17 research outputs found

    Aberrant DNA Methylation of OLIG1, a Novel Prognostic Factor in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

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    BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Currently, tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) staging provides the most accurate prognostic parameter for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the overall survival of patients with resectable tumors varies significantly, indicating the need for additional prognostic factors to better predict the outcome of the disease, particularly within a given TNM subset. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this study, we investigated whether adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas could be differentiated based on their global aberrant DNA methylation patterns. We performed restriction landmark genomic scanning on 40 patient samples and identified 47 DNA methylation targets that together could distinguish the two lung cancer subgroups. The protein expression of one of those targets, oligodendrocyte transcription factor 1 (OLIG1), significantly correlated with survival in NSCLC patients, as shown by univariate and multivariate analyses. Furthermore, the hazard ratio for patients negative for OLIG1 protein was significantly higher than the one for those patients expressing the protein, even at low levels. CONCLUSIONS: Multivariate analyses of our data confirmed that OLIG1 protein expression significantly correlates with overall survival in NSCLC patients, with a relative risk of 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.77–0.91, p < 0.001) along with T and N stages, as indicated by a Cox proportional hazard model. Taken together, our results suggests that OLIG1 protein expression could be utilized as a novel prognostic factor, which could aid in deciding which NSCLC patients might benefit from more aggressive therapy. This is potentially of great significance, as the addition of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in T2N0 NSCLC patients is still controversial

    Do accountants want full disclosures in corporate financial statements?

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    In August 2002, in the aftermath of the corporate failures in the US (e.g., Enron and WorldCom) the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA formerly ICANZ) released a discussion document on ‘corporate transparency’, thereby signaling the importance of full disclosure to the accounting community (ICANZ, 2002). Full disclosure means the disclosure of all potentially material information even when there are no legal or accounting requirements to do so. This is necessary to achieve greater transparency of corporate financial statements. Simply meeting the minimum disclosure requirements of standards may be legally sufficient but may not achieve NZICA’s preferred goal of greater corporate transparency. Though it is the corporate management that has control over the level of transparency in corporate financial statements, accounting practitioners are called to express their opinion on these statements, and hence, they too have a major influence on the matter. A move towards achieving greater corporate transparency therefore raises an important question. Do accountants want to see greater disclosures in corporate financial statements?UnpublishedInstitute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ). (2002). Corporate Transparency – Making Markets Work Better. Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand, Wellington. Neuman, W.L. (2000). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

    Accounting and enabling greater accountability: The suppressed role of the accounting intellect

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    Draft: Please do not quoteThis paper extends the work of Weiss and Berney (2004), Clarke et al., (2003), Chambers (1980; 1999) and Schuetze, (2001) by developing the argument further that the current Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a fundamental obstacle to producing reliable corporate information. Specifically, it is argued that the accounting profession may continue to evade accountability for corporate financial statements unless it responds to the intellectual issues in accounting. The paper shows that significant opportunities arose in the past - in the early part of the 1900s (during the aftermath of the US Securities Market Collapse), the debates of normative versus positive accounting (1930s – 1970s) and the audit expectations gap (1970s – 1990s) and finally during the aftermath of recent corporate collapses - for bringing intellectual solutions to accounting and auditing problems. However, instead of fulfilling its key obligations by introducing constructive solutions to the debated issues, the profession has continued to defend its abilities to serve the public interest and has promoted the notion of independence (again) as a means of both silencing its critics and arresting possible misrepresentations of corporate financial statements. Yet the real challenge is an intellectual one and the paper questions the ability of the accounting profession to control the intellectual aspects of its subject matter. Consequently, critics of accounting are likely to construe this failure as a clear signal of the inability of the profession to maintain control over its discipline. Addressing this challenge therefore is of paramount importance for convincing critics that the profession is, in fact, able to self-regulate its affairs.UnpublishedAllen, K., ‘In pursuit of professional dominance: Australian Accounting 1953-1985’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1991. Boys, P., ‘The origins and evolution of the accountancy profession’. In W. Habgood (eds), Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. A guide to historical records (pp. 1-63), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994. Bazerman, M. H., G. Loewenstein and D. A. Moore, ‘Why good accountants do bad audits’, Harvard Business Review, November 2002. Chambers, R. J., ‘The case for simplicity in accounting’, ABACUS, Vol. 35, 1999. Chambers, R. J., ‘The myths and the science of accounting’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1980. Chambers, R. J., Accounting Finance and Management, Arthur Anderson & Co, 1969. Chambers, R. J., ‘Price variation accounting – An Improved representation’. Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 5, Autumn 1967. Chambers, R. J., Accounting, Evaluation and Economic Behaviour, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall Inc, 1966. Chambers, R. J., ‘The price level problem and some intellectual grooves’, Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 3, Autumn 1965. Chandler, R., and J. R. Edwards, ‘Recurring Issues in Auditing: Back to the Future’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996. Clarke, F., G. Dean and K. Oliver, Corporate Collapse: Accounting, Regulatory and Ethical Failure (2nd edn), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2003. Clarke, F., G. Dean, and E. Houghton, ‘Revitalising group accounting: Improving accountability’, Australian Accounting Review, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2002. Coffee, J. C. Jr., Understanding Enron: “Its about the gatekeepers, stupid”, The Business Lawyer, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2002. Conrad, C., “The Illusion of reform: Corporate discourse and agenda denial in the 2002 “Corporate Meltdown”, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2004. Eden, Y., A. Ovadia, and A. Zuckerman, ‘Rethinking Sarbanes-Oxley’. CMA Management, May 2003. Eichenwald, K., ‘Pushing accounting rules to the Edge of the Envelope: Report focuses on Tyco’s aggressive tactics’, New York Times, December 2002. Elliott, R. K. and P. D. Jacobson, ‘SEC Independence Concepts’, The CPA Journal, Vol. 68, No. 4, 1998. Friedson, E., Professional Powers: A study of the Institutionalization of Formal Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Hooks, K. L., ‘Professionalism and self interest: A critical view of the expectations gap’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1992. Hopwood, A. G., ‘Ambiguity, knowledge and territorial claims: Some observations on the doctrine of substance over form: A review essay’, British Accounting Review, Vol. 22, 1990. Humphrey, C., P. Moizer, and S. Turley, The audit expectations gap in Britain: An empirical investigation, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 23, 1993. Humphrey, C., P. Moizer and S. Turley, “The audit expectations gap-plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose? Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1992. Landis, J. M., ‘Speech to the New York Society of Certified Public Accountants’. 1933. Leech, T., ‘Sarbanes_Oxley Act. Basel II vs. Sarbanes-Oxley : which wins?’, Global Risk Regulator, 2003. Levitt, A., ‘The “Numbers Game”’, Addressed delivered at the NYU Center for Law and Business, New York, September 1998. Levitt, A., ‘Renewing the covenant with investors’. Addressed delivered at the NYU Center for Law and Business, New York, May 2000. MacNeal, K., Truth in Accounting, Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1939. Markham-Lester, V., Victorian Insolvency. Bankruptcy, imprisonment for debt, and company winding-up in nineteenth-century England, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Matthewson, J. and N. Roland, ‘SEC’s Pitt calls for ‘Principles-Based’ Accounting’, Bloomberg News, February 2002. Napier, C. and C. Noke, ‘Accounting and law: an historical overview of an uneasy relationship’, In M. Bromwich and A. Hopwood (eds), Accounting and the law. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall, 1992. O’Connor, S. M., “Be careful what you wish for: How accountants and Congress created the problem of auditor independence”, Boston College Law Review, Vol. 45, 2004. Power, M. K., ‘Auditing and the production of legitimacy’. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 28, 2003. Reiter, S. A. and P. F. Williams, “The philosophy and rhetoric of auditor independence concepts”, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2004. Schuetze, W. P., ‘What are assets and liabilities? Where is true north? (Accounting that my sister would understand)’, ABACUS, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2001. Seligman, J., The Transformation of Wall Street: A History of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Modern Corporate Finance, Third Edition, Aspen Publishers, 2003. Sikka, P., A. Puxty, H. Willmott, and C. Cooper, Eliminating the Expectations Gap?, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, 1992. Sikka, P. and H. Willmott, ‘The power of ‘independence’: Defending and extending the jurisdiction of accounting in the United Kingdom’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 20, No. 6, 1995. Simms, A. and J. Oram, Five Brothers. The rise and nemesis of the big bean counters, New Economics Foundation: London, United Kingdom, 2002. [Online] (Available, http://www.neweconomics.org). Shafer, W. E., A. A. Ketchand, and R. E. Morris, ‘Auditors willingness to advocate client-preferred accounting principles’ Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 52, 2004. Stacey, N. H. A., English Accountancy: a Study of Social and Economic History 1800-1954, London: Gee, 1954. Sterling, R., Toward a Science of Accounting, Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1979. Sterling, R., ‘Accounting Power’, in: G. J. Staubus (eds), Making Accounting Decisions. Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1977. Sterling, R., Theory of the Measurement of Enterprise Income, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1970. Walker, S. P., ‘The genesis of professional organization in English accountancy’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 29, 2004. Walker, S. P., ‘Benign sacerdotalist or pious assailant. The rise of the professional accountant in British management’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 25, 2000. Weiss, M. I. and E. A. Berney, ‘Restoring investor trust in auditing standards and accounting principles’, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Vol. 41, 2004

    Do accountants want full disclosures in corporate financial statements?

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    In August 2002, in the aftermath of the corporate failures in the US (e.g., Enron and WorldCom) the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA formerly ICANZ) released a discussion document on ‘corporate transparency’, thereby signaling the importance of full disclosure to the accounting community (ICANZ, 2002). Full disclosure means the disclosure of all potentially material information even when there are no legal or accounting requirements to do so. This is necessary to achieve greater transparency of corporate financial statements. Simply meeting the minimum disclosure requirements of standards may be legally sufficient but may not achieve NZICA’s preferred goal of greater corporate transparency. Though it is the corporate management that has control over the level of transparency in corporate financial statements, accounting practitioners are called to express their opinion on these statements, and hence, they too have a major influence on the matter. A move towards achieving greater corporate transparency therefore raises an important question. Do accountants want to see greater disclosures in corporate financial statements?UnpublishedInstitute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ). (2002). Corporate Transparency – Making Markets Work Better. Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand, Wellington. Neuman, W.L. (2000). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

    Accounting and enabling greater accountability: The suppressed role of the accounting intellect

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    Draft: Please do not quoteThis paper extends the work of Weiss and Berney (2004), Clarke et al., (2003), Chambers (1980; 1999) and Schuetze, (2001) by developing the argument further that the current Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a fundamental obstacle to producing reliable corporate information. Specifically, it is argued that the accounting profession may continue to evade accountability for corporate financial statements unless it responds to the intellectual issues in accounting. The paper shows that significant opportunities arose in the past - in the early part of the 1900s (during the aftermath of the US Securities Market Collapse), the debates of normative versus positive accounting (1930s – 1970s) and the audit expectations gap (1970s – 1990s) and finally during the aftermath of recent corporate collapses - for bringing intellectual solutions to accounting and auditing problems. However, instead of fulfilling its key obligations by introducing constructive solutions to the debated issues, the profession has continued to defend its abilities to serve the public interest and has promoted the notion of independence (again) as a means of both silencing its critics and arresting possible misrepresentations of corporate financial statements. Yet the real challenge is an intellectual one and the paper questions the ability of the accounting profession to control the intellectual aspects of its subject matter. Consequently, critics of accounting are likely to construe this failure as a clear signal of the inability of the profession to maintain control over its discipline. Addressing this challenge therefore is of paramount importance for convincing critics that the profession is, in fact, able to self-regulate its affairs.UnpublishedAllen, K., ‘In pursuit of professional dominance: Australian Accounting 1953-1985’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1991. Boys, P., ‘The origins and evolution of the accountancy profession’. In W. Habgood (eds), Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. A guide to historical records (pp. 1-63), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994. Bazerman, M. H., G. Loewenstein and D. A. Moore, ‘Why good accountants do bad audits’, Harvard Business Review, November 2002. Chambers, R. J., ‘The case for simplicity in accounting’, ABACUS, Vol. 35, 1999. Chambers, R. J., ‘The myths and the science of accounting’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1980. Chambers, R. J., Accounting Finance and Management, Arthur Anderson & Co, 1969. Chambers, R. J., ‘Price variation accounting – An Improved representation’. Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 5, Autumn 1967. Chambers, R. J., Accounting, Evaluation and Economic Behaviour, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall Inc, 1966. Chambers, R. J., ‘The price level problem and some intellectual grooves’, Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 3, Autumn 1965. Chandler, R., and J. R. Edwards, ‘Recurring Issues in Auditing: Back to the Future’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996. Clarke, F., G. Dean and K. Oliver, Corporate Collapse: Accounting, Regulatory and Ethical Failure (2nd edn), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2003. Clarke, F., G. Dean, and E. Houghton, ‘Revitalising group accounting: Improving accountability’, Australian Accounting Review, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2002. Coffee, J. C. Jr., Understanding Enron: “Its about the gatekeepers, stupid”, The Business Lawyer, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2002. Conrad, C., “The Illusion of reform: Corporate discourse and agenda denial in the 2002 “Corporate Meltdown”, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2004. Eden, Y., A. Ovadia, and A. Zuckerman, ‘Rethinking Sarbanes-Oxley’. CMA Management, May 2003. Eichenwald, K., ‘Pushing accounting rules to the Edge of the Envelope: Report focuses on Tyco’s aggressive tactics’, New York Times, December 2002. Elliott, R. K. and P. D. Jacobson, ‘SEC Independence Concepts’, The CPA Journal, Vol. 68, No. 4, 1998. Friedson, E., Professional Powers: A study of the Institutionalization of Formal Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Hooks, K. L., ‘Professionalism and self interest: A critical view of the expectations gap’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1992. Hopwood, A. G., ‘Ambiguity, knowledge and territorial claims: Some observations on the doctrine of substance over form: A review essay’, British Accounting Review, Vol. 22, 1990. Humphrey, C., P. Moizer, and S. Turley, The audit expectations gap in Britain: An empirical investigation, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 23, 1993. Humphrey, C., P. Moizer and S. Turley, “The audit expectations gap-plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose? Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1992. Landis, J. M., ‘Speech to the New York Society of Certified Public Accountants’. 1933. Leech, T., ‘Sarbanes_Oxley Act. Basel II vs. Sarbanes-Oxley : which wins?’, Global Risk Regulator, 2003. Levitt, A., ‘The “Numbers Game”’, Addressed delivered at the NYU Center for Law and Business, New York, September 1998. Levitt, A., ‘Renewing the covenant with investors’. Addressed delivered at the NYU Center for Law and Business, New York, May 2000. MacNeal, K., Truth in Accounting, Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1939. Markham-Lester, V., Victorian Insolvency. Bankruptcy, imprisonment for debt, and company winding-up in nineteenth-century England, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Matthewson, J. and N. Roland, ‘SEC’s Pitt calls for ‘Principles-Based’ Accounting’, Bloomberg News, February 2002. Napier, C. and C. Noke, ‘Accounting and law: an historical overview of an uneasy relationship’, In M. Bromwich and A. Hopwood (eds), Accounting and the law. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall, 1992. O’Connor, S. M., “Be careful what you wish for: How accountants and Congress created the problem of auditor independence”, Boston College Law Review, Vol. 45, 2004. Power, M. K., ‘Auditing and the production of legitimacy’. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 28, 2003. Reiter, S. A. and P. F. Williams, “The philosophy and rhetoric of auditor independence concepts”, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2004. Schuetze, W. P., ‘What are assets and liabilities? Where is true north? (Accounting that my sister would understand)’, ABACUS, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2001. Seligman, J., The Transformation of Wall Street: A History of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Modern Corporate Finance, Third Edition, Aspen Publishers, 2003. Sikka, P., A. Puxty, H. Willmott, and C. Cooper, Eliminating the Expectations Gap?, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, 1992. Sikka, P. and H. Willmott, ‘The power of ‘independence’: Defending and extending the jurisdiction of accounting in the United Kingdom’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 20, No. 6, 1995. Simms, A. and J. Oram, Five Brothers. The rise and nemesis of the big bean counters, New Economics Foundation: London, United Kingdom, 2002. [Online] (Available, http://www.neweconomics.org). Shafer, W. E., A. A. Ketchand, and R. E. Morris, ‘Auditors willingness to advocate client-preferred accounting principles’ Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 52, 2004. Stacey, N. H. A., English Accountancy: a Study of Social and Economic History 1800-1954, London: Gee, 1954. Sterling, R., Toward a Science of Accounting, Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1979. Sterling, R., ‘Accounting Power’, in: G. J. Staubus (eds), Making Accounting Decisions. Houston: Scholars Book Co, 1977. Sterling, R., Theory of the Measurement of Enterprise Income, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1970. Walker, S. P., ‘The genesis of professional organization in English accountancy’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 29, 2004. Walker, S. P., ‘Benign sacerdotalist or pious assailant. The rise of the professional accountant in British management’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 25, 2000. Weiss, M. I. and E. A. Berney, ‘Restoring investor trust in auditing standards and accounting principles’, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Vol. 41, 2004

    Accounting information disclosure decisions within a social contingency framework

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    276 leaves ; 23 cm. University of Otago department: Accountancy and Business Law. "November 2003".Financial accounting disclosure decisions are made in a complex social environment. The Social Contingency Model (SCM) provides a suitable framework within which disclosure decisions can be examined. Consequently, this thesis examined the impact of accountability and participants' commitment to a disclosure policy on their mandatory and voluntary information disclosure decisions and the integrative complexity of thoughts that underlie these decisions. For this purpose, two laboratory experiments were conducted using senior accounting undergraduate students. Contrary to the predictions of SCM, results of the two experiments indicate that accountability may lead to significantly different decisions only in certain disclosure decision tasks. Therefore, under what conditions and what type of decision tasks accountability may or may not have an impact, remain unclear. An increase in integrative complexity of thought appears to be necessary for participants to justify more information relating to the voluntary disclosures and less information relating to the mandatory disclosures. As the integrative complexity of thought may produce different outcomes with respect to different decision-tasks, when examining the impact of accountability on decisions the integrative complexity of thought needs to be recognised as an intervening variable. Furthermore, the results suggest that participants' commitment to a disclosure policy may have produced a blocking effect. The impact of commitment was positive on the integrative complexity of accountable-participants' thoughts on one disclosure scenario but negative on another. Consistent with the results relating to the impact of accountability on disclosure decisions, the type of task appears to be critical in understanding the impact of commitment on participants' disclosure decisions under accountability demands. Student decision behaviour under accountability demands appears to be highly complex hence such demands must be used with caution when designing monitoring systems. Many factors, such as the type of decision-task and individuals' commitment to certain valued outcomes, may significantly interact with accountability demands. These combined effects may lead to desirable outcomes only in certain decision tasks. Finally, after much research, what is becoming clear about accountability demands is that the effect of holding people accountable for their decisions is highly complex. 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    Accountants’ whistle-blowing intentions: The impact of retaliation, age, and gender

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    Accounting practices and the role of auditors have been widely implicated in many corporate scandals. The accountants are likely to witness serious wrongdoings at their workplace, thus presenting them with a difficult choice of whether or not to whistle-blow. This study reports results of whistle-blowing intentions of the members of Certified Practising Accountants of Australia (CPA, Australia). The study provides data on a well-known obstacle (threat of retaliation) and demographic factors on accountants’ propensity to blow the whistle (PBW). An online survey was used to collect data. The data was analysed using a 2x3x2 (retaliation, age and gender, respectively) between-subject design. The results show a complex interaction effect of retaliation, participants’ age and gender on their PBW. Among the early career accountants, male accountants are more likely than female accountants to blow the whistle. Accountants in the mid-age group are not only likely to whistle-blow when there is retaliation but tend to be more willing to do so when that retaliation involves a direct personal loss than a loss to their associates. Accountants in the age group of 45 years or above, respond to retaliation differently depending on their gender. Specifically, female accountants’ PBW in this age group tend to decline as the retaliation threat increases from weak to strong yet the change in retaliation threat has little impact on male accountants’ PBW. These results and their implications are discussed.UnpublishedApplebaum, S. H., K. Grewal, and H. Mousseau:2006, ‘Whistle blowing: International implications and critical case indicators’, Journal of American Academy of Business 10, 7-13. Ariely, D. 2009, ‘The end of rational economics’, Harvard Business Review July-August, 78-84. Arnold, B.: 2006, ‘Caslon Analytics guide: Secrecy and accountability’. Available online:http://www.caslon.com.au/secrecyguide11.htm(last accessed 22 October 2009). Arnold, D, F. and L. A. Ponemon: 1991, ‘Internal Auditors Perceptions of Whistle blowing and the Influence of Moral Reasoning: An Experiment, Auditing; A Journal of Practice and Theory 10, 1-15 Beu, D., M. Buckley, and M. Harvey: 2003, ‘Ethical decision-making: a multidimensional construct’, Business Ethics European Review (Chichester, England) 12, 88-107. Bok, S: 1980, ‘Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibilities’, in D. Callahan and S. Bok (ed.),Ethics Teaching in Higher Education (Plenum Press, New York). Clarke, F. and G. Dean: 2007, Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily (Cambridge University Press, New York). Coate, C. J. and K. J. Frey: 2000, ‘Some evidence on the ethical disposition of accounting students:Context and gender implications’, Teaching Business Ethics 4, 379-403. Emerson, T.L.N., S. J. Conroy, and C.W.Stanley:2007, ‘Ethical attitudes of accountants: Recent evidence from a practitioners’ survey’, Journal of Business Ethics 71, 73-87. Fink, A.: 1995, How to Sample in Surveys: The Survey Kit 6 (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks,CA). Hoffman, J.: 1998, ‘Are women really more ethical than men? May be it depends on the situation’,Journal of Management Issues 10, 60-73. Gilligan, C.: 1982, In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Woman’s Development (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). Kaplan, S.E. and J. J. Schultz: 2007, ‘Intentions to report questionable acts: An examination of the influence of anonymous reporting channel, internal audit quality, and setting’, Journal of Business Ethics 71, 109-124. Kaplan, S., K. Pany, J. Samuels, and J. Zhang: (2009), ‘An examination of the association between gender and reporting intentions for fraudulent financial reporting’, Journal of Business Ethics 87, 15-30. Keenan, J. P.: 1995, ‘Whistleblowing and the First-Level Manager: Determinants of feeling obliged to blow the whistle’, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 10, 571-584. Lewis, D. (2003). Whistleblowing statutes in Australia: Is it time for a new agenda? Deakin Law Review, Vol. 8 (2). Available online:www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/DeakinLRev/2003/16.html#fn6 (accessed 17 June 2009) Liyanarachchi, G. and C. Newdick: 2009, ‘The impact of moral reasoning and retaliation on whistle-blowing: New Zealand evidence’, Journal of Business Ethics, 89, 37-57 McPhail, K. and D. Walters: 2009, Accounting and Business Ethics (Routledge, London and New York). Mayper, A. G., R. J. Pavur, B. D. Merino, and W. Hoops: 2005, ‘The impact of accounting education on ethical values: An institutional perspective’, Accounting and the Public Interest 5, 32-55. Department of Accountancy and Business Law, Working paper series No. 5 February 2010 Mesmer-Magnus, J. R. and C. Viswesvaran: 2005, ‘Whistleblowing in Organizations: An examination of correlates of whistleblowing intentions, actions, and retaliation’, Journal of Business Ethics 62, 277-297. Meyers, L. S., G. Gamst, and A. J. Guarino: 2006, Applied Multivariate Research (Sage publications, Thousand Oakes, CA). Miceli, M. P.: 2004, ‘Whistle-Blowing research and the insider: Lessons learned and yet to be learned’, Journal of Management Inquiry 13, 364-366. Miceli, M. P., J. B. Dozier and J. P. Near: 1991, ‘Blowing the whistle on data-fudging: A controlled field experiment’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 21(4), 271-295. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1988, ‘Retaliation against role pre-scribed whistle blowers: The case of internal auditors’, Paper presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Anaheim, CA. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1989, ‘The incidence of wrongdoing, whistle blowing, and retaliation: results of a natural occurring field experiment’, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 2, 91-108. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1994, ‘Relationships among value congruence, perceived victimization, and retaliation against whistle-blowers’, Journal of Management 20, 773-794. Near, J. P. and T. C. Jensen: 1983, ‘The whistle blowing process: Retaliation and perceived effectiveness’,Work and Organisations 10, 3-28. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1985, ‘Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing’ Journal of Business Ethics 4, 1-16. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1986, ‘Retaliation against whistle blowers: Predictors effects’, Journal of Applied Psychology 71, 137-145. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1995, ‘Effective Whistle-blowing’, Academy of Management Review 20(3), 679-708. Near, J. P. and M. P. Miceli: 1996, ‘Whistle-blowing: Myth and reality’, Journal of Management 22(3), 507-526. Near, J, P. and M. P. Miceli: 2005, ‘Standing Up or standing By: What Predicts Blowing the Whistle on Organizational Wrongdoing?’, Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management 24, University of Illinois, USA. Near, J. P., M. T. Rehg, J. R. Van Scotter and M. P. Miceli: 2004, ‘Does type of wrongdoing affect the whistle-blowing process?’, Business Ethics Quarterly 14 (2), 219-242. Parmerlee, M. A., J. P. Near and T. C. Jensen: 1982, ‘Correlates of whistle-blowers’ perceptions of organizational retaliation’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 27, 17-34. Ponemon, L. and D. Gabhart: 1990, ‘Auditor independence judgements: A cognitive-development model and experimental evidence’, Contemporary Accounting Research 7 (Fall), 227-251. Protected Disclosures Act 2000: Available online: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2000/0007/latest/DLM53466.html (accessed: 6 November 2008). Rest, J.: 1986, Moral Development. Advance in Research and Theory (Praeger, New York). Ritter, B. A.: 2006, ‘Can business ethics be trained? A study of the ethical decision-making process in business students’, Journal of Business Ethics 68, 153-164. Scharff, M. M.: (2005), Understanding WorldCom’s accounting fraud: Did groupthink play a role?’,Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11 (3), 109-118. Check this reference Sikka, P.: 2009, ‘Financial crisis and the silence of auditors’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34, 868-873. Department of Accountancy and Business Law, Working paper series No. 5 February 2010 Sims, R. L. and J. P. Keenan: 1998, ‘Predictors of external whistleblowing: Organizational and intrapersonal variables’, Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 411-421. Tabachnick, B. G. and L. S. Fidell: 2007, Experimental Design Using ANOVA (Thomson, Belmont, CA). Transparency International.: 2009, Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (Cambridge University Press: NY). Vinten, G. 1994, ‘Whistleblowing - fact and fiction. An introductory discussion’, In Vinten, G. (Eds), Whistleblowing: Subversion or Corporate Citizenship? (St. Martin’s Press, New York), 3-20. West, T., S. P. Ravenscroft and C. B. Shrader: 2004, ‘Cheating and moral judgment in the college class-room: A natural experiment’, Journal of Business Ethics 54, 173-183. Whistleblowers Australia Inc., 2009, www.whistleblowers.org.au accessed 17 June 2009 Winfield, M. 1990, Minding Your Own Business: Self-regulation and Whistleblowing in British Companies (Social Audit, London). Winfield, M. 1994, ‘Whistleblowers as corporate safety net’, In Vinten, G. (Eds), Whistleblowing: Subversion or Corporate Citizenship? (St. Martin’s Press, New York), 21-32

    Accountants’ whistle-blowing intentions: The impact of retaliation, age, and gender

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    Accounting practices and the role of auditors have been widely implicated in many corporate scandals. The accountants are likely to witness serious wrongdoings at their workplace, thus presenting them with a difficult choice of whether or not to whistle-blow. This study reports results of whistle-blowing intentions of the members of Certified Practising Accountants of Australia (CPA, Australia). The study provides data on a well-known obstacle (threat of retaliation) and demographic factors on accountants’ propensity to blow the whistle (PBW). An online survey was used to collect data. The data was analysed using a 2x3x2 (retaliation, age and gender, respectively) between-subject design. The results show a complex interaction effect of retaliation, participants’ age and gender on their PBW. Among the early career accountants, male accountants are more likely than female accountants to blow the whistle. Accountants in the mid-age group are not only likely to whistle-blow when there is retaliation but tend to be more willing to do so when that retaliation involves a direct personal loss than a loss to their associates. Accountants in the age group of 45 years or above, respond to retaliation differently depending on their gender. Specifically, female accountants’ PBW in this age group tend to decline as the retaliation threat increases from weak to strong yet the change in retaliation threat has little impact on male accountants’ PBW. These results and their implications are discussed.UnpublishedApplebaum, S. H., K. Grewal, and H. Mousseau:2006, ‘Whistle blowing: International implications and critical case indicators’, Journal of American Academy of Business 10, 7-13. Ariely, D. 2009, ‘The end of rational economics’, Harvard Business Review July-August, 78-84. Arnold, B.: 2006, ‘Caslon Analytics guide: Secrecy and accountability’. Available online:http://www.caslon.com.au/secrecyguide11.htm(last accessed 22 October 2009). Arnold, D, F. and L. A. Ponemon: 1991, ‘Internal Auditors Perceptions of Whistle blowing and the Influence of Moral Reasoning: An Experiment, Auditing; A Journal of Practice and Theory 10, 1-15 Beu, D., M. Buckley, and M. Harvey: 2003, ‘Ethical decision-making: a multidimensional construct’, Business Ethics European Review (Chichester, England) 12, 88-107. Bok, S: 1980, ‘Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibilities’, in D. Callahan and S. Bok (ed.),Ethics Teaching in Higher Education (Plenum Press, New York). Clarke, F. and G. Dean: 2007, Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily (Cambridge University Press, New York). Coate, C. J. and K. J. Frey: 2000, ‘Some evidence on the ethical disposition of accounting students:Context and gender implications’, Teaching Business Ethics 4, 379-403. Emerson, T.L.N., S. J. Conroy, and C.W.Stanley:2007, ‘Ethical attitudes of accountants: Recent evidence from a practitioners’ survey’, Journal of Business Ethics 71, 73-87. Fink, A.: 1995, How to Sample in Surveys: The Survey Kit 6 (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks,CA). Hoffman, J.: 1998, ‘Are women really more ethical than men? May be it depends on the situation’,Journal of Management Issues 10, 60-73. Gilligan, C.: 1982, In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Woman’s Development (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). Kaplan, S.E. and J. J. Schultz: 2007, ‘Intentions to report questionable acts: An examination of the influence of anonymous reporting channel, internal audit quality, and setting’, Journal of Business Ethics 71, 109-124. Kaplan, S., K. Pany, J. Samuels, and J. Zhang: (2009), ‘An examination of the association between gender and reporting intentions for fraudulent financial reporting’, Journal of Business Ethics 87, 15-30. Keenan, J. P.: 1995, ‘Whistleblowing and the First-Level Manager: Determinants of feeling obliged to blow the whistle’, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 10, 571-584. Lewis, D. (2003). Whistleblowing statutes in Australia: Is it time for a new agenda? Deakin Law Review, Vol. 8 (2). Available online:www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/DeakinLRev/2003/16.html#fn6 (accessed 17 June 2009) Liyanarachchi, G. and C. Newdick: 2009, ‘The impact of moral reasoning and retaliation on whistle-blowing: New Zealand evidence’, Journal of Business Ethics, 89, 37-57 McPhail, K. and D. Walters: 2009, Accounting and Business Ethics (Routledge, London and New York). Mayper, A. G., R. J. Pavur, B. D. Merino, and W. Hoops: 2005, ‘The impact of accounting education on ethical values: An institutional perspective’, Accounting and the Public Interest 5, 32-55. Department of Accountancy and Business Law, Working paper series No. 5 February 2010 Mesmer-Magnus, J. R. and C. Viswesvaran: 2005, ‘Whistleblowing in Organizations: An examination of correlates of whistleblowing intentions, actions, and retaliation’, Journal of Business Ethics 62, 277-297. Meyers, L. S., G. Gamst, and A. J. Guarino: 2006, Applied Multivariate Research (Sage publications, Thousand Oakes, CA). Miceli, M. P.: 2004, ‘Whistle-Blowing research and the insider: Lessons learned and yet to be learned’, Journal of Management Inquiry 13, 364-366. Miceli, M. P., J. B. Dozier and J. P. Near: 1991, ‘Blowing the whistle on data-fudging: A controlled field experiment’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology 21(4), 271-295. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1988, ‘Retaliation against role pre-scribed whistle blowers: The case of internal auditors’, Paper presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Anaheim, CA. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1989, ‘The incidence of wrongdoing, whistle blowing, and retaliation: results of a natural occurring field experiment’, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 2, 91-108. Miceli, M. P. and J. P. Near: 1994, ‘Relationships among value congruence, perceived victimization, and retaliation against whistle-blowers’, Journal of Management 20, 773-794. Near, J. P. and T. C. Jensen: 1983, ‘The whistle blowing process: Retaliation and perceived effectiveness’,Work and Organisations 10, 3-28. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1985, ‘Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing’ Journal of Business Ethics 4, 1-16. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1986, ‘Retaliation against whistle blowers: Predictors effects’, Journal of Applied Psychology 71, 137-145. Near, J.P. and M. P. Miceli: 1995, ‘Effective Whistle-blowing’, Academy of Management Review 20(3), 679-708. Near, J. P. and M. P. Miceli: 1996, ‘Whistle-blowing: Myth and reality’, Journal of Management 22(3), 507-526. Near, J, P. and M. P. Miceli: 2005, ‘Standing Up or standing By: What Predicts Blowing the Whistle on Organizational Wrongdoing?’, Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management 24, University of Illinois, USA. Near, J. P., M. T. Rehg, J. R. Van Scotter and M. P. Miceli: 2004, ‘Does type of wrongdoing affect the whistle-blowing process?’, Business Ethics Quarterly 14 (2), 219-242. Parmerlee, M. A., J. P. Near and T. C. Jensen: 1982, ‘Correlates of whistle-blowers’ perceptions of organizational retaliation’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 27, 17-34. Ponemon, L. and D. Gabhart: 1990, ‘Auditor independence judgements: A cognitive-development model and experimental evidence’, Contemporary Accounting Research 7 (Fall), 227-251. Protected Disclosures Act 2000: Available online: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2000/0007/latest/DLM53466.html (accessed: 6 November 2008). Rest, J.: 1986, Moral Development. Advance in Research and Theory (Praeger, New York). Ritter, B. A.: 2006, ‘Can business ethics be trained? A study of the ethical decision-making process in business students’, Journal of Business Ethics 68, 153-164. Scharff, M. M.: (2005), Understanding WorldCom’s accounting fraud: Did groupthink play a role?’,Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11 (3), 109-118. Check this reference Sikka, P.: 2009, ‘Financial crisis and the silence of auditors’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34, 868-873. Department of Accountancy and Business Law, Working paper series No. 5 February 2010 Sims, R. L. and J. P. Keenan: 1998, ‘Predictors of external whistleblowing: Organizational and intrapersonal variables’, Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 411-421. Tabachnick, B. G. and L. S. Fidell: 2007, Experimental Design Using ANOVA (Thomson, Belmont, CA). Transparency International.: 2009, Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (Cambridge University Press: NY). Vinten, G. 1994, ‘Whistleblowing - fact and fiction. An introductory discussion’, In Vinten, G. (Eds), Whistleblowing: Subversion or Corporate Citizenship? (St. Martin’s Press, New York), 3-20. West, T., S. P. Ravenscroft and C. B. Shrader: 2004, ‘Cheating and moral judgment in the college class-room: A natural experiment’, Journal of Business Ethics 54, 173-183. Whistleblowers Australia Inc., 2009, www.whistleblowers.org.au accessed 17 June 2009 Winfield, M. 1990, Minding Your Own Business: Self-regulation and Whistleblowing in British Companies (Social Audit, London). Winfield, M. 1994, ‘Whistleblowers as corporate safety net’, In Vinten, G. (Eds), Whistleblowing: Subversion or Corporate Citizenship? (St. Martin’s Press, New York), 21-32
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