Brazilian Accounting Research Articles

Working at the boundaries: Middle managerial work as a source of emancipation and alienation

The current article examines the experience of middle management through the concept of boundary work, characterized as the work of negotiating between multiple roles in the interstices of organizational groups. Through an ethnographic study of a Brazilian accounting firm, we explore the ambivalent experience of boundary work as characteristic of professional middle managerial workers. Our managers described themselves as proactive and reflexive agents, on the one hand, yet also as lacking autonomy and a sense of belonging, on the other. We examine this tension as a contrast between forces of emancipation (i.e. sense of mastery, autonomy, empowerment and reflexivity) and alienation (i.e. fatigue, lack of self-determination, and detachment from their profession and coworkers). We discuss these forces and their implications for managerial work in the light that, in our findings, managers routinely shift between being agential and reflexive mediators (boundary subjects) and interfacing and coordination devices (boundary objects).

Predictive ability of accruals before and after IFRS in the Brazilian stock market

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyze and assess the predictive ability of discretionary accruals (DAs) and non-discretionary accruals (NDAs) for forecasting future cash flows before and after the convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Brazil. The study is warranted due to the scarcity of research in Brazil on the subject and is relevant because it aims to shed light on whether the changes occurring due to convergence with IFRS in Brazil have improved accounting quality. The accounting choices of managers and accountants in the Brazilian stock market, enabled by IFRS, contribute to an apparent improvement in accounting quality in terms of reliability, the faithful representation of entities’ equity and financial positions, and in particular, the predictive ability for forecasting future cash flows. The population was composed of publicly traded companies listed on the Bovespa and São Paulo Stock, Commodities, and Futures Exchange (BM&FBovespa) in 2004 to 2007 and 2010 to 2015. The non-probability convenience sample is composed of 715 enterprises, once companies from the “finance and insurance” and “funds” sectors and even those considered as “holding” were excluded. The data were pooled by year, as they contain different companies over the time series (unbalanced panel data). The DAs and NDAs produced prior to full convergence with IFRS are negative and statistically significant for predicting future cash flows in the Brazilian stock market, which indicated opportunistic/contractual earnings management. One of the possible explanations for this would be the influence of government tax authorities on Brazilian accounting norms, which could induce managers to manipulate accounting results with the aim of reducing earnings in order to pay fewer taxes, for example. The DAs and NDAs produced after IFRS are positive and statistically significant for predicting future cash flows in the Brazilian stock market, signaling the motivation of discretionary accounting choices under the informational aspect. Current DAs and NDAs add informational power compared to current aggregate accruals. It has also been observed that the current DAs and NDAs originating after IFRS in Brazil, compared to current aggregate accruals, have an informational gain in relation to those produced before.

Combinação de Negócios e os impactos societários e tributários das IFRSs no Brasil: desafios apresentados aos operadores do Direito e aos operadores das IFRSs

Resumo As operações de Combinação de Negócios (CN) indiscutivelmente constituem uma área de estudo multidisciplinar de grande riqueza conceitual. Questões do ramo do Direito Societário, do Direito Tributário e do Direito Econômico emergem naturalmente. O estudioso no tema também é instigado a enveredar pelos campos da Contabilidade Societária e Tributária e das Finanças Corporativas na busca por uma melhor compreensão do mesmo. Este artigo tem o objetivo de analisar algumas CN, sob uma abordagem de pesquisa normativa, considerando dispositivos das IFRSs voltados à disciplina do tema, em particular a IFRS n. 3, que espelha no Brasil o CPC n. 15, e os seus desdobramentos em matéria de Legislação Tributária e Societária. Verifica-se que muitas controvérsias surgem em matéria de Direito Societário e de Legislação Tributária. Anomalias no tratamento contábil societário de algumas operações são observadas também, como é o caso da contraprestação contingente liquidada em ações de própria emissão da sociedade controlada. O autor espera que este trabalho contribua para o debate das questões abordadas.

Institutional development and public control: Analyzing the Brazilian accountability system.

This paper aims to analyze the institutional development process of accountability institutions in Brazil. Scholars have identified an incremental development process of horizontal accountability institutions in Brazil, stimulating an important process in democracy. Our argument is that the incremental development process of accountability institutions was not followed by systemic developments able to encompass all accountability institutions. The reason for this is that, in spite of incremental advances, there has been no development regarding the procedural ecology of accountability institutions, thus hampering coordinated and cooperative actions between institutions. We analyzed the procedural flow from the Public Sweepstakes Program of the Comptroller General in Brazil as well as the performance of the institutions of the accountability system. We also conducted interviews with the leaders of accountability institutions in order to address the issue of cooperation and strategic coordination of the system of institutions.

Convergência contábil e rentabilidade de fundos de investimentos em ações

Os fundos de investimento têm se tornado uma opção acessível e com expressiva participação no mercado financeiro, até mesmo para pequenos investidores. A literatura aponta alguns fatores que afetam sua rentabilidade, geralmente relacionados à estrutura do fundo e ao portfólio escolhido pelos gestores. Além disso, as recentes alterações nos padrões contábeis brasileiros podem ter também afetado a rentabilidade dos fundos, a partir da postulada melhoria na qualidade da informação e consequente redução na assimetria informacional. Neste contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar a relação entre a adoção das IFRS pelas empresas abertas e a rentabilidade dos fundos de ações brasileiros. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva com abordagem quantitativa, realizada por meio de uma pesquisa documental. Utilizou-se uma amostra de fundos de investimento em ações do tipo Sustentabilidade/Governança e de 27 empresas de capital aberto, das quais 9 realizaram a adoção voluntária ao padrão contábil internacional no ano de 2008. O período analisado foi de Janeiro de 2007 a Setembro de 2013. Os resultados da pesquisa não se mostraram alinhados às hipóteses iniciais, pois houve maior correlação da rentabilidade dos fundos com a rentabilidade das ações das empresas antes da adoção obrigatória, ou seja, quando elas não adotavam as normas IFRS.

ADEQUAÇÃO DE EMPRESAS DO MERCADO DE CAPITAIS AO CPC 28 (PROPRIEDADES PARA INVESTIMENTO)

The convergence of Brazilian accounting standards with international accounting standards generated a series of studies directed to analysis, interpretation, verification and identification of items such: meeting standards, its cost/benefit, among other possibilities. We sought in this work to check whether the information disclosed by the publicly traded Brazilian companies on non-current assets section – Investment Property fully meet the recommended requirements in CPC 28, aiming the compliance of the information brought to market with the accounting standards used. The methodology adopted was based on the literature, by proposing a descriptive analysis with a qualitative approach of the different positions on the proposed goal. We emphasize in the analysis of data that companies which measure their assets at fair value had a higher volume of disclosure of information regarding the ones which opted for the cost. We also observed that there was a general evolution in the period analyzed about disclosures, however, due to lack of an effective standard of disclosure of the items required by the standard may be occurring comparability issues as well as difficulties in interpretation, resulting in gaps that can generate the omission of important information. Keywords: Investment property; mensuration; disclosed accounting informations.

Job Complexity and Cognitive Aging: What Can We Learn from Accounting Practice?

We show that auditing practice is more likely to prevent cognitive reflection abilities (CR-abilities) decline than financial reports elaboration practice. We rely on the institutionally unique setting of the Brazilian accounting profession together with previous research and interviews to reason that, while auditors and preparers follow indistinguishable educational paths, auditors usually engage in more cognitively taxing tasks than preparers. We collect data from a large number of Brazilian CPAs and use a quasi-experimental approach to estimate the moderation effect of career on the relationship between aging and CR-abilities. We find that CR-abilities do not differ at early career stages, but preparers’ CR-abilities decline across aging, whereas auditors’ CR-abilities are preserved. We cluster CPAs by age subgroups and compare auditors and preparers who are very similar across several personal and professional individual characteristics but career. This approach overcomes some of the pitfalls of previous studies, strengthening causal inferences.

Factors affecting success in the professional entry exam for accountants in Brazil

ABSTRACTThis paper explores factors that have affected the success of candidates in the professional entry exam conducted by Brazil’s Federal Council of Accounting. We analyse results of 18,948 candidates who sat for the exam in 2012, using a logistic regression model and the key indicators used by government to monitor the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the characteristics of candidates. We find that success is related positively to the quality of the HEIs from which candidates graduated and to a measure of student ability that is used widely in Brazil. We find also that males perform better than females and that younger candidates perform better than older candidates. The geographical region of Brazil within which candidates completed the exam was also significant. The insights provided will help public policy-makers in Brazil, and the Brazilian accounting profession, to understand key factors associated with current low pass rates.

Middle-Managers and their Boundary Work: An Ethnographic Study

How managers facilitate cross-functional collaboration across intraorganizational symbolic boundaries separating actors has been a seminal and persistent academic puzzle. Whereas these boundaries may represent barricades to collaboration, their overcoming and management may enable latent opportunities for collaboration, knowledge transfer and innovation to manifest. Drawing upon a multi-site ethnographic study of middle-managers in a Brazilian accounting firm, we demonstrate how these managers resolve disparities manifested at boundaries. They sustain varieties of boundary work so as to dynamically keep influencing and capitalizing on the sensitive relations at three increasingly intricate boundary domains: the syntactic, the semantic and the political. We theorize and illustrate our boundary work concept, and identify its scholarly and practical affordances and limitations for understanding middle- managers’ work capabilities on cross-functional collaboration.

Quando se esforçar mais e não gastar mais faz toda a diferença: o caso da saúde pública em municípios do estado de São Paulo.

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar a efetividade do atual modelo de financiamento de saúde pública no Brasil no nível municipal. Após uma introdução da evolução do Sistema Único de Saúde e do sistema contábil brasileiro, explorou-se como é realizado o gasto no setor. Em síntese, buscou-se avaliar se um aumento das despesas com saúde, mensurada com o índice de mortalidade infantil, bem como o esforço do gestor público, medido pela sua capacidade de ampliar a arrecadação, melhoram a qualidade da saúde pública. Os resultados apontam que o comprometimento do administrador público é importante, ainda que o aumento puro e simples do gasto não leve a um melhor desempenho.

Divulgação de informações sociais e ambientais por cooperativas agrícolas brasileiras

A preocupação da sociedade com os aspectos sociais e ambientais trouxe novos recursos para as organizações. As empresas precisam ter políticas ambientais e através de um planejamento proporcionar a realização de atividades que abordam estas questões. A fim de satisfazer as necessidades das partes interessadas, organizações publicam informações sobre as suas práticas sociais e ambientais nos relatórios e ambientes virtuais. Entre os formatos das empresas, cooperativas aumentam no Brasil e estão inseridas ao grupo das maiores exportadoras do país. Dadas estas características, o trabalho tem como objetivo identificar o documento utilizado para divulgar informações sobre ambiente e quais os elementos que compõem estas publicações, nos sites das cooperativas que exportam. Foi utilizado a análise documental de publicações feitas nos sites das oito cooperativas e as variáveis da Norma Brasileira de Contabilidade N°. 15. Cinco destas cooperativas divulgam em diferentes volumes de recursos de informação e do uso como websites, relatórios específicos e inclusão em relatórios de gestão. Todavia as publicações sobre o assunto precisam ser aperfeiçoadas para melhor informar os usuários destas informações. Assim haverá melhor qualidade nas publicações e facilitará a leitura e interpretação destes dados que se tornam públicos a sociedade quando divulgados, principalmente em ambientes virtuais, ao qual o acesso a informação torna-se facilitado.

AN ASSESSMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS' COGNITIVE REFLECTION ABILITY

In this paper, we map Brazilian professional accountants’ cognitive reflection abilities, exploring the demographic characteristics associated with such ability. To operationalize individuals’ cognitive reflection ability, we use the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Our sample consists of 4,902 Brazilian accountants who voluntarily answered an online survey. We analyze data using three ordered logistic regression (ologit) models that provide a good fit for our data set. Our exploratory analysis reveals that male Brazilian accountants tend to be more reflective than their female counterparts. We also find that professional accountants tend to become less reflective, and, consequentially, more impulsive, as they age. Besides that, we present evidence that preparers and managers working for larger companies tend to be less reflective than their counterparts working for smaller firms. Additionally, our results suggest that auditors’ scores on CRT are significantly higher than preparers’, analysts’, managers’ and professors’ scores, raising interesting questions for future research. Our findings contribute not only to the literature in accounting and psychology, but also for practitioners interested in understanding how cognitive reflection abilities relate to demographic characteristics within the accounting field. Since cognitive reflection abilities significantly affect JDM quality, as reported in previous studies, the importance of our findings connects to the remarkable role that JDM plays in several fields of accounting activity. To our knowledge, our study is the first to assess how demographic individual characteristics predict CRT scores looking at professionals that share a background in a very specific area. Besides, we use the largest data set that we are aware of for studies of similar nature.

Custos Ocultos: Um Estudo das Características das Publicações em Periódicos Nacionais de Contabilidade

This study analyzes the characteristics of the articles published in Brazilian journals of accounting from 2000-2015 with respect to the topic of hidden costs. Hidden costs occur during an organization's management process, although they are not routinely perceived. They have their origin in internal or external dysfunctions of the organization and represent lapses and missed earnings. The nature of the study is quantitative and bibliometric. The sample was composed of 16 articles on the subject of hidden costs published in Brazilian accounting journals listed by the National Association of Graduate Programs in Accounting (ANPCONT) during the period under analysis. Principal findings indicate that only 7 of the 37 journals analyzed published on the subject, for a total of 16 articles . This represents only 0.22% of all articles published in the journals analyzed. It is further noted that only 2 of the 16 articles were published in journals having a Qualis rating higher than B2. Forty-eight (48) different authors participated in the preparation of these studies, with only one author participating in more than one article. With respect to the specific issues addressed, environmental costs are noteworthy, present in 4 of the 16 articles analyzed. The contribution of this study is the identification of the lack of academic development on the subject, given the low number of articles published and the predominance of exploratory research (found in 7 of the studies analyzed).

A Utilização do Shadow e do Silent Reports Como Instrumentos de Evidenciação das Informações Socioambientais: O Caso da Usina Hidrelétrica de Belo Monte

The Shadow Report and the Silent Report are two suggested tools to improve the environmental information. This research aims to analyze the shadow and silent reports disclosed by the Norte Energia corporation about the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in Volta Grande do Xingu. In this study, qualitative and descriptive characteristics were collected and analysed. The following data were analysed for the construction of Shadow and Silent Reports: the treatment of environmental contingencies; the mitigation of environmental impact - the impact on Volta Grande do Xingu’s icthyofauna (fish); population growth in the region of Altamira. We found that the Brazilian accounting standards have been followed by Norte Energia. There is a trial basis about the mitigation projects of environmental impact on fish on the region. We also identified a significant divergence between the Shadow and Silent Report findings with relation to population growth in the region of Altamira.

Economic Valuation Methods: The Perception of the Accountants of the Hydroeletric Power Sector in Brazil

The aim of the present study was to verify how accountants perceive the electric power companies in Brazil, regarding the use of economic valuation methods for measuring environmental impacts on hydroelectric power generation. These methods would be used in the internalisation of impacts in compliance with accounting theory criteria of recognition, measurement and disclosure of relevant economic activities. This is an exploratory study based on the conclusion regarding the collected data from a questionnaire answered by accountants, who worked in the electric power sector and were members of the Brazilian Electric Power Sector Accountants Association (ABRACONEE). The research showed that 74% of respondents were accountants or accounting analysts, 92% of them believed that companies should account for (internalise) environmental impacts caused by their activities, and 75% of them believed that this task should be based on detailed and specific norms determining what should be done and when and how to do it. Despite their high level of accounting knowledge and complete familiarity with the changes determined by the Brazilian Securities Commission, respondents adopted a conservative stance in relation to the use of estimated values or those obtained in hypothetical markets. The study revealed the existence of a vast field of research that has yet to be explored by accounting in the field of environmental accounting, especially in terms of both measurement and recognition of environmental impacts caused by diverse economic activities.

Crítica Metodológica e Epistemológica de Pesquisas Contábeis Experimentais Publicadas no Brasil

In this article, I analyze 17 experimental studies published in Brazilian accounting journals between 2006 and 2015, in order to develop both critical and methodological criticism on these articles. First, we discuss the methodological characteristics of the experiments and the main validity threats they face, analyzing how the selected articles deal with these threats. Overall, this analysis shows a lack of consideration of the validity of the constructs used, difficulty to develop internally valid experiments and inability to express confidence in the applicability of the results to contexts other than the experimental. Then, I compare the positivist theoretical perspective these articles have in common with constructionist conceptions of the social sciences and criticize them, based on these notions. I maintain that these articles are characterized by a behaviorist approach, a reified notion of subjectivity, disregard of the cultural and historical specificities and axiological commitment to submission, instead of the emancipation of the people in relation to management control. The paper contributes to the Brazilian accounting literature in two ways: raising awareness on the challenges faced in conducting appropriate experimental designs and showing how the experimental accounting research can be problematic from an epistemological point of view, aiming to promote an interparadigmatic debate to arouse greater awareness on the subject and more robust consideration of such issues by future researchers.

Análise da temática Contabilidade Gerencial na formação em Ciências Contábeis de IES mineiras à luz do Currículo Mundial e da Proposta Nacional do CFC/FB

This research aimed to identify and analyze the compliance level of management accounting contents in the subject descriptions of Accountancy courses at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the state of Minas Gerais, in the light of the Global Curriculum (GC) developed by the UN / UNCATD / Isar and the National Proposal submitted by the Federal Accounting Council (CFC) / Brazilian Accounting Foundation (FBC). The selected sample consisted of 23 public and private higher education institutions from Minas Gerais that offer the Accountancy course and published the curricular structures on their institutional websites. Through the analysis of the content of curricula and plans of disciplines related to the management accounting area, it was found that, with respect to the National Proposal, there were few differences between the offer of subjects and contents analyzed between public and private institutions. There was some homogeneity in the presence of the topics covered by educational institutions, as all education institutions have more than half of the management accounting-related content. A different is noteworthy between public and private institutions in the supply of content indicated by the discipline Management Information Systems, which 47% of private HEIs do not offer, while only one of the public institutions does not offer the discipline. In relation to the GC, the HEIs have differences in common in the way they approach the content. The contents that are covered most at the HEIs are discussed in the subjects Financial Statement Analysis, Controllership and Management Accounting.

Conservadorismo contábil e a adoção das IFRS: evidências em empresas brasileiras familiares e não familiares

O presente estudo tem como objetivo verificar a influência da convergência das normas brasileiras de contabilidade às normas contábeis internacionais no conservadorismo contábil de empresas brasileiras familiares e não familiares. Pesquisa descritiva, com abordagem quantitativa e apoiada em pesquisadocumental foi desenvolvida para tal. Para medir o conservadorismo condicional foi utilizado o modelo de Ball e Shivakumar (2005). A amostra compreendeu 315 empresas no período de 2003 a 2012, dividida em familiares e não familiares. Entre as técnicas estatísticas utilizadas na análise dos dados destacam-se a análise de dados em painel, teste LM de Breusch-Pagan, teste VIF, correção de White e teste de Durbin-Watson. Os resultados empíricos do estudo rejeitaram a hipótese de que a convergência das normas brasileiras de contabilidade às normas contábeis internacionais influenciou o nível de conservadorismo contábil de empresas brasileiras, o que foi observado tanto na amostra total quanto na subamostra de empresas não familiares. Somente para empresas familiares tal confirmação estatística foi possível. Assim, conclui-se que há evidencias de que a adoção das IFRS resultou em uma elevação do nível de conservadorismo contábil verificado nos relatórios de empresas brasileiras de controle familiar.

An Interdisciplinary View of Accountancy of Brazil

There is an expectation that in the near future there will be an effective change in the Brazilian accounting professional behavior. The accounting language is of legal, economic and social nature and is expected to contribute for better decisions in terms of economic value creation and financial management in an organization. The theory of communication is important for accountants in Brazil. If the accounting is to be considered as a business language the accountants must to have knowledge on the theory of semiotics and communication.

SISTEMAS DE INFORMAÇÕES DE CUSTOS NO SETOR PÚBLICO NO BRASIL: UMA ANÁLISE DA PERCEPÇÃO DOS USUÁRIOS SOB O ENFOQUE DA GESTÃO GOVERNAMENTAL

Entre as Normas Brasileiras de Contabilidade Aplicadas ao Setor Público encontra-se a NBC T 16.11, que trata da implantação e utilização do Sistema de Informações de Custos no Setor Público (SICSP). Logo, discute-se: Qual a percepção dos usuários sobre a importância do SICSP para os instrumentos de gestão e ações gerenciais? Tendo como objetivo, investigar a percepção dos responsáveis pela implantação e utilização do SICSP, utilizando-se de uma metodologia de pesquisa exploratória e explicativa, por meio de dados bibliográficos, documentais e de campo, onde como resultado constatou-se que o SICSP contribui significativamente tanto para os instrumentos de gestão e planejamento quanto para as ações gerenciais, entre outras constatações adjacentes.