This paper examines the effect of the quality of a firm's internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) on the quality of corporate M&A decisions. We use material weaknesses in internal control (ICMWs) from SOX 404 audits as a proxy for the quality of a firm's ICFR, and use future goodwill...

Recent public policy initiatives seek greater transparency in financial reporting through an honest, balanced and thorough management discussion of company performance in the annual report. Management's discussion invariably includes key performance indicators, such as financial ratios, relevant...

In 2011, Japan was shocked by the revelation of a fraud at one of its most prominent companies, Olympus. What was more shocking was that the fraud was perpetrated by its Chairman of the Board and past president, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, in collusion with several other Board members and officers. The...

The value chain is a widely used framework to assess and manage corporate profitability. This paper explores how companies manage their CSR efforts along this framework. We develop a generic value chain that has three links upstream and one link downstream. We analyze qualitative data from CEO...

On November 4th 2011, Groupon Inc. went public with an initial market capitalization of $13 billion. The business was formed a couple of years earlier as an off-shoot of “The Point.” The business grew rapidly and increased its reported revenue from $14.5 million in 2009 to $1.6 billion in...

This paper examines U.S. firms' accounting for share repurchases and the accounting choice provided to Delaware-incorporated firms between the treasury and retirement methods. This accounting choice does not affect income, cash flows, or net assets, but it nevertheless affects financial...

Meaningful incorporation of environmental and social responsibility goals into organizational strategic plans requires a mechanism to measure and reward performance contributing to that objective. This paper formulates such a framework using management accounting concepts. We demonstrate that...

An analytic framework is provided for incorporating different user perspectives on materiality into the audit process. The framework serves as a tool for disaggregating materiality to specific accounts based on materiality criteria for accounts and account combinations. To improve audit...

This paper derives an actionable model that serves as a basis for cost variance analysis to support the pursuit of environmental and traditional financial goals within a decentralized organization. The model identifies two distinguishable departures from optimality. The first consists of what...