High-profile fraud cases have continued to make the news over the past few years. But exactly what are auditors' responsibilities when it comes to detecting fraud? The author of this article reveals that the auditing profession has come full circle-from being responsible to not being responsible...

This paper assesses the income smoothing strategies and analyzes what motivates organizations to engage in smoothing their earnings. An ethical framework is drawn upon to evaluate the implications of these issues. It concludes with suggestions and implications for the policy makers, researchers...

Purpose: This paper aims to examine whether commercial banks manage earnings through their use of Level 3 valuation under The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157 (FAS 157), Fair Value Measurements. To achieve this goal, we investigate the association between banks' performance...

There are many definitions of materiality and such differences in definitions show that there is great concern about the applicability of materiality in the auditing profession. Various materiality guidelines have been recommended by both academic researchers and accounting bodies, but the...

This paper presents a model for predicting crises in small businesses using early-warning signals. It summarises the results of two separate studies carried out in Finland (with 72 percent response) and the UK (26 percent) on the decision process of corporate analysts (Finland) and bank managers...

This is the first published study, to our best best knowledge, to look at the junk IPOs in a systematic manner using a quasi-experimental design. The study abandons the notion of homogeneous market for IPOs, and instead focuses on the differential demand for information across identifiable...

Using survey data from firms around the world I analyze how detection of bribery has impacted a firm's competitiveness over the past year. Managers report that the most significant impact was on employee morale, followed by business relations, and then reputation and regulatory relations. The...

As part of the SEC's revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which sustainability disclosures are...

Shareholder activism on sustainability issues has become increasingly prevalent over the years, with the number of proposals filed doubling from 1999 to 2013. We use recent innovations in accounting standard setting to classify 2,665 shareholder proposals that address environmental and social...