Do Accounting Professor Teaching Ratings Reflect Student Learning?

This current study provides evidence relating to the question of whether accounting professor teaching ratings in undergraduate classes are related to student learning or if they are just a reflection of the degree of easiness or difficulty of the class and the professors that are being rated. The relationship between average accounting faculty ratings for eight AACSB accredited business schools from RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) and the subsequent average success rate for students from those schools who take and pass the CPA exam on their first attempt are examined. Empirical results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between students passing the CPA exam and RMP teaching ratings reflecting professor Quality and a significant negative relationship between students passing the CPA exam and RMP ratings reflecting the degree of Easiness for those classes and professors being rated. Additional empirical evidence of the complex relationships between teaching ratings and the personal characteristic of accounting professors who teach either classes for accounting majors or non- majors is also discussed

Predicting Firm Failure: A Behavioral Finance Perspective

In this article we first argue that researchers in the area of financial distress and failure cannot ignore the human/managerial/decision-making side of the business and just focus on the business\u27 operations side; as has been the case so far for almost all the research in the area. We then discuss how psychological phenomena and principles, known as heuristics or mental shortcuts, could be utilized in building more powerful success/failure prediction models especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

E-readiness and Entrepreneurship: A Cross Country Study of the Link between Technological Infrastructure and Entrepreneurial Activity

This current study focuses on the relationship between a country’s e-readiness environment and entrepreneurial activities. Many government policies assume there is a direct causal relationship between e-readiness and entrepreneurial activity and some past studies have reported evidence supporting such a link. In this paper, a cross country panel data analysis using three different measures of entrepreneurial activity and different measures of e-readiness examines this relationship. The results of this study provide only weak support for the hypothesized relationship. Furthermore, the results appear to be very sensitive to the choice of proxy variables chosen to represent entrepreneurial activity and the different measures of e-readiness

An Empirical Investigation into the Size of Small Businesses

A fundamental understanding of small businesses begins with an adequate definition of what constitutes a small business. Often the definition of a small business incorporates the definitions employed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) which, in part, uses the number of employees as the definitive measure. This paper examines the SBA’s definitions of a small business which use the number of employees as the standard. We find little evidence that supports the use of SBA definitions or any definition that relies on the number of employees

Revolving Asset-Based Lending Contracts and the Resolution of Debt-Related Agency Problems

Small firms that do not have access to organized financial markets must often rely on secured commercial loans for their debt financing. In large firms, debt-related agency problems are often resolved through the bond pricing process in the formal debt markets. When these same debt-related agency problems arise in small, private firms, the structure of the secured lending agreement must resolve these problems. This study identifies debt-related agency problems as they exist in private firms and examines howf the lending agreement resolves these problems