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Existing literature in experimental accounting research suggests that accounting professionals and people with accounting backgrounds tend to have a lower level of moral reasoning and ethical development. Motivated by these findings, this paper aims to examine whether chief executive officers (CEOs) with accounting backgrounds have an impact on firms’ earnings management behavior and the level of accounting conservatism.

The authors classify CEOs into those with and without accounting backgrounds using BoardEx data. Using discretionary accruals from several different models, they do not find that CEOs with accounting backgrounds are more likely to engage in income-increasing accruals. However, the authors find that CEOs with accounting backgrounds exhibit lower levels of conservatism, proxied by C-scores and T-scores (Basu, 1997). This finding suggests that CEOs with accounting backgrounds recognize bad news more quickly than good news, consistent with the accounting principle of “anticipating all losses but anticipating no gains”.

The authors show that firms whose CEOs have accounting backgrounds exhibit lower levels of accounting conservatism. However, these firms do not exhibit higher levels of income-increasing discretionary accruals. This study documents the impact of CEOs’ educational backgrounds on firms’ accounting choices and confirms prior findings in experimental accounting research using large sample archival data.

This paper is the first study that investigates the impact of CEOs’ accounting backgrounds on firms’ financial reporting policy. The findings may have some policy implications. If accounting backgrounds of CEOs can make a significant difference on firms’ behavior, it is reasonable to make CEOs accountable for the quality of financial reporting. This paper is one of the first to empirically test inferences drawn by experimental accounting research. There has been a gap between archival and experimental accounting studies. The authors propose that interesting research questions can be addressed by filling in such a gap.

This research examines stock traders' disposition effects and contrarian/momentum behavior in the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). Specifically, we first investigate disposition effects across all trader types and then examine the relationships between disposition effects, trader types, and order characteristics. Next, we explore contrarian and/or momentum behavior and analyze the relationships among the contrarian/momentum behavior, investor type, and order characteristics. Finally, the links among trader types, order characteristics, and investment performance are detected. This chapter yields the following findings. (1) Individual investors exhibit the strongest disposition effects compared to other investors. (2) Foreign investors, investment trusts, and individual investors tend to use large orders to sell loser stocks. (3) Investment trusts are inclined to be momentum traders, while individual investors tend to perform contrarian strategies. (4) Institutional aggressive and large orders perform better than individuals' orders. (5) The performance of foreign investors' selling decisions is better than that of retail investors.

With the aid of naturalistic simulations, this paper aims to investigate human behavior during manual and autonomous driving modes in complex scenarios.

The simulation environment is established by integrating virtual reality interface with a micro-simulation model. In the simulation, the vehicle autonomy is developed by a framework that integrates artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. Human-subject experiments are carried, and participants are asked to virtually sit in the developed autonomous vehicle (AV) that allows for both human driving and autopilot functions within a mixed traffic environment.

Not surprisingly, the inconsistency is identified between two driving modes, in which the AV’s driving maneuver causes the cognitive bias and makes participants feel unsafe. Even though only a shallow portion of the cases that the AV ended up with an accident during the testing stage, participants still frequently intervened during the AV operation. On a similar note, even though the statistical results reflect that the AV drives under perceived high-risk conditions, rarely an actual crash can happen. This suggests that the classic safety surrogate measurement, e.g. time-to-collision, may require adjustment for the mixed traffic flow.

Understanding the behavior of AVs and the behavioral difference between AVs and human drivers are important, where the developed platform is only the first effort to identify the critical scenarios where the AVs might fail to react.

This paper attempts to fill the existing research gap in preparing close-to-reality tools for AV experience and further understanding human behavior during high-level autonomous driving.

This work aims to systematically analyze the inconsistency in driving patterns between manual and autopilot modes in various driving scenarios (i.e. multiple scenes and various traffic conditions) to facilitate user acceptance of AV technology.

A close-to-reality tool for AV experience and AV-related behavioral study. A systematic analysis in relation to the inconsistency in driving patterns between manual and autonomous driving. A foundation for identifying the critical scenarios where the AVs might fail to react.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among training design, trainee motivation and work environment on the transfer of learning for teachers enrolled in a continuing professional education (CPE) training program and the confirmation of potential positive, predictive relationships of trainee motivation, work environment and training design to transfer of learning. This study investigated the contribution of training efficiency and relevance as measured by the training design; work environment as measured by work autonomy, work complexity and work variability; and trainee’s motivation of training (learning- and job-oriented) to the transfer of knowledge and skills from the training program to their workplace. Both direct and indirect effects of mentioned components on the learning transfer were explored.

This study included 160 teachers working in high-needs schools with large numbers of English learners (ELs) Southwest USA. Teachers in this study primarily needed professional development to empower them and enhance their instructional capacity for ELs and economically challenged students. During the recruitment, participants completed a demographic information (e.g. gender, ethnicity, number of years teaching, age, educational background) survey.

A mediation model with training design as the mediating factor was developed and analyzed. The results revealed that training design fully mediated the relationship between trainees’ work environments and the transfer of knowledge, skills and attitude acquired from the training to their workplace. Furthermore, it partially mediated the relationship between learning-oriented motivation and the transfer of learning. These findings further amplify the significance of CPE program training design and foster important considerations for future research regarding the isolation of specific training design aspects that significantly contribute to the mediation of these relationships.

Considering the significance of learning transfer in developing professional knowledge and skills for target employees and trainees, confirming the mediating effects of training design on training transfer holds critical implications for future research. Specific and purposeful attention needs to be given to the design of CPE training. Investigations into the effects of training design and successful elements such as the training platform (online, hybrid or in-person), sample size, group structure, facilitation and participant demographics are warranted.

The finding of this research provides a preliminary guide for scholar-practitioners. Results of the study confirmed the role that learning-oriented motivation, job-oriented motivation, work variability or flexibility, work complexity and training design play in transfer of learning. In practice, training professionals will be more comfortable pinpointing the factors that lead to the transfer of learning or the lack of it.

Learning transfer has been found to be imperative for target employees and trainees to develop professional knowledge, skills and attitudes. Results of this study reveal variables that promote the positive transfer of learning to the workplace.