The Relationship between Principles-based Accounting Rules and Audit Fees

This paper examines the relations between principles-based accounting standards and audit fees. Our empirical evidence suggests auditors charge a lower fee when firms’ standards are more principles based. Further analyses indicate this fee saving is more pronounced for firms with stronger corporate governance and firms in post-SOX era. Our result is consistent with the notion that principles-based accounting standards improve earnings quality and reduce auditor’s risk-related premium. The results add to the growing body of literature examining cost/benefit of principles-based accounting standards, as well as to the literature of the determinants of audit fees

A Case Study of Offshore Development across IS Courses: Lessons Learned from a Global Student Project

As global, virtual teams become more prevalent in the workplace, it is imperative that we, as educators, prepare IS students for this trend. Offshoring, virtual teams, and globalization are themes often discussed in the classroom, but students rarely experience these concepts. This paper is a case study of three globally distributed universities worked together on a project in order to equip students with knowledge and experience about these trends in an IS context. In spring 2008, students from a technical management course in the USA, a project development course in the USA, and a programming course in India worked in teams to propose, design, develop, and test software prototypes. The case study in this paper presents the three phases of this project: 1) planning, 2) execution, and 3) reflection. The planning phase includes the identification of teams, tasks, and technology. The execution phase includes challenges and successes that can be avoided or enhanced in future iterations. Finally, the reflection phase presents lessons learned from the student and instructor perspective as well as perceived value of the project across students, instructors, and industry representatives. In general, students perceived this project to be quite valuable for their future careers and successful as a learning experience, but the project was not without its challenges throughout

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Corporate Communication During Large-Scale Information Technology Changes

The success rate of information technology implementations remains low, despite decades of scholarly research and popular advice. Whether success is defined by spending within the budget, on-time completion, functionality of the final implementation, or satisfaction of the users, few projects are deemed to be complete and resounding successes. One possible reason is inadequate communication during the change process, and many studies have examined aspects of change communication such as media choice, message content, and timing of the messages. What has been missing, however, is an assessment of these items‟ effectiveness across hierarchical levels within an organization undergoing an important technology change. Most previous studies have focused on the perceptions and actions of managers, even though it is the non-managerial employees who determine the ultimate success of the implementation in daily use. The intent of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of organization-wide change communication at all hierarchical levels to determine differences in perceptions as well as differences in actual effectiveness, through the use of established quantitative tools and qualitative methods. Employing a modified case study approach, two organizations (a mid-sized public university and a food processing organization) were studied during the implementation of a major IT change. It was hypothesized that the perceived effectiveness of media, content and timing that had been used when communicating about change would have an effect on the actual effectiveness of communication, as measured by several questions specific to each organization‟s current project. Results revealed that perceived effectiveness of media was the only factor that had a significant effect on the actual effectiveness of communication. Contributions of this study include formalizing a mechanism for evaluating employee preferences for communication and the actual effectiveness of change communication, as well as providing potential insights into ways to improve communication practices during large-scale IT implementations.Dawna M. DrumFoster, TadDavid BeachBarbara EversoleCarroll GrahamKathryn S. HoffDoctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Technology ManagementCunningham Memorial library, Terre Haute,Indiana State University201005-25DoctoralTitle from document title page. Document formatted into pages: contains 215p.: ill. Includes bibliography, abstract and appendix

Is This What I Signed Up For? Undergraduate and MBA Perspectives of On-line Classes

This study will be comparing the student perspective of online classes and on-campus classes from three different student groups, undergraduate, MBA on-campus and MBA consortium students, in an attempt to answer the question “When given the option, why do students choose an online class versus an on-campus class and do these reasons coincide with perceptions of course effectiveness?” As universities expand their class offerings in hopes to entice more students to their campuses, they need to understand what students are looking for; understanding students’ perceptions of the value of online and on-campus classes will help guide universities as they continue to expand into online class offerings as well as understand each type of student

International AC: An education case on continuous monitoring SQL Server data with ODBC-linked tables in Microsoft Access

This education case teaches students Continuous Auditing/Continuous Monitoring (CA/CM) using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connections from students’ Microsoft Access (Access) to tables in Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Server). First, the institution’s database administrator (DBA) imports the student tables provided with the Teaching Notes into the institution’s SQL Server with read-only access. In Access, students create ODBC connections to the SQL Server student tables. Then, students create Access queries using the ODBC-linked tables to monitor for anomalies. During a scheduled week, the DBA, in coordination with the faculty member, enters anomalies in the SQL Server student tables at random times, and students run their Access queries to identify the anomalies.Journal Articl

An interdisciplinary task-based activity for teaching internal controls

This case addresses the critical topic in education of developing students’ skills and capabilities associated with enterprise-level business intelligence systems and associated internal control concerns. The experiences of using a business intelligence, task-based activity in an interdisciplinary curriculum model are presented and discussed. Pedagogically, the task-based activity enhances perceived learning for both accounting and IS disciplines in domain (internal controls and IS development), communication (comprehension and creation), and critical thinking skills. Additionally, students appreciate the realism and active learning associated with the task-based activity delivered in an interdisciplinary curriculum model. The design of the task-based activity as a teaching resource allows other instructors, based on their requirements, to develop a lesson plan around using the activity as written, or focusing on the any of the many aspects of controls or technology presented.Final article publishe