Larry N. Killough

Testing the Interaction Effects of Task Complexity in Computer Training Using the Social Cognitive Model

Using a Modified Social Cognitive Theory framework, this study examines the behavior modeling and lecture-based training approaches to computer training. It extends the existing Social Cognitive Model for computer training by adding the task complexity construct to training method, prior performance, computer self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and performance. A sample of 249 students from a large state university served as participants in a laboratory experiment that was conducted to determine the task complexity*training method and task complexity* self-efficacy interaction effects on performance. Structural equation modeling with interaction effects was used to analyze the data. The results show that behavior modeling outperforms lecture-based training in a measure of final performance when task complexity is high. Further, it is found that computer self-efficacy has a greater positive effect on performance when task complexity is high than when task complexity is low. Prior performance is also found to be an important variable in the model.

Underreporting and premature sign‐off in public accounting

This study uses the ethical decision‐making model to examine underreporting and premature audit sign‐off in public accounting. Structural equation modelling results indicate that accountants view premature sign‐off activities differently from underreporting activities. For example, those accountants who use a teleological moral evaluation process, and who perceive a greater likelihood of reward are more likely to underreport. That these variables are not significantly related to the likelihood of premature sign‐off suggests that accountants may use a consequences‐based approach when making decisions having lesser ethical content (like underreporting), but employ a different decision process when faced with decisions having greater ethical content (like whether to prematurely sign‐off). The results also suggest that supervisors and managers are less likely to underreport, and to prematurely sign‐off, than senior and staff‐level accountants, and that accountants with an internal locus of control are less likely (than externals) to either underreport or prematurely sign‐off.

Components and relative weights in utilization of dashboard measurement systems like the Balanced Scorecard

Abstract This study provides empirical evidence on how dashboard measures are utilized in the evaluation of organizational performance. A hypothetical case, complete with dashboard measures, was presented to MBA students and graduate accounting students. Participants were asked to identify the importance of various measures and evaluate the organizations performance. Evidence gathered through the use of principal components analysis provided insight into the number of perspectives or components utilized in evaluating an organizations performance and the relative weight placed on each of those components by users of dashboard measurement systems. The evidence suggests that the number of performance measurement components and their relative composition is situational. They depend heavily on strategies of the organization. Bottom-line financial measures like return on invested capital and net profit, while perceived as more important than their nonfinancial counterparts, were not part of the extracted components suggesting that they were viewed as outcomes to be achieved by controlling more significant nonfinancial measures.

An empirical examination of stress in public accounting

Abstract This paper presents the results of an investigation of stress in public accounting, using a national sample of certified public accountants. The relationship between a set of predictor variables (organizational stressors and work/home conflict) and a set of criterion variables (job-related tension, job dissatisfaction, and propensity to leave public accounting) was analyzed using canonical correlation analysis. Job-related tension was associated with heavy work demands; job dissatisfaction and intension to leave were associated with slow career progress, unfulfilling jobs, and unclear job objectives.

An Experiment Testing the Determinants of Non-Compliance with Insider Trading Laws

Recent stories of corporate insiders avoiding losses and, in some cases, generating enormous personal profits as their companies crumbled have led investors to question the integrity of American business and the fairness of the United States stock markets. The SEC tries to ensure the fairness of the stock markets by making and enforcing laws against unfair practices such as insider trading. In the United States, when insiders trade stock based on non-public information, they have broken the law and betrayed the trust that has been placed in them.This study used student subjects to test the relationship between the likelihood of trading based on insider information and subjective probabilities of deterrents and motivations for insider trading. Expected gain, guilt, cynicism, and fairness of laws were the determinants that had a significant relationship with the intent to trade based on insider information. This study also found support for prospect theory with regard to insider trading. The results indicate that subjects are more likely to trade based on insider information to avoid a loss than to achieve an abnormal gain. The study also finds evidence of social desirability response bias.Additional findings of the study were that subjects did not view the determinants for themselves in a manner consistent with how they viewed those same deterrents and motivations for other people. Also, a test of the effects of gender found that certainty and social stigma were significantly higher for female respondents than for male respondents.

The effectiveness of a complaint-based ethics enforcement system: Evidence from the accounting profession

Many professions, in order to enforce their ethics codes, rely on a complaint-based system, whereby persons who observe or discover ethics violations may file a complaint with an authoritative body. The authors assume that this type of system may encourage ethical behavior when practitioners believe that a punishment is likely to result from a failure to adhere to the rules. This perceived likelihood of punishment has three components: detection risk, reporting risk, and sanction risk. A survey of potential violation witnesses related to the accounting profession revealed that the professions complaint-based enforcement system may not provide practitioners with the necessary disincentive to refrain from code violations.

Financial Measures Bias in the Use of Performance Measurement Systems

This paper examines potential cognitive difficulties inherent in the use of performance measurement systems. We examine the potential for emphasizing financial measures as compared to nonfinancial measures in the evaluation of an organizations overall performance. The results suggest that users of performance measurement data will emphasize historical financial measures. Two separate experiments provide additional evidence that users of performance measurement data suffer a halo bias, in that an organizations performance on financial measures appears to influence their perception of the organizations performance on nonfinancial measures.

THE INTERACTION EFFECTS OF LEAN PRODUCTION MANUFACTURING PRACTICES, COMPENSATION, AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS ON PRODUCTION COSTS: A RECURSIVE PARTITIONING MODEL

The study re-examines if lean production manufacturing practices (i.e. TQM and JIT) interact with the compensation system (incentive vs. fixed compensation plans) and information system (i.e. attention directing goals and performance feedback) to reduce production costs (in terms of manufacturing and warranty costs) using a recursive partitioning model. Decision trees (i.e. recursive partitioning algorithm using Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection or CHAID) are constructed on data from 77 U.S. manufacturing firms in the electronics industry. Overall, the “decision tree” results show significant interaction effects. In particular, the study found that better manufacturing performance (i.e. lower production costs) can be achieved when lean production manufacturing practices such as TQM and JIT are used along with incentive compensation plans. Also, synergies do result from combining TQM/JIT with more frequent performance feedback along with attention directing goals. These findings suggest that if organisational infrastructure and management control systems are not aligned with manufacturing practices, then the potential benefits of lean manufacturing (i.e. TQM and JIT) may not be fully realised.