas a participar deste processo, conforme resultados do item 4.4.6 e 4.4.8 deste estudo.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauricio_Lopes_da_Cunha.pdf: 1621497 bytes, checksum: 3795e41eecb1f2ac89b23e031a2f7a03 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-07-31 / The relation between the organizational climate and the financial performance has been studied by several researchers who have emphasized that there could be reciprocity between the organizational climate and the enterprise performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate if the Brazilian enterprises that reached the highest rates of work satisfaction, demonstrated by theirs employees and expressed by their organizational climate, have also demonstrated the best indicators of financial performance. In order to accomplish this purpose, a research was made about the financial indicators of the enterprises that have presented the highest indices of organizational climate in the years of 2004, 2005 and 2006 and were classified by the Guide VOC?? S/A - EXAME, published by EDITORA ABRIL. This research has only included the enterprises that are mentioned in that magazine list as well as in the list "Melhores e Maiores da Revista EXAME", which present the best and the biggest Brazilian enterprises, according to this magazine. In this context, forty enterprises were selected from which twenty were classified by the Guide VOC?? S/A-EXAME, being among the first ten enterprises in the years 2004, 2005 e 2006 and they were compared with twenty other enterprises which were part of that guide. An study was done to determine if the enterprise participation in that magazine list, showing a high value index would result in a better financial performance. For this purpose, the following indicators were used: Rate of Return on Total Assets, Return on Equity, Net Margin, Operating Margin, Sales Growth, Asset Turnover and the Active Sales per Employee. These index values were obtained from the database " Melhores e Maiores da FIPECAFI". The statistical tests of Shapiro Wilks were applied firstly. Afterwards, the Mann-Whitney??s or the test "t" and the multidimensional scaling were also applied. Then it was concluded that there was no strong relationship between the organizational climate and the financial performance / As empresas com fins lucrativos e que atuam em um segmento competitivo tiveram, ao longo dos ??ltimos anos, uma grande evolu????o, impulsionada por condi????es econ??micas nacionais e internacionais, avan??os tecnol??gicos e exig??ncias de um mercado cada vez mais din??mico. Neste contexto, este estudo teve por objetivo investigar como as organiza????es cont??beis do munic??pio de S??o Paulo est??o utilizando o planejamento estrat??gico na sua gest??o. O estudo fundamenta-se atrav??s de uma revis??o bibliogr??fica sobre as caracter??sticas das organiza????es cont??beis, bem como sobre os conceitos que norteiam o processo de planejamento estrat??gico. Para atingir este objetivo, foi realizada uma pesquisa explorat??ria quantitativa, junto ??s organiza????es cont??beis do munic??pio pesquisado. Para a coleta de dados, foi elaborado e utilizado como instrumento de pesquisa um question??rio com 50 quest??es. O crit??rio de amostragem foi por conveni??ncia, utilizando-se para an??lise a estat??stica descritiva e ferramentas n??o-param??tricas com o aux??lio do software SPSS. Em complemento a esta pesquisa quantitativa, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa com base em entrevistas estruturadas, utilizando-se a an??lise de conte??do para a classifica????o das categorias semelhantes. Os resultados obtidos de ambas as pesquisas revelaram que a maioria das empresas pesquisadas entende a import??ncia do planejamento estrat??gico e t??m uma percep????o positiva das raz??es, benef??cios e vantagens gerados pela sua utiliza????o, contudo n??o o v??m praticando. A pesquisa quantitativa tamb??m demonstrou outro lado positivo: apesar de 98% das empresas n??o estarem praticando o planejamento estrat??gico no momento, 92% t??m a inten????o de coloc??-lo em pr??tica, o que pode alterar a constata????o, j?? verificada em outras pesquisas, de que as organiza????es cont??beis pouco contribuem ao apoio gerencial utilizado no processo decis??rio dos seus clientes.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-03-16T12:14:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Roberta Ananias.pdf: 1607405 bytes, checksum: f9f134d9b4be38fd8bbd4004304ea2f1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-16T12:14:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Roberta Ananias.pdf: 1607405 bytes, checksum: f9f134d9b4be38fd8bbd4004304ea2f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / The present study looked for how to know the impact of the Brazilian economic recessive situation, as this has influenced the pricing policy of accounting remunerations. The future of accounting in Brazil has been bringing changes regarding the virtual accounting firms that provide the service in an on-line and digital way, acting technologically with the client. The general objective was to reflect on the ways in which the market prices are priced and the technological world reality in accounting firms. The research approach was qualitative and descriptive, whose objective was to analyze the pricing characteristics used by accounting firms, the use of the questionnaire was employed. The study concluded that the accounting entrepreneur should measure in each remuneration, the hours provided, the costs involved, the margin of costs, the taxation for the definition of the price and the limit of the discount, if any. The study showed that there are accounting offices that do not have pricing criteria for their remunerations. The work has helped to alert managers of accounting firms to rethink pricing / O presente estudo procurou conhecer o impacto da situação econômica recessiva brasileira e como ela tem influenciado a política de preços dos honorários contábeis. O futuro da contabilidade no Brasil vem trazendo mudanças para as empresas contábeis virtuais que prestam serviço de modo on-line e digital, atuando tecnologicamente com o cliente. O objetivo geral foi refletir sobre formas e tendências da precificação no mercado quanto aos custos e sobre a realidade mundial tecnológica existente nas empresas de contabilidade. A abordagem da pesquisa foi qualitativa e descritiva. Para analisar as características de precificação utilizadas por empresas contábeis foi empregado o uso de questionário. A conclusão deste estudo é que o empresário contábil deve mensurar, em cada honorário, as horas prestadas, os custos envolvidos, a margem, a tributação para a definição do preço e o limite do desconto, se houver. Demonstrou que ainda existem escritórios de contabilidade que não têm critério de precificação dos seus honorários. O trabalho contribuiu para alertar gestores de empresas contábeis sobre a necessidade de repensar formas de precificação

The latest research shows over 2.8 million higher education students or one-in-seven are enrolled in fully online programs. In fields such as accounting, students are able to complete their degree, pass a standardized exam, and enter the workforce with little to no work experience. Accounting firm human resources managers are primarily responsible for the recruitment and selection of candidates. Prior studies conducted show that these hiring gatekeepers prefer candidates with earned degrees in a traditional classroom environment when holding constant for all other factors. While many students invest in online degrees as an ideal pathway to employment, career advancement, and increased earnings, the perception of their degree by hiring gatekeepers may limit these aspirations. Existing research is limited in descriptive analysis as to why these perceptions are held and what can be done to change them. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perception of the online degree by accounting hiring gatekeepers of mid-size firms in the northwestern U.S. and their recommendations for changes to online programs. Findings support prior research with a disinclination by hiring gatekeepers for candidates with earned online degrees and identified several reasons including a diminished view of interpersonal skills, ability to work as part of a team, faculty interaction and professional mentorship, and negative institutional perceptions. Additionally, gatekeepers recommended changes to online programs that included a focus on technical skills, soft skills, required internships, increasing in-person or hybrid structures, and revising institutional marketing strategies.

Tax planning is a core service provided by tax practices of public accounting firms. Performing this service well is important to the firms, their clients and the tax professionals involved. This study experimentally examines the effects of supervisory advice on the judgment of tax professionals performing tax planning tasks of different complexity, in the presence of the tax contextual features of accountability and time pressure, and finds that such advice is not necessarily helpful to performance. The advice, task complexity and accountability literatures are used in framing arguments and developing hypotheses, which propose that the timing of advice and the complexity of the task interact, so that advice is not necessarily beneficial. The study also draws on the behavioral tax, audit and accounting literatures. Discussions with senior tax practitioners indicate that supervisory advice is usually given to tax professionals before they commence tax planning tasks. The results of this study support the hypotheses and demonstrate that this practice of giving advice may not improve performance in a tax planning task and may even be detrimental. First, the results indicate that the giving of advice by a supervisor should be conditional on task complexity. Supervisory advice is beneficial for a higher-complexity task but detrimental to a lower-complexity task. Second, the timing of when any advice is provided is important. Although advice is beneficial for the higher-complexity task, the results indicate that when advice is given before the tax professional commences the task it interferes with the processing of information and insightful judgments. The giving of advice after the tax professional has thought through the task and prepared a tentative solution results in better performance for this more complex task. / Accounting

No description available.

Title: The organizing and the balance between profession and profit in the Big Four accounting firms Introduction: Globalization has lead to a world with increasing similarities and a larger market where only efficient organizations survive why information is important for survival and success. Accounting firms fulfill an important role by securing information and contribute to the prosperity of society through an efficient market. But they differ both from non-PSF and among each other due to the need of managing the balance between profession and profit. The current research on accounting firms is limited and lacking. This thesis contributes to the current research by providing a new perspective to the existing research on accounting firms. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand how the Big Four accounting firms organize in order to manage the balance between profession and profit. Method: The thesis uses a qualitative research method in which data and information is collected from financial statements and websites that is compiled into multiple case studies on the Big Four accounting firms to give a detailed description of how they organize to manage the balance between profession and profit. Conclusions: The result demonstrates that there are similarities between how the Big Four accounting firms organize to manage the balance between profession and profit. The thesis moreover shows that there are connections between the factors of organizing (goal, environment, strategy and structure latter of which is divided in organizational structure, partnership, knowledge, reward system, informal and formal management processes and responsibility distribution) and the balance between profession and profit which indicates that the Big Four accounting firms considers the balance between profession and profit in the organizing for the survival and success in the market.

En förutsättning för att revisionsbyråer skall överleva, är att lägga fokus på både förbättring och förnyelse av tjänster och produkter. Detta för att företag kontinuerligt behöver anpassa sitt utbud till den externa miljöns skiften och föränderliga efterfrågan. Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur integrerat ledarskap påverkar förmågan att uppnå ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Studien har för avsikt att utforska olika ledarskapsstilar och eventuella samband mellan dessa och ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Genom användning av relevant teori och angränsande litteratur som berör integrerat ledarskap och ambidexterity, har en modell tagits fram som undersöker kopplingar mellan de aktuella ledarskapsstilarna och ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Med hjälp av en enkätundersökning som skickades till auktoriserade och godkända revisorer, har modellen testats empiriskt. Detta resulterade i 141 svar, där 104 svar var fullständiga. Resultaten av studien indikerar att ingen av de testade ledarskapsstilarna kan signifikant förklara någon påverkan på ambidexterity, dock tyder resultatet på att en auktoriserad revisor har en negativ påverkan på ambidexterity i förhållande till en godkänd revisor. Tidigare forskning tyder på att ambidexterity påverkas av faktorer som inte berörs i denna studie. Möjligtvis  har dessa faktorer starkare påverkan på ambidexterity än integrerat ledarskap vilket kan vara anledning till varför något förklarande samband på området inte kunnat påvisas. Oavsett vad som styr ambidexterity verkar revisionsbyråer i en föränderlig miljö vilket medför att förbättringar av befintligt utbud är viktigt att fokusera på samtidigt som helt nya tjänster verkar behövas för långsiktig överlevnad.   Kunskap vad gäller hur ledarskap påverkar ambidexterity kan medföra att revisionsbyråer får en inblick om vad som kan öka deras överlevnad. Genom en balans mellan exploaterande och utforskande innovationer, kan konkurrenskraften stärkas för byråerna.   Nyckelord: Ambidexterity, innovation, exploaterande och utforskande innovation, ledarskap, integrerat ledarskap, revisionsbyråer, auktoriserad och godkänd revisor. / A prerequisite for audit firms to survive, is focus on both improvement and renewal of services and products. This because companies constantly need to adapt their range of services and products to the external environment fluctuations and changing demands. The purpose of the study is to explain how integrated leadership affects the ability to achieve ambidexterity in accounting firms. The study aims to explore various leadership styles and potential relationships between them and ambidexterity in audit firms. Thru use of relevant theory and adjoining literature regarding integrated leadership and ambidexterity, a model has been produced which examines connections between the current leadership styles and ambidexterity in audit firms. With the help of a questionnaire sent to authorized and approved auditors, the model has been tested empirically. This resulted in 141 responses, with 104 completed responses.  The results of the study indicates that none of the tested leadership styles can explain effect on ambidexterity, however, the result shows that authorized auditors have a negative correlation with ambidexterity in relation to approved auditors. Recent research indicates that ambidexterity is affected by factors not being covered in this study. Possibly these factors have stronger effect on ambidexterity than integrated leadership which may be the reason why no explaining relationship has been found on the matter. Regardless what governs ambidexterity audit firms operates in a changing environment, which makes improvements of existing supply important to focus at the same time as new services seem to be needed for long term survival.   Knowledge regarding how leadership affects ambidexterity implies that audit firms get a glimpse of what could increase their survival. Through a balance between exploitative and explorative innovation, it contributes to improving the competitiveness of the firms.   Keywords: Ambidexterity, innovation, exploitative and explorative innovation, leadership, integrated leadership, accounting firms, authorized and approved auditor.

En förutsättning för att revisionsbyråer skall överleva, är att lägga fokus på både förbättring och förnyelse av tjänster och produkter. Detta för att företag kontinuerligt behöver anpassa sitt utbud till den externa miljöns skiften och föränderliga efterfrågan. Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur integrerat ledarskap påverkar förmågan att uppnå ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Studien har för avsikt att utforska olika ledarskapsstilar och eventuella samband mellan dessa och ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Genom användning av relevant teori och angränsande litteratur som berör integrerat ledarskap och ambidexterity, har en modell tagits fram som undersöker kopplingar mellan de aktuella ledarskapsstilarna och ambidexterity i revisionsbyråer. Med hjälp av en enkätundersökning som skickades till auktoriserade och godkända revisorer, har modellen testats empiriskt. Detta resulterade i 141 svar, där 104 svar var fullständiga. Resultaten av studien indikerar att ingen av de testade ledarskapsstilarna kan signifikant förklara någon påverkan på ambidexterity, dock tyder resultatet på att en auktoriserad revisor har en negativ påverkan på ambidexterity i förhållande till en godkänd revisor. Tidigare forskning tyder på att ambidexterity påverkas av faktorer som inte berörs i denna studie. Möjligtvis  har dessa faktorer starkare påverkan på ambidexterity än integrerat ledarskap vilket kan vara anledning till varför något förklarande samband på området inte kunnat påvisas. Oavsett vad som styr ambidexterity verkar revisionsbyråer i en föränderlig miljö vilket medför att förbättringar av befintligt utbud är viktigt att fokusera på samtidigt som helt nya tjänster verkar behövas för långsiktig överlevnad. Kunskap vad gäller hur ledarskap påverkar ambidexterity kan medföra att revisionsbyråer får en inblick om vad som kan öka deras överlevnad. Genom en balans mellan exploaterande och utforskande innovationer, kan konkurrenskraften stärkas för byråerna. / A prerequisite for audit firms to survive, is focus on both improvement and renewal of services and products. This because companies constantly need to adapt their range of services and products to the external environment fluctuations and changing demands. The purpose of the study is to explain how integrated leadership affects the ability to achieve ambidexterity in accounting firms. The study aims to explore various leadership styles and potential relationships between them and ambidexterity in audit firms. Thru use of relevant theory and adjoining literature regarding integrated leadership and ambidexterity, a model has been produced which examines connections between the current leadership styles and ambidexterity in audit firms. With the help of a questionnaire sent to authorized and approved auditors, the model has been tested empirically. This resulted in 141 responses, with 104 completed responses. The results of the study indicates that none of the tested leadership styles can explain effect on ambidexterity, however, the result shows that authorized auditors have a negative correlation with ambidexterity in relation to approved auditors. Recent research indicates that ambidexterity is affected by factors not being covered in this study. Possibly these factors have stronger effect on ambidexterity than integrated leadership which may be the reason why no explaining relationship has been found on the matter. Regardless what governs ambidexterity audit firms operates in a changing environment, which makes improvements of existing supply important to focus at the same time as new services seem to be needed for long term survival. Knowledge regarding how leadership affects ambidexterity implies that audit firms get a glimpse of what could increase their survival. Through a balance between exploitative and explorative innovation, it contributes to improving the competitiveness of the firms.