Advances in Scientific and Applied Accounting

Performance Evaluation and Forecasting Functions and the Perceived Value of the Budget

2023-09-07T13:54:35+00:00

Objective: To investigate the association between performance evaluation and forecasting functions and the value perceived by managers concerning the budget, considering jointly the logics of trade-off and the predominance among the budgetary functions.

Methodology: A survey was conducted with a sample of 109 medium and large-sized companies that use budgeting. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling.

Results: First, the results indicate that the simultaneous use of the budget for performance evaluation and forecasting functions leads to a decrease in the value perceived by managers concerning the budget, signaling the presence of a potential trade-off between these functions. Second, this study also investigated to what extent the predominance of the budget for one of the two functions would mitigate the observed trade-off, but the results were not significant.

Contributions: This research provides evidence contributing to the discussion of the trade-off between performance evaluation and forecasting functions but does not support that the predominance of one function over the other reduces this tension. This outcome adds to the evidence from previous studies. From a practical standpoint, the study shows that these functions, individually, might encourage managers to recognize the importance of the budget, yet it demonstrates a potential trade-off between these functions, with a higher perceived value associated with the performance evaluation function.

Professional Identities of Accountants in the Role of Business Partners Controllers

2023-03-05T19:44:42+00:00

Objective: to analyze how the professional identities of accountants in the role of controller business partners are constituted in the light of socialization processes in the action systems in which they are inserted.

Method: Claude Dubar's sociological approach was used, based on professional identity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals controllers accountants and the respective senior management of each company. Data from the participants was also collected through an online form. It was a qualitative study with a priori general categories and inductive research that identified, a posteriori, constituent elements of professional identity, through content and narrative analysis supported by the QSR NVivo® software.

Results: empirical evidence corroborates the argument that the professional identity of these controllers business partners consists of a range of elements articulated between objective and subjective transaction: centrality of work experienced since childhood; socioeconomic background; renunciations in spheres of personal and professional life; employability; continuing experiential and theoretical-practical learning; multidisciplinary socio-professional interactions; tax and corporate competences; hybridity of responsibilities and professional hybridity; and management.

Contributions: the study contributed to the understanding of professional identities of accountants in the roles of controllers business partners in the business world, based on historical and social elements. It advances by confronting the opinion of professionals with their superiors who require operational roles, but also expanding the strategic role of controllers. These, despite incorporating this attribution, seek an alternative to balance or detach themselves from operational roles.

Study Time and Academic Performance: Do the Level of Self-Regulated Learning and Impostor Syndrome Matter?

2023-09-01T02:53:39+00:00

Objective: We investigated the effect of study time on academic performance, mediated by the level of use of self-regulated learning strategies and the imposter syndrome, in undergraduate accounting students.

Method: Our sample consisted of 330 valid questionnaires from undergraduate accounting students from three different federal universities. We analyzed these data through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model.

Results: We found that increasing study time does not imply an increase in academic performance, but only when mediated by the level of use of self-regulated learning strategies. Thus, study time does not directly imply academic performance, but indirectly, since it depends on the student's level of use of self-regulated learning. We also found that the imposter syndrome is not a factor that mediates the relationship between study time and academic performance.

Contributions: We empirically found that the level of use of the self-regulated learning strategy is a factor that causes study time to have a positive impact on academic performance. In addition, we show undergraduate accounting students that for study time to be effective for the purpose of achieving higher academic performance, one must increase one's level of self-regulated learning strategy.

Industry 4.0: Features and Potential Impacts on the Internal Environment of Companies

2023-09-26T19:48:52+00:00

Objective: To analyze the structuring elements of Industry 4.0 and reflect on its potential impacts on the business environment and the internal environment of manufacturing companies, using the approach of organizational subsystems proposed by Guerreiro (1989).

Methodology: This study is characterized as bibliographic and descriptive, focusing on the characteristics of Industry 4.0 and its implications for the internal environment of organizations based on evidence from previous studies.

Results: The fourth industrial revolution is underway, which began at the beginning of the third millennium with the advent of the Internet and has brought changes in the ways of production and in the business models of companies. The study discusses different types of technologies that affect each of the subsystems such as: Institutional Subsystem (beliefs and values of Industry 4.0), Social Subsystem (digital and automation skills, leadership mediated by virtual and augmented reality), Organizational Subsystem (integration of value chain, complex and autonomous structures), Management Subsystem (machine decision-making process, artificial intelligence), Information Subsystem (big data, autonomous systems, cloud computing), Physical-Operational Subsystem (new physical, biological and digital inputs, new productive technologies like autonomous robots, Process Automation, Machine-to-Machine Integrated System and 3D printing).

Contributions: The main contribution of this work is the analysis of the elements of Industry 4.0, as well as the assessment of the impact of this technological and business revolution, in various business subsystems. Complementarily, from an academic perspective, this work can constitute a conceptual platform on the subject to guide future empirical studies.

Do Cultural Controls and Social Media Stimulate Organizational Innovation in Startups?

2023-09-26T19:46:35+00:00

Objective: This article examines the role of cultural controls and social media in organizational innovation in startups. Complementarily, it analyzes the possible moderating effect of individual creativity on the relationship between social media and organizational innovation.

Method: A survey was carried out with 110 managers of startups incubated in Brazilian incubators. For the analysis of the data, the technique of structural equation modeling by partial least squares was used.

Results: The results show that cultural controls do not have direct effects on organizational innovation, however, indirect effects are found. In turn, social media proves to play a mediating role in this relationship, in addition to having a direct effect on organizational innovation. In contrast, individual creativity does not show a moderating effect on the relationship between social media and organizational innovation.

Contributions: The findings contribute to the literature by empirically demonstrating possible drivers of organizational innovation, with emphasis on social media, which has been shown to interfere in the magnitude of the relationship between cultural control and organizational innovation and direct effect on organizational innovation. This discovery has important implications for managerial practice in environments that have innovation at the core of their existence, as in the case of startups, since it provides a better understanding of the role of social media in promoting innovation.

Fair Value and True and Fair View: Taxonomy, Axiology, and Teleology of Concepts

2023-09-26T20:05:27+00:00

Objective: To carry out an incursion into the interrelationships of the philosophy of True and Fair View, from a lato sensu perspective, and Fair Value Accounting, from a stricto sensu perspective, by defending the teleological and axiological relationships that exist between its concepts and accounting praxis.

Method: From this perspective, through discourse analysis of the philosophical assumptions of Hegel's Doctrine of Essence and Merleau-Ponty's Nature of Perception, a theoretical essay of a critical-argumentative nature was developed about these interrelations.

Results: With a view to contributing to the debate, the arguments defended culminate in the proposition of a Relational Perception Diagram between TFV, FVA and accounting praxis.

Contributions: The concepts of truth, justice and fidelity have permeated accounting theory and the practice of the accounting profession since its beginnings. In addition to the theoretical debate, its operationalization has given accounting an important role: interpreting and judging assessment data and incorporating them into the financial statements. In this way, the researcher is encouraged to interpret the essence underlying the doctrine of accounting concepts to expand the perceptions inherent to the ways in which they materialize in practice.

Use of Management Control as a Stimulus for Organizational Resilience: Single-Entity Survey in a Petroleum Derivatives Company

2023-09-26T19:44:14+00:00

Purpose: The paper aims to investigated how the use of the Management Control System influences in the management of organizational resilience in a Brazilian company.

Method: A survey single entity developed in a Brazilian oil derivative trading company with structure, size and management control system required for the research. The data were collected based on a questionnaire sent to executives from different department For data analysis, the structural model was estimated using the partial least squares method (PLS-PM - Partial Least Squares Path Modeling).

Results: The results support the hypothesis that the use of the management control system has a positive impact on the strategic. Thus, it was observed that high levels of the use of the management control system in the forms of beliefs systems, boundary systems, diagnostic control system and interactive control system increase the organization's capacity for resilience by acting in a proactive way, with strategic vision facing the business context's adversities, providing the strategic renewal proposed by Simons (1995).

Contributions: The theoretical contribution lies in the development of a model that aims to assist organizations in managing organizational resilience through management control systems. The use of the priority map for data analysis brought a practical point of view, this helps managers to decide which pattern of control best fits the circumstances in which they operate and their strategic challenges, contribute to understanding how the use of management control system impacts on the resilience in the organizational environment.

Discounted Cash Flow: Theoretical and Practical Aspects of its Use

2023-10-09T23:36:53+00:00

Objective: This text presents an in-depth analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of the discounted cash flow method and its applicability in evaluation processes.

Method: As it is a theoretical article, it draws on extensive literature and knowledge accumulated by the author over the years, much of it in undergraduate and postgraduate disciplines.

Results or Discussion: After a thorough exploration of the two pillars of the method - the discount rate and the cash flow - it becomes evident that the main methods widely adopted in the literature offer consistent results, supported by solid theoretical foundations. I bring a critical discussion about three crucial aspects for the practical application of this method. The first aspect highlights the use of multiples, revealing how this approach can, in certain cases, introduce significant distortions in the evaluation results. Next, I address the issue of the capital cost of free cash flow, demonstrating the importance of calculating this metric on the correct basis, using market values, instead of relying on historical values. Finally, I explore how the method can be effectively used in the value creation process, highlighting how this capacity can be perceived through the method's generic expressions.

Contributions: It is clear that, despite advances in research, there is still ample space in the literature for a more detailed and specific analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with the use of discounted cash flow. This text reinforces the continued importance of this approach in the field of financial evaluation and highlights the need for constant improvement to guarantee solid and reliable results.

The Influence of Players Contracts in Sport and Economic Performance of Brazilian Football Clubs

2023-10-23T17:28:51+00:00

Objective: This study analyzes the influence of the representativeness of players’ contracts on financial and sports performance in Brazilian football clubs.

Method: Based on the 2020 Brazilian Football Confederation rank, our sample comprises 29 teams covering the 2011-2021 period. We use the players' contracts registered in the intangible assets as our primary independent variable. We also subdivided this value into professional and young players.

Results and Discussion: Results suggest that most big clubs invest more in professional players while small clubs in young players. Moreover, a higher investment proportion in players' contracts influences financial and sportive performance. This is mostly confirmed by the investment in professional players, whereas the investment in developing young players could not be confirmed.

Contributions: Intangible assets play an important role in the overall success of football clubs, not only from a financial perspective but also in terms of their sporting achievements. This comprehensive study seeks to provide evidence that sheds light on the distinctive relationship between players' contracts and the subsequent impact on both the sporting and financial performance of Brazilian football clubs. Furthermore, it is worth noting that in Brazil, clubs have the unique advantage of being able to capitalize on costs associated with the development of young players, which is a distinctive setting to analyze.

Relationship Between Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Accounting Variables According to the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis

2023-10-23T17:25:52+00:00

Objective: Considering that entities' activities are reflected and represented in their financial-accounting statements, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and the entities' operating income and the accounting variables net intangible, amortization, net property, plant and equipment, depreciation, and research and development (R&D), considering the environmental Kuznets curve.

Method: Application of panel regression on a sample of 682 companies from 40 countries belonging to 11 different sectors, which disclosed their scope 1 GHG emissions from 2012 to 2019 in the Thomson Reuters Refinitiv Eikon database.

Results: The results indicate a relationship between GHG emissions, as predicted by the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis (EKCH). These emissions graphically draw an inverted U-shaped curve, in which, due to the scale effect, there is an increase in greenhouse gas emissions as the entity's operating income increases. However, according to the composition effect, as companies use a greater amount of net intangibles and fewer net property, plant and equipment (captured by the "depreciation" variable), their emissions decrease. Nevertheless, with the technique effect, it was not possible to identify a significant relationship with GHG emissions.

Contributions: This understanding of the relationship between accounting variables and greenhouse gas emissions can help regulatory bodies in developing metrics and disclosure standards for climate-related business information, improving quality, comparability and their reliability. This fact can influence the assessment of the value of entities when considering the risks and opportunities related to their environmental impacts.

Some Reflections on Accounting Research and Some (Heavy?) Statements and Conclusions

2023-11-08T14:38:29+00:00