Undergraduate Accounting Course Research Articles

Ethics in Financial Reporting Methods: The Case of Vontsira, Inc.

ABSTRACT This case allows students to wrestle with the ethical decisions relating to accounting choices. At issue in this case is the timing of the implementation of the Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) model standard. The objectives of the case are to help students (1) raise their awareness of the ethical decisions inherent to accounting choices, (2) weigh the validity of different viewpoints and approaches, (3) understand the far-reaching implications of ethical decisions in financial reporting, and (4) practice preparing to effectively advocate their positions in a professional setting. When delivered alongside lessons on accounting for receivables and doubtful accounts, the case can help reinforce the real implications of the judgment involved in estimating bad debt. It is also appropriate for any graduate or upper division undergraduate accounting course in which students discuss ethics and codes of conduct.

The social role of the academic and the student in active methods for education

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the patterns of conduct, forms of action, role construction, role performance and institutional nexus of behavior that characterize the social role of academics and students in undergraduate Accounting courses through the adoption of active methods for education. A qualitative, multiple case study was developed through in-depth interviews with academics and focus groups with students from universities in Paraná and Santa Catarina that use active and traditional education methods. It was found that academics need to change their attitude in the classroom and use active methods to make their teaching more dynamic, giving students more responsibility. Yet, academics must maintain the traditional teaching methods when the teaching content or the learning profile of the students requires it. Regarding the student role, the study reveals that they have different attitudes towards the learning process and different learning styles that do not depend on the methods used.

Balanced Scorecard Internal Process Perspective: Applying Data Analytics to Monitor Police Department Performance

ABSTRACT Employers expect graduates to perform data analytics using both organizational and publicly available data. Interestingly, few teaching cases provide students with needed exposure to data analytics in managerial or governmental accounting. In this case, students assume the role of a managerial accountant employed at Municipal Consulting, LLC. Students assist the Police Commissioner in using a Balanced Scorecard approach to analyze how her department responds to crime patterns and to develop next year’s budget. This case requires students to critique, analyze, and evaluate Internal Business Process Perspective Balanced Scorecard measures supported by publicly available data using data visualization software. The case includes instructions for both Tableau and Power BI. The case covers three skills: (1) extract, transform, and load data; (2) develop data visualization software experience; and (3) analyze data. The case is designed for senior level undergraduate and graduate courses in managerial, data analytics, and governmental accounting.

The impact of teacher video presence on student performance and satisfaction in undergraduate accounting courses

ABSTRACT The current study examines the impact of teacher video presence on student performance and satisfaction in a regular asynchronous online course required as part of an undergraduate accounting program. For a sample of 115 students registered in the course, the results indicate that ‘enhanced strategic’ teacher video presence does not lead to better learning outcomes than use of videos with no teacher video presence. However, it does increase the satisfaction of students who do not participate in separate Zoom meetings with the teacher. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the impact of teacher video presence in a regular 15-week asynchronous online course in an undergraduate program, including impact on student satisfaction. By comparing two extremes, ‘enhanced strategic’ teacher video presence and no teacher video presence, the experiment provides an acid test of the effect of teacher video presence in a regular undergraduate online course.

Data-driven goal setting: Searching optimal badges in the decision forest

Goal setting is vital in learning sciences, but the scientific evaluation of optimal learning goals is underexplored. This study proposes a novel methodological approach to determine optimal learning goals. The data in this study comes from a gamified learning app implemented in an undergraduate accounting course at a large German university. With a combination of decision trees and regression analyses, the goals connected to the badges implemented in the app are evaluated. The results show that the initial badge set already motivated learning strategies that led to better grades on the exam. However, the results indicate that the levels of the goals could be improved, and additional badges could be implemented. In addition to new goal levels, new goal types are also discussed. The findings show that learning goals initially determined by the instructors need to be evaluated to offer an optimal motivational effect. The new methodological approach used in this study can be easily transferred to other learning data sets to provide further insights.

Gamified Learning App and Exam Performance in Undergraduate Accounting Courses Before and During COVID-19

Gamified Learning App and Exam Performance in Undergraduate Accounting Courses Before and During COVID-19

An Analytical View on the Theranos Fraud and the Way Forward–An Accounting Perspective

This case research paper was developed as an assessment as part of an undergraduate accounting course taught at a United States university and illustrates how other faculty members could integrate a similar project into their course. This study focuses on the accounting regulation for intangible assets in the private industry by exploring the case of Theranos. The main findings indicate that additional regulation is needed as well as the introduction of appropriate intangible asset accounting standards. The study contributes in several ways. First, it recommends that the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) adopts the IAS 38 accounting standard used by the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) for the capitalization of internally generated intangible assets. Another suggested improvement in the regulation of the private industry is to mandate private companies involved in research and development activities and the internal generation of intangible assets, to provide users with timely audited financial statements.

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November 2022 Placement Ads

The use and measurement of communication self-efficacy techniques in a UK undergraduate accounting course

ABSTRACT This research contributes to helping educational establishments across the world develop self-efficacy techniques to improve communication skills within an accounting course design and other disciplines. This paper asks the research question: Does self-efficacy enhances accounting students’ communication ability? Previous research has identified the business community requiring accountants to display high levels of communication ability. However, despite many deliberate pedagogical interventions over the years, communication skills are lacking in graduating accounting students. This paper describes a new approach of deliberate self-efficacy interventions in one UK university’s undergraduate accounting curriculum to improve accounting students’ communication ability. In addition, a self-efficacy framework of Stone and Bailey [(2007). Team conflict self-efficacy and outcome expectancy of business students. Journal of Education for Business, 82(5), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.82.5.258-266.] is developed to model communication self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and behavioral intentions of the students. The data consists of the results of 131 first-year accounting students, and this paper contributes by helping to pinpoint two self-efficacy techniques to improving students’ communication skills: ‘personal mastery’ and ‘mentor support’.

Developing accounting students’ team innovation through assessment

Team innovation is innovation by a team, for the team, organization, or a broader group of stakeholders and is ever more prevalent in the workplace. Consequently, developing students' competence therein is of increasing importance. The development of team innovation competence is, however, not a priority in most education settings. To contribute towards addressing this shortcoming, this study reports on the use of a project-based assessment for learning, requiring team innovation, in an undergraduate accounting course. In particular, this study documents the design of the project, analyses the student teams' innovative outputs, and reports the students' individual reflections on collaboratively creating these outputs. The analysis of the students' outputs and their responses to a survey, suggest that most of the students' experience of the team innovation project was positive and the project enabled them to socially construct their knowledge of accounting and to develop their team innovation competence. This study contributes towards bridging the gap between professional education and practice and provides a basis for instructors to further develop students’ team innovation competence, even in disciplines not typically characterized as being innovative.

Ethics Curriculum in Accounting Courses: Examination of Student Perceptions of Delivery Methods

The authors explore student perceptions about the need for ethics instruction within an undergraduate accounting curriculum. Students enrolled in an online, undergraduate accounting courses were sampled. The purpose of this study was to specifically examine students’ preference between using a stand-alone approach to teaching ethics or using an integrated model. Results included suggest that over 92% of students desire an ethics component within the curriculum. And, 56% of the participants prefer an integrated model. Results suggest that ethics courses should include case studies, real-world ethical situations, and ethical dilemma consideration. The beneficiaries of the study include students, faculty, administrators, textbook providers, and curriculum designers, among others.

Effect of a summer school on formative and summative assessment in accounting education

This paper investigates the effect of a voluntary accounting summer school on formative and summative assessments in accounting education. A quasi-experiment with a questionnaire design was conducted in a first-year undergraduate accounting course. The sample consisted of 497 first-time higher education students. The effectiveness of voluntary summer school for performance was examined by comparing the attendees’ and non-attendees’ scores on two formative assessments and one summative assessment to determine whether attendees scored higher. The results of multiple one-way analyses of covariance, controlling for different variables, reveal that attendance at summer school has a significantly positive effect on short-term performance (first formative assessment), but it disappears over time. No significant differences are found for the second formative assessment or the summative assessment. Stepwise linear regression analyses show that the scores of the test the students completed at the end of summer school are significantly positively related to the summative assessment score (final exam at the end of the semester). Implications and recommendations for further research and the organization of summer schools are covered.

Performance measurement in a Lean organization: the case of the Wiremold company

Theoretical basis Critical analysis of observed practice. Research methodology Field study. Learning outcomes To expose accounting and MBA students to Lean management and the performance measures that support Lean management by presenting a case of a comprehensive and very successful Lean transformation; to give accounting and MBA students the opportunity to construct a strategy map and a balanced scorecard based on a rich case description; and to critically assess the suitability of balanced scorecards for a company that embraces Lean management. Case overview/synopsis The case describes a comprehensive transformation from conventional management to Lean management and business practices, with an emphasis on the largely non-financial performance measures used to support the transformation. Around the time of the Lean transformation, the balanced scorecard, a multi-dimensional measurement approach, was introduced to address the problems of excessive reliance on financial performance measures. Students are asked to compare and contrast Wiremold’s approach to the balanced scorecard. Complexity academic level Graduate or upper level undergraduate courses in cost accounting, managerial accounting and strategic management.

November 2021 Placement Ads

November 2021 Placement Ads

Motivational appetites, cultural orientations and accounting students' learning

AbstractWe examine the effect of cognitive and cultural factors on student learning in undergraduate accounting courses. Using survey data relating to mainstream course activities and assessment tasks, we find that the ‘motivational appetite’ concepts of liking and wanting, along with ‘cultural orientation’ of vertical‐collectivism and horizontal‐individualism exhibit a significant joint effect on student learning. Motivational appetite has a statistically significant main effect while cultural orientation exhibits only a joint effect. This result suggests that while cognitive processes transcend cultural influence, the latter affects students' learning through their interaction with cognitive factors. Implications for accounting course design are discussed.

The saga of a Chinese company being listed on a US stock exchange – a global financial reporting case study

Research methodology We obtained information on China Gerui from secondary published sources, including annual reports downloaded from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) EDGAR database, news sites and newspapers, the company’s website and journal articles. One of the authors visited the China Gerui plant in Henan, China. Case overview/synopsis China Gerui, a Chinese metal fabrication company, enjoyed exponential growth because of its location, product innovation and ability to move up the value chain. At the height of its success, the company listed on the Nasdaq and had plans to raise capital to fund ambitious expansion plans. Unfortunately, four years after listing on Nasdaq, the company received a letter from the listing qualifications department notifying China Gerui that they were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements because it had not filed its Form 20-F. Now, the company had only five days to decide whether to request an appeal of the letter. Complexity academic level This case is best suited for higher-level undergraduate accounting and finance courses such as intermediate accounting, auditing, international accounting, financial statement analysis, corporate finance and investments analysis. It is especially appropriate for graduate-level global accounting and advanced financial statement analysis courses. In these courses, the best placement is after coverage of SEC regulations and requirements for financial statement reporting and disclosure. Moreover, the case may be used as a tool to demonstrate the step-by-step process for searching and retrieving information from a public company’s filings through the SEC’s EDGAR database. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

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Inovação nos cursos de ciências contábeis: Uma análise no catálogo de teses e dissertações da CAPES

O tema inovação no ensino aplicado ao curso de ciências contábeis é complexo e precisa ser discutido para além da aplicação estratégias tecnológicas, essa repercussão exige reflexão sobre ensinar e aprender. Desta forma, partiu-se da produção do estado do conhecimento para a realização de um mapeamento a fim de analisar as produções científicas produzidas que tratam o tema inovação no curso de ciências contábeis. Entende-se que o estudo se faz necessário pela amplitude do novo contexto educativo, em que a inovação é imprescindível para a melhoria da qualidade do ensino e da aprendizagem, nesse caso, nos cursos de graduação em Ciências Contábeis. Para compreender melhor o contexto em pauta, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória sobre o tema. Portanto, a seguir apresenta-se um estudo sobre o estado do conhecimento, com a finalidade de verificar as pesquisas relevantes já existentes, ou as lacunas de pesquisa acerca da inovação no ensino referente ao curso de graduação em Ciências Contábeis. Ao final da pesquisa constatou quer existem poucas publicações que tratam do tema inovação com a plenitude ao curso de ciências contábeis.

Stimulating higher education students to use online formative assessments: the case of two mid-term take-home tests

Using additional learning materials positively influences student performance. The literature focuses mainly on learning outcomes, whereas the present study investigates whether two intermediate (take-home) tests are a successful tool to increase student use of online formative assessments (OFAs). This study is a between-subjects quasi-experiment, administered in an undergraduate accounting course. Measures are used to capture both the intensity and the timing of OFA use. Results show that more students begin using OFA when intermediate tests are introduced. In addition, students use OFA more intensively and indications are present that students also begin their OFA use earlier. This paper contributes to the higher education literature by illustrating how online take-home tests can prevent procrastination. Its advantage lies in stimulating the use of online formative assessment and providing students with immediate feedback. Results are discussed for both blended and online learning.

Coping with COVID: pivoting perspectives from teaching a third-year undergraduate financial accounting course

Purpose Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused upheaval in university teaching practices. This paper aims to document how the teaching team on a large third-year undergraduate financial accounting course in an Australian university coped with the impact of the virus. Changes in teaching practices when classes shifted from face-to-face to online instruction during the COVID-19 crisis are described and examined using the crisis management process framework of Pearson and Clair (1998). Teaching team members were asked to write brief reflections on their experiences teaching the course during the period from February to July 2020. These were then thematically analysed and included as outcomes within the Pearson and Clair (1998) framework. Design/methodology/approach Description of COVID-19 induced changes to teaching a large undergraduate financial accounting course at an Australian university. Findings Six outcomes emerged: learning new technology; collegiality; the course review; the online delivery experience; redesigning assessments and; time investment; conjectures are offered about the survival of some of the changes made during the year. Research limitations/implications The research only covers one teaching team’s experience but that is the purpose of the special issue. Practical implications Lessons for the future are explored. Social implications The implications of online teaching are explored. Originality/value The paper provides a historical record of how the teaching team on a large undergraduate financial accounting course coped with an unexpected, major event that necessitated rapid and radical changes to teaching methods.