David H. Sinason, Sally A. Webber and Alex Nikitkov
The need for reliable information for decision makers is a fundamental principle underlying the demand for audit and assurance services. Yet, individuals and companies often do…
Abstract
Purpose
The need for reliable information for decision makers is a fundamental principle underlying the demand for audit and assurance services. Yet, individuals and companies often do not understand the value that users place on independent third‐party assurance. This paper aims to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the market for baseball cards to provide an empirical analysis of the value users associate with third‐party assurance services. Paired observations for baseball cards are identified on eBay; one with a third‐party assurance regarding its quality and one with only the seller's statement.
Findings
Comparative analysis indicates that bidders are willing to pay significantly more for the items when third‐party assurance was provided.
Originality/value
These findings indicate that third‐party assurance is valued by consumers, and where information asymmetry exists between buyer and seller, sellers should consider the use of third‐party assurance to increase sale price.
Details
Keywords
Richard A. Bernardi and David F. Bean
This research is a 6-year extension of Bernardi's (2005) initial ranking of the top ethics authors in accounting; it also represents a broadening of the scope of the original data…
Abstract
This research is a 6-year extension of Bernardi's (2005) initial ranking of the top ethics authors in accounting; it also represents a broadening of the scope of the original data into accounting's top-40 journals. While Bernardi only considered publications in business-ethics journals in his initial ranking, we developed a methodology to identify ethics articles in accounting's top-40 journals. The purpose of this research is to provide a more complete list of accounting's ethics authors for use by authors, administrators, and other stakeholders. In this study, 26 business-ethics and accounting's top-40 journals were analyzed for a 23-year period between 1986 through 2008. Our data indicate that 16.8 percent of the 4,680 colleagues with either a PhD or DBA who teach accounting at North American institutions had authored/coauthored one ethics article and only 6.3 percent had authored/coauthored more than one ethics article in the 66 journals we examined. Consequently, 83.2 percent of the PhDs and DBAs in accounting had not authored/coauthored even one ethics article.