Journal of Accounting Education最新文献

This study examines the lived reality of public accounting interns, including perceived benefits, costs, and competing frictions that are collectively relevant to the norms and social structures in this labor market. Our evidence suggests that benefits include knowledge acquisition for interns and readily available labor for firms. Costs include ethical dilemmas, pressures to conform, reality shocks, and shared suffering for interns, along with training investments and turnover for firms. Labor market frictions include variation in perceptions of success versus failure for interns, coupled with sustainability implications for the hiring model of firms. Reflecting on the mutuality of these labor market attributes, we present evidence on the consequences for both individuals and the profession. To do so, we collect survey evidence from 257 students who completed a ‘busy-season’ internship in the semester immediately prior to embarking on their Masters of Accountancy (MACC) program (January-April of 2014, 2015 and 2016). After reflecting on insights from that evidence, we then interviewed another 30 MACC students who had returned from their internships following the busy season of 2017 to gain in-depth qualitative evidence about the ‘lived reality’ of the internship experience, focusing on insights about anticipatory socialization, formative experiences and assimilation, along with differential expressions of both success and painful instances of failure. Our study provides details on a replicable internship model that has been sustainable for over 20 years at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and represents a detailed example relevant to understanding the apprenticeship model of public accounting.

For many years, accounting education research has highlighted the need for students to develop stronger critical thinking skills. This need has become even more imperative as the accounting profession continues to transition, and entry-level accountants are expected to demonstrate stronger critical thinking skills earlier in their careers. In this paper, we revisit the higher education literature to identify key recommendations for accounting education to simultaneously develop desired critical thinking skills and accounting technical knowledge. Based on existing research in higher education, we recommend that accounting educators apply a model of cognitive development—the reflective judgment model—to better understand students’ thinking and to design and employ more effective learning activities. To encourage adoption of this approach, we summarize existing accounting education recommendations for improved critical thinking education. Although we believe that these recommendations are beneficial, we recognize that only limited accounting education research supports the ideas presented here. Accordingly, we propose calls to action for additional research in this area. Our students need for us to identify and adopt educational practices to generate graduates who have the critical thinking skills required by our rapidly-changing profession. To meet this need, researchers should actively engage in activities to fill the gap in empirical data about the development of students’ critical thinking skills throughout the accounting curriculum. Also, accounting departments and faculty need to support both educational research and improved learning design.

For the past few decades, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) trend data show that women comprise the majority of accounting graduates from universities, yet the partner levels in accounting firms do not reflect this trend. In this paper, the authors leverage the disclosure of the engagement partner names for each public company audit on Form AP filed with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to explore the gender diversity and educational roots of the audit partners associated with audit firms that generated less than $1 billion revenue in 2019. Using role model theory, the paper explores whether there is a relation between the number of female professors in a school and the number of female students from that school who progress to the partner level. The results show that smaller audit firms have, on par, similar levels of gender diversity among audit partners as the largest accounting firms. The results further show a positive relation between females holding chair positions in accounting departments over extended time periods and female graduates progressing to partner on audit engagements. However, there is no association evident between the number of tenured female full professors and the female graduates who subsequently become audit partners at smaller accounting firms. These results highlight that female faculty holding power positions and female partners in the audit profession remain more rare than common. The need to increase gender diversity for both accounting faculty and professionals suggests that professional networking across academe and industry remains critical.

We describe how accounting and other business professors can add blockchain as a separate course or an addition to an existing course. Based upon a popular, online course at Wayne State University (WSU), we provide examples of a course syllabus, suggested readings, group and individual assignments materials, and student comments. This course addresses two key features that Iansiti & Lakhan (2017) identified about blockchain: novelty and complexity. Given blockchain’s complexity and growing prominence in business, this course develops students’ knowledge, starting with understanding blockchain’s basic concepts and advancing to focus on business applications.

The COVID-19 pandemic required essentially all public accounting professionals to telecommute. However, alternative work arrangements (AWAs) such as telecommuting have long been offered by accounting firms to mitigate work-family conflict and other concerns inherent to the public accounting profession. Prior research has examined attitudes and perceptions about AWAs, but relatively little is known from the AWA adopters themselves and those who work directly with them. Given the heavy reliance on teamwork, multiple supervisors, and multiple clients in public accounting, it is not clear how telecommuting impacts critical relationship dynamics. Accounting students, though experienced with remote learning, can learn from pre-COVID telecommuters’ insights and experiences. In this paper, we interview telecommuters in public accounting as well as a non-telecommuting teammate (subordinate or superior) to develop rich insights about telecommuting’s impact from multiple perspectives. Our findings present best practices and challenges regarding telecommuting implementation within a team setting. Our results are useful to accounting educators as they advise and mentor today’s students, who are likely to enter a workforce with increasing prevalence of telecommuting post-COVID.

This study explores the mediation effect of students’ perceptions toward accounting to enhance their adoption of the deep learning approach. We adopt game-based learning (GBL) using a self-developed LEGO® simulation game as the active learning material. Participants of this study comprised undergraduate students majoring in accounting from a northern university in Italy. This study contributes to the literature by providing several new insights. First, we present statistical evidence of a mediation effect of students’ perceptions toward accounting on their learning approach, although the course offers a short-time activity. Second, we did not confirm the significance of students’ strong image of conformity in accounting as a mediator in the relationship between GBL and a surface approach to learning. We interpret that students hold more favorable images of conformity to accounting than before taking the GBL course, possibly fostering them to engage with deep approach processes while adopting appropriate facilitation of active learning.

This review of the accounting education literature includes 88 articles published during 2020 in five accounting education journals: (1) Journal of Accounting Education, (2) Accounting Education, (3) Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations, (4) Issues in Accounting Education, and (5) The Accounting Educators’ Journal. We update 15 prior accounting education literature reviews by organizing and summarizing contributions to the accounting education literature made during 2020. Articles are categorized into five sections corresponding to traditional knowledge bases: (1) curriculum and instruction, (2) instruction by content area, (3) educational technology, (4) students, and (5) faculty. We summarize the research design of the empirical articles. Suggestions for research are presented. Articles classified as cases published in the same five journals during 2020 are tabulated in an appendix categorized by content area.

The revenue recognition standard, ASU No. 2014-09--codified as ASC 606 Revenue Recognition, which replaces in its entirety ASC 605 Revenue Recognition and amends several other sections of the codification--is significantly affecting revenue recognition in many industries, including the construction industry. An actual construction project inspired this case. The contract for the project included the construction of a bridge over a river, highway bypasses, and a walking and bike path as well as environmental rehabilitation of riverbanks which had been cleared in the past. We provide background information on the need for a new bridge and the various governmental units involved, along with revenue and cost data, and a schedule for completing the various parts of the contract. You are asked to make multiple judgments related to the application of the guidance, including (1) whether the contract in question meets the requirements of a contract as specified in the guidance, (2) what the performance obligations embedded in the contract are, and (3) how revenue might be allocated to the performance obligations. You also must determine appropriate treatment for the changes to the contract and consider the possibility of acceleration of revenue recognition. The case is intended to make you aware that the application of the new guidance may require professional judgment in the face of ambiguous fact patterns and to provide them with experience in dealing with a more complex case than is typically provided in end-of-chapter problems.

Overall trends in the accounting profession worldwide suggest an increased risk of a widening gender gap due to rapid technological development in the Smart Machine Age (SMA). Women in accounting are overrepresented in positions most likely to be displaced by AI, and underrepresented in positions likely to be created or maintained in the SMA. In this article, educators and leaders in the profession are encouraged to address these risks by supporting and encouraging women to pursue advancements in technological literacy, and enhancement of emotional intelligence skills that are less likely to be replaced by machines, such as collaboration, teamwork, and ethical decision-making.