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This study examines public perceptions of potential overseers charged with ensuring that relief packages are distributed to the intended audience. In an experiment, we assess perceptions of trustworthiness and fraud reduction ability between government and public accounting firm employees in the context of relief package oversight. While actual ability is important, public perceptions of overseer ability is also essential for relief packages to be fully effective. We find that people, regardless of their political party affiliation, rate public accounting firm employees as more trustworthy and better able to reduce fraud than government employees. For government oversight, participant political party affiliation influences perceptions of employee ability and is mediated by general trust in government. These findings suggest public accounting firms are a viable alternative to increase public perceptions that relief packages are distributed effectively. Initial evidence suggests educating the public on the role of career government employees may raise public opinion. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request. JEL Classifications: H12, H84, M41, M48.

PurposeThe present work aimed to enhance the understanding of professional turnover intentions of accounting professionals by exploring their attitudes towards this phenomenon in an emerging economy (Tunisia).Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory research was conducted using a narrative approach (episodic interviewing) after having interviewed accounting professionals. Data were analysed with the thematic coding method using NVivo software based on the push-pull-mooring (PPM) framework. Based on this analysis, four types of professionals were identified.FindingsThe interconnections among PPM factors, which are different from one type of professionals to another, play a vital role in whether a professional intends to leave the accounting profession or not. All four types of professionals perceived unpleasant facets of the public practice environment (push factors) and manifested a tendency to switch to available job opportunities (pull factors). Nevertheless, the latitude for profession change, for the third and the fourth types who perceived the professional experience differently, is restricted by mooring factors. That is not the case for the first type of professionals who have already left public accounting and the second type who intend to quit the profession, as we did not find any mooring factors.Research limitations/implicationsThis study explored the attitudes of accounting professionals towards professional turnover intention. A deeper insight into the views of the academics and the Ordre des Experts Comptables de Tunisie (OECT) might help understand this phenomenon.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the relative impact of push, pull and mooring allows the accounting professionals to determine their attitudes towards the intention to leave the profession. This enables firms to develop more effective programmes to retain valued accounting human resources. The findings highlight that the professional associations should promote the values the profession brings to the community through nationwide public awareness campaigns and enhance career opportunities by providing more branches of activity within the profession.Originality/valueThe paper responds to calls for further examination of factors behind professional turnover intention at a time when high rates of turnover were observed among accounting professionals. Also, the cultural context of Tunisia helps explain our findings.

This paper investigates the problematic nature of ambulance paramedics’ wellbeing and applies the conceptualizations and theoretical perspective of public value (PV) to understand and potentially improve their experience. It synthesizes previous discourse from public accounting and public management and applies it to NHS ambulance services which have been prominent in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic but are currently under-researched in public management literature. The authors suggest a future interdisciplinary research agenda. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

La investigación que a continuación se presenta tuvo como objetivo general analizar la influencia de los avances tecnológicos en el ejercicio de la profesión de la Contaduría Pública en Colombia. Este estudio de enfoque cuantitativo se tipificó como descriptivo, no experimental, transaccional y de campo. Para la realización de este trabajo se utilizó como técnica de recolección de datos la revisión sistemática de bibliografía y la aplicación de una entrevista estructura dirigida a docentes adscritos a la Facultad de Ciencias Contables de Uniremington. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que los avances tecnológicos han influido de manera positiva en la profesión del contador público. Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación representan para el profesional contable una oportunidad de crecimiento y de competitividad en este mundo globalizado. La influencia de estas en los procesos financieros de las organizaciones ha generado que las empresas, las universidades, el Estado y demás organismos que regulan la profesión contable requieran de personas empoderadas de todas las actividades que se realizan en las entidades de negocios, con una visión estratégica, innovadoras, con capacidad de análisis, liderazgo en procesos y en costos, comunicación asertiva y habilidades en el manejo de un lenguaje jurídico.

PurposeThis paper investigates the strategic processes surrounding the development, in accounting firms, of office (re)design projects and their overarching objectives.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ investigation relies on a series of interviews with individuals from different accounting firms involved in the decision process related to office (re)design projects. A triangular template made up of strategy, space and time informs the analysis, which the authors complement by relying on a strategy-as-practice integrated framework.FindingsThe authors found that accounting firm office (re)design projects are characterized by a strategic spatial agenda that aims to define and create present organizational time, in ways that embed a particular vision of the future. The analysis brings to light the interrelationships between strategy practitioners, strategy practices and strategic work through which the future is actualized. Office design processes involve not only the physical transformation of office space; they also promote a prominent agenda to modify, in the long run, office members' minds. Hence, office (re)design processes may be conceived of as a significant device in the socialization of accounting practitioners.Research limitations/implicationsThis study underscores that spatial strategizing constitutes a major device through which the future is brought into the present. As such, the analysis provides insights not only into the processes through which space transformations take place, but also into their underlying agenda. The latter promotes the advent, in present time, of the organic office of the future.Practical implicationsThis analysis brings to the fore a concrete illustration of how the strategy-space-time triangle operates in organizational life. The authors underline the key role played by strategists in charge of designing the office of the future.Originality/valueThis study extends the burgeoning literature whose analytical gaze is informed by the strategy, space, and time triangle.

SYNOPSIS This study explores the use of audit data analytics (ADA) in current audit practice. First, we interviewed the heads of professional practice of five international public accounting firms in Norway. We find that they differ in strategies on how to implement ADA and the heads report significant uncertainty about the supervisory inspection authorities' response to the use of ADA. Second, we administered a questionnaire to 216 engagement partners and managers about their perceptions of ADA and their actual ADA use on 109 audit engagements. Overall, the attitudes toward ADA usefulness are positive. Analysis of the audit engagements suggests use of ADA is relatively limited and use of more “advanced” ADA is rare. More ADA are used for clients with integrated ERP/IT systems and for newly tendered audit engagements. We also provide details of ADA use on each phase of the audit. We discuss our findings from an institutional theory perspective. Data Availability: The data used in this study are confidential by agreement with the participants.

The current study examines the effect of socialization on the inculcation of professional accounting values. Three sources of socialization are examined: public accounting firms, non-public accounting firms (industry) and accounting professional associations. Specifically, the study compares the professionalism of public and industry accountants. Consistent with expectations, the results suggest that public accountants have stronger beliefs in professional autonomy and self-regulation than industry accountants, and that industry accountants have stronger beliefs in professional affiliation, social obligation and professional dedication than public accountants. It was hypothesized that while professional associations promote all professional values, public accounting firms and industry have different promoting priorities. Public accounting firms foster beliefs in self-regulation and professional autonomy while industry opposes these values, resulting in public accountants having stronger beliefs in these values. Conversely, it was posited that industry encourage beliefs in professional affiliation, social obligation and professional dedication to a greater extent than public accounting firms. The result is that the industry accountants have stronger beliefs in these values than the public accountants. Investigating these issues increase understanding of the importance of the socialization process fostering accounting professional values and identifying areas of potential conflict and reinforcement accountants face when working in public accounting and industry.

The article examines the consequential long-term professional experience of the reforms of higher education in accounting in the United States, which started in the sixties of the last century and is continuing today. This is the joined efforts of non-governmental associations, first and foremost, the American Association of Accountants (AAA) and accountants-academic theorists as well as accountants practitioners. The article considers the publications of leading scientists, who have summarised the experience in the development of the profession and who showed the directions of its development. Particular attention is paid to the conclusion that today an accountant must possess a broad cultural base in the framework of preparation for the professional career in public accounting, industrial accounting or teaching accounting. This article suggests some ways in which accountants can adapt to their rapidly changing working environment. The attention is drawn to the fact that the constant improvement of the effectiveness of the curriculum should be based on the structure of the curriculum, derived from a set of clearly defined goals. The authors of this publication refer the readers to specific articles, which contain the examples of curriculum structure that includes the business core, the core of accounting and the area of specialization of an accounting specialist.

Public accounting firms regularly rely on offshore professionals to assist with client work. However, differences in interpersonal dynamics between offshore staff members and the supervisors they report to may yield positive and/or negative work outcomes. We examine how feedback source (offshore or onshore supervisor) and feedback sign (negative or positive) interact to affect offshore staff members' satisfaction with feedback. This is an important issue because subordinate satisfaction with performance feedback is a key determinant of future performance and turnover intentions. We find that offshore staff members are less satisfied with negative feedback from an offshore (local Indian) supervisor, a member of their in-group, than an onshore (remote U.S.) supervisor, a member of their out-group. However, their satisfaction with positive feedback does not significantly differ between feedback sources. Further analysis reveals that greater satisfaction is associated with increases in the effort the staff member plans to put forth in the future. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M54; D91. Data Availability: Please contact the authors.

This paper is a descriptive exploration of the under-researched area of contentious interactions between tax professionals in public accounting and their clients. We collect data in two waves. First, we employ an experiential questionnaire (EQ) to obtain rich, detailed data about actual contentious client interactions experienced by tax professionals. Second, we conduct a follow-up survey based on the results of the EQ to provide additional insight. We find that tax professionals often employ arguments relating to possible taxing authority (e.g., Internal Revenue Service) actions and the technical merits of the tax position to persuade their clients. We also provide additional details about the types of contentious issues tax professionals experience and how these issues are resolved. Importantly, our results point to a need for more training on how to deal with contentious issues, as most professionals strongly believe training is needed, even though few have actually received training. Data Availability: Contact authors.

Purpose This study aims to examine how public accounting firms can use developmental mentoring to increase knowledge sharing (KS) among employees directly and indirectly through affective organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a survey of public accounting professionals to elicit participants’ demographics and their perceptions of KS, mentoring relationships and organizational commitment in their workplace. Findings The findings support that two categories of challenges found in developmental mentoring, demonstrating dedication and resilience and career goal and risk orientation, are directly associated with increased KS and they, along with a third, measuring up to mentor’s standards, indirectly influence KS through their positive effect on organizational commitment. Applying social exchange theory, these challenges contribute to a reciprocal relationship between the protégé and mentor, which builds the relationship between the protégé and organization. Practical implications This study provides information about developmental mentoring that human resource professionals and managers in public accounting firms can use to address two persistent challenges facing them: increasing employees’ organizational commitment and encouraging employees to share their knowledge with others at work. Originality/value This study examines the concept of developmental mentoring, adopting three categories of mentoring challenges and applying them in the context of public accounting to examine their effect on KS.

The COVID-19 pandemic required essentially all public accounting professionals to telecommute. However, alternative work arrangements (AWAs) such as telecommuting have long been offered by accounting firms to mitigate work-family conflict and other concerns inherent to the public accounting profession. Prior research has examined attitudes and perceptions about AWAs, but relatively little is known from the AWA adopters themselves and those who work directly with them. Given the heavy reliance on teamwork, multiple supervisors, and multiple clients in public accounting, it is not clear how telecommuting impacts critical relationship dynamics. Accounting students, though experienced with remote learning, can learn from pre-COVID telecommuters’ insights and experiences. In this paper, we interview telecommuters in public accounting as well as a non-telecommuting teammate (subordinate or superior) to develop rich insights about telecommuting’s impact from multiple perspectives. Our findings present best practices and challenges regarding telecommuting implementation within a team setting. Our results are useful to accounting educators as they advise and mentor today’s students, who are likely to enter a workforce with increasing prevalence of telecommuting post-COVID.

This study explores the use of audit data analytics (ADA) in current audit practice. First, we interviewed the heads of professional practice of five international public accounting firms in Norway. We find that they differ in strategies on how to implement ADA and the heads report significant uncertainty about the supervisory inspection authorities’ response to the use of ADA. Second, we administered a questionnaire to 216 engagement partners and managers about their perceptions of ADA as well as their actual ADA use on 109 audit engagements. Overall, the attitudes towards ADA usefulness are positive. Analysis of the audit engagements suggests use of ADA is relatively limited and use of more “advanced” ADA is rare. More ADA are used for clients with integrated ERP/IT systems and for newly tendered audit engagements. We also provide details of actual ADA use on each phase of the audit. We discuss our findings from an institutional theory perspective.

This study aims to obtain a deep meaning for public accountant integrity in Public Accounting Firm “ABC” Surabaya through a phenomenology approach. Revealing public accountants' integrity because of the many public accountants is still dragged into fraud and violations, resulting in unethical decisions. Every public accountant has a different perspective in determining and exercising an integrity attitude, whether to defend or even take it off for a particular purpose. And in the end, bring up a variety of diverse meanings of pure integrity and pragmatic integrity.

Participation in the political process by the United States public accounting profession often blurs the role of the profession as advocates for the public interest with its role as advocates for its own private interests. In this study, we draw from prior theoretical and empirical work to investigate recent federal political activities of the public accounting profession to shed light on these sometimes contradictory roles. In particular, we investigate ten contemporary regulatory issues of interest to the AICPA. We analyze 36 AICPA legislative advocacy letters related to these issues that were provided to federal policy makers. In addition, we analyze the public accounting profession’s federal lobbying reports that were submitted during this same time period. The analysis allows us to assess the public interest discourse present in the AICPA legislative letters as well as the extent of political action taken by the profession related to these issues based on the profession’s lobbying efforts. Our analyses (1) demonstrate that the profession’s discourse and actions often reflect both public and private interest motivations, (2) allow us to categorize the profession’s advocacy efforts as arising from specific motivations, and (3) show that the profession’s public interest arguments used to advocate for their policy positions change depending upon the specific legislative issue being considered.

Purpose – While a comparative study of the literature on accounting as a profession and on cooperatives reveals important differences in the values embodied by certified public accountants and by cooperators, the purpose of this study is to explore whether such differences lead to an insurmountable incompatibility or may possibly be mitigated and eventually overcome. Design/methodology/approach – The study focuses on a French public accounting firm’s project to become a worker cooperative. Drawing on methodological insights from actor–network theory (ANT), the study analyses a situation in which the certified public accountants try to convince some cooperators of the merits of their project. Findings – The case studied suggests that accounting as a profession and cooperatives are irreconcilable. It not only confirms that some of their contrasting features (identified in the literature) are indeed too difficult to overcome but also reveals a new, unforeseen source of tension between certified public accountants and cooperators. Research limitations/implications – The study calls for further research into the so-far-overlooked relationships between accounting as a profession and cooperatives. It also proposes to extend the usage of ANT in accounting research to the study of accounting as a profession. Originality/value – While ANT-inspired accounting research has to date shown a dominant interest in successful translation processes, the present study looks at an unsuccessful translation stage.

This study investigates factors that influence audit interns' commitment and long-term intentions to work in public accounting. We measure the organizational and professional commitment of 127 audit interns prior to the start of busy-season internships with public accounting firms and then again at the conclusion of the internship. We find that both organizational and professional commitment decline significantly as a result of the internship experience. We note that heavy workloads during the internship decreased the degree of commitment to a particular firm. On the other hand, offering challenging work assignments and surrounding the intern with desirable coworkers significantly increased commitment to both the firm and the profession. We also find that changes in organizational commitment are related to changes in interns' long-term intentions to work in public accounting, and that by the end of the internship, nearly 60 percent of the interns changed their views with regard to how long they planned to work in public accounting, with a majority of respondents anticipating a shorter career in the profession. JEL Classifications: M42.

The purpose of this story is to identify the role of information in the municipal public group with a view to New Public Governance and the need for mutual exchange between citizens and public bodies. The conducted analysis is quantitative subjective; the theory is demonstrated through the focus of a real case to increase the understanding of theoretical assumptions. The carried-out elaboration, after having identified the variables considered and the possible mathematical relationship between variables. The New Public Governance (NPG) sees public affection closely related to the need for information, this leads to study the real effects towards a new theory of citizen choice. The study shows that the use and dissemination of communication and processing tools in local authorities can have a positive impact on responsibility and transparency, improving trust in local governments and citizen participation in civic or political life. The information provided through open organic data on all sectors ensures greater trust in local public bodies and civic participation. The use of social indicators is a useful tool for assessing population satisfaction and understanding of the information provided to better plan and plan public services and municipal group interventions. The identified tools can be used to analyse the relapse and the involvement of both information and processing tools in the process of communicating the outputs to the stakeholders. All municipal groups have new tools for assessing planning and control. New analysis of the role of information in NPG.

Social media has been widely used for both professional and personal communications. Businesses recognize the importance of social media and are using them to fulfill various business objectives. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the business objectives of public accounting firms that have both a firm-wide main page and a career page on Facebook. More specifically, we compare the business objectives they are achieving with their firm-wide main pages versus career pages. We not only find differences in the objectives that are being achieved, but also identify other objectives that are not actively being pursued on either page but may be considered in the future.

In this article, I provide background regarding a hot topic in the public accounting profession: the rise of big data and the related field of data analytics (DA). The tax and advisory practices of public accounting firms have embraced the use of DA, and firms have made significant investments in growing these practice areas. Although DA holds great promise for the auditing practice as well, the use of widespread DA on audit engagements has lagged behind other practice areas. This is due to the fact that auditing presents unique challenges in the adoption of DA that are not relevant for other practice areas. Despite the impression that DA is not being embraced as readily in auditing, public accounting firms are continuing to make significant investments in developing audit-related DA, and it is only a matter of time before we start to see the transformational impact of these efforts. The purpose of this article is (1) to explain how DA applies to financial statement audits and why it could represent a game changer in how audits are conducted, and (2) to provide a context for researchers in terms of problems to be addressed related to DA.

SUMMARY Engagement quality review (EQR) is designed to be a quality control mechanism for improving the quality of audit engagements. This paper updates the findings of Messier, Kozloski, and Kochetova-Kozloski (2010) on enforcement actions against engagement quality (EQ) reviewers, especially in light of the December 2009 implementation of the new standard on engagement quality review, Auditing Standard No. 7 (AS7). We identified 16 enforcement actions since 2009 that involve some type of sanction against an EQ reviewer. Only two cases involved a Big 4 firm. Thus, the vast majority of cases involved EQRs from smaller public accounting firms. Six cases occurred prior to the implementation of AS7, nine cases occurred after AS7 took effect, and one case involved violations both prior to and after AS7 implementation. All of the pre-AS7 cases involved sanctions resulting from an inadequate EQR. In contrast, all of the post-AS7 cases involved sanctions resulting from a failure to perform an EQR. Our review of these post-AS7 cases suggests that some small firms were either unable or unwilling to bring in qualified outside reviewers. Our findings provide important implications for practitioners, regulators, and researchers interested in engagement quality review and in improving the overall quality of audit engagements. Data Availability: The cases included in this study are available from public sources.

This study investigates the degree to which professional role (auditor or tax professional), decision context (an audit or tax environment), and gender influence the ethical decision making of public accounting professionals. The primary analysis, including all 134 accounting professionals who participated in our experiment, indicates that these participants are both less likely to indicate they would concede to a client in a contentious situation and less likely to recommend conceding when they are in an audit as opposed to tax context. Furthermore, work experience in auditing (as opposed to tax) is associated with a decreased likelihood of conceding to the client in both contexts. However, when data for males and females are analyzed separately, professional role, context, and moral intensity are significantly related to males' decision making, but are not significant with respect to females' decisions. This suggests that males and females may use different decision-making processes. Possible theoretical explanations for these findings are discussed.

As proposed in this paper, in public accounting firms, supervisors and managers provide junior accountants with career-related benefits that include: career development support; social support; and role modeling. Also, employees who receive such career-related benefits are more likely to believe that the firm provides career growth opportunities and more likely to trust their managers. Career growth opportunities and trust, in turn, positively affect organizational commitment, which reduces turnover intentions. In summary, the relation between career benefits and turnover is mediated by several variables: career growth opportunities, trust in managers, and organizational commitment. Results of a survey of junior employees in public accounting firms support these assertions (with the exception of social support).

Este artículo resultado de la investigación que tuvo como propósito la construcción de indicadores sociales de calidad de vida para la contabilidad social, útiles para caracterizar la calidad de vida de los estudiantes de contaduría pública de la Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, sede Santa Marta, se apoyó en metodología cualitativa descriptiva fundamentada en la sistematización de experiencia, utilizó técnicas de revisión documental y el taller, los análisis, las conclusiones y la información aportada por los actores, se clasificaron y sistematizaron para con base en ella construir y proponer indicadores que posibiliten un avance de la contabilidad social, en el fortalecimiento de la gestión de las entidades privadas o públicas. Concluye que la contabilidad social es una nueva visión de la contabilidad que incluye información cualitativa ventajosa para la toma de decisiones, y que con base en la respondabilidad constituye el soporte de sus grupos de interés.

SUMMARY: In spite of vast resources committed to orientation programs, many promising recruits never fully assimilate into public accounting firms. The resulting impact on commitment and early turnover can be devastating for individuals and firms. This study uses in-depth personal accounts of current and former employees to derive a model that may assist firms and their employees. Participants asserted that diverse measures, including careful job choice by recruits, daily supervision and team building, partners' involvement with new hires, and predictable periods of normalcy, can assist in new hires' adaptation to large public accounting firms.

Social media presents a new platform for businesses to communicate and interact with others, both internally and externally. Social media may be utilized for activities such as sharing success stories and providing industry updates. Although a plethora of opportunities to achieve business objectives with social media usage exists, the efficacy of its use by public accounting firms is unclear. This article identifies the business objectives that Big 4 and second-tier firms are pursuing with social media. Primary business objectives being fulfilled by social media include Knowledge Sharing, Branding and Marketing, and Socialization and Onboarding. The findings suggest that Big 4 firms are pursuing Knowledge Sharing on Facebook™ and Twitter™ to a greater extent than second-tier firms, while second-tier firms pursue Socialization and Onboarding on Facebook and Branding and Marketing on Twitter to a greater extent than Big 4 firms. Suggestions for business opportunities and future research are also identified.

Purpose – The paper aims to explore the reasons behind the formation of a regional accountants' network located in North Queensland, Australia, and examine in depth how relationships are constituted and maintained between the network members. The study also looks at the benefits arising from the network, structural constraints and the reasons behind its demise. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a more contemporary theoretical perspective which draws upon the notion of social capital that facilitates networks' capacity and capabilities for creating, sharing and accessing knowledge. This field study considers the specific case of the Cairns Regional Accountants' Forum (CRAF), a network of small and medium sized public accounting firms located far away from the metropolitan centres in Australia. Apart from the relevant archival data, senior partners/principals of 12 accounting firms were interviewed in a semi-structured manner. Three further interviews were held with the non-active members of the CRAF and telephone calls were made to the Regional Tax Practitioner Forum to discuss their involvement with the local accountants. Findings – Using the framework of social capital within the community of practice, this study has explored the use of informal regional network built by accounting principals for the efficient transfer of and access to knowledge between network members. When the knowledge became freely available, the cost of network building exceeded the benefits of belonging and the network collapsed. Practical implications – The paper has practical implications for accounting practitioners, particularly in regional/rural settings and for the accounting profession as a whole. Originality/value – First, very little is known about informal networks in knowledge-intensive firms stretched out in regional/rural settings. Second, the network in this study is different from many networks identified in the literature that have focused on innovation and competitive advantage. Finally, this study adopts a more integrated framework that explores how social capital is constituted and reconstituted in the network interaction process.

A public accounting firm’s ethical environment has an important role in encouraging ethical behavior, but prior research has shown that firm leaders (e.g., partners) perceive the ethical environment of their firms to be stronger than do non-leaders (Bobek et al. J Bus Ethics 92(4): 637–654, 2010). This study draws on several research streams in management to investigate the reasons behind this discrepancy. Our online questionnaire was completed by 139 accounting professionals. We find that when non-leader accounting professionals believe that they have a meaningful role in shaping and maintaining the ethical environment and/or have strong organizational fit with the accounting firm, they are more likely to perceive the ethical environment as strong and to perceive it similarly to firm leaders. That is, differences in leaders’ and non-leaders’ perceptions of the ethical environment are mediated by non-leaders’ perceptions of their role in participating in shaping and maintaining the ethical environment of their firms. Further, we find that among firm leaders, a stronger public interest orientation (i.e., feeling a responsibility to serve the public interest) and a higher frequency of receiving mentoring are both associated with stronger perceptions of the ethical environment. Overall, our study is one of the first to directly test potential explanations for why firm leaders and non-leaders can have disparate views of a firm’s ethical environment. In addition, these findings provide practical feedback to practitioners on actions they can take to improve perceptions of their firms’ ethical environment.

All states in the U.S. regulate the practice of public accounting. An important part of the regulatory apparatus is the state accountancy board (SAB). SABs implement the laws that govern public accounting. State societies of CPAs (SSCPAs), in contrast, are advocacy mechanisms that can potentially be used by members of the profession to achieve their regulatory objectives. Economic theory raises the possibility that regulatory bodies such as SABs might be captured by the profession that they regulate. We examine the composition of SABs and find that the majority of members are CPAs. A survey of CPA SAB members reveals that nearly one-third of the respondents are past leaders of their SSCPAs. We further find that the percentage of board members who are CPAs and the percentage of our respondents who are past leaders of their SSCPAs are positively associated with the rapidity with which states adopt two important accountancy laws (interstate mobility and the 150-hour education requirement) that can be viewed as being in the best interest of the profession. These findings support the hypothesis of regulatory capture and suggest that states may benefit from reconsidering the qualifications of SAB members.

SYNOPSIS This study reports the results of a survey of 107 audit partners from large public accounting firms that investigates and compares partner perceptions of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspections' and Internal Quality Reviews (IQRs): (1) predictability, (2) conduct, (3) reviewer qualifications and behavior, and (4) effects (i.e., on audits, partners, and firms). A majority of partners can or try to predict the year of both reviews and perceive that, relative to PCAOB inspections, IQR reviewers have a better understanding of firms' audit methodologies, IQRs focus more on whether firms follow their methodology, and IQRs examine more audit areas. In addition, partners believe that PCAOB inspectors are more focused on finding deficiencies than are IQR reviewers, and that IQR feedback is more timely and helpful for improving audit quality. Both reviews are perceived to impact professional reputation; however, partners perceive that PCAOB inspections increase their firms' litigation risk more so than do IQRs. Finally, less experienced partners perceive reviews as more invasive and as posing more consequences than do more experienced partners. We provide credible, informed perceptions of partners directly involved in both PCAOB inspections and IQRs (which heretofore have not been examined directly by practitioner or academic research) that should be beneficial to accounting researchers, practicing auditors, and regulatory bodies interested in understanding the perceived effects and effectiveness of PCAOB inspections and IQRs.

Drawing on the work-life balance and organizational justice literatures, we developed a 20-item scale of individual attitudes and beliefs regarding alternative work arrangements (AWAs) in public accounting. We administered the scale to 412 highly experienced accounting professionals (primarily managers) from two Big 4 firms and two large national firms. Principal components analysis of scale responses yielded three identifiable dimensions regarding AWA attitudes and beliefs: (1) ideals and benefits of AWAs, (2) costs and inequities related to AWAs at the office level (organization-level or procedural justice issues), and (3) costs and inequities related to individuals' use of AWAs (person-level or distributive justice issues). Scale responses were significantly influenced by gender and AWA participation. In addition, the principal components were related in a predictable pattern to hypothetical performance evaluation judgments related to AWA use. Implications of these findings for the accounting profession and future research are discussed. Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from the authors upon request.

We investigate one of the most widely used knowledge management tools in public accounting firms, electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs), using a research model theoretically grounded in the expectation-confirmation theory (ECT). The research model was tested with survey data collected from 230 employees from four large public accounting firms. The results indicate that perceived usefulness and subjective norms exhibit a sustained positive influence on individuals' EKR behavioral intention, while individual satisfaction has no significant impact on EKR behavioral intention. The supplementary group analyses on firm type, individual experience level, and individual usage level reveal that individual and firm characteristics affect individual EKR usage intention. We contribute to knowledge management research by being one of the first studies to explore the use of EKRs in public accounting firms. The results offer insights on the factors that impact individuals' attitude and intention to use EKRs, and elucidate how firms can leverage EKRs to promote knowledge reuse and retention. Data Availability: Data may be requested from Professor Lin.

SUMMARY: To provide greater insight into the potential to attract practitioners into academic accounting and auditing careers, we interviewed 30 current practitioners in public accounting or industry to examine their perceptions of academic careers. We find that most interviewees have considered an academic career, and they believe that there are many important advantages of such careers. However, most interviewees see the Ph.D. as a substantial hurdle, and many question the value of the Ph.D. The interviewees significantly underestimate the typical compensation for accounting professors, and they indicate the need for very high levels of financial support in order to pursue a Ph.D. full-time. We examine implications of these findings for attracting practitioners into doctoral programs and academic careers.

SUMMARY: This study examines the engagement quality review (EQR) process from the perspective of the review partner. A questionnaire was administered to 127 audit partners in public accounting firms, experienced in performing EQRs. The questionnaire covered the elements, associations, and contextual features surrounding the EQR process. Partners recalled an engagement of their choosing where they acted in the role of review partner and where the review process involved direct negotiation or discussions with the engagement partner to resolve one or more issues. The results provide a comprehensive picture of a typical EQR; the issues involved, the process, and the outcomes that may result. Taken together, the results describe a professional, collegial, non-adversarial process, primarily focused on the objective of resolving difficult and complex client accounting issues. The ultimate resolution of the issue giving rise to the interaction may be a reflection of the suggestions of the reviewing partner or the engagement partner; frequently it is a new and synergistic solution.

PurposePrior to the sudden collapse of large companies following the turn of the century and the implication that the auditing of these enterprises had failed, the large public accounting firms sought to re‐engineer the audit. A comprehension attempt to convert that which had been designed as a social good into one more aligned with a commercial logic was halted by the legislative response to this departure from classic professionalism. Recent developments suggest that change in this direction is regrouping. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflective analysis of the thoughts of the authors on the early development of the new audit approach.Design/methodology/approachMost of the information in the piece was garnered from conversations with public accounting partners during the era in question. Logical argumentation derived from the academic and theoretical literature is the primary method.FindingsAttributes of the firms' strategies during this period are outlined. Features of the new audit are developed, especially as they vary from the traditional audit. These techniques and approaches are analyzed in terms of their ability to serve the public interest. This paper argues that motivating factors of the new audit will continue to be a force even in the more hostile regulatory environment of today.Practical implicationsAn appreciation of the findings of the study is useful in maintaining a level of skepticism about changes to the audit that are advocated by audit firms. Users of audit services, regulators, and legislators would benefit from an appreciation of the recent past. The motivating factors underlying these changes to audit environment continue to operate over time as the social purposes of the audit are less likely to be converted by the firms to ones that can be commercially exploited.Originality/valueThe study contributes insights into the origins of the new business audit approach and related strengths and limitations. These factors should be considered as the approach is developed and moves forward into the future in order for the audit approach to be effective in performing its social functions.

The supply of research-based, tenure-track accounting faculty is not commensurate with the demand. To address this challenge, colleges and universities, including those who typically rely upon adjuncts and clinical faculty, may wish to consider entering into a formal collaboration with a public accounting firm whereby a partner with support from the firm commits to teach an accounting course or a designated module in a course. One pilot program—the Partner Teaches Program (PTP), recently inaugurated by a public accounting firm—provided the opportunity to study the impact of such a program and generate recommendations. The findings support the conclusion that properly selected partners, matched with the demands of a particular course and properly prepared, supported, and integrated into the curriculum, can make significant positive contributions to accounting education. Based on these data, we have made recommendations to encourage firms and schools to consider initiating similar arrangements.

The Brazilian National Treasury, through Decree No. 614/06, established the Standards for the consolidation of public accounts applicable to PPP contracts, recommending the adoption of the essence over form criterion, focusing on the essence of the economic relationship between contracting parties. However, an analysis of the essence of the contractual purpose was considered necessary because, in the final analysis, it is the phenomenon that needs to be accounted for. The methodology consists of a descriptive, exploratory, bibliographic and documentary research. Primary and secondary data were collected with a view to their structure in four theme units, so as to analyze the context in which PPP contracts emerged in Brazil. Through this research, it could be identified that there is no agreement between the essence of the contractual purpose and the legal form of the PPP contracts in the creation of highway structures in Brazil. Both the terms of Law No. 11.079/04 and those of Decree No. 614/06 delimit the analysis of the contract’s essence, inducing to the supremacy of formal aspects over essence in the analysis of the phenomenon that has to be accounted for.

An indicator of the success of a university business department is the quality of the firms that hire graduates of their programs. Professors directly or indirectly acknowledge the importance of recruiting as they frequently counsel graduating students on how to approach prospective employers, how to write their vitae, and how to conduct themselves in interviews. However, it is not always obvious how employers choose which applicants they will interview or which ones will receive a job offer. This lack of detailed knowledge of recruiting decision making occurs even in a fairly specialized field such as accounting. For many graduating students who are accounting majors, employment with a public accounting firm of chartered accountants (CA) is considered to be the most desirable option. CA firms are considered by many students to provide the best training, experience, and future job enhancement potential for a career in business. Thus increased knowledge of the factors considered by CA firms in the recruiting process should be beneficial to graduating students. It should also assist faculty in advising students. Hassell and Hennessey (1989) report that accounting firms consider both general factors, such as grade point average (GPA), and specific personal characteristics. The importance of GPA to accounting firms has been reported in several studies (Krzystofik & Fein, 1988; Lewis, Shimerda & Graham, 1983; Pasewark, Strawser, & Wilkerson, 1988) but the importance of subjective factors, such as the perceptions of applicants developed by recruiters, is more difficult to assess. Knowledge of the effect of perceptions of candidates should have several benefits. Graduating students should be fully aware of the range of factors that is used in the selection process. Educators should also become familiar with the more subtle details used in the interview process, as they play both formal and informal roles in providing recommendations and advising students. Finally, recruiters may not be fully cognizant of their use of less explicit factors such as perceptions in the recruiting process. The purpose of the research reported in this paper is to consider the effect of one type of perception--the values perceived to be held by applicants to accounting firms. Graduating accounting majors in five universities (one American and four Canadian) are included in this study. Although the emphasis in this study is on perceived values, other factors that have been considered in previous studies, such as age, sex, overall GPA, and GPA for accounting courses only, are included for completeness. Recruiting by Accounting Firms Most students with a major in accounting consider joining public accounting firms upon graduation, to qualify as chartered accountants in Canada or certified public accountants in the USA. Those who do not join accounting firms normally find employment in other industries. Two groups of accounting majors are not interviewed by recruiters from accounting firms: those who self-elect by their decision not to seek any interviews, and those who are refused interviews by recruiters based solely on their "paper" qualifications, such as GPA. Recruiting by accounting firms normally follows three steps. First, applicants apply for an interview, by submitting their vitae to firms. Preliminary interviews for selected applicants are normally held on campus in the fall, and typically last about 30 minutes. Interviewers are usually partners or personnel staff who use these preliminary interviews to select certain applicants for a second interview in the firms' offices. This second interview lasts several hours and involves interviewers at different levels in the firms. Offers are made after the second interviews and are generally completed before Christmas. Research has not established a complete list of the attributes considered in the recruiting decision by accounting firms, but two groups of factors appear to be used. …

The purpose of this study is to consider whether the perceptions of the instrumental dimension of ethical work climate of partners (owners) of public accounting firms differ from those of employees. Perceptions of ethical climate are based on the theory developed by Victor and Cullen (1, 2). Professionals from five public accounting firms located in New York State participated in the study. Findings suggest partners' perceptions of the instrumental dimension of ethical work climate differ from those of employees. Findings suggest a relationship between the instrumental dimension (based on self-interest) and unethical behavior (9, 10). Forte (8) found a relationship between management levels and ethical climate type. The purpose of this study is to consider whether public accounting firm partners' percep- tions of instrumental climate differ from those of the firm's employees. The second section of this paper discusses the theoretical development of ethical work climate, the initial studies that produced the ECQ and the research that demon- strates support for the empirically determined dimensions. An overview of studies examining the relationship between ethical climate and other constructs is also provided. The third section outlines the research methods and the final sec- tion discusses data analysis and results.

SUMMARY: We present a timely practice-oriented case related to the inspection process of registered firms by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). This case allows auditing students an opportunity to explore the unique challenges that public accounting firms auditing U.S. public companies face with respect to the PCAOB inspection process. The case focuses on large and small registered firms (inspected annually and triennially, respectively) receiving an inspection report where the PCAOB identified certain matters considered to be audit deficiencies of such significance that the inspection team believed the audit firm did not obtain sufficient competent evidential matter to support the auditor’s opinion. The case exposes students to the PCAOB inspection process, highlights many deficiencies noted to date by the PCAOB inspectors, and emphasizes the importance of sufficient and appropriately documented audit evidence to support audit opinions. By reviewing ‘deficient’ inspection reports, students gain an appreciation for common audit deficiencies as well as the subjective nature of portions of the authoritative literature and the inspection process itself. The case reinforces students’ understanding of the practical matters involved in appropriately obtaining, evaluating, and documenting audit evidence, as well as educates students on the PCAOB inspection process in order to address important competencies required of Sarbanes-Oxley era audit professionals.

INTRODUCTION The Accounting Program Leadership Group (APLG) invites representatives from the public accounting sector to present topics of interest at each APLG Annual Meeting. The following is from a panel discussion presented at the 2006 meeting with the following representatives: Amy Thompson from PwC, Shaun Budnik from Deloitte & Touche, Manny Fernandez from KPMG, and Allen Boston from E&Y. The questions asked and their responses were thought to be of interest to those not attending the meeting or not a member of the APLG. Kent St. Pierre, Editor and Moderator

Following enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 (U.S. House of Representatives 2002), public accounting firms and publicly traded companies are much more focused on internal controls. Accordingly, many accounting graduates will be asked to evaluate, document, and perhaps test the adequacy of an organization's internal control structure. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations' (COSO 1992) Internal Control—Integrated Framework is the most widely used tool for this purpose. This instructional case, based on the movie, Rogue Trader, gives students the opportunity to see the consequences of lax corporate governance and weak internal controls at the Barings Bank. Students view the movie and then use the COSO framework to critically analyze the collapse of a well-established financial institution.

This paper presents the results of two related studies. In Study One we examine US judges' attitudes toward the public accounting profession and the extent to which those attitudes have changed over three distinct periods of time: (a) early in the decade of the 1990s, (b) late in the decade of the 1990s, but before the Enron and subsequent corporate debacles, and (c) three years after the Enron debacle. We anticipate that attitudes of judges toward the public accounting profession will be relatively stable over time, but nonetheless subject to change if given a substantial stimulus. In Study Two we compare the most current judges' attitudes with those of law students, MBA students and auditors. In total, we find that judges' attitudes are significantly (1) more negative towards the profession in the most recent survey, (2) equivalent to attitudes exhibited by law students and MBA students, and (3) divergent from attitudes of practicing auditors. Conclusions and future research are also discussed.

This commentary interprets the data from the 2004 AICPA Report issued by the Work/Life and Women's Initiatives Executive Committee in terms of implications for accounting faculty who advise students and who have an interest in conducting research on public accounting workplace issues. The discussion highlights the survey results relating to the status of women, including current trends in women's advancement and alternative career paths in public accounting, and the career aspirations of today's generation of students. We link these AICPA findings to other research on public accounting workplace issues, and broader research that suggests some generational and gender differences that should be considered in advising students. Throughout we also suggest potential research questions. Finally, because it is not uncommon for students to ask us questions about academic careers, we consider gender bias parallels that may exist between public accounting and the academy.

This paper exploits the interpretive content of city-based directories to demonstrate the emergence of “public accountants� as a professional grouping in England during the period 1800–1880, and it applies Andrew Abbott’s The System of the Professions (1988) to explain the broader significance of that finding. We reveal that, by the 1870s, “public accountants� in England had achieved public recognition as expert suppliers of services over which they possessed an effective jurisdiction, and we conclude that Abbott’s theory provides a meaningful framework for explaining the history of public accounting prior to organisational fusion in 1880. We also consider why the label “public accountant� failed to satisfy the conditions identified by Abbott’s analytical framework for the continuing success of their professional project, and conclude that the need for a more effective means of occupational differentiation led to the reconstruction of a public accountancy profession based instead on the title “chartered accountant�.

This paper explores identity-related phenomena in professional services firms, using public accounting as an example. We examine how professional identity is (self)-managed and explore both identif...

This paper identifies issues related to the delivery of SysTrust® services by public accounting firms. We first review the professional and academic literatures relating to trust services, analogizing to the literature on financial statement audits. Our review reveals that there are a number of articles in the professional and academic literatures on trust services relating to user issues, most of which address the nature and extent of the potential demand for these services. However, very little attention has been paid to issues relating to engagement issues for service providers. In contrast, the auditing literature provides a large body of conceptual and empirical research devoted to the management of audit engagement risk. We identify several specific issues relating to trust services engagement risk, including sources of potential expectation gaps and barriers to attestation risk reduction. In order to facilitate further research on providing trust services, we use a case situation to illustrate specific aspects of these issues in a complex client environment.