Accounting fraud, business failure and creative auditing: A microanalysis of the strange case of the Sunbeam Corporation

This article closely examines the Sunbeam Corporation's path to failure and explores the reasons for its singularity. From the analysis of US fraud cases included in the UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database, this corporate case appears as an outlier. For Sunbeam, the time-lapse between fraud disclosure and its final bankruptcy is the longest of the entire sample; it is unique because of its length. This article uses a historical microanalysis to evaluate different hypotheses about the Sunbeam Corporation's path to failure. The relationships between acquisitions and fraud, scapegoat dynamics' and creative auditing' are identified as the most relevant issues to be examined against a changing institutional context. The resulting reconstruction of the events provides unexpected insights and recommendations for future research on auditing and accounting fraud

The role of Dietitian in cardiac rehabilitation and prevention

Rehabilitation and secondary prevention programs are recognized as an essential part of the overall care of patients with cardiovascular disease. They consist of multidisciplinary strategies aiming at the reduction of modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Cardiac rehabilitation includes non-pharmacological interventions as: Patients’ evaluation. Nutritional counseling. Risk factors management (serum lipids, blood pressure, weight, diabetes, smoking). Psychosocial interventions. Physical activity and cardiovascular physical training counseling. Their effectiveness in the reduction of mortality through the decrease of risk factors has been proven in the last twenty years. Guidelines on appropriate and well-framed interventions have been released and nutritional interventions have a ringside seat in all programs. During 2007, the Italian Association of Dietitians, ANDID, created a working group of expert dietitians, with the goals of making a review of available scientific literature and of elaborating a Professional Position Papers on the role of Dietitian in cardiac rehabilitation and prevention. This Position Paper retrieves and remarks the available evidence that are important for the dietitians, according to their professional role and their contribution in the management of the topic

A IMPORTÂNCIA DO NIVELAMENTO PARA INGRESSANTES NO ENSINO SUPERIOR

Ao ingressar no ensino superior, o acadêmico precisa adaptar-se a uma nova cultura de aprendizagem, pois ao concluir essa modalidade deverá estar apto para exercer uma profissão. Em contrapartida, esse mesmo acadêmico traz lacunas da educação básica que dificultam, em muitos casos, a sua adaptação à graduação. Para auxiliá-los nesse processo, a Universidade precisa oferecer, entre outras ações, cursos de nivelamento. O presente ensaio objetiva apresentar os resultados dos cursos de nivelamento oferecidos pela Unoesc Videira, no primeiro semestre de 2017. No início do semestre, foi agendado com cada um dos coordenadores de curso, uma data para que os acadêmicos realizassem avaliações diagnósticas. Foram oferecidas avaliações de Língua Portuguesa, Matemática, Biologia, Química e Física, conforme a necessidade do curso. Os resultados dessas avaliações corroboraram com a ideia de que falta embasamento teórico fundamental aos acadêmicos ingressantes. Após a divulgação desses resultados, os mesmo foram convidados a se inscrever nos cursos. No primeiro semestre, foram oferecidos cursos de oito horas, na modalidade EaD de Matemática, Química e Biologia. E apesar do curso contar com professor conteudista no câmpus, tutoria, material próprio, utilização do portal de ensino e certificação, a quantidade de acadêmicos que se inscreveu foi abaixo do esperado. A partir dos resultados obtidos é possível aferir que a Universidade está cumprindo com o seu papel ao oferecer mais essa opção aos acadêmicos, mas esses ainda precisam conscientizar-se da importância do nivelamento

Accounting fraud, business failure and creative auditing: A microanalysis of the strange case of the Sunbeam Corporation

This article closely examines the Sunbeam Corporation’s path to failure and explores the reasons for its singularity. From the analysis of US fraud cases included in the UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database, this corporate case appears as an outlier. For Sunbeam, the time-lapse between fraud disclosure and its final bankruptcy is the longest of the entire sample; it is unique because of its length. This article uses a historical microanalysis to evaluate different hypotheses about the Sunbeam Corporation’s path to failure. The relationships between acquisitions and fraud, ‘scapegoat dynamics’ and ‘creative auditing’ are identified as the most relevant issues to be examined against a changing institutional context. The resulting reconstruction of the events provides unexpected insights and recommendations for future research on auditing and accounting fraud

Analisi di performance: dati di bilancio ed indicatori economico-finanziari delle giovani imprese venete

[PREMESSA. La recente crisi economica ha portato nuova enfasi sulla creazione d’impresa come possibile innesco di traiettorie di ripresa economica. Ad ogni livello, dalla Commissione Europea alle regioni, le startup rappresentano un elemento cardine di molte ricette di politica industriale ed economica. Le ragioni di questa rinnovata centralità dell’imprenditorialità vanno ricercate nella necessità di trovare soluzioni a breve termine per il numero crescente e drammatico di disoccupati nelle economie sviluppate, e nella convinzione che le startup siano in grado di rinnovare radicalmente il tessuto imprenditoriale ed economico di intere regioni e nazioni. Numerosi studi empirici sembrano dar ragione a quanti, nell’elaborazione delle politiche per lo sviluppo, invocano un’attenzione particolare alle startup. È stato a più riprese dimostrato come siano le piccole e giovani imprese a contribuire attivamente al saldo occupazionale nelle maggiori economie sviluppate.] IL CAPITOLO. Grazie ai dati forniteci da InfoCamere, è stato possibile analizzare i dati di 7720 bilanci relativi a giovani imprese aventi sede legale in Veneto. Al riguardo, alcune precisazioni meritano attenzione da un punto di vista contabile, territoriale e temporale. Secondo la prima prospettiva (contabile), bisogna ricordare che InfoCamere dispone dei dati economico-finanziari delle imprese tenute a depositare il bilancio: sono stati analizzati i dati delle giovani imprese organizzate nella forma giuridica di società di capitali. Sempre a livello contabile, bisogna anche evidenziare che il data-set creato permette di distinguere i bilanci abbreviati (e abbreviati-semplificati) da quelli ordinari e consolidati. La ricerca è stata voluta e rivolta alla Regione del Veneto (prospettiva territoriale). Sono stati forniti i dati di bilancio riferiti a tre esercizi contabili, i.e. 2008, 2009 e 2010 (prospettiva temporale). La fruizione di questi dati è stata sicuramente agevolata dall’utilizzo del formato XBRL. L’eXtensible Business Reporting Language è appunto un linguaggio elettronico che consiste nell’etichettatura digitale delle informazioni componenti il reporting aziendale (interno ed esterno). L’impiego dell’XBRL consente di rendere estremamente più rapide ed efficienti la produzione, l’analisi e la trasmissione di tale informativa. In Italia tale linguaggio ha trovato diffusione e applicazione in seguito all’emanazione del D.L. 233/2006 (art. 37, comma 21-bis), convertito nella cosiddetta Legge Bersani (L. 248/2006), che ha reso obbligatoria l’adozione di un formato elettronico elaborabile per il deposito dei bilanci societari presso le Camere di Commercio. Originariamente, tale deposito doveva effettuarsi per la prima volta per i bilanci relativi agli esercizi chiusi dopo il 31 marzo 2007, ma solo nel 2008 il formato elettronico elaborabile è stato ufficialmente identificato con l’XBRL e nel 2009-2010 esso è divenuto realmente operativo

Presentation of Other Comprehensive Income: Is There a Relationship with the Total Amount, the Sign and the Volatility of Such Accounting Items?

The paper analyzes the ways of reporting other comprehensive income (OCI) and their relationships with three different variables, i.e. the volatility, the sign and the total amount of such accounting items. In order to investigate the reasons of such relationships, the study considers the final annual financial statements approved for the accounting periods from 2009 (i.e. the first year in which the 2007 revision of IAS 1 was applied) to 2012 by Italian companies which are required to apply the International Financial Reporting Standards and to follow their updates since 2005. The choice of this specific sample is due to the willingness of verifying the ways of departing from a strong Italian accounting traditional culture which does not consider other comprehensive income (OCI items have never been mentioned by Italian civil code and have not been included in Italian financial reporting). Some preliminary results emphasize the relevance of OCI items. In each accounting period, the majority of the analyzed financial statements show a significant impact of OCI on net income (each amount in absolute value) over a materiality threshold of 10%. In some years also the difference between ROE measured with net income (NI) and ROE measured with comprehensive income (CI) is statistically significant. It demonstrates that the prominence of OCI in evaluating firms’ performance potentially should not be ignored. Moreover, the median of changes in OCI is greater than the one of changes in net income, showing that OCI is more volatile than NI. After such preliminary analysis, a logistic analysis has been implemented by considering the above-mentioned variables. Such study brings some important results confirming the significance of the relations between the ways of reporting other comprehensive income and both the sign and the total amount of such accounting items. The analysis has been implemented by using also different versions of the dependent variable in order to investigate the impact of the OCI presentation in two statements which are positioned in two different (i.e. following) pages. So, while the predominance in the use of two statements for OCI presentation shows the willingness to emphasize the traditional profit or loss section and may be related to the influence of a strong Italian accounting traditional culture, the reasons of the use of two different pages for such presentation may represent the signal of “accounts management”

Corporate Financial Distress: Going Concern Evaluation in Both International and U.S. Contexts.

This book, divided into three main parts, will offer a complete overview of the concept of corporate financial distress, emphasizing the different typologies of corporate paths included in this broad concept. It will reorganize and update academic literature about the evaluation of corporate financial distress from the first studies about failure prediction to the most recent contributions. It will also provide evidence about the evolution of going concern standards in both international and U.S. contexts. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of this broad concept will permit the identification of a set of research questions to be investigated from both theoretical and empirical points of view, and will be of interest to academic researchers and doctoral students of accounting, auditing and finance, professionals, and standard setters