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The accounting establishment and AICPA Foundation responded to an inadequate supply of new accounting faculty by creating the Accounting Doctoral Scholars (ADS) program. Between 2009 and 2018, the $17 million program enabled 105 practitioners to become audit and tax faculty. Based on market data and an ADS participant survey, we find an increase in doctoral graduates at ADS and non-ADS schools relative to pre-ADS years, and unmet demand for audit has decreased after ADS, whereas tax remains in need. Compared to the market, ADS graduates experienced somewhat better placements by moving up to more prestigious strata and were more likely to place at schools with a doctoral program. Additionally, we present results for ADS students' motivations, degree completion time, and differences between audit and tax participants. Our findings have important implications for academic accounting, business schools, regulators, and policymakers. We provide important context for changes in market trends preceding COVID-19.

This study investigates accounting firm office mergers and acquisitions (M&A). It explores whether office M&A affect post-acquisition office audit quality, particularly whether there is a spillover effect on the existing client base of the acquiring office. We capitalize on a unique circumstance: the 2002 acquisition of Arthur Andersen (Andersen) office practices by other audit firm offices. This setting involves a set of offices in each of the remaining large international audit firms that acquired entire Andersen local practices (treatment group) and a set of offices that did not acquire Andersen practices (control group). Using a within-audit firm matched sample and difference-in-difference research design, we find robust evidence of higher audit quality post-acquisition among the audits of existing clients of the acquiring offices. These findings extend the literature on office audit quality and provide initial evidence of the impact of audit firm office M&A on the existing client base. The findings also suggest that practitioner and scholarly literature on audit practice mergers should consider the impact of audit firm M&A on the existing client base as well as the acquired clients.

Facing a more competitive environment, institutions in the higher education sector increasingly deploy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to facilitate better decision making. Of more recent origin, business analytics approaches are supplementing this technology. However, based on anecdotal accounts, many of these organizations have not reaped the advantages that were sought from these advances. The current research explores this conundrum by proposing and testing a model of perceived ERP effectiveness. Using data collected in a survey of colleges in the U.S., the results show that although distinctions between information quality and systems quality tend not to be made, overall perceived input quality is associated with ERP effectiveness. ERP effectiveness is only indirectly affected by general information technology competence. Here, perceived organizational support exists as an important mediating construct, but business analytics are not perceived to play a consequential role. JEL Classifications: C3; L3; I22. Data Availability: Survey data available upon request.

Regulators desire punishment that restores individuals to monetary positions before the damage and deters future violations. Thus, enforcement effectiveness is partially a function of punishment severity. Under the Securities and Exchange Commission's oversight, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority provides enforcement and punishment guidelines for securities fraud cases. However, motivation crowding theory suggests extenuating and aggravating circumstances may complicate punishment. We investigate the concern that individuals charged with punishing securities fraud might be excessively tolerant, illustrated by recommended sanctions. Using two samples of participants—compliance examiners and securities arbitrators—in an experimental task that manipulates the fraudster's motivation, history, and personal gain, we find participants may be overly influenced by situational circumstances. Further, participants recommend monetary sanctions that fail to achieve regulators' restoration goals. We discuss practical implications of these findings for regulators. Further, we illustrate the need to extend motivation crowding theory to consider factors associated with non-direct financial benefits.

The sudden collapse of Arthur Andersen & Co. (Andersen) in 2001–2002 altered the careers of many professionals who were employed by that international accounting firm. Now that many years have passed since that event, some long-run consequences can be quantified. This paper examines the subsequent careers of 267 managers employed by Andersen at that time in seven Midwestern U.S. cities. Benchmarking these results against similarly situated individuals at another large firm, we conclude that ex-Andersen managers were much less likely to continue in large firm employment, stay in public accounting, or achieve partnership status in the profession. However, the professional networks maintained by ex-Andersen people many years after that firm's collapse appear as strong as that of the control sample. Data Availability: Data are available from the first author upon request.

A rapidly changing and increasingly hostile environment creates incentives for organizations in the higher education sector to invest in high capability information systems technology. However, effective adoption and implementation of such systems has been rarer than one would expect. Using interviews of higher education administrators, this paper identifies structural, cultural, and strategic reasons for this shortfall. That which must be overcome to prepare colleges and universities for the information-intensive future is discussed.

SYNOPSIS Much has been written about the so-called “millennial generation.” Many commentators believe that Millennials possess values and preferences that render them qualitatively different from the cohorts that preceded them. These writers have suggested, often without benefit of empirical evidence, that such differences will consequentially affect social institutions such as the accounting profession. This paper compares the generation of millennial individuals who are currently entering accounting with previous generational groups, represented by Baby Boomers, who entered the profession in the 1980s, and older students and younger professionals (Generation X). The results suggest that few personality differences exist to support the premise that the millennial generation now entering the accounting profession is truly unique. For the most part, differences are limited to growth need strength, and do not appear in locus of control or need to achieve. Implications for practice management are drawn.

The ability to move from one employing institution to another can be very important in an academic career. This study concerns the mid-career opportunities for institutional migration for accounting faculty. Unlike previous studies that focused on the characteristics, motivations, and attainments of mobile faculty, this study examines the relative size of the accounting professoriate that has been in transition at various points in time. When a large component of senior accounting academics have (have not) taken new positions in the last few years, the opportunity structure can be said to be high (low). The findings, using accounting doctoral schools as the empirical setting, document a declining opportunity set. Over time, the fraction of senior accounting academics that have changed schools in the previous five years has dwindled. This conclusion holds true across various divisions of academic accounting. Specifically, a decline is shown for both public schools and private schools, for higher and lower prestige schools, and for most sub-fields of the accounting discipline. The paper offers implications about this long-term trend.

SYNOPSIS Trade associations should play an integral role in defining and defending the legitimacy and jurisdiction of a profession. In addition, they should provide a field upon which individuals can rise above the confines of their organizations and grow their professional leadership capacities. Evidence in the literature suggests that U.S. accounting conformed to this pattern under the auspices of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). However, various recent events have transpired that reduce the confidence that this continues to be the case. Using network analysis on longitudinal data from 1997 to 2013, this paper documents an increasingly fragmented and isolated leadership structure. This finding suggests the reduced influence of the AICPA. Surprisingly, this decline has not been offset by the stronger influences of the large international firms. Implications for the profession are discussed.

Many academic accountants have explicit or implicit motivations to publish their research in the best journals in the discipline. However, whether the chances of success are better at some of these journals is unknown. This paper examines the archival record to find differences within the authorship of three such publications (The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics) over a recently completed 20-year period. The journals do not differentiate according to the authors' doctoral training, but are differently sensitive to place of faculty employment. The journals are equally receptive to non-U.S. authors, but different in their receptivity to recently graduated and frequently appearing authors. Although areas of change over time are noted, both among journals and within each journal itself, the record also shows a good deal of consistency in other relationships over the 20-year period.

The inadequate supply of new terminally qualified accounting faculty poses a great concern for many accounting faculty and administrators. Although the general downward trajectory has been well observed, more specific information would offer potential insights about causes and continuation. This paper examines change in accounting doctoral student production in the U.S. since 1989 through the use of five-year moving averages. Aggregated on this basis, the downward movement predominates, notwithstanding the schools that began new programs or increased doctoral student production during this time. The results show that larger declines occurred for middle prestige schools, for larger universities, and for public schools. Schools that periodically successfully compete in M.B.A. program rankings also more likely have diminished the size of their accounting Ph.D. programs. Despite a recent increase in graduations, data on the population of current doctoral students suggest the continuation of the problems associated with the supply and demand imbalance that exists in this sector of the U.S. academy.

This paper uses the template of institutional theory to explore the impact of organizational de-legitimation on its technical core. To operationalize this, social network theory is used to guide an exploratory study of the diaspora of Andersen employees. The results suggest an unusually high degree of entrepreneurial activity is unleashed once the confining legitimacy of the organizational structure is dissolved. It also shows that the value of social capital possessed by Andersen professionals changed in character and possibly increased in value. The paper offers contributions to institutional theory and the practice of modern accounting.

Recent interest in the accounting profession should translate into an inspection of its leadership. Why certain people are leaders and other people are not is a question that bears upon the chances that the profession can regain its stature in the eyes of the public. Even without crisis, an examination of the portals of power adds to our appreciation for the social organization of the accounting profession. Using Accounting Today's list of the 100 most influential people in the field over the first decade of the 21st century, this paper describes these individuals. In many ways, this array reveals the existence of a profession much different than that broadly appreciated in academic circles.

The control of important outcomes in academic accounting by the faculties of a small set of elite institutions has been well documented through a series of outcomes. Less is known about the processes by which this is sustained over time. This paper considers the advice provided to young scholars as one means whereby the social hierarchy is reproduced. Eight specific mechanisms are analyzed and found to bolster belief in the objective meritocracy of ideas in the discipline. Building upon the faux advice provided by Nathanael West's fictional Miss Lonelyhearts, the paper concludes that the stabilizing point embedded in the system is the necessity of people's acceptance of their own inadequacy.

The history of accounting as an academic discipline is a short one. Although the study of accounting in institutions of higher education is roughly coextensive with the rise of the business school, the need for a dedicated group of full-time faculty in this area is not as well established as other business disciplines. This paper pertains to the recent trajectory of the accounting professoriate. Disciplinary success should be evidenced by the broader recognition of importance of and high demand for its work, and the numerical increase of its practitioners. Although the value and importance of accounting is a maintained hypothesis within the field, how accepted this idea is in the business school is an empirical question. This paper illustrates the number and distribution of accounting faculty over a 20-year period through the consideration of a number of specific research questions. The results show that after a decade-long increase, the number of the full-time accountancy faculty in the U.S. in the last decade has declined. This decline is not uniform, but instead is patterned in ways that raise further doubts about the future of the discipline.

The current trend toward corporate acquisitions of CPA firms poses potential threats to the autonomy and ethical standards of public accounting professionals. This recent consolidation movement suggests that for the first time a significant number of public accounting professionals are subject to the supervision and control of nonprofessionals. In addition to acknowledging the potential threats to auditor independence and objectivity, this paper suggests that these new organizational arrangements for the provision of public accounting services have other negative effects on professionalism and ethics such as desensitizing CPAs to traditional professional values, and subverting professional institutions to the goals of corporate employers. This paper develops a framework that identifies several specific research questions related to the effects of corporate ownership on professionalism and ethics in public accounting.

This study examines how accounting students' ability to assess their course standing mid-way through the term is associated with their success in the course. Drawing on the paradigm of self-efficacy, we explicitly assess mid-way through the course how aware students are of (1) their exam performance, having taken an exam but before receiving feedback, and (2) their final course grade. Path analysis results for a sample of 214 students suggest that the more conservative a student's self-efficacy (that is, the less optimistic or more pessimistic the self-assessment), the higher the second exam score and final course grade. This relationship holds even after controlling for cumulative GPA in accounting courses, average exam performance during the term, trajectory of achievement, number of accounting classes already completed, and the extent of involvement in extracurricular activities. Path analysis results also support the notion that student characteristics are associated with performance, both directly and indirectly (via their association with the conservatism of self-efficacy). We find that the direction of inaccuracy matters. When students' predictions are below outcomes, reflecting pessimism, subsequent performance improves. When predictions are above outcomes, reflecting optimism, subsequent performance deteriorates. These results suggest that the direction of inaccuracy in understanding current course standing is an essential element of students' success in the classroom, apparently due to the self-regulatory behavior prompted by such misalignment.

The restructuring of large corporations has become a regular part of business in the last two decades. Nonetheless, very little study of this phenomenon has been conducted. This paper reports on qualitative fieldwork conducted at three large corporations. Three ideal types for downsizing efforts are proposed. In addition, common influences upon all three are developed. The role of management accounting in the process and its outcomes is analyzed.