Sarah A. Holmes

Job perceptions and turnover behavior of tenure-track accounting educators

Abstract This paper compares the job-related need fulfillment of academic accountants in 1994 with that reported nearly a quarter of a century earlier by Carpenter and Strawser (1971. A study of the job satisfaction of academic accountants. The Accounting Review (July), 46, 509-518). We also investigate whether job dissonance (dissatisfaction resulting from unmet needs) foreshadowed turnover of faculty respondents during the 2-year period following our survey. Results suggest that fulfillment for most job-related needs was lower for 1994 accounting educators than for their 1970 counterparts. Within the 1994 sample, certain perceptual differences were attributed to both race (black versus non-black) and gender. Regardless of demographics, however, reported job dissonance in 1994 was strongly associated with subsequent job turnover, particularly among assistant professors. Taking steps to reduce or eliminate job dissonance is arguably more important in todays environment than in 1994. Accounting faculty members today enjoy a greater number of opportunities and thus can more readily remove themselves from situations that create perceived job dissonance.

The relation between audit pricing and audit contract type: a public sector analysis

Abstract Our study used North Carolina local government data to examine the extent to which audit contract type is capable of explaining the variation in audit fees, after controlling for variables found to be significant correlates in prior audit economics studies (e.g., Z. Palmrose, The Account. Rev. 64 (3) (1989) 494). We used a LOGIT regression model to identify factors associated with the probability of negotiating a particular contract type, either fixed fee or cost-reimbursement. We found evidence that audit fees are, on average, lower for fixed fee contracts than for cost-reimbursement contracts. Also, the probability of negotiating a fixed fee contract increased for governmental units with higher financial risk when they engaged an independent auditor with more knowledge about the public sector.

The role of accounting practices in the disempowerment of the coahuiltecan Indians

This paper argues that a complex of accounting measures — account books, inventories of accumulated wealth, and detailed instructions for production performance — were used to inculcate Western values into the native population located at five Franciscan missions along the San Antonio River in New Spain (present-day Texas) from 1718 to 1794. Bolstered by the need to alleviate communications problems caused by extreme isolation, the missionaries constructed detailed mission documents that described the acquisition of scarce resources, reported the aggregation of material and spiritual mission wealth, and controlled daily production performance of the native population. In short, the resulting mission economic system, which held the Indians to certain notions of accountability, primarily by restricting their choices, nourished the Western view of income distribution based on effort. We propose that these procedures ultimately caused the Coahuiltecans to abandon their native beliefs, and gradually, to be abs...

The association of gender with academic accountant salaries

Abstract This study investigates whether observed salary differences of accounting academics persist after controlling for personal differences in education, past academic employment, and professional achievement. We model salary as a function of gender, years worked, achieved rank, quality of both the individuals doctoral granting and current institutions, and individual productivity, as measured by both the quantity and quality of journal articles published. We calculate the unique explanatory effect and the indirect effect of gender in the salary model, arguing that if gender displays significant explanatory power, discrimination in hiring practices and/or in the subsequent allocation of rewards may exist. Our study contributes to the research on compensation and salary inequities in that we utilize publicly available data collected from the budgets of a large sample of public institutions as our measure of salary, thus enhancing the objectivity of the dependent variable. Also, the determinants of salary (specifically, research publication quality) are captured in a more accurate and comprehensive fashion than in previous studies. In contrast to previous research findings, our results suggest that gender is not associated with systematic differences in the salary of accounting faculty. Both research productivity and work experience vary across gender. Therefore, since males, on average, had a greater number of publications and more seniority, their salaries were higher than those of female faculty members. The results suggest that discrimination against either gender is not pervasive in the salary structure of the accounting academic comunity.

Fraud in the governmental and private sectors

The objective of this paper is to identify and provide a description, assessment, and analysis of frauds occurring in governmental entities at the federal, state, and local levels and to compare these findings to data from the private sector. Analyses are conducted along the following dimensions: the victim of the fraud, its perpetrator(s), the fraud scheme, and the detection and investigation of the fraudulent activity. In addition, the conditions under which the frauds occurred in both the public and private sectors are described, discussed, and analyzed. Data were obtained from a mail survey distributed to the membership of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. A total of 2,471 responses containing details of actual fraud cases were received. Of these, 611 cases described frauds that had occurred in governmental units and 1,860 depicted frauds that had occurred in the private sector. The findings of this study clearly indicate that no entity is immune to victimization by criminal activities of a financial nature.