ACSB Post-Doctoral Bridge Program: A Non-Traditional Bridge to Become Scholarly Academic

Maria A. Leach-López,이은서,MEGAN M. LEACH 서울대학교 경영연구소 2023 Seoul Journal of Business Vol.29 No.2

A steady decrease in accounting PhD graduates has led to a shortage of accounting faculty classified as ‘Scholarly Academic’ (SA) according to AACSB standards for accreditation. To increase the supply of qualified accounting faculty, programs like the University of Florida’s Post-Doctoral Bridge Program (PDBP) have evolved to enable faculty to become qualified as Scholarly Academic (SA) per AACSB standards. From 2008 to 2020, the PDBP produced 43 SA qualified graduates from the accounting concentration track of the program. This increase in SA accounting faculty resulted in an average of 3.3 graduates per year, with two-thirds of graduates currently employed in AACSB accredited programs. Results suggest that non-traditional programs like the PDBP are a viable option to help alleviate the shortage of SA accounting faculty faced by academia.

Is There a Relationship between VARK Learning Styles and the Perceived Usefulness of Online Learning Tools in Accounting Principles Courses?

Maria A. Leach-López,이은서,Megan M. Leach 한국회계학회 2019 회계학연구 Vol.44 No.2

Accounting instruction has changed and continues to change rapidly due to developing computer technology. As technology improves, research into the selection of online learning tools is needed. This study evaluates the relationship between students’ learning styles and the students’ reported usefulness of online learning tools in accounting principles courses. The learning styles identified by Fleming (1995) are Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic (VARK). These learning styles are analyzed to determine whether accounting principles courses should be designed to match students' learning styles. Correlations and regression analyses are used to answer the research question. Linear models are tested with the various online learning tools as the dependent variable. The independent variables used in each linear model are the learning styles and students’ demographic variables. The results indicate that visual, read/write, and kinesthetic learning styles guide the students’ preference of learning tools. The aural learning style is the only learning style that does not drive the choice of learning tools. Thus, we find that students are using online study tools outside the classroom. An important goal for instructors should be to encourage the students to use the tools available. Some demographic variables are also found to be significant such as age, gender, availability of computers, and whether the student has a job or not. The findings of this study should be of interest to accounting instructors using online learning tools or contemplating integration of online learning tools in the classroom. Findings indicate that the kinesthetic learning style is the most prevalent which might encourage textbook publishers to create more interactive online learning tools.

CEO Pay Slice and Cost Stickiness

김채현,이은서,Maria A. Leach-López 한국국제회계학회 2020 국제회계연구 Vol.0 No.91

In this study, we examine the effect of CEO pay slice (CPS) on cost stickiness. By following Bebchuk et al. (2011), we measure CPS as the CEO’s total compensation as a fraction of the combined total compensation of the top five executives. Costs are sticky if the magnitude of costs increase is bigger than the magnitude of costs decrease associated with an equivalent decrease in economic activity (Venieris et al. 2015). Bebchuk et al. (2011) and Chintrakarn et al. (2014) indicate that CPS represents the ability of a CEO to extract rents. According to the agency theory, CPS is likely to increase cost stickiness due to high agency costs. Conversely, the stewardship theory suggests that CPS is likely to reduce cost stickiness because a CEO is not an opportunistic agent, but a good steward (Donaldson and Davis 1991) acting in the best interest of shareholders by setting costs at an optimal level. Using a sample of 34,746 firm-year observations in the United States for the period 1992 to 2019, our results find a nonmonotonic relationship between CPS and cost stickiness. Specifically, relatively low CPS results in less cost stickiness. However, when CPS surpasses a certain point (approximately 45 percent of CPS), cost stickiness dramatically increases. These results are consistent when endogeneity issues are controlled by using propensity score matching regression. Finally, we find that corporate governance restructuring forced by the Global Financial Crisis mitigates the effect of CPS on cost stickiness, emphasizing the importance of implementing effective corporate governance and CEO compensation structure.

Excess Compensation and Corporate Governance

최우석,이은서,Maria A. Leach-López 한국국제회계학회 2019 국제회계연구 Vol.0 No.86

Excess compensation of CEOs does not by itself impose a significant problem. However, a serious business ethical violation would occur if excess compensation is related to a large extraction of rent. In this study, we investigate how governance structures are associated with excess cash compensation, which is defined as observed cash compensation less expected cash compensation derived from the standard economic determinants. Five measures of governance structures are examined in this study as follows: (1) owner-managers; (2) block-holders; (3) foreign shareholders; (4) financial institutions; and (5) chaebols, business conglomerates in Korea controlled by family. Based on 6,823 observations in Korea obtained over a 10-year period, the results indicate that governance structures differentially affect excess cash compensation depending on the views of the role of excess cash compensation. Specifically, financial institutions are negatively related to excess cash compensation, implying that they consider excess cash compensation as an agency cost. By contrast, owner-managers, foreign shareholders, and chaebols are positively related to excess cash compensation, implying that they consider excess cash compensation as a performance motivator.

Accounting Conservatism in Borrowers’ Financial Reporting and Earnings Management

최우석(Wooseok Choi),백인영(Inyoung Baik),이은서(Eunsuh Lee),마리아 리치(Leach-López,Maria A. ) 한국회계정보학회 2024 회계정보연구 Vol.42 No.1

[연구목적] 본 연구의 목적은 은행차입금을 중심으로 회계 보수주의와 이익조정 간의 관련성을 확인하는데 있다. [연구방법] 본 논문은 2012년부터 2021년까지의 유가증권시장과 코스닥시장에 상장된 비금융업 기업을 대상으로, 은행 차입 기업의 보수주의가 이익조정에 미치는 영향을 검증하였다. 이익조정 변수는 수정 Jones 모형(Dechow et al. 1995)과 performance-matched 모형을 이용하여 추정한 재량적 발생액(Kothari et al. 2002)의 절대값으로 측정하였으며, 보수주의 변수는 Khan and Watts(2009)의 C_SCORE로 측정하였다. [연구결과] 은행 차입금과 차입기업의 보수주의는 이익조정과 유의한 음(-)의 관련성을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로 은행 차입 기업의 보수주의적 재무보고가 증가함에 따라 해당 기업의 이익조정 행위가 유의미하게 감소함을 발견하였다. 이와 같은 관련성은 내생성을 완화하는 방법인 2-stage least square estimation을 이용했을 때 및 다른 은행 차입금 측정치를 사용했을 때에도 동일한 결과를 보이는 것으로 나타났다. [연구의 시사점] 본 연구는 은행 차입 기업의 보수주의 회계가 이익조정을 효과적으로 감소시킨다는 것을 실증했다는데 의의가 있다. 구체적으로 보수주의가 기업지배구조의 효과적인 수단으로서, 차입 기업의 기회주의적인 재무보고 행위를 제한하여 은행의 모니터링 기능을 보완한다는 것을 밝혔다는 점에서 그 공헌점을 가진다. [Purpose] This study examines the association between conservatism in borrowers’ financial reporting and their earnings management behavior. [Methodology] Based on non-financial companies listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ for the fiscal years from 2012 to 2021, we find the effect of bank loans on conservatism in borrowers’ financial reporting and their earnings management. We calculate earnings management by using the absolute value of discretionary accruals from the modified Jones model (Dechow et al. 1995) and the absolute value of discretionary accruals from the performance-matched discretionary accrual model (Kothari et al. 2005). We measure the value of firm-year accounting conservatism from Khan and Watts’ (2009) conservatism scores. [Findings] We find that earnings management behavior of a borrowing firm decreases as the firm’s accounting conservatism increases. [Implications] The results of this study indicate that firms’ accounting conservatism in financial reporting plays an effective role in constraining their earnings management behavior. In addition, results imply that conservatism in financial reporting has an incremental contribution to the governance role of banks in constraining borrowing firms’ opportunistic reporting behavior. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate that accounting conservatism plays a complementary role to a bank’s monitoring function.