“The distraction effect of non-audit services on audit quality,” coauthored by Erik Beardsley, Andy Imdieke, and Tom Omer (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Accounting and Economics.

From the abstract -  Regulators have expressed concerns that an emphasis on non-audit services (NAS) could distract from the audit function, even for clients with minimal NAS purchases. Motivated by this concern, we examine whether a greater emphasis on providing NAS to audit clients generally (i.e., not to a specific client) can distract from the audit function, thus reducing audit quality. We find evidence of an NAS distraction effect, where a greater emphasis on NAS at the audit office-level results in more client financial statement restatements, even after controlling for client-specific NAS. Further, the association exists among clients that purchase minimal NAS, suggesting that this association relates to distraction effects in addition to independence issues examined in prior research. This study should be of interest to audit firms, audit committees, and regulators because it provides new evidence regarding issues related to a business model that includes both audit and non-audit services.…

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Andy Imdieke’s Accounting, Organizations and Society (2020) paper, coauthored with Dain C. Donelson (University of Iowa), Matthew Ege (Texas A&M University), and Eldar Maksymov (Arizona State University), was cited by Joseph Brazel in a Forbes (November 16, 2020) article, "Has the revival of consulting practices at the Big 4 impacted their audit quality?"…

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The article, "Managing international operations in uncertain times," coauthored by Ken Milani and Juan Rivera, is published in the November 2020 issue of Strategic Finance. This article is the first in a series of three that will examine budgeting for international operations. The second and third articles will be published in 2020 - 2021.…

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Congratulations to Accountancy's Hal White, who accepted an invitation from the Editorial Board of the Journal of Accounting and Economics to serve as Associate Editor starting Jan. 1, 2021. This well-deserved editorial appointment recognizes Hal's high caliber as a JAE referee and his conscientious and thorough referee reports.…

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Tonia Murphy’s paper, “The Name Game: Merging the Business and Law of Trademarks,” co-authored with Dan Cahoy (Penn State University), has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Legal Studies Education (forthcoming in Vol. 38, Issue 1, in the spring of 2021). Here is the abstract:

 Choosing a good name for a product, service, or entire firm is one of the most important decisions managers make.  To appreciate the full strategic picture, students must consider marketing notions of branding but also trademark law.  This paper reviews the relevant marketing and legal literature.  It provides a suite of hands-on exercises simulating tasks students may face in the business world, culminating in the “name game,” which requires students to balance marketing and legal considerations to choose desirable brand names for an actual product.  …

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Janet O’Tousa, Faculty Advisor for Notre Dame’s Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) chapter, was recently notified that the chapter has received international recognition as a Superior Chapter for their outstanding efforts during the 2019 – 2020 academic year. Achieving Superior status is a tremendous accomplishment, particularly given all the pandemic-related challenges in 2020. Thank you, Janet, for your outstanding leadership with BAP.…

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CARE Research Scholar Marcel Tuijn defended his PhD thesis at Erasmus University on October 16, 2020. Marcel’s thesis is titled “Target the untargeted: essays in unconventional disclosures and policies.” Peter Easton, who attended Marcel’s defense, reports that all on the examination committee were very impressed. Marcel, his Chairman, Erik Peek, and the Rector Magnificus all expressed much appreciation to the University of Notre Dame for their help, encouragement, and collegiality and, in particular, for helping him secure an appointment at SMU’s Cox School of Business (no small feat, given this year’s difficult job market).…

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‘Street’ effective tax rates are more useful in predicting companies' future tax outcomes, recent study by Erik Beardsley finds.

Street earnings metrics such as street ETRs are becoming more and more common, but regulators like the SEC are concerned that non-GAAP metrics can be misleading to readers of financial statements,” Beardsley said. “Our study should be informative to regulators and users of financial statements because it provides evidence that street ETRs are useful. …

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A recently published paper at Accounting, Organizations, and Society by Accountancy's Andy Imdieke titled "The Revival of Large Consulting Practices at the Big 4 and Audit Quality" has been featured on the Business Scholarship Podcast…

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Erik Beardsley’s paper, “Street vs. GAAP: Which Effective Tax Rate is More Informative?,” coauthored with Michael Mayberry (University of Florida) and Sean McGuire (Texas A&M), has been accepted for publication in Contemporary Accounting Research. Here is the abstract:

This study investigates how sophisticated market participants use tax-based information by examining whether analysts’ street effective tax rates (ETRs) are informative. When assessing firm performance, analysts exclude items they believe do not reflect current performance, resulting in “street” metrics such as street ETR. However, evidence on the properties of the components of street earnings is limited. Examining the informativeness of street ETRs is important because taxes are a significant component of earnings, and the extent to which analysts understand and incorporate taxes into their analyses is not clear. Using a hand-collected sample of analyst reports, we find that while …

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Tonia Murphy’s paper, “Law in the Time of Coronavirus: How and Why to Cover Coronavirus Disruptions in a Business Law or Legal Environment Course,” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Business Law and Ethics Pedagogy (Vol. 3(1)). Here is the abstract:

Businesses face an array of legal challenges connected with the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Students will have natural interest in relating the virus that has upended their lives to course material. This paper advises on best practices for teaching in the aftermath of traumatic events. It contains materials and specific suggestions for covering coronavirus-related issues throughout a Business Law or Legal Environment course. It links to over fifty resources, including video clips, court rulings, government and law firm advisories, news reports, law reviews, company press releases, and actual contracts.  …

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Elizabeth Chorvat has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Accounting Research. She serves as Editor of the Taxation / International Taxation Section.…

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Erik Beardsley's entitled "Audit Office Industry Diversity and Audit Quality," co-authored with Nathan Goldman at North Carolina State University and Tom Omer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was accepted for publication at the Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance.…

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John Donovan’s paper, "Financial Reporting and Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Equity Crowdfunding," has been accepted for publication at Management Science. Here is the abstract:

I study the role of accounting and financial reporting in entrepreneurial finance by examining whether financial statement disclosure increases capital raised through equity crowdfunding. On average, I find a positive association between financial reporting and capital raised, suggesting that accounting reduces information asymmetry with potential investors. Additionally, the importance of financial reporting in equity crowdfunding varies predictably in the cross-section. Specifically, financial reporting is associated with greater capital raised when the firm has longer historical operations, during periods of higher macroeconomic uncertainty, and when complemented by detailed shareholder agreements. Finally, using a mediation analysis, I find evidence that financial reporting is indirectly…

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Andy Imdieke’s paper, “The Revival of Large Consulting Practices at the Big 4 and Audit Quality,” co-authored with Dain Donelson (University of Texas at Austin), Matthew Ege (Texas A&M University), and Eldar Maksymov (Arizona State University), has been accepted for publication at Accounting, Organizations and Society…

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John Donovan, whose paper, “Measuring credit risk using qualitative disclosure,” co-authored with Jared Jennings (Washington University), Kevin Koharki (Purdue), and Josh Lee (BYU), has been accepted for publication at Review of Accounting Studies. Here is the abstract:

We use machine learning methods…

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Stephannie Larocque  has been elected as President-Elect of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section (FARS) of the American Accounting Association. FARS serves over 1,600 members of the accounting academic community. Stephannie will serve as the FARS President-Elect in 2020-21, President in 2021-22, and Past President in 2022-23. As FARS President, she will chair the FARS Executive Committee and will appoint FARS members to committees and task forces. Stay tuned … she may be asking you to volunteer! In addition, Stephannie will be responsible for leading the organization of the 2023 FARS Midyear Meeting.…

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Please join me in congratulating Stephannie Larocque, who has been recently appointed to the Editorial Board of Contemporary Accounting Research. Stephannie's term spans from April 2020 to December 2022. 

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Congratulations to Ram Ramanan, who recently had two papers published:

• An analysis of trading volume response to regulatory events affecting major coal mining firms, (with Matthew Hayes and Kirk Phillipich) Oil, Gas & Energy Quarterly, Vol. 67,  No. 3, 2019, pp. 435-444.           
• An inter-temporal analysis of the volatility of oil spot prices and CEO compensation in the oil and gas industry, (with Kirk Phillipich and Junghyun Lee) Oil, Gas & Energy Quarterly, 
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