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The article presents an overview of this journal's editorial policies including the journal's mission related to the topic of accounting, standards for manuscript submission, peer review processes, and conflicts of interest.

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting (JETA) from 2008 to 2022, the period since its indexing in Web of Science, focusing on authorship patterns, dominant topics, and citation trends. The findings highlight a significant concentration of authorship within JETA, suggesting an opportunity for enhancing diversity and introducing fresh perspectives through expanded authorial engagement. Acknowledging JETA's significant contributions to blockchain, text analysis/NLP, and AI, this study proposes an exploration into broader, interdisciplinary domains to further enrich the journal's thematic diversity, in alignment with global academic trends. The study further recognizes an opportunity for JETA to bolster its global impact by inviting contributions from underrepresented regions, such as South America, Australia, and Africa. Additionally, the analysis reveals a commendable trend in JETA toward collaborative and potentially interdisciplinary research, implying that fostering such collaborations could yield innovative research methodologies in the field. Data Availability: The data supporting the findings of this study can be provided upon request by contacting Batuhan Güvemli. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M42; M49. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies that require, or recommend, disclosure of corporate tax information are becoming more common throughout the world, as are examples of tax-related information increasingly influencing public policy and perceptions. In addition, companies are increasing the voluntary provision of tax-related information. We describe those trends and place them within a taxonomy of public and private tax disclosure. We then review the academic literature on corporate tax disclosures and discuss what is known about their effects. One key takeaway is the paucity of evidence that many tax disclosures mandated with the aim of increasing tax revenue have produced additional revenue. We highlight many crucial unanswered questions, answers to which would inform future tax legislation and financial accounting rule making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I study productive activity, measurement, and compensation in a principal agent model that relaxes common restrictions on the action set of the agent, the distribution of performance measures, and the shape of the wage schedule. The solution to this relaxed problem unifies insights from extant theory and shares features with well-known empirical phenomena. In particular, the optimal outcome distribution has a kink, optimal measurement is conservative, and optimal wages ensure congruent incentives and resemble accounting-based bonus plans featuring a floor, hurdle bonus, incentive zone, and ceiling, with thresholds that may reference other performance measures. Beyond these specific insights, the paper provides a flexible framework for studying how incentives are shaped through measurement and contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to track the intellectual evolution of four important streams of thought in the American accounting literature, tracing them back to their originating expressions. The four streams are decision usefulness in both management accounting and financial accounting, futurity in financial accounting, the literature on general price-level accounting, and consolidation goodwill in business combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how student engagement impacts learning in face-to-face and virtual classes. Our setting is an introductory financial accounting course taught by three instructors face-to-face in fall 2019 and virtually in fall 2021. Our proxy for student engagement is the accuracy of responses to in-class group polling questions. We measure learning using final exam scores. We hypothesize and find that higher levels of student engagement resulted in better scores on the final exam in both the face-to-face and virtual classes but that over the course of the semester engagement declined faster in the virtual classes than in the face-to-face classes. We also find that the decline in engagement contributed to lower final exam scores in the virtual classes relative to the face-to-face classes. Taken together, these findings highlight some of the challenges faced by educators when delivering content virtually. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private equity (PE) funds are increasingly important to the economy and now serve as the primary vehicle for raising new capital. However, a limited understanding of the unique PE fund setting among accounting academics inhibits accounting research in this area. In this paper, we first describe the PE fund setting and explain how fundamental differences between PE and previously studied settings make it difficult to infer PE fund behavior from research performed using other settings. We then discuss how PE funds provide researchers with the ability to explore fundamental questions related to agency costs, governance, compensation, disclosure, and fair value accounting. Finally, we provide guidance on PE data sources available for use in future research. Because of the volume of economic activity currently funneled through PE and the unique aspects of the PE setting, it is important for researchers to explore when, why, and how accounting matters for PE funds. Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from the public sources identified in the text. JEL Classifications: G1; G14; G30; M4; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a continuous learner often is viewed as a key attribute of successful accounting professionals. This paper describes a project that engages master level financial accounting students directly in the standard-setting process by having students research, write and submit a class comment letter on a current Exposure Draft to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). This project integrates multiple competencies through experiential learning. The project is designed to provide students with first-hand experience engaging in the standard setting process, introduce students to some of the challenges with staying abreast of current developments, and help students develop tools and skills they can use throughout their careers to learn about emerging accounting issues and critically analyze alternative solutions. JEL Classifications: M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to raise awareness of the benefits of conducting international research rather than just single-country studies (which tend to be dominated by U.S. data). We outline the key challenges in terms of data collection and empirical design and propose various data sources for country-level variables, including formal and informal institutions. We also describe several hands-on approaches that are suitable in a crosscountry setting. Data Availability: Data are available from sources indicated in the paper. JEL Classifications: C1; C8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Securities and Exchange Commission's Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, this assignment builds critical thinking and ethical decision-making skills in a financial accounting setting. It requires students to analyze a real-world fraud from the perspective of an employee, manager, or executive (a "case participant") involved in the accounting impropriety. The case features individual and group components that may be customized to fit the instructor's needs. The individual component examines a case participant's choices in committing accounting improprieties using an ethical decision-making framework. The group component includes an analysis of the accounting, the fraud triangle, possible preventative measures, and takeaways applicable to students' future careers. By requiring students to step into the shoes of a case participant, this assignment increases student awareness of deliberate choices leading to financial reporting fraud and equips students with an ethical decision-making framework should they encounter a financial reporting ethical conflict in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This think piece looks at the traditional reporting for intangibles and concludes that the measuring and reporting of intangibles needs a structural rethinking to incorporate 21st-century technology involving new forward-looking information and methods to provide information that is consistent with current capabilities (e.g., apps, bots, multiple databases, artificial intelligence). Traditional measurement methods, first published by Fra Luca Pacioli, satisfied business needs for centuries, but they limit modern external stakeholders' ability to evaluate and compare firms' current performance or predict their future performance. The traditional concepts of articulation, consolidation, and valuation of intangibles are inadequate, and sometimes blatantly misleading. Further, empirical research has ignored the emergence of new circumstances in business operations and accounting technology. The goal of this think piece is to discuss the traditional backward-looking approach to financial reporting for intangibles and to outline some considerations for developing a new system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives in accounting academia, we lack a deep understanding of the experiences of historically underrepresented individuals (HUIs), including females, racial minorities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Applying an intersectional view, our study links social identity and social closure theories to understand how workplace interactions shape the experiences and perceptions of HUIs in accounting academia. Analyzing semistructured interviews with 16 HUI accounting faculty members identified five major themes: inequity among colleagues, pressure from expectations, lack of representation of HUIs in accounting academia, initiatives that promote inclusion, and academia's current environment for HUIs. Specific quotes interwoven with the findings provide insight into the current state of diversity and inclusion in accounting schools and departments. These reveal that, although there have been some improvements in HUIs' experiences with diversity and inclusion, biases and exclusionary practices remain firmly grounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case uses a financial accounting context to help instructors incorporate data analytics in the accounting curriculum. The case's flexible design allows it to be used in a data analytics or financial accounting course for instructors with little to no data analytics experience. For an analytics course, students extract, transform, and load fixed asset and depreciation data from a company's five sites. Students will then validate the accuracy and completeness of the data by creating visualizations. The case can be accomplished using any data analytics tool; Teaching Notes are presented using Power BI. The case and Teaching Notes include modifications for a financial accounting course where students are given data visualizations to identify depreciation anomalies (where no analytics software is required). An extension for audit courses is also discussed. The case serves to develop students' analytics skills while simultaneously reinforcing their understanding of depreciation concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of cross- and stable shareholdings on the relationship between accounting quality and trade credit in Japan. Cross- and stable shareholdings are well-known features of Japanese corporate governance, as a private information-sharing system. The results indicate that the trade credit of customers without either cross- or stable shareholdings increases with accounting quality, and in most cases, such shareholdings weaken the relationship between accounting quality and trade credit. These findings suggest that close ties to cross- and stable shareholders reduce the importance of accounting information through sharing private information. The findings will enhance the understanding of ownership structure's potential impact. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the role of accounting quality in financing and the factors that reduce this role. In addition, this study highlights policy implications for the regulatory initiatives to unwind cross-shareholdings, which may affect private information sharing. Data Availability: Data are available from sources indicated in the text. JEL Classifications: G34; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although robotic process automation (RPA) usage is growing rapidly in accounting, concerns are emerging regarding the internal controls and overall governance structure surrounding RPA. To help address these concerns, we use a design science research approach and work with a Fortune 500 company to develop an RPA governance framework. The framework consists of four governance areas and 14 control requirements, which help maximize the benefits and minimize the risks associated with the use of RPA. We validate that the framework is useful and generalizable to many organizations by presenting the framework to and subsequently interviewing and surveying 86 professionals at different organizations, including internal and external auditors, chief audit executives at several multinational corporations, academics, accounting and finance professionals, and other RPA stakeholders. Their feedback suggests the framework is successful in achieving its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: This study examines whether the presence of high-quality auditors (Big 4 or industry specialist auditors [ISAs]) in an industry facilitates accounting information transfer among industry peers and enhances investment decisions of firms not audited by high-quality auditors (non-Big 4-ISA client firms). Consistent with the prediction of informational influence theories, we find that non-Big 4-ISA client firms that belong to an industry with a greater presence of high-quality auditors are associated with lower investment inefficiency. The effect is more pronounced for firms with less precise private information. Path analysis shows that the association between high-quality auditor presence and learning firms' investment inefficiency is explained via a direct path of source credibility and an indirect path mediated by peer firms' accounting information quality. Finally, we find that firms in industries with larger reductions in Big 4 presence following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 incur more investment inefficiency. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M42. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2024 marks the 20-year anniversary of Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting (JETA) since the journal published its first issue in 2004. We compiled JETA's publication statistics for its first two decades. The statistics demonstrates the growth of JETA in 20 years and the innovation of the journal in the types and topics of articles being published. We also report detailed citations of JETA articles, including its top 15 most cited articles in those 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We identify several manifestations of hybridity in accounting and control systems. Hybridity in the form of multiple accounting systems and actual or postural conformity to institutional expectations can enable organizations to overtly, but sometimes ostensibly, combine multiple logics to appease stakeholders. Hybridity increases costs and the risk of internal inconsistency. Consequently, firms decouple some practices to provide an impression of conformance. We offer a typology of three forms of hybridity—compliance, complete decoupling, and partial decoupling—and illustrate using examples from accounting hybridization choices regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR), diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and international reporting standards. We empirically examine hybridity in the context of the voluntary adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS). We find that instrumental pressures are associated with adoption through compliance; however, social pressures are likely to be placated through complete decoupling, whereby firms voluntarily adopt multiple systems in policy, but not in practice. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: B50; L21; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: On June 26, 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the Board or PCAOB) issued a request for comment on its Proposed Amendments Related to Aspects of Designing and Performing Audit Procedures That Involve Technology-Assisted Analysis of Information in Electronic Form (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) 2023a). This commentary summarizes the participating committee members' views on the proposal. We first provide answers to specific questions posed in the release, viewing the issuance of a new standard as a given. Subsequently, we also examine how well the proposal's economic analysis establishes a solid foundation for new standard setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: On March 28, 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the Board or PCAOB) issued a request for comment on its Proposed Auditing Standard—General Responsibilities of the Auditor in Conducting an Audit and Proposed Amendments to PCAOB Standards (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) 2023). This commentary summarizes the participating committee members' views on selected questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine a comprehensive set of investigations by the SEC's Division of Enforcement offices to provide evidence on the consequences of these office's busyness on the formal investigation process. We find that higher office case backlog decreases the likelihood of an investigation into a restating firm. Our results show no evidence that higher backlogs affect the SEC's ability to pursue cases involving revenue recognition issues and high insider trading, which is consistent with the agency's stated priorities. But our findings indicate that busy SEC offices are less likely to pursue cases with the largest shareholder losses, which is inconsistent with SEC priorities. Backlog also impacts pursued investigations, leading to more prolonged investigations, a lower Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases likelihood, and smaller SEC penalties. Our evidence suggests that busyness undermines the SEC's investigation process. JEL Classifications: G18; G38; K42; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether the design of a firm's internal management accounting system is associated with GAAP earnings management. We exploit the fact that ASC 280 mandates a "management approach" requiring multisegment firms to disclose their segment earnings as defined internally by their management accounting system. We posit that the less these segment earnings are decoupled from GAAP earnings, the higher are the costs of earnings management because earnings management spills over to segment earnings and distorts information used for internal decision-making. Thus, we predict that firms with more decoupled segment earnings engage in more earnings management. Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 1998 to 2020, we find support for this prediction. We also find that the decision usefulness of segment earnings for segment investment purposes decreases as earnings management increases, with this association being more pronounced for firms with less decoupled segment earnings measures. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; G14. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniformity is an essential feature of financial reporting, yet its desirability has long been debated. We study a model in which firms decide whether to adopt either their locally preferred accounting methods or a common method, followed by an investor allocating capital across firms. Firms' choices of a common method are strategic complements in attaining more comparable reports. As a result, multiple equilibria may exist. Specifically, an equilibrium in which firms use their local methods always exists. However, an equilibrium in which firms adopt a common method exists if uniformity improves comparability significantly and firm-specific productivity shocks are large relative to the common productivity shock. Firms may fail to coordinate on adopting the Pareto-dominant accounting method, which may not even emerge as an equilibrium if investments exhibit substitutability. These coordination problems provide accounting regulation an opportunity to facilitate efficient capital allocation, thus providing a microfoundation for accounting measurement regulation. JEL Classifications: D02; D61; D83; H11; M40; M41; M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]