The effect of bias on decision usefulness: A review of behavioral financial accounting research

Abstract

The current paper reviews behavioral research in financial accounting published in the decade 1990–1999. The review focuses on the usefulness of accounting information and the propensity of users to improperly integrate accounting information into their decisions. Prior research findings are organized in terms of the behavioral finance model of financial decision-making. The review of accounting behavioral research studies suggests that the findings of prior work are disjointed and perhaps contradictory. There does not appear to be a stream of research on a particular task, such as bankruptcy prediction, or a dominant research paradigm such as the lens model, which literature reviews on earlier periods were able to trace. Yet there is a strong theoretical basis for considering the role of individual behaviors in explaining the inability of financial statement users to predict earnings and cash flows with relative accuracy. Additional research that systematically examines individual bias could contribute to an understanding of usefulness of accounting information in a decision context.