Many corporations lobby the U.S. Congress, but are these efforts effective? Assistant Accounting Professor Jennifer Brown examined corporate political contributions and found that firms taking a long-term, relationship approach with tax policymakers fare better than peers who stand back or wait for an issue to arise.
Companies that make regular ongoing campaign contributions to lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee end up paying lower tax rates over time, according to a new study by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.
When investors examine a company before a stock buy, how do they know they can trust the books? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission mandates that companies report their numbers using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to further its missions of promoting investor protection and market integrity. Since some two-thirds of U.S. investors own securities issued by foreign companies, the SEC has flirted with the notion of abandoning homegrown GAAP in favor of International Financial Reporting Standards.
Research uncovers insights that guide the practice of accounting, and that open up new avenues of inquiry. Faculty in the School of Accountancy are among the leading investigators in the discipline, and their findings are published in top peer-reviewed journals. Here are their recent publications.
Deloitte LLP Chairman Punit Renjen, who helped drive Deloitte’s exceptional performance through the recession, describes the firm’s culture.
CFOs and other corporate financial executives hate having part of their pay decided subjectively; they prefer formulas that rely on objective financial and non-financial targets to determine whether they receive their bonuses. That’s one of the key findings from the latest CFO Compensation Survey, sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and conducted by Michal Matejka, associate professor of accounting. Given widespread CFO dissatisfaction a sensible question is why so many companies continue to rely on it, Matejka says.
