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Data security is a critical concern for organizations. In a rush to protect data, some IT managers overlook the important first step of data classification and instead focus on implementing the strictest controls on all data to reduce risk. To investigate organizational processes surrounding data classification, we conduct interviews with 27 CISOs in 23 organizations. We develop a model that identifies the common themes of data classification and their interrelationships. The most common driver for data classification is compliance with data privacy regulations and security standards. Collaboration and employee education are essential to the process. Increases in employee awareness of data security risk and improvements in data hygiene are outcomes. Challenges to data classification include the increase in IT landscape complexity, maintenance of an accurate data inventory, immaturity of automated tools, limited resources, and user compliance. Our model provides insights for practitioners and identifies areas of interest for researchers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-professional investors (NPIs) with varying levels of financial sophistication interpret and perceive corporate disclosures and management credibility, specifically risk factors, when those disclosures are presented in readable and less-readable formats. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an online experiment to test hypotheses related to the effects of financial sophistication (measured) and readability (manipulated) on NPIs’ equity valuations and perceptions of management credibility (competence and trustworthiness). Findings Increased readability appears to counteract less-sophisticated NPIs’ conservatism in equity valuations, such that they are not statistically significantly different from more-sophisticated NPIs’ equity valuations. Further, less-sophisticated NPIs judge management as less competent when disclosures are less readable, while more-sophisticated NPIs judge management as more competent when disclosures are less readable. Research limitations/implications The paper has important implications for the SEC’s regulations related to plain English requirements for risk factor and other corporate disclosures. Financial sophistication varies among NPIs, and readability appears to influence these individuals in different ways. Practical implications The SEC’s Concept Release (April 13, 2016) acknowledges the need to update and improve risk factor disclosure regulations. This study provides evidence that contributes to those decisions. Originality/value The paper extends the research on processing fluency, by examining readability of disclosures with a consistent tone (negative). The NPIs surveyed are directly representative of the population of interest for risk factor disclosure regulations.

The SEC whistleblower bounty program's effectiveness in increasing external reports of illegal acts suggests that employers might increase internal whistleblowing by offering monetary awards. We propose and test a model that explores how monetary incentives affect trust, and ultimately whistleblowing intent, in both high and low retaliation threat environments. Results of a 2 (high/low retaliation threat) × 2 (money/no money) experimental study of 295 U.S. adults confirm that low (high) retaliation threat positively (negatively) relates to whistleblowing intent, mediated by trust. Monetary incentives moderate the relationship between retaliation threat and trust such that when retaliation threat is low, money increases organizational trust, leading to higher whistleblowing intent, but when retaliation threat is high, monetary incentives do not significantly influence trust. We also find that in a high retaliation threat environment with monetary incentives present, intrinsically motivated individuals report significantly lower levels of trust compared to trust levels reported by extrinsically motivated individuals. Our findings help managers understand how and when monetary incentives may be effective in increasing internal whistleblowing. Data Availability: Data are available from the first author.

Despite formal ethics education and ethics-related continuing professional education (CPE) requirements, professional accountants continue to play a central role in enabling corporations to make unethical business decisions and take unethical business actions. Several jurisdictions in the United States require ethics education for licensure, but often the focus is on memorizing rules and regulations, rather than on providing tools to improve the moral practice of professionals and to help them resolve ethical dilemmas. The authors analyzed recent state Certified Public Accountant (CPA) society course offerings and found much more emphasis on memorization than on ethical reasoning to satisfy State CPA CPE requirements. To improve accountants’ ethical awareness and behavior, CPE providers should stress ethical reasoning rather than merely memorizing rules. Such changes will make future and present accountants and auditors more ethically aware, and thus more likely to improve their ethical decision-making. Nonetheless, the authors suggest that effective ethics education and training should start in the classroom with help from departmental advisory councils. Ethics courses offered in accounting programs as well as those offered by CPE providers can leverage the experience of members of advisory councils to create programs that resonate with professionals and foster lifelong ethical awareness and ethical reasoning skills.

An introduction is presented to a series of articles published within the issue on topics including accounting information systems and ethics, use of performance measurement systems, and ethical implications of data analytic-driven active monitoring systems on employees' perceptions of morale and views of the organization.

The rapid evolution of technology and the increasingly integrated nature of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) in business provide opportunities for those who interact with these systems to act unethically. Accountants, as the managers of accounting information systems and gatekeepers of assets, records, and reporting, have a responsibility to understand and address ethical dilemmas related to these responsibilities in their organizations. A summary of AIS and ethics research calls attention to gaps in the literature and provides directions for future research. The ETHOs framework, which categorizes factors as environmental, technological, human, and organizational, provides a model for researchers to examine ethical issues related to the AIS functions of recordkeeping, reporting, and control.

Do you know what choices you would make if faced with an ethical dilemma? This fact-based case includes situations and issues that a real citizen considered when faced with the knowledge that his employer may have been overbilling the state of North Carolina for health care. Professionals, especially those in accounting and finance positions, are likely to face serious dilemmas in the course of their careers. These situations may require them to choose between honoring a confidentiality clause in an employment contract and acting according to ethical and professional values. This case provides facts gathered from an actual case in which an individual faced this particular challenge. By working through the case, students should develop an appreciation of the pressures and personal ethical challenges they are likely to face in the workplace. By engaging in discussion and role-play, students will be more likely to recognize these issues when they occur, and will have already developed critical thinking skills to help them develop a plan of action.

This paper investigates auditors' likelihood to report observations of colleagues' unethical behavior. We consider whether two characteristics that are particularly relevant to the audit environment, prior organizational response and power distance, affect willingness to report. Data collected from 106 senior-level auditors suggest auditors are more likely to report on their peers than on their superiors, but they are more likely to report superiors when prior organizational response is strong than when it is weak. Additionally, men appear to be relatively less sensitive to variations in power distance or prior organization response than women. Moral intensity of the case is significantly related to reporting likelihood, and power distance moderates this effect such that those who perceive this scenario to be of lower moral intensity are much more influenced by power distance than are those who perceive it to be of high moral intensity. These results contribute to the existing literature on accounting ethics, as well as inform public accounting governance policies.

In the spirit that a picture is worth a thousand words, the Pathways Commission Vision’s “perception” of accounting is a simplistic caricature of a practice epitomized by bookkeeping and governed by a “black letter” tradition whereby hard-and-fast rules exist for distilling the vast number of data business generates into a meaningful narrative about the financial state and performance of a firm. The “Reality” Vision is a rather heroic self-perception the profession has for the role it will play in producing a prosperous society. The problematic ambiguity with the “Reality” obviously revolves around the concept of “prosperous society” and what implications different notions of prosperous have for accounting’s role in society, given accounting’s (and accountants’) limitations. We propose a vision for a prosperous society based on the 17 UN goals, specifically focusing on the two which relate to income distribution and sustainability. We consider how accounting can play a role in helping achieve this view of a prosperous society.

SYNOPSIS eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has the potential to improve the transparency of financial reports; however, its complexity creates the risk of introducing errors that are a threat to its usefulness. XBRL is a complex technological change in financial reporting of nearly unprecedented scope. Prior to June 2009, the date of the first mandated XBRL filings, the SEC made available a Voluntary Filing Program (VFP) to assist in addressing the difficulties of creating XBRL documents. This study examines errors in the VFP filings, and investigates whether stakeholders used their experience to improve the XBRL technology and processes. Findings indicate a reduction in errors over time, suggesting that the VFP for XBRL was successful. These results support the use of a VFP to identify and solve unanticipated issues and evaluate the feasibility of implementing large-scale technological changes in financial reporting and perhaps comprehensive changes in accounting standards such as the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards.

SUMMARY: Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) proposed rules and forms to implement Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), entitled Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection, and sought comment thereon. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted on July 21, 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”), established a whistleblower program that requires the Commission to pay an award, under regulations prescribed by the Commission and subject to certain limitations, to eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily provide the Commission with original information about a violation of the federal securities laws that leads to the successful enforcement of a covered judicial or administrative action, or a related action. Dodd-Frank also prohibits retaliation by employers against individuals that provide the Commission with information about potential securities violations. Comments were requested by the Commission and could be submitted on or before December 17, 2010. The Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association provided the comments in the letter below to the Commission on the Proposed Rules for Implementing the Whistleblower Provisions of Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

As technology provides more efficient and effective methods for financial reporting, students are encouraged to gain experience using these innovations. The SEC and other global financial communities have mandated the use of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) for certain public filings. The following interactive exercise exposes students to XBRL and provides hands-on experience in using related tools. In Task 1, students learn about the underlying mechanics of XBRL. In Task 2, students use a programmed learning approach to analyze financial information using the SEC’s free interactive financial viewer. Task 3 includes discussion questions related to XBRL and specific accounting courses (i.e., financial, audit, managerial, and systems).

SYNOPSIS: Using a multi-method approach, we explore accounting academics’ knowledge-sharing practices in an Electronic Network of Practice (ENOP)—the Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia (AECM) email list. Established in 1996, the AECM email list serves the global accounting academic community. A review of postings to AECM for the period January–June 2006 indicates that members use this network to post questions, replies, and opinions covering a variety of topics, but focusing on financial accounting practice and education. Sixty-nine AECM members constituting 9.2 percent of the AECM membership base responded to a survey that measured their self-perceptions about altruism, reciprocation, reputation, commitment, and participation in AECM. The results suggest that altruism is a significant predictor of posting frequency, but neither reputation nor commitment significantly relate to posting frequency. These findings imply that designers and administrators of the recently launched AAA Commons platform should seek ways of capitalizing on the altruistic tendencies of accounting academics. The study’s limitations include low statistical power and potential inconsistencies in coding the large number of postings.

Public accounting firms rely on effective reporting of unethical behavior (whistleblowing) as a form of corporate governance. This study presents results from a survey of 122 in-charge level auditors, who indicated their likelihood of internal whistleblowing under three forms of identity disclosure for three independent scenarios. Reporting likelihood was significantly lower under a disclosed identity format, while there was no significant difference in likelihood between anonymous and protected identity formats. Contrasts reveal a significantly higher likelihood of reporting audit standards violations than a professional code violation. Likelihood was also positively related to measures of trust that the firm would investigate and act on the reported incident. Personal characteristics (i.e., locus of control and ethical style) were significant antecedents to whistleblowing intentions. Findings should aid public accounting firms and organizational governance researchers in their understanding of the determinants of auditors' whistleblowing propensity.

Do financial incentives increase knowledge sharing in a computermediated environment? Thirty-six accounting students assigned to groups with different financial incentives (group, piece-rate, or tournament) searched for errors in accounting-related spreadsheets, with access to an online chat room they could use for helping others. The dependent variable was the amount of knowledge the students shared with others. Quantitative and qualitative data suggest that the group financial incentives inspired more knowledge sharing than did either tournament or piece-rate. Results suggest that managers should carefully consider incentive structures in computer-based systems because incentives potentially affect knowledge sharing.

Proponents tout plain English as a solution for improving communication of complex information to users in various areas of business, medicine, and law. The SEC’s mandate to public companies to use Plain English in their Item 1a risk factor disclosures to make them more readable is one example. Using 365 responses from an experimental survey of nonprofessional US investors, we find that readability significantly influences investors’ perceptions of probability and size of loss, economic worry, and overall risk. Further, these effects interact with type of risk factor. Readability does not appear to influence investment decisions or perception of management credibility. Finally, we find that investors report that they do not use item 1a risk factors in their investment analyses in practice. Results suggest that this area needs further research before future mandates for plain English and risk factor disclosures are enacted.