Many jurisdictions are establishing requirements for corporations to disclose climate-related risks, and for those disclosures to be audited. One of the first jurisdictions to do so is Australia, where the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) issued a Joint Bulletin in 2018 stating that both preparers and auditors should consider the impact of climate risks on the company's financials. Utilising the Australian setting, this paper introduces a new measure of audit partner expertise, namely expertise in climate-related issues, and examines whether it is associated with the client company's climate risk reporting. We define audit partner expertise in climate-related issues based on their client portfolio composition in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. We find that the likelihood and quality of climate risk disclosures is higher when the audit partner has climate risk expertise, and this finding is driven by clients in industries with material climate risks.

Purpose Negative disclosure tone in 10-K annual reports has economic consequences, yet relatively little is known about how it is generated. Boards of directors play an important governance role with respect to mandatory disclosures and personally sign off on Form 10-K, leading us to expect directors to influence financial reporting narratives. This study investigates whether the negative tone of firms' narrative annual report disclosures is associated with the human and social capital of its board of directors. Design/methodology/approach Multivariate regression analyses of negative disclosure tone (Loughran and McDonald, 2011) on board members' average age, gender, education, financial expertise and turnover is performed. A host of supplemental tests to corroborate our primary analysis, including using Sarbanes-Oxley's financial expert mandate as an exogenous shock to board composition, impact threshold for a confounding variable, placebo analysis, portfolio tests of more and less negative disclosing firms and portfolio tests of “loud” versus “quiet” boards are conducted. Findings Evidence that directors' gender, education, financial expertise and board turnover are associated with more negative disclosure tone, while directors' age is associated with less negative disclosure tone is found. The study also looked within the board to differentiate whether these findings are driven by characteristics of inside directors or outside directors serving on the audit committee, or both, as these are the specific groups of directors we would expect to play a role in disclosure. It was found that negative disclosure tone is associated with a lower bid-ask spread, so this study interpreted more negative tone as containing more descriptive information. Originality/value This study helps decode the “black box” of annual report disclosure tone, which Loughran and McDonald (2011) show has important economic implications. The results help inform stakeholders such as policymakers, executives and capital market participants as to how board member traits are associated with disclosure. The findings are particularly important as this study bears witness to the increasing prominence of gender/diversity mandates (e.g. Israel, Norway, California) and financial expertise mandates (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley).

This study examines business students' learning and assessment under remote teachings during the COVID-19 pandemic in a well-established Finnish university. A survey method is used to collect information on 336 business students including 42 accounting students. As indicated by students' responses, a majority of the students succeeded in assessing and self-regulating their learning, but a considerable group of students failed in this task. Students gave a lot of positive feedback on supervised electronic exams, such as scheduling efficiency, improved ability to focus, and reduced stress level. Students also reported a low number of monitoring problems in these exams. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that some students see the risk that problems in monitoring coursework threaten the value of their university degrees. However, about half of the students did not want to increase monitoring. Accounting students' opinions were mostly similar to those of the other business students. This study contributes to the literature by showing key factors that influence students' learning in remote teaching under abnormal conditions. In addition, it demonstrates how the constructivist model of learning can be used to explain students' learning and assessment in these circumstances.

The International Journal of AccountingVol. 56, No. 02, 2180005 (2021) Symposium PaperFree AccessA Reply to David Hay’s DiscussionSaverio Bozzolan and Antti MiihkinenSaverio BozzolanCorresponding author.Department of Business and Management, LUISS University, Rome, Italy and Antti MiihkinenDepartment of Accounting and Finance, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandDepartment of Accounting, Aalto University, Helsinki, FinlandE-mail Address: [email protected]https://doi.org/10.1142/S1094406021800056Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail References Beretta, S., & Bozzolan, S. [2004] A framework for the analysis of firm risk communication. The International Journal of Accounting, 39(3), 265–288. Crossref, Google Scholar Botosan, C. A. [2004] Discussion of a framework for the analysis of firm risk communication. The International Journal of Accounting, 39(3), 289–295. Crossref, Google Scholar Hay, D. [2021] Discussion of “The quality of mandatory nonfinancial risk disclosures and the moderating effect of audit firm and partner characteristics.” The International Journal of Accounting, 56(2). Google Scholar Miihkinen, A. [2012] What drives quality of firm risk disclosure? The impact of a national disclosure standard and reporting incentives under IFRS. The International Journal of Accounting, 47(4), 437–468. Crossref, Google ScholarPublished: 29 April 2021 FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Recommended Vol. 56, No. 02 Metrics Downloaded 52 times History PDF download

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and wellbeing, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Risk disclosures are among the most important types of non-financial information valued by the investors. Risk disclosures are mostly narrative and proprietary in nature; consequently, their accuracy and assurance are highly important to prevent disclosures from becoming boilerplate and losing their relevance. By exploiting the unique features of a setting where risk disclosure is mandatory and under a positive assurance requirement, we investigate whether the quality of audited risk disclosures is associated with the type of audit firm (Big-4 versus non-Big-4), the characteristics of the audit firm, and the attributes of the audit partner. Our results show an association between risk disclosure quality and auditors, but not in the expected ways. After the enforcement of a regulation requiring a detailed description of risks in the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) and a positive assurance of external audit over these disclosures, we do not document any significant Big-4 effect. The quality of risk disclosures is associated with the attributes of the audit partner, namely, familiarity with different client risk disclosures, industry expertise, and gender, independently of an affiliation with a Big-4 audit firm. Along these lines, we extend recent evidence on the audit partner effects in the assurance of non-financial narrative information.

We examine the role of corporate boards of directors in shaping disclosure tone in 10-K filings. Boards of directors play an important governance role with respect to mandatory disclosures and personally sign off on Form 10-K, leading us to expect directors to influence financial reporting narratives. We investigate whether the tone of firms’ narrative annual report disclosures is associated with the human and social capital of its board of directors. In a sample of SEC registrants from 2003 to 2014, we find that directors’ age, male gender uniformity, education, and financial expertise are associated with disclosure tone. A host of alternative specifications lends confidence to our inferences. Our study helps decode the “black box” of annual report disclosure tone, which Loughran & McDonald (2011) show has important economic implications.

This study describes the results of a project that focused on developing an assessment rubric to be used as the assessment criteria for the written thesis of accounting majors and the quality of the coursework during the seminar. We used descriptive analysis and the survey method to collect information for the development work and to examine the effect of the rubric on learning. We find that the rubric has a positive effect on students' understanding, self-assessment, confidence, and integration. We contribute to the extant literature by adding to prior work that has examined factors that can improve students' learning outcomes. By synthesizing theories on approaches to learning and self-regulation, and combining them with literature on self-efficacy and social/academic integration, we bring conceptual clarity to the elements of learning in a course, which consist of written assignments and the accompanying group work. The paper demonstrates a way to help university students to learn via explicit assessment rubrics, and thus offers novel ideas for accounting educators.

This paper examines if investors use disclosures on competition together with earnings information. I examine the impact of annual 10-K disclosures on competitors on the future earnings response coefficients of the US listed firms. The sample covers 19,692 US listed firms that file annual 10-K documents and report earnings for fiscal years 1996-2009. I find that competition disclosures can help investors to interpret future earnings information. In specific, the positive relation between returns and future earnings is attenuated if there is more disclosures on competition risk in the 10-K filing. This effect is emphasized in larger firms, loss firms, and in certain industries (sic codes 3, 4 and 5) whereas in the financial services industry (sic code = 6) disclosures on competition amplify investors’ reactions to future earnings. Moreover, the results are more prevalent in the post-SOXLEY era. Collectively, the results suggest that disclosures on competition are related to the firms’ competitor risk and investors consider these disclosures as risk increasing which smoothens their reactions to earnings signals. This paper contributes to corporate governance literature by demonstrating how firm self-governance (as measured by voluntary disclosures on competition) can influence investors’ decision making in the capital markets.

This book is a comprehensive handbook on accounting education. It gives deep understanding on the history and current stage of the accounting education. In my opinion this book contributes to accounting education literature because it is able to summarize what we know and what we do not know at the moment. In this respect it is a good reference book for scholars interested in accounting education topics. In addition, it gives lot of useful information and motivation for lecturers who want to supplement their accounting education knowledge, and for curriculum developers who pursue improvements in the quality of their accounting programs. The assessment movement in business education has increased the number of universities that apply quality accreditations for their business programs. Awareness on the history of assessment and knowledge on the implementation of outcomes assessment is beneficial for all people who are involved in the process of seeking quality accreditations for business schools. Altogether, the handbook was an enjoyable reading experience and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to deepen her/his accounting knowledge. This book really succeeds in honoring the three accounting educators to whom it is dedicated.

I was pleased when the book reviews editor of the EAA asked me to read this recently published book on the area which very closely related to the topics covered in my dissertation. During my Ph.D. ...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine novel corporate governance-based determinants of risk disclosures among index-listed Finnish companies. Therefore the focus of the study is on explaining the board’s monitoring role in relation to corporate managers. Design/methodology/approach – Firms’ risk disclosures are analysed in terms of their Quantity and Coverage. The authors focus on two board characteristics not examined in prior related literature: first, non-executive board members’ self-interested financial incentives, measured by their share or option ownership, and annual compensation and second, non-executive board members’ competence, measured by their experience in the company and managerial capability proxied by prior education. The sample is composed of the OMXH-25-listed firms, representing the most traded and followed firms among Finnish publicly listed companies. Findings – The authors find that the risk disclosures of these firms can be explained by financial incentives (wealth and compensation) and competence-related factors (attrition rate and education). The results indicate that among the “best disclosers”, the narrative risk disclosures are, on average, on a high level, and variation in risk reporting is largely associated with board characteristics. Research limitations/implications – The relatively small sample size makes the results vulnerable to type two error. Further research could continue by examining the impact of board work on corporate disclosures across countries and disclosure items. Practical implications – Board members’ financial incentives and competence impact the dynamism of board work. In this way, they are also associated with board members’ disclosure decisions. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the extant literature by demonstrating the impact of previously unexamined board characteristics on the quality of the narrative risk disclosures of highly followed firms.

This study describes the results of a project that focused on developing an assessment rubric to be used as the assessment criteria for the written thesis of accounting majors and the quality of the coursework during the seminar. We used descriptive analysis and the survey method to collect information for the development work and to examine the effect of the rubric on learning. We find that the rubric has a positive effect on students’ understanding, self-assessment, confidence, and integration. We contribute to the extant literature by adding to prior work that has examined factors that can improve students’ learning outcomes. By synthesizing theories on approaches to learning and self-regulation, and combining them with literature on self-efficacy and social/academic integration, we bring conceptual clarity to the elements of learning in a course, which consist of written assignments and the accompanying group work. The paper demonstrates a way to help university students to learn via explicit assessment rubrics, and thus offers novel ideas for accounting educators.

This book is recommended reading for everyone who wants to increase their understanding on the history, current stage and future challenges of international accounting, reporting, regulation and standard setting. You have to focus when you read this book. It provides so much information and relevant references that it is highly recommended handbook for every accounting scholar who wants to learn new and recap the existing theories and empirical findings. Especially, the book is recommended for those who are interested in regulation from the international financial reporting perspective.