Bruce K. Behn

University of Tennessee | UTK · Department of Accounting and Information Management

Since 2002, many firms have been required to alter their board of directors and committees to increase management monitoring. Kinney and McDaniel (1989) and Chhaochharia and Grinstein (2007) provide empirical evidence suggesting that investments in corporate governance may differ based on firm size, and that under-investing in monitoring may be mor...

Prior research on publicly traded U.S. firms provides evidence that managers engage in classification shifting to opportunistically manage “core” earnings. We extend this line of research in a broader international setting, by examining (1) whether the level of investor protection affects managers' decisions to engage in classification shifting beh...

The Pathways Commission on Accounting Higher Education was created by the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to study the future structure of higher education for the accounting profession and develop recommendations for educational pathways to engage and retain the strongest pos...

On December 13, 1994, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated certain schedules including repairs and maintenance (R&M) disclosures previously required in annual reports and registration statements. This SEC decision provides us a research setting where disclosure has been decreased. The purpose of this study is to determine if m...

On December 13, 1994, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated certain schedules that included repairs and maintenance (R&M) disclosures previously required in annual reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. The purpose of this research is to determine if market participants utilized R&M information when making investm...

This study provides descriptive evidence regarding the nature of voluntary financial disclosure in the nonprofit sector. The ability of outside stakeholders to access organization-speci!c information concerning the operations of a nonprofit organization is important for donation decisions. Members of the U. S. Senate, donors, and other stakeholders...

This study examines the audit service market in Korea after the 1999 Omnibus Cartel Repeal Act to determine if increased competition has led to audit fee discounting. Until 19 December 2001, when the Korean government enacted The Financial Supervisory Regulations, researchers could not address questions related to price competition in the Korean au...

ABSTRACT: Under the assumption that audit quality relates positively to unobservable financial reporting quality, we investigate whether audit quality is associated with the predictability of accounting earnings by focusing on analyst earnings forecast properties. The evidence shows that analysts’ earnings forecast accuracy is higher and the foreca...

This study examines why some nonprofit organizations are willing to voluntarily provide their audited financial statements for review and others are not. While we are not stakeholders in these enterprises, we believe this study provides some descriptive evidence and insights on the nature of voluntary financial disclosure in the nonprofit sector. T...

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the impediments identified by practicing auditors that keep them from significantly reducing the time lag between closing and issuing their report. We obtain these impediments by surveying the U.S. assurance partners of an international audit firm. Our results suggest that lack of sufficient personnel resources, both wi...

Increasingly, strategic flexibility has been viewed as a critical organizational competency that enables firms to achieve and maintain competitive advantage and superior performance. In this study, the relationship between IS support for strategic flexibility and the bottom-line performance of firms is investigated, as well as the moderating effect...

This study examines whether the equity markets value firms that have a succession plan in place. We find that firms with an heir apparent already designated upon the death of the CEO have significantly higher cumulative abnormal returns on the date of death than firms that have not identified an heir apparent. This study contributes to the existing...

Management incentives have been suggested as a factor affecting the usefulness of reported earnings for readers of financial statements. Prior research has demonstrated that the quality of earnings has been associated with levels of managerial ownership (Warfield, Wild and Wild (1995)), audit quality using Australian data (Gul, Lynn, and Tsui (2002...

This research considers whether recent modifications to segment reporting adequately address analysts' concerns regarding the usefulness of geographic data. Forecast errors for models utilizing SFAS No. 131 geographic sales data are compared to forecast errors for models utilizing SFAS No. 14 geographic sales data. The results indicate a significan...

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study examining whether auditors' going-concern reports are associated with management plans as directed in SAS No. 59, Proxies for management plan information are taken from management's discussion and analysis (MD&A), the 10-K, or the annual report. The paper extends work by Mutchler (1985)...

SAS No. 59 states that when auditors believe that substantial doubt exists about a client's ability to continue as a going concern they should modify their audit report so as to indicate such doubt. This judgment is based in part upon an assessment of the likelihood that management's plans for alleviating identified conditions can be effectively im...

This study examines whether client satisfaction can help explain cross-sectional variation in Big 6 audit fees paid by Fortune 1000 clients. After controlling for other factors related to audit fees (including audit quality attributes), client satisfaction with the audit team is positively associated with fees. It appears that a dimension of client...

To enhance traditional financial reporting, academics and policymakers have suggested that financial statement users be provided with nonfinancial performance information that may enhance users? ability to evaluate and predict financial performance. This study tests this proposition by examining whether timely nonfinancial performance information i...

This study examines whether client satisfaction can help to explain cross-sectional variations in Big 6 audit fees. After controlling for other factors related to audit fees, overall client satisfaction and satisfaction with the audit team are positively associated with audit fees. There is weak evidence that satisfaction with the audit firm is ass...

In this study, we examine empirically the association between the recognized deferred tax asset valuation allowance and certain variables put forth as sources of evidence in the FASB's (1992) Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) No. 109. Although several papers have discussed theoretically how to account for and audit the deferred tax...

Accounting procedures have been suggested as a factor affecting the usefulness of reported earnings for the users of financial statements. However, little evidence exists to confirm the ways in which mandatory changes in income determination rules influence the way the market responds to accounting information. This study expands the existing liter...

SYNOPSIS: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among client satisfaction, attributes of audit quality, auditor change, and controller work experience. To address this purpose, controllers of Fortune 1000 companies were asked to evaluate their existing auditor on each of 12 dimensions of audit quality. Controllers also rated...

Our purpose is to investigate the use of geographical segment disclosures. Specifically, we examine whether equity valuations of U.S. multinationals are affected by geographical segment disclosures mandated by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 14: Financial Reporting for Segments of a Business Enterprise (henceforth SFAS 14). Our resu...