As a contribution to
behavioral accounting research, it is suggested that the design of this kind of study (including sample size) should be adopted to reach the minimum statistical power of 0.80 (P = 0.20), assuming a controlled type I error of a = 0.05 (Borkowski, Welsh, & Zhang, 2001).
This work unites international contributors (primarily from India) in management studies,
behavioral accounting, electronic engineering, and business administration.
The emerging technology of Internet-based experiments offers
behavioral accounting research (BAR) new possibilities for obtaining large sample sizes, providing world-wide access to previously hard-to-reach participants (e.g., CFOs, audit partners, and financial analysts) and exploring new research questions.
The chapters that would more easily translate into the realm of
behavioral accounting research are ones on the emotional trade-off difficulty on decision behavior, behavioral consequences of experienced regret, and judgments of relative importance and contingent decision behavior.
Students as surrogates in
behavioral accounting research: Some evidence.
Gary Siegel, CPA, Ph.D., is associate professor at the School of Accountancy, DePaul University, in Chicago and president of the Gary Siegel Organization, an opinion research and
behavioral accounting firm.
Professor Braun's interests include business valuation issues, auditing and
behavioral accounting. He has published in the AICPA's 1998 Professor-Practitioner Case Book, Global Finance Journal, Advances in Accounting Information Systems and other journals.
Neimark, "Marginalizing the Public Interest" in
Behavioral Accounting Research: A Critical Analysis, K.R.
A second reason that may explain the lack of interest by accountants in the behavioral aspects of accounting is that very little of the literature of
behavioral accounting provides any workable guides to action.
They discuss the impact of rule precision, information ambiguity, and conflicting incentives on aggressive reporting; the effect of sole and joint responsibility on managers' escalation of commitment decisions; the role of personality in white-collar crime; leadership, budget participation, budgetary fairness, and organizational commitment; and methodological topics related to
behavioral accounting, including behavioral tax research, the relationship between professional skepticism and client advocacy, and the construct of organizational appeal as a way to influence professional accountants' task commitment.
His passion for research in
Behavioral Accounting stems from his extensive experience in the public accounting industry; a topic that he hopes his research and forthcoming publications will help to build the knowledge base for professional service industries for years to come.
Historically,
behavioral accounting research has been developed based on assumptions about the behavior, processes, and tasks within firms.
