Alan Reinstein, Mohamed E. Bayou, Paul F. Williams and Michael M. Grayson
Compare and contrast how the accounting, organizational behavior and other literatures analyze sunk costs. Sunk costs form a key part of the decision-making component of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Compare and contrast how the accounting, organizational behavior and other literatures analyze sunk costs. Sunk costs form a key part of the decision-making component of the management accounting literature, which generally include previously incurred and unrecoverable costs. Management accountants believe, since current or future actions cannot change sunk costs, decision makers should ignore them. Thus, ongoing fixed costs or previously incurred sunk costs, while relevant for matters of accountability such as costing, income determination, and performance evaluation are irrelevant for most short- and long-term decisions. However, the organizational behavior literature indicates that sunk costs affect decision makers’ actions – especially their emotional attachments to the related project and the asymmetry of attitudes regarding the recognizing of losses and gains. Called the “sunk cost effect” or “sunk cost fallacy,” this conflict in sunk costs’ underlying nature reflects one element of incoherence in contemporary accounting discourse. We discuss this sunk cost conflict from an accounting and a philosophical perspective to denote some ambiguities that decision usefulness and accountability introduces into accounting discourse.
Methodology/approach
Review, summarize and analyze the above literatures
Findings
Managerial accountants can apply many lessons from the various literature sources.
Originality/value
We also show how differing opinions on how to treat sunk costs impact a firm’s decision-making process both economically and socially.
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This paper's purpose is to investigate the claim that capital taxes imposed by a subnational government reduce the economic competitiveness of the geographic area in which these…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper's purpose is to investigate the claim that capital taxes imposed by a subnational government reduce the economic competitiveness of the geographic area in which these taxes are imposed.
Design/methodology/approach
A two‐region, four‐good, three‐factor computational general equilibrium model of the USA is constructed. Simulations are performed to represent US state governments replacing wage taxes with capital taxes.
Findings
Household utilities rose when wage taxes were replaced by capital taxes, contradicting the conventional wisdom that capital taxes are harmful to a region's residents.
Research limitations/implications
As with all computational economic models, there are simplifications in this paper's model that abstract from reality and may limit the applicability of model results to the real world.
Practical implications
Subnational governments need not shy away from capital taxes when funding government programs.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the investigation of subnational tax incidence.
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Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
Abstract
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.
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Lourdes Díaz-López, Javier Tarango and Claudia-Patricia Contreras
This paper aims to propose the development of formal (scientific content) and informal (content for science communication) educational activities in an inclusive and safe way…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose the development of formal (scientific content) and informal (content for science communication) educational activities in an inclusive and safe way, involving two essential elements, virtual reality (VR) and the digital library; as well as the implications for its enforcement such as educational strategies in the university setting and for the encouragement of scientific culture in society.
Design/methodology/approach
For the integration of content, a simplified conceptual model was designed first, in which universities and research centers are seen as complex systems where different subsystems, from which processes and information resources are derived, converge. To cover the model’s elements, a descriptive documentary review was developed, looking to synthesize each element’s contexts and implications.
Findings
The need to establish transdisciplinary relationships between the VR and the digital library is determined with the goal to integrate educational activities using technology, with the purpose of studying contents from the scientific point of view, as well as with the possibility of transforming them into contexts of general access for society, with the objective of social appropriation of knowledge, citizen science and social innovation. In the conclusion section, some implications in the implementation of this type of initiatives are presented.
Originality/value
The aspects that set this paper apart are: treating VR as emerging documents tending to measure their direct impact, not as isolated elements of a collection; identifying the digital library’s social influence actions through VR; and generating processes to encourage the creation of contents with a differentiated focus according to the population served.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).