Do Accountants Make Better Chief Financial Officers?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rani Hoitash ◽  
Udi Hoitash ◽  
Ahmet C. Kurt
2017 ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Giovanni Andrea Toselli

This paper represents a contribution from the point of view of a practitioner who strongly believes that it is essential to continue to invest in accounting research. The cooperation between chief financial officers, auditors and academic institutions is central not only for improving the process of accounting regulations but also for relaunching, at the same time, the industrial system (and not only it), by creating a strong feeling of trust in general economic and financial communication, thus fostering higher level of accountability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Doron ◽  
C. Richard Baker ◽  
Kiren Dosanjh Zucker

ABSTRACT This paper traces the evolution of the chief accounting and chief financial officers from minor figures in corporate governance for most of the 20th century to senior management positions by the late 1970s. The paper begins with the testimony before Congress of Arthur Tucker during the debates over the legislation that would become the 1933 Securities Act. Tucker's testimony resulted in the controller or chief accounting officer being included among those persons specifically listed as potentially liable for fraudulent statements or omissions under Section 11 of the Act. The impact of Tucker's efforts, the evolution of the legal liability of financial and accounting officers over the next several decades, the increasing complexity of corporate finance and financial reporting that led to the establishment of the CFO as a position second only to the CEO, and the place of the accounting officer among senior management, are analyzed in the subsequent sections.


2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (s-1) ◽  
pp. 171-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gibbins ◽  
Susan A. McCracken ◽  
Steven E. Salterio

Much of what takes place in auditor-client management negotiations occurs in unobservable settings and normally does not result in publicly available archival records. Recent research has increasingly attempted to probe issues relating to accounting negotiations in part due to recent events in the financial world. In this paper, we compare recalls from the two sides of such negotiations, audit partners, and chief financial officers (CFOs), collected in two field questionnaires. We examine the congruency of the auditors' and the CFOs' negotiation recalls for all negotiation elements and features that were common across the two questionnaires (detailed analyses of the questionnaires are reported elsewhere). The results show largely congruent recall: only limited divergences in recall of common elements and features. Specifically, we show a high level of congruency across CFOs and audit partners in the type of issues negotiated, parties involved in resolving the issue, and the elements making up the negotiation process, including agreement on the relative importance of various common accounting contextual features. The analysis of the common accounting contextual features suggests that certain contextual features are consistently important across large numbers of negotiations, whether viewed from the audit partner's or the CFO's perspective, and hence may warrant future study. Finally, the comparative analysis allows us to identify certain common elements and contextual features that may influence both audit partners and CFOs to consider the accounting negotiation setting as mainly distributive (win-lose).


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 86-97
Author(s):  
Jose Anselmo Perez Reyes ◽  
Montserrat Reyna Miranda ◽  
Jorge Vera-Martínez

Within the framework of behavioral finance, this research shows that financial behavior can be assessed as a cognitive construct. Using certain variables, a multidimensional “cognitive finance” construct can thus be established. Through a technological – psychometric type design with descriptive data analysis, a factor analysis is presented to determine which latent variables tend to charge significantly in order to assess the validity of the dimensions comprising the construct of capital structure and explore its dimensions in relation to financial theory. A 44-item questionnaire is adapted and applied to a sample of chief financial officers from diverse public and nonpublic companies in Mexico. The analysis reveals the existence of four construct dimensions consistent with corporate financial theory. The model helps to explain how decision-makers react to uncertainty and environmental conditions, directly affecting the valuation of firm’s losses or earnings. As evidenced by the results, application of the Item Response Theory to the field of behavioral finance could open up new avenues to the study of cognitive biases, involved in the financial decision-making process. Thus, this implies that behavioral finance can also be treated as “cognitive finance.”


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 787-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean C. Bedard ◽  
Rani Hoitash ◽  
Udi Hoitash

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaveh Asiaei ◽  
Ruzita Jusoh ◽  
Nick Bontis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically explore how the effect of intellectual capital (IC) on organizational performance is indirect and mediated through performance measurement (PM) systems.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a survey of 128 chief financial officers of Iranian publicly listed companies. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares regression, a structural modeling technique which is appropriate for highly complex predictive models.FindingsResults from the structural model indicate that, in general, companies with a higher level of IC place a premium on the balanced use of PM systems in a diagnostic and interactive style. Furthermore, the results provide some evidence that IC is indirectly associated with organizational performance through the intervening variable of the balanced use of interactive and diagnostic PM systems.Practical implicationsThis study sheds light on the issue of how senior management should use PM systems to take full advantage of intellectual assets which could lead to improved organizational performance.Originality/valueThis is the first study of its kind to synthesize a model which examines IC, PM systems, and organizational performance. Although the effect of different types of intangible assets on performance has been substantially examined in the literature, less effort has been devoted to understanding the role of PM systems in leveraging an organization’s IC.


Author(s):  
Eric R. Condie ◽  
Kara M. Obermire ◽  
Timothy A. Seidel ◽  
Michael S. Wilkins

In this study, we investigate the financial reporting behavior of chief financial officers (CFOs) with significant prior audit experience. Our tests indicate that, on average, CFOs who were former audit managers or partners report less aggressively than CFOs without prior audit experience. Thus, the mindset that auditors develop during their time in public accounting – which should value objective, transparent, and conservative financial reporting – appears to persist when auditors take high-level positions in industry. However, we also find that the reporting behavior of prior-auditor CFOs becomes more aggressive over time as the salience of their audit experience decays. Further, we find that audit fees are lower for clients with prior-auditor CFOs but increase as the CFOs’ time away from auditing increases. Overall, our study offers important insights regarding how audit experience is associated with the financial reporting behavior of CFOs.


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