Richard A. Bernardi

Signaling Gender Diversity Through Annual Report Pictures: A Research Note on Image Management

This research examines the differences in presentation of boards of directors in annual reports. Our sample consists of 472 corporations from the Fortune 500; 130 (342) of these corporations included (did not include) pictures of their boards of directors. The proportion of female directors was 11.0 percent for firms that did not include pictures of their boards and 14.5 percent for firms that included pictures of their boards in their annual reports. The difference in the gender mix of these two groups is significant (p = 0.0002). This indicates that firms with a higher percentage of women on their boards signal this fact to stockholders, investors, and other constituents by including pictures of their boards in their annual reports.

Validating Research Results when Cronbach'S Alpha is Below .70: A Methodological Procedure:

The study involved 494 auditors from five Big Six accounting firms. Although two of the cognitive tests used in the research had Cronbachs alphas in the .70 to .90 range, the Defining Issues Test had an alpha of .35. This research investigated the relationship between cognitive test elements and the sample to determine the causes of the low alpha. The procedure described in the research is a method that can be used to validate research data when Cronbachs alpha is below .70. The research findings indicate that unbundling both the test and the sample provide statistically sound justification for continuing to use all research data for a highly homogeneous sample.

Does Female Representation on Boards of Directors Associate With Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work For” List?

This study examines the influence of women in business using a sample of firms on Fortunes “100 Best Companies to Work For” list and is an extension of Bernardi et al.s work. We use the data from Bernardi et al. to determine whether a higher representation of women on a board signals an increased commitment of a firm to a quality environment and employment characteristics necessary to establish the firm on Fortunes “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. Our findings include a significant increase in the number of female directors on Fortune 500 companies between 1977 and 2001. The initial analysis of the 27 firms appearing on both Fortunes “100 Best Companies to Work For” list and the Fortune 500 in 2001 indicates a positive correlation between the number of female directors and a companys appearance on the “100 Best Companies to Work For” list.

The association between European materiality estimates and client integrity, national culture, and litigation

Abstract The research examines the differences in materiality estimates for a sample of 181 experienced auditors from Big-Six firms located in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the UK. We asked each auditor to estimate materiality for a client whose integrity his/her firm rated as either high or low [Ir. Account. Rev. 1 (1994) 1.]. The research found that low client-integrity ratings resulted in lower materiality estimates for the European auditors. The research also indicates that as the cultural construct of Uncertainty Avoidance [Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultures consequences. Beverly Hills: Sage.] increased, materiality estimates also increased. Although one might have anticipated that materiality would decrease with the level of litigation, it, in fact, increased. We also compared the data from the western European countries with the estimates from a group of 83 auditors from the same Big-Six firms located in the United States. 1

Cheating and Whistle-Blowing in the Classroom

This study surveyed 195 business students (74 women and 121 men) from three institutions on various aspects of honesty in academics. The study is driven by a concern for the audit implications of the increasing evidence of the link between unethical behavior in college and the workplace and students’ increasing insensitivity to ethical issues. The results of the study evaluate students’ opinions of cheating and the percentage of students who have or would whistle-blow if they observe cheating. The study also examined whether characteristics such as prior cheating behavior, gender, social desirability response bias (SDRB), the belief about doing more about cheating, and prior whistle-blowing will affect a students intent to whistle-blow. Our data extends prior research on cheating and SDRB by testing their association with students’ self-reported tendency to whistle-blow. Our research indicates that students who have whistle-blown have a higher reported intention to whistle-blow after accounting for the effect of SDRB. Our data indicate that students’ intentions are an important factor that should be considered by instructors as well as researchers.

Ranking North American accounting scholars publishing ethics research: 1986 through 2008

This research is a 6-year extension of Bernardis (2005) initial ranking of the top ethics authors in accounting; it also represents a broadening of the scope of the original data into accountings top-40 journals. While Bernardi only considered publications in business-ethics journals in his initial ranking, we developed a methodology to identify ethics articles in accountings top-40 journals. The purpose of this research is to provide a more complete list of accountings ethics authors for use by authors, administrators, and other stakeholders. In this study, 26 business-ethics and accountings top-40 journals were analyzed for a 23-year period between 1986 through 2008. Our data indicate that 16.8 percent of the 4,680 colleagues with either a PhD or DBA who teach accounting at North American institutions had authored/coauthored one ethics article and only 6.3 percent had authored/coauthored more than one ethics article in the 66 journals we examined. Consequently, 83.2 percent of the PhDs and DBAs in accounting had not authored/coauthored even one ethics article.

The Place of Ethics Scholarship in the U.S. Accounting Academy: Accounting Doctorates' Research Productivity in Ethics Journals

While there has been research that assesses the research productivity of doctoral programs, the existing research uses journals that do not include ethics as a principal area of interest for manuscripts. In an era that witnessed the Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal, among other publicized ethical lapses, the resultant expectation would be for an increased focus/emphasis on ethics in mainstream accounting research. Given the hue and cry about ethics and the acknowledged/conferred responsibility of academia for the development of ethical graduates, perhaps ethics should be one of the primary research themes and paradigms in accounting scholarship. To the extent that this is an acknowledged and accepted destination, it is essential to know where we currently stand on this important journey.This research provides data on the level of productivity in accounting ethics research for the graduates of doctoral programs in accounting from 1969 through 1998. We rate this productivity using the research published in 21 ethics journals, which were analyzed for the 35-year period (1968-2002). The study identifies the doctoral programs graduating the largest number of scholars publishing ethics research.

Classroom Cheating: Reasons not to Whistle-Blow and the Probability of Whistle-Blowing

This study surveyed 309 business students (180 men and 129 women) enrolled in introductory accounting and business law classes on various aspects of honesty in academics. The study was motivated by the need to examine the underlying issues associated with students’ perceptions of cheating and whistle-blowing. An increased understanding of these perceptions would be insightful to professors as well as administrators. The study examines students’ reasons on whether they should whistle-blow and whether their reasons associate with their intentions to whistle-blow if they observe cheating. When examining a students intent to whistle-blow, we considered the students prior cheating behavior, gender, social desirability response bias, intentions to cheat in the future, reasons not to whistle-blow, and prior whistle-blowing. Our data extends prior research by considering the reasons students choose not to whistle-blow. Our research indicates that the number of reasons not to whistle-blow and having observed other students cheating reduced the likelihood of a student whistle-blowing, after controlling for social desirability response bias. The research indicates that to prevent unethical behavior in the future, institutions need to enforce consequences for those who cheat because unethical behavior at the academic level associates with unethical behavior in the corporate setting.

Establishing a baseline for assessing the frequency of auditors' comments concerning perceived client integrity

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether comments made by Big-Six auditors about their post-audit perceptions of the clients integrity were influenced by their firms rating of the clients integrity prior to the start of the current audit. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses an established fraud detection case study with a manipulation of client integrity. The participants include 152 managers and 342 seniors from five of the then Big-Six firms. Findings - The findings indicates that auditors were insensitive to client integrity ratings in the audit planning/risk assessment stage of the audit. Practical implications - The very foundation of corporate governance and the value of the audit are weakened when client integrity is questionable and may not result in implementing more rigorous audit procedures suggested by Mautz and Sharaf. Originality/value - The existent literature cannot be used to determine whether or not Auditing Standards enacted since 1991 have had any effect on the practice of auditing in this area. Consequently, this paper contributes to the literature by establishing a 1991 (i.e. before Statement of Auditing Standards 82) baseline for evaluation purposes. (A baseline being a point of reference to compare the results of future research.)

Ranking accounting authors and departments in accounting education: different methodologies – significantly different results

ABSTRACT This research tests whether Holderness Jr., D. K., Myers, N., Summers, S. L., & Wood, D. A. [(2014). Accounting education research: Ranking institutions and individual scholars. Issues in Accounting Education, 29(1), 87–115] accounting-education rankings are sensitive to a change in the set of journals used. It provides updated rankings for accounting-education authors from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States using a sample that included the publications in 13 accounting-education journals. Our analysis indicated that Holderness et al.’s rankings of authors and departments were significantly different from our rankings. This research provides rankings of the top 50 authors and departments for three periods: from 2010 to 2015, from 2004 to 2015, and from 1992 to 2015. We provide data indicating the distribution of authors for these periods to assist authors not listed in the most prolific lists in determining their relative ranking. Finally, we provide data on the distribution of journal choices for accounting-education publications for the authors from each country.