Terri A. Scandura, Paul Munter and Andre de Korvin
Promotions are an important aspect of the careers in managerial accounting. Review of the literature on promotions reveals that the decision‐making process is open to bias due to…
Abstract
Promotions are an important aspect of the careers in managerial accounting. Review of the literature on promotions reveals that the decision‐making process is open to bias due to characteristics of ratees and raters, as well as possible political influences. Such flawed decision making may be due in part to the inherent ambiguity in rating performance of managers. Rough set rules are developed from an decision‐making example in which performance data is used in the decision to promote managers. Implications of incorporating these rules into expert systems used for promotions decisions are presented.
Don W. Finn, Paul Munter and Thomas E McCaslin
There has been an increasing concern about ethical behaviour in theaccounting profession. Examines CPAs′ perceptions about the ethicalbehaviour which currently exists in the…
Abstract
There has been an increasing concern about ethical behaviour in the accounting profession. Examines CPAs′ perceptions about the ethical behaviour which currently exists in the accounting profession. Results indicate that there is a polarity which exists among CPAs. Many believe that accountants, generally, do act in an ethical manner. Importantly, however, many others believe that unethical behaviour has increased in recent years. Further, there is a growing belief among some practitioners that the actions of partners of CPA firms may be condoning that unethical behaviour.
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Executive compensation and incentive packages have received a greatdeal of attention recently in the professional business literature aswell as from the accounting standard…
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Executive compensation and incentive packages have received a great deal of attention recently in the professional business literature as well as from the accounting standard setters. Examines the design of compensation systems. Suggests that environmental uncertainty and monitoring by the board of directors are both negatively related to the use of outcomebased compensation systems and that additionally, since this topic has both management accounting as well as financial accounting implications, it may provide a more comprehensive framework for investigating control system designs.
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The authors gathered the core information for this case using publicly available filings from the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Publicly…
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Research methodology
The authors gathered the core information for this case using publicly available filings from the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Publicly available news articles were used to complement the core information. All sources are cited.
Case overview/synopsis
This case involves an assumed fraud perpetrated by the C-suite members of Celadon Group, Inc. – formerly one of the largest trucking companies in North America. By 2016, the value of Celadon’s truck inventory significantly decreased in value. Instead of reducing the inventory to its market value on the Balance Sheet, management engaged in a series of trades and creative accounting to conceal the fact they had overvalued the trucks.
Investment analysts at Prescience Point Capital Management and Jay Yoon (both published on Seeking Alpha) found inconsistencies and red flags in Celadon’s 2016 and 2017 financial reports and reported their suspicions to the public. Soon after, Celadon’s audit committee declared the company’s recent financial statements could no longer be relied upon, resulting in an immediate market loss of $62.3m. In 2019, Celadon entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement and was ordered to pay $42.2m in restitution. The Department of Justice (DOJ) criminally charged Danny Williams (president of Quality, a Celadon subsidiary) and he entered a plea agreement. The DOJ also criminally charged Bobby Lee Peavler (CFO) and William Eric Meek (COO). Celadon filed for bankruptcy and operations ceased. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, in 2022, the DOJ dismissed the criminal case against Peavler and Meek.
Complexity academic level
This case allows students to apply theory learned in a fraud examination or forensic accounting course to an actual fraud case. It discusses red flags and how perpetrators of fraud often need to keep perpetrating wrongdoing to keep the original fraud from being discovered. The authors designed the case for upper-level or graduate business students. It should be included in the course when covering financial statement fraud.
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Gary M. Fleischman, Sean Valentine and Don W. Finn
Ethical issues and moral reasoning are important in the tax policy context because shared moral values create good societies (Paul et al., 2006). This study of the equitable…
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Ethical issues and moral reasoning are important in the tax policy context because shared moral values create good societies (Paul et al., 2006). This study of the equitable relief subset of the innocent spouse rules is a good example of Congressional and IRS policy that has been substantially reformed twice (and continues to be reassessed) to create tax law that effectively treats innocent spouses equitably (Fleischman & Shen, 1999). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which subjects' moral reasoning, using the first two steps of Rest's (1986) ethical reasoning model, is related to perceived moral intensity (Jones, 1991) in several tax-based equitable relief situations. Integrative social contracts theory provides the study's theoretical lens.
Subjects evaluated a mailed-questionnaire containing two separate equitable relief scenarios about a spouse who was unaware of her husband's tax evasion – one scenario included verbal abuse and the other scenario contained no such abuse. The survey also contained a variety of ethics and attitudinal measures used to measure the study's focal variables. The results support the a priori hypotheses that moral intensity is positively related to recognition of an ethical issue, judgment that the ethical scenario is unethical, and judgment to grant equitable relief. In addition, the scenario containing emotional abuse was associated with increased levels of moral intensity as compared to the scenario that did not contain abuse. The paper concludes with a discussion of both professional and public policy implications.
This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of Product & Brand Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing strategy;…
Abstract
This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of Product & Brand Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing strategy; Customer service; Pricing; Promotion; Marketing research, customer behavior; Product management.