ACF Research Seminars

Program:
11.00h – 12-00h, The relationship between levers of control and absorptive capacity - Is there a moderating role for a firm’s human resource and financial slack, Sahar Salehi, University of Antwerp.
12.00h – 13.00h, The Dark Side of Equity Crowdfunding Platforms: Platform Member Investments and Post-Campaign Outcomes, Michele Meoli, University of Bergamo.

Abstracts
The relationship between levers of control and absorptive capacity Is there a moderating role for a firm’s human resource and financial slack (Sahar Salehi)
We draw on Simons' levers of control framework to investigate the relationship between the managerial use of control systems with absorptive capacity at the organizational level. Simons’ levers of control framework focus on boundary, belief, diagnostic, and interactive controls. A firm’s absorptive capacity represents a firm’s ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit new knowledge. Our model delves into the relationship of boundary, belief, diagnostic, and interactive control systems with the acquisition, assimilation (potential), transformation, and exploitation (realized) dimensions of absorptive capacity. In addition to the direct relationship between a firm’s levers of control and absorptive capacity, we investigate whether a firm’s human resource and financial slack has a moderating role in this relationship. Boundary and belief controls have a significant positive relationship with potential absorptive capacity. Moreover, human resource slack partially moderates diagnostic and interactive controls’ relation with potential absorptive capacity. Additionally, we find significant moderation of human resource slack in the relationship between interactive controls with realized absorptive capacity. Therefore, human resource slack must be included in the research model if one wants to explain the relationship between levers of control with absorptive capacity. Contrary to our prediction, financial slack does not moderate the relationship between levers of control with realized absorptive capacity. However, human resource slack has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between interactive controls and new knowledge acquisition.

The Dark Side of Equity Crowdfunding Platforms: Platform Member Investments and Post-Campaign Outcomes (Michele Meoli)
Past research has shown that equity crowdfunding platform members invest in “cold” offerings to increase these offerings’ fundraising prospects. This behavior has two possible explanations. First, platform members hold private information and support those firms that only seem to be weaker but have significant potential and eventually outperform post-campaign. Second, platform members support weaker firms, which also underperform post-campaign, to increase the platform’s fundraising success rate and revenue generation. We find evidence in line with this second perspective. Specifically, firms in which equity crowdfunding platform members invest are less likely to raise follow-on funding, have lower credit ratings, and are less likely to list on a secondary market. Moreover, firms that have raised equity crowdfunding but in which platform members withdrew their investments show even weaker post- campaign outcomes. Finally, we find that platform member investments distort the equity crowdfunding market by reducing the effectiveness of traditional quality signals for fundraising.

Program:
11.00h – 12-00h, Language and Investors’ Assessment of CSR Information, Jo Mentens, University of Antwerp.
12.00h – 13.00h, The influence of tax auditors' emotions on tax negotiations and tax compliance, Ulfert Gronewold, University of Postdam.

Abstracts:

Language and Investors’ Assessment of CSR Information (Jo Mentens)
I will conduct a pre-registered study on the role of language on investors’ assessment of CSR information. Specifically, I am interested in whether investors react stronger to CSR information in their native language compared to a foreign language. Based on psychology research, I expect that investors will react stronger to CSR information in their native language compared to a foreign language due to the foreign language effect. Generally, research on the foreign language effect has found that reading information in a foreign language reduces people’s decision biases and leads to more utilitarian decisions. As research in accounting and finance suggests that CSR information is processed affectively by investors, I expect that this reliance on affect can be reduced when investors process the information in a foreign language. Moreover, I expect this effect to be larger for more emotional CSR information. To test my expectations, I will conduct an experiment on Prolific with a 3 (CSR information: absent/control, neutral, or emotional) x 2 (language: native or foreign) between- subjects factorial design.

The influence of tax auditors' emotions on tax negotiations and tax compliance (Ulfert Gronewold)
We study the effects of tax auditors’ emotion expressions during tax audit negotiations. A first experiment shows that auditors expressing anger obtain more concessions from taxpayers than auditors expressing happiness. Thus, taxpayers interpret auditors’ emotions strategically and do not respond affectively. A second experiment shows that the experience with an auditor who expressed either happiness or anger reduces taxpayers’ post-audit compliance compared to the experience with an emotionally neutral auditor. Apparently, taxpayers use their experience with an emotional auditor to rationalize subsequent non-compliance. Overall, our findings demonstrate potentially detrimental effects of auditors’ positive and negative emotion expressions and point to the benefits of avoiding emotion expressions: avoiding them does not result in fewer concessions from taxpayers than expressing anger, leads to a better evaluation of the relationship, and reduces taxpayers’ post-audit non-compliance.

11.00h – 12.00h, Coping with financial fragility: Dutch households in the Great Depression, Oscar Gelderblom (University of Antwerp)

12.00h – 13.00h, The future of sustainability reporting in Europe and beyond, Begoña Giner Inchausti (Universitat de Valencia)

Abstract

Coping with financial fragility: Dutch households in the Great Depression, Oscar Gelderblom.

We analyze the financial behavior of Dutch households during the Great Depression with household level data on income and expenditure from contemporary budget surveys. We find that five years into the Great Depression most Dutch households still managed to cope financially. This was even true for people who temporarily lost their jobs. They received social benefits, scaled back consumption, and used previously created financial buffers to absorb the income shock. Very low levels of household debt shielded them from bigger financial problems. Only the long-term unemployed–six per cent of all households in 1937–could not make ends meet and fell into poverty.

Program:
11.00h – 12.00h, How Companies Select an Auditor: Design Versus Practice, Jonas Vandennieuwenhuysen (University of Antwerp)
12.00h – 13.00h, Does Corporate Finance Theory Extend to the New Normal? Evidence from Security Offerings during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Marie Dutordoir (University of Manchester - Manchester Business School)

Abstracts
How Companies Select an Auditor: Design Versus Practice (Jonas Vandennieuwenhuysen)
Despite the alleged importance of the auditor selection and appointment process in audit quality, few studies have studied how audited companies select an auditor. We conducted semi- structured interviews on four audit firm rotations to investigate how the parties involved manage and perceive the auditor selection process. We interviewed 16 respondents in the period right before or after the final auditor selection. These respondents include audit partners, audit committee (AC) members, and managers. Our results imply that although most audit clients have a relatively rigid selection process, the eventual decision is based on their interpersonal connection with the audit partner and team, using the quantifiable results to rationalize their choices. The audit committee’s role appears to be less pronounced than prescribed by regulators, with the managers being the actual key decision-makers. Furthermore, due to cooling-off and cooling-in periods, the search for an auditor is impeded. Our study informs regulators and practitioners on how the auditor selection process is conducted in practice. In addition, our results may be of interest to researchers investigating selection criteria and the involvement of management and the AC in an audit.

Does Corporate Finance Theory Extend to the New Normal? Evidence from Security Offerings during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Marie Dutordoir)
We document substantial increases in corporate security offerings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rise in SEOs is attributable to shifts in macroeconomic conditions, convertible and straight bond offering increases cannot be explained by standard security choice determinants or government interventions. COVID-period SEO announcements are often contaminated by positive R&D-related news, with COVID-period offering proceeds more likely to be hoarded as cash. Overall, COVID-period SEOs are consistent with market timing behavior, whilst COVID-period convertibles and straight bonds cannot be reconciled with pre-pandemic rationales. New theories may be needed to explain corporate financing decisions following long-lived multidimensional shocks.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, See how the land lies: land valuation using spatial models (work in progress), Jacqueline Seufert, KU Leuven  

12.00h – 13.00h, The Good, the Bad and the Ordinary: Estimating Agency Value-Added Using Real Estate Transactions, Chris Cunningham, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract

The Good, the Bad and the Ordinary: Estimating Agency Value-Added Using Real Estate Transactions (Chris Cunningham)

Despite the prevalence and high cost of real estate agents, there is limited empirical evidence as to the nature or efficacy of their services. In this paper we estimate real estate agents’ value-added when both selling and buying homes using data from three large Multiple Listing Services (MLS)s. We find that homeowners who forgo a conventional real estate agent, but list their homes on the MLS via a flat fee broker, sell for between 1 and 4 percent more before commission, but take longer to sell and are less likely to complete a sale. However, these average effects mask a significant amount of real estate agent heterogeneity. Using a novel aspect of our data, which allows us to identify and track agents over time, we estimate the distributions of real estate agent fixed effects in both hedonic and time-on-the-market models. We find that exchanging a listing agent in the 25th percentile for one in the 75th would increase the final sales price by 5–6 percent, and a similar exchange for buying agents would lower purchase prices by 4–6 percent. The interquartile range of agent fixed effects from our model of time-on-the-market is 17–25 days. We do not find a significant trade-off between price and time-to-sell however as agents who obtain higher prices do not take longer to sell, suggesting that they are not simply setting higher reservation prices. We also show that agents who sell homes for more also appear to pay more for a home when serving as a buyer’s agent, indicating that the average agent does not possess exceptional negotiating skills or that such skills are overwhelmed by principal-agent problems. Finally agents do not appear to get better at bargaining; agents do sell faster with experience, but mostly by selling for lower prices.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Personal Territorial Taxation and Its Country Characteristics, Pedro Moraya Barros, University of Antwerp.

12.00h – 13.00h, The 1929 Crash of the New York Stock Exchange as a Liquidity Crisis, Jean-Laurent Cadorel, Paris School of EconomicsFood&Drinks:

Abstracts

Personal Territorial Taxation and Its Country Characteristics (Pedro Moraya Barros)

Although corporate territorial taxation has been extensively studied, research on personal territorial taxation (PTT) is scarce. This article is set to provide the first worldwide scale analysis of PTT. My goal is to understand what are the country's characteristics influencing the choice to tax residents on domestic-source income and not on foreign-source (i.e. personal territorial taxation)? Based on Collective Action Theory and Institutional Theory, I hypothesize that economic inequality and several types of institutions should be associated with PTT. To test these hypotheses, I use a cross-national analysis of 196 countries and jurisdictions with fiscal sovereignty, which finds a strong association between economic inequality and PTT. However, I find no significant relationship between democracy or rule of law and PTT. As an extension of the empirical analysis, I tested the “captured democracy” model and find some evidence that the association between regime type and PTT can change depending on the level of economic inequality in a country. The results are robust to an instrumental variable approach as well as multiple measurements of the independent variables of interest, increasing confidence in the findings. This study provides an initial step to understanding the widely unexplored topic of PTT while adding to the large literature on personal income taxation, economic inequality, and institutions.

The 1929 Crash of the New York Stock Exchange as a Liquidity Crisis (Jean-Laurent Cadorel)

What caused the 1929 crash of the New York Stock Ex- change? This paper provides the first quantitative study of liquidity in the 1929 crash of the New York Stock Exchange. I provide evidence the crash was indeed a liquidity crisis due to the liquidation of brokers’ margin loans. Applying recent estimators of effective spreads and liquidity conditions from the modern finance literature suggests a 4 to 10-fold increase in spreads during the crash at the aggregate level. At the individual stock level, quoted bid-ask spreads suggest liquidity explains a fifth of the variance in daily stock returns in the crash.

Room: A.108

Or join via Teams

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, The effect of bundles of slack and family ownership on SME strategic change, Tristan De Blick, University of Antwerp.

12.00h – 13.00h, Auditor Industry Range and Professional Skepticism, Simon Dekeyser, KU Leuven.

(papers are in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars)

Food&Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks before 15/06 in this form (a water fountain is installed in the kitchen of the meeting room (A.108)).

Abstracts

The effect of bundles of slack and family ownership on SME strategic change (Tristan De Blick)

Do slack resources facilitate or constrain strategic change? We follow the “bundles of slack” approach, and investigate how different bundles of financial slack and HR slack relate to strategic change. Drawing on behavioral theory, we argue that parallel resource constraints in HR slack and financial slack should result in the lowest level of strategic change, except if the firm is family-owned. In family-owned firms, selective resource constraints in HR slack combined with high levels of financial slack should result in the lowest level of strategic change. Analyses performed on a unique sample of 673 survey responses of private Belgian SMEs confirm our hypotheses.

Auditor Industry Range and Professional Skepticism (Simon Dekeyser)

We develop the concept of auditor industry range as the extent to which an auditor has experiences in auditing clients from different industries, and we link this construct to auditor judgment based on prior research in psychology and cognitive science. We find that auditors with a wide range of industry experiences are more likely to require audit adjustments than auditors with a narrow range. This positive relation between auditor industry range and audit adjustments is stronger for more complex clients and in more uncertain environments. The effect of industry range on audit adjustments is also more pronounced for industry specialists than for non-specialists, consistent with the idea that industry specialization and industry range are complementary. Overall, our findings suggest that an auditor’s diverse experiences in different industries can facilitate the development of professional skepticism.

Room A.108

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Transparency, Money and Institutions: Institution-based view on the sustainability-linked compensation and sustainability reporting, Maria Roszkowska-Menkes, Warsaw School of Economics.

(working paper in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars)

Food&Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks before 07/06 in this form (water fountain is installed in the kitchen of the meeting room (A.108)).

Monday, May 30, 2022, 11.00h – 13.00h

Room: A.108

Or join via the Teams Channel

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Split incentives, asymmetric information and energy efficiency subsidies, Stef Schildermans, KU Leuven.

12.00h – 13.00h, Indoor Air Quality and Student Performance, Nils Kok, Maastricht University.

(papers are in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars)

Food&Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks before 26/05 in this form (water fountain is installed in the kitchen of the meeting room (A.108)).

Abstracts

Split incentives, asymmetric information and energy efficiency subsidies. (Stef Schildermans)
We examine whether agency issues due to asymmetric information affect the cost-effectiveness of subsidy programs for energy efficiency investments. In 2009, the Flemish government introduced a reduction in the property tax of 20% to 40% for energy efficient houses. Exploiting the notch to identify the effect on energy use, we find that the cost per kWh saved is two to seven times larger for developer-built housing units than owner-built units. The difference in the cost-effectiveness is the result of a ten times smaller response in the developer-buyer regime. A counterfactual exercise suggests that the cost-effectiveness improves 33% when information is perfect.

Indoor Air Quality and Student Performance (Nils Kok)
Governments devote a large share of public budgets to construct, repair and modernize school facilities. However, little is known about whether investments in the physical condition of schools translate into student achievements. In this study, we report the results of a large field study, providing quasi-experimental evidence on the implications for student performance of environmental quality inside classrooms - key performance measure of school infrastructure, and a common indicator guiding investments in school facilities. We continuously monitor the environmental conditions (i.e. temperature, CO2, fine particles, humidity) in the classrooms of 3,000 children over three entire school years, and link them to their scores in over 22,000 nationally standardized tests. Using a fixed-effects strategy, relying on within-pupil changes in environmental conditions, we find that kids who have been chronically exposed to poor environmental conditions during the school term preceding the test tend to significantly under-perform in the test. We document changes in teaching time as a potential mechanism of drops in performance. Classes exposed to poor indoor conditions in a given day tend to have significantly longer breaks, leading to a shorter time in the classroom. Our results add to the ongoing debate on the determinants of student human capital accumulation, highlighting the role of physical capital in affecting learning outcomes.

Thursday, April 21, 2022, 11.00h - 13.00h

Room: A.108

Or join via the Teams Channel

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Dividend Policy of SMEs: A Variance Decomposition Approach, Jovana Cadenovic, Doctoral Researcher, University of Antwerp.

12.00h – 13.00h, Motivating Low Performers with Input-based Relative Performance Feedback: Evidence from a Field Experiment, Victor van Pelt, Assistant Professor of Management Accounting, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

(paper of Victor is in attachment and in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars

Paper of Jovana will be send next week)

Food & Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks for this meeting in this form (water fountain is installed in the kitchen of the meeting room (A.108)).

Abstracts

Dividend Policy of SMEs: A Variance Decomposition Approach. (Jovana Cadenovic)

We conduct a variance decomposition analysis to explore the contribution of firm, industry and region-level factors to dividend policies of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Based on a sample of 110,050 Belgian SMEs, relative to industry and region differences, firm-level differences explain most of the variance of dividend policies which is in line with the resource based theory. Industry-level differences and region differences matter very little for dividend policy.

Motivating Low Performers with Input-based Relative Performance Feedback: Evidence from a Field Experiment. (Victor van Pelt) A common challenge for firms is delivering performance feedback so that underperforming employees get back on track. In this field experiment, we test whether this can be achieved by providing relative performance feedback based on inputs, which is relative performance feedback that is strongly linked to differences in effort exertion and less affected by differences in experienced luck and ability. Input-based relative performance feedback should help un- derperforming employees internalize the ”bad” news that they exerted less effort than their peers, which, in turn, should direct their future concerns toward exerting more effort and realizing higher input-based performance. Our findings support our predictions by showing that input-based relative performance feedback increases input-based performance among low performers. We also find it eventually increases low performers’ contributions to the firm’s outputs. Consistent with social loss aversion, we find that the performance-enhancing effect of input-based relative performance feedback is less pronounced for high performers. Our find- ings have implications for firms that face employee turnover restrictions or otherwise seek to motivate low performers in their workforce

Thursday, March 17, 2021, 11.00h – 13.00h

Room: A.108

Or join via the Teams Channel

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Tax Transparency of Listed Companies in Europe: Do corporate stakeholders have an influence?, Michiel Van Roy, Doctoral Researcher, University of Antwerp.

12.00h – 13.00h, Uninformed and Unaware – The Dunning-Kruger Effect’s Role in Auditors’ Insufficiently Supported Judgments, Therese Grohnert, Assistant Professor, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University.

(papers in attachment are in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars)

Food&Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks for this meeting in this form (from know on there is a water fountain installed in the kitchen of the meeting room (A.108)).

Abstracts

Tax Transparency of Listed Companies in Europe: Do corporate stakeholders have an influence? (Michiel Van Roy)

Tax transparency and tax fairness have moved up on the priority list of regulators (OECD and EU) and recently attract the attention of the public as well. Despite the regulatory and public interest for tax transparency, previous research has often only examined particular aspects of tax disclosures. Therefore, this paper examines the influence of different stakeholders on the general level of tax disclosures made by large listed companies in Europe. We account for qualitative and quantitative disclosures made in both mandatory and voluntary reports. We predict that institutional owners demand more transparency to lower monitoring costs, and that consumers and employees pressure firms into being more transparent on their tax behavior. Results indicate that the presence of institutional ownership is significantly positively associated with the level of tax transparency. We find that this outcome is mainly driven by qualitative disclosures. In contrast, we do not find any significant relationship between employee importance in a company and tax transparency, nor do we find a significant relationship between the general level of tax transparency and consumer-facing industries. However, we do find that companies from the consumer-facing industries provide more quantitative tax disclosures. Additionally, companies with more sustainable tax behavior also make significantly more quantitative tax disclosures. Finally, we document large differences between countries with respect to the level of tax disclosures made by companies, confirming findings from previous research. This study contributes to the understanding of the determinants of tax transparency, which received growing attention over the past decade.

Uninformed and Unaware – The Dunning-Kruger Effect’s Role in Auditors’ Insufficiently Supported Judgments. (Therese Grohnert)

Overconfidence is a bias in judgment and decision-making that is recognized by practitioners and researchers as a threat to audit quality. When individuals are overly confident in their performance, they tend to collect too little evidence and fail to correct wrong judgments. The Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE) describes that not all individuals are affected equally by overconfidence: rather, poor performers are more likely to be overconfident because they lack the necessary insight to display appropriate confidence. We explore whether auditors are subject to the DKE, testing two interventions to increase self-insight as a means of mitigating the bias. Through two experimental studies with 350 auditors, we establish that (I) auditors indeed display the DKE: auditors who formed inaccurate and insufficiently supported judgment overestimated their performance, affecting close to half of all participants, and (II) overconfidence can be mitigated by fostering self-insight through a hypothesis generation intervention. We find that auditors are susceptible to the DKE regardless of experience, audit firm, or gender. These findings add to existing research on auditor judgment and the DKE, foster ecological validity and generalizability of the phenomenon, and afford implications improving auditors’ performance in practice.

Thursday, February 17, 2021, 11.00h – 13.00h

Room: A.108

Or join via the Teams Channel

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, The Impact of Earnings Stripping Rules in Europe, Dave Goyvaerts, Doctor-Assistant, UGent.

12.00h – 13.00h, The Impact of Financial, Human and Social Capital on Becoming an Entrepreneur through Acquisition, Hans Vanoorbeek, Phd-student Antwerp Management School.

(papers in attachment are in the ‘files’ folder on Teams, channel Research seminars)

Food&Drinks:

We like to support the FBE Green impact team, so in order to reduce food waste: place your order for food & drinks for this meeting in this sheet.

Abstracts

The Impact of Earnings Stripping Rules in Europe (Dave Goyvaerts)

Earnings stripping rules aim to reduce international profit shifting through the strategic placement of debt, by disallowing the tax deductibility of interest above a certain percentage of a firm’s EBITDA. Following the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project and the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, these rules have recently been introduced in most EU Member States. We develop a new theoretical model to predict firms’ responses to earnings stripping rules’ introductions. A reduction in their net finance expense and increases in their EBITDA and corporate tax liabilities are hypothesised. These hypotheses are tested empirically using a firm-level dataset of German, Italian and Spanish firms. The results indicate that firms affected by earnings stripping rules reduce the net finance expense, while their EBITDA appears to be unaffected. The effect on tax liabilities appears to be limited, and seems to depend on the country-specific implementation.

The Impact of Financial, Human and Social Capital on Becoming an Entrepreneur through Acquisition (Hans Vanoorbeek)

While studies on successful entrepreneurship are abundant, this stream of research focused predominantly on start-up entrepreneurship. Acquiring an existing firm, or entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), is an alternative form of entrepreneurial entry. Using a unique sample of nascent ETA entrepreneurs, in particular middle-aged senior experienced individuals, collected through online surveys, we test the importance of three forms of capital on the odds of successfully acquiring a business: financial, human, and social capital. Human capital or the experience and expertise of the ETA entrepreneur significantly increases the chances of success. However, contrary to our knowledge of start-up entrepreneurs, financial capital is another vital predictor, while social capital seems to have no significant impact. Our findings suggest that start-up and ETA entrepreneurship require different resources to be successfully completed due to their inherent differences.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, The Influence of Visualisations in Corporate Disclosures on Investors’ Judgments and Decision-Making, Jo Mentens – University of Antwerp

Abstracts

The Influence of Visualisations in Corporate Disclosures on Investors’ Judgments and Decision-Making (Jo Mentens)

We will experimentally investigate the influence of visualisations in corporate disclosures on investors’ investment decisions. Specifically, we are interested in whether visualisations improve investors’ understanding of corporate disclosures and whether this better understanding leads to more accurate investment decisions. From the existing accounting literature, the influence of visualisations on investors’ investment decisions is unclear. While visualisations have received relatively little attention in the accounting literature, there has been a growing number of studies that examine the influence of various other features of disclosures (e.g., readability) on investors’ investment decisions. Based on this literature, we expect that visualisations increase investors’ subjective feelings of processing fluency, which affectively influences their investment decisions. Alternatively, based on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML), we expect that visualisations decrease the cognitive load experienced by investors, which increases their understanding and improves their investment decisions. To test our hypotheses, we will conduct an experiment with 600 participants on Prolific. For our experiment, we will rely on motivated reasoning theory to disentangle the effects of processing fluency and the CTML. By only providing positive information and by assigning participants to a long or a short investment position, participants will receive respectively preference-consistent or preference-inconsistent information. Based on motivated reasoning theory, we expect that this will change participants’ information processing which will provide insight into whether, and to which extent, subjective feelings of processing fluency or understanding mediate the effect of visualisations on investors’ investment decisions.

Thursday, November 4, 2021, 11.00h – 13.00h in room A.108

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Unravelling the relationship between a firm’s big data analytics capability and the realization of a competitive advantage: an IT business value approach, Pieter De Rijck – University of Antwerp

12.00h – 13.00h, Performance Measurement Information for the Sake of Fostering Absorptive Capacity, Sahar Salehi– University of Antwerp

Abstracts

Unravelling the relationship between a firm’s big data analytics capability and the realization of a competitive advantage: an IT business value approach (Pieter De Rijck)

Big Data Analytics (BDA) has the potential to transform business models, firms and the competitive landscape. Though, creating value from BDA investments seems challenging as many managerial and/or non-technical challenges are involved. We therefore study the relationship between a firm’s Big Data Analytics Capability (BDAC) and the possible realization of a competitive advantage. We draw on the resource based view and the IT business value approach to develop hypotheses on the direct and indirect effects, via the a firm’s operating, customer and innovation processes. We used unique survey data from 112 Belgian and Dutch firms, collected through multiple responses per firm. Estimating the model using PLS-SEM, we found a direct relationship between a firm’s BDAC and the perceived realization of a competitive advantage. We also found a partial mediation via the performance of the firm’s operation management process.

Performance Measurement Information for the Sake of Fostering Absorptive Capacity (Sahar Salehi)

This paper studies whether the design of the Performance Measurement System (PMS) contributes directly to a firm’s absorptive capacity, or whether the relationship is mediated by how the performance information is used. A firm’s absorptive capacity is an important element of the firm’s dynamic capability and a driver of strategic changes. Absorptive capacity is a multidimensional construct, including a firm’s potential absorptive capacity (acquisition and assimilation of external knowledge) and a firm’s realized absorptive capacity (transformation and exploitation of external knowledge). Analyzing cross-sectional survey data from 226 firms using structural equation modeling (SEM), our results indicate that the presence of a larger number of performance measures is associated with higher potential absorptive capacity. Moreover, diagnostic use of the PMS partially mediates the association between PMS design and potential absorptive capacity. The association between PMS design and realized absorptive capacity, however, is completely mediated by interactive use of performance information in the firm. Interactive use also intervenes in the relationship between PMS with potential absorptive capacity, even with greater magnitude than diagnostic use. The findings highlight that it is important to consider a wider range of performance measures in the design, as well as the type of use of the PMS to stimulate absorptive capacity. The results have implications for firms pursuing the development of absorptive capacity as well as maintaining its effectiveness, since they make firms aware of the mechanism that performance information influences absorptive capacity, and how the interactive use of the performance information can boost their absorptive capacity.

Thursday, October 7, 2021, 11.00h – 13.00h in room A.108

Sandwiches & coffee will be provided.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Is Average Skewness a Stylized Fact in Asset Pricing? Some European Counterevidence, Jef Van Cappellen – University of Antwerp

(paper in attachment)

12.00h – 13.00h, What is it about auditors that matters? An exploration of auditor personality, skills and audit quality, Lena Pieper - School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University

(paper in attachment)

Abstracts

Is Average Skewness a Stylized Fact in Asset Pricing? Some European Counterevidence (Jef Van Cappellen)

A lot of researchers are determined to identify what variables predict subsequent stock returns. Although several papers have attempted to provide an exhaustive model, not all cross-sectional variation in expected returns seem to have been explained yet. This paper investigates the ability of average skewness to predict expected market returns. Using a large euro area sample of listed firms, two U.S. studies are replicated to determine and validate the predictive power of average skewness on subsequent monthly stock market and index futures returns. We find no convincing evidence that average firm level skewness is priced in the euro area market.

What is it about auditors that matters? An exploration of auditor personality, skills and audit quality (Lena Pieper)

This paper investigates the role of an auditor’s personality as a possible driver of audit quality. Based on survey and internal audit firm data of around 1500 Dutch experienced auditors from all Big 4 and six medium- to small-sized audit firms, I provide descriptive evidence of significant variation in auditors’ personality traits and document that personality traits become more homogenous and more pronounced (i.e. extraversion, openness to experience and bravery) in the higher ranks. Next, I find that more extrovert and conscientious auditors are associated with stronger skills, commitment to the organization and profession, and overall better performance. Hierarchical linear regression analysis confirms the predictive power of personality for overall auditor performance. Collectively, these results contribute to our limited understanding of what characteristics matter for the documented differences in audit outcomes across audit partners.

Program:

3 pm – 4 pm: Railroad Bailouts in the Great Depression - Gertjan Verdickt, KULeuven (Belgium)

4 pm – 5 pm: Attention, Disagreement, and Trading Volume Around Earnings Announcements - Matthew Driskill, Texas State University (USA)

Abstracts

Railroad Bailouts in the Great Depression (Gertjan Verdickt)

In a financial crisis, the banking sector is often the recipient of concessional loans, equity infusions, or other transfers from the government. The effects of government bailouts on financial firms, and their desirability, have been extensively studied (e.g., Diamond and Rajan (2002), Acharya and Yorulmazer (2008), Gorton and Huang (2004), Stern and Feldman (2004), Farhi and Tirole (2012), Leitner (2005), and many others). Such bailouts are understandable, given the multiple connections between the financial and real sectors of the economy and the danger of `runs' on the banking sector. A crisis in the financial sector can easily spill over into the real sector, as Benmelech et al. (2017) demonstrate in the market for automobiles, and automobile loans, during the 2007-08 episode.

Bailouts of non-financial firms, in contrast, have been little studied. Yet, these firms have received large amounts of government support during a crisis. For instance, one-quarter of all Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money went to U.S. auto manufacturers (see Goolsbee and Krueger (2015) and U.S. Treasury Department of TARP reports). Even in the COVID-19 crisis, the government supported non-financial firms to a large extent. Over half of the value of Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) loans approved during the 1930s went to the non-financial firms: railroads, agriculture, industrial firms, and others.

In this paper, we show that the bailouts essentially were wealth transfers from the U.S. government to shareholders rather than to the actual firms. Indeed, we find little positive effects on profitability and employment. In fact, we highlight that bailed-out firms had significantly lower profitability in the years following the approval of the RFC loan.

Attention, Disagreement, and Trading Volume Around Earnings Announcements (Matthew Driskill)

This paper investigates earnings announcement information as a determinant of changes in attention and disagreement, and then evaluates changes in attention and disagreement as determinants of abnormal earnings announcement volume. While the disagreement literature finds disagreement to be positively associated with the magnitude of earnings announcement information, the attention literature generates mixed (magnitude and directional) findings. I develop three proxies for changes in attention around earnings announcements—change in analyst coverage, change in analyst forecast activity, and change in institutional ownership—and hypothesize that these changes in attention are positively associated with good news in particular. I find change in analyst coverage and change in institutional ownership to be positively associated with good news. I find change in analyst forecast activity to be positively associated with any news. I evaluate the economic significance of changes in attention and changes in disagreement as determinants of abnormal earnings announcement trading volume, hypothesizing that changes in attention may generate substantially larger effects per Merton’s (1987) model of incomplete information. I find changes in attention—attention-induced trading—to generate effects as much as 6x as large as changes in disagreement—disagreement-induced trading. These results provide some initial synthesis on previously distinct literatures, and suggest that changes in attention may represent the more significant determinant of trading volume and therefore returns.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Does practitioner research help auditors to provide higher audit quality and generate higher audit fees? Evidence from Spain – Benedikt Downar, Technical University of Munich (Germany).

(paper in attachment)

12.00h – 13.00h, The Financial Drivers of International Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda – Nina Mariën, UAntwerpen.

(paper in attachment)

Abstracts

Does practitioner research help auditors to provide higher audit quality and generate higher audit fees? (Benedikt Downar)

This paper investigates whether auditors engaging in practitioner research by writing professional articles and books subsequently provide higher audit quality and generate higher audit fees. Based on theories of constructivist learning and evidence-based management, we argue that engaging in practitioner research helps auditors to acquire expertise relevant for performing the audit. Further, we predict that this engagement also contributes to the development of auditors’ reputation, enabling the auditor to negotiate higher audit fees. We use the German setting for our empirical study as it is common for German auditors to write professional articles and books for historical reasons. Our results are consistent with our expectations. They remain robust when controlling for innate lead auditor abilities and the match between the lead auditor and the client.

The Financial Drivers of International Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda (Nina Mariën)

The process by which entrepreneurial firms adopt international entrepreneurial activities has been investigated from a range of different perspectives. Despite the proliferation of research efforts, the international entrepreneurship (IE) literature lacks systematic

knowledge on the financial drivers of the internationalisation process of entrepreneurial firms. The literature is fragmented, heterogeneous in terms of theoretical frameworks, methods, and conceptualisations, which tends to impede academic knowledge accumulation and integration, leaving important facets unexplored. This paper aims to synthesise and integrate extant interdisciplinary research on IE and entrepreneurial finance to address the question of which financing sources entrepreneurial firms rely on when operating abroad. From the synthesis, we develop a holistic framework that provides a comprehensive understanding of the state-of-the-art as well as potential avenues for future research at the intersection of the IE and entrepreneurial finance literature. To date, there have been no systematic reviews looking exclusively at the financial drivers of the internationalisation behaviours of entrepreneurial firms.

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Do dissimilarities in the family involvement in family firms lead to different levels of indebtedness? Evidence from Spain – Maria Comino-Jurado, Universidad de Jaen, Spain

(paper in attachment)

12.00h – 13.00h, Financial knowledge and the acquisition of debt financing: implications for born globals -Laurence Rijssegem, UGent

(paper in attachment)

Abstracts

Do dissimilarities in the family involvement in family firms lead to different levels of indebtedness? Evidence from Spain (Maria Comino-Jurado)

Purpose – This paper examines how differences in the family involvement in a family business can influence its level of indebtedness. Assuming the influence of family is not the same for all family firms, we consider each company as a combination of the family involvement in three dimensions of the business: ownership, management and governance structure.

Design/methodology/approach – Using the partial least squares technique allows us to address the heterogeneity of family firms through an integral concept of family involvement in business that jointly considers the level of family participation in the ownership, management and governance structure of each firm.

Findings – Our results demonstrate that the level of family involvement in a family firm, considering the heterogeneity existing within the family business group, directly influences its level of indebtedness. In addition, we find that family involvement in ownership and governance structures individually considered are positively related to the level of indebtedness of the family business.

Originality/value – Our findings prove that some indebtedness patterns, which previous literature has described as common to all Spanish family businesses, may actually be valid only for specific family firms with a particular level of family involvement. In addition, the way of measuring family business heterogeneity through our integral concept of family involvement can be replicated by other authors because of the manageability of the items, thus contributing to an increased understanding of the effects of family involvement in firms’ development.

Financial knowledge and the acquisition of debt financing: implications for born globals (Laurence Rijssegem)

This study investigates the relationship between founders’ knowledge of different debt financing mechanisms and their start-ups’ ability to attract debt financing. Building on the cognitive psychology literature, we propose that the depth of founders’ debt financing knowledge is positively associated with a start-up’s ability to acquire debt financing while the breadth of their debt financing knowledge is negatively associated with this ability. Integrating insights from international entrepreneurship literature, we further argue that these relationships will be much more pronounced for born globals than for non-born globals. Analysis of survey data on 1,385 start-ups located in Flanders (Belgium) through a Heckman two-stage selection model largely confirms our hypotheses. The results advance the entrepreneurial finance and international entrepreneurship literature by clarifying the role of entrepreneur’s cognitions and knowledge for start-ups’ financing decisions and internationalization. Furthermore, they have important implications for start-ups and policy makers intending to support them.

Program:

• 11.00h – 12.00h, Efficient spread betting markets – Jonas Vandenbruaene, University of Antwerp
• 12.00h – 13.00h, Market Behavior: a Drawdown Perspective – Hans Geboers, UHasselt
  

Programm:

• 10.00h - 11.00h, The Rate of Return on Corporate Bonds: Long-Run Evidence.  Kevin Van Mencxel (University of Antwerp)
   
• 11.00h - 12.00h, Does a firm’s big data analytics capability influence decision-making and control? A longitudinal case study. – Pieter De Rijck               (University of Antwerp)

Programme

11.00h-12.00h, The decision to deliver voting rights in equity crowdfunding - Alice Rossi (University of Bergamo)

12.00h-13.00h, Move a Little Closer? Information Sharing and the Spatial Clustering of Bank Branches - Stefan Straetmans (University of Antwerp, Maastricht University)

Thursday, December 12h, 11.00h – 13.00h in room A.108

Programme

• 11.00h – 12.00h, Gender effects in crowdfunded business loan campaigns – Pomme Theunissen, Maastricht University (no working paper available yet)
• 12.00h – 13.00h, The Effects of "Brexit" on Corporate Disclosure – Fynn Gerken, University of Antwerp

Programme

• 11.00h – 12.00h, Audit Partner-Client strategic alignment – Kris Hardies
• 12.00h – 13.00h, Corporate Taxes and Debt under the Nazi Occupation – Philip Fliers (Research Fellow in Finance, Queen’s Management School | Associate at Centre for Economic History, Queen’s University Belfast)

Programme

• 12.00h – 13.00h, How Technology Shapes Markets: The Case of Sports Betting, Jonas Vandenbruaene, University of Antwerp
• 11.00h – 12.00h, Does the financial market punish firms for decoupling corporate social responsibility?, Nazim Hussain, University of Groningen (The Netherlands)

Programme

•  11h - 12h, Gertjan Verdickt (University of Antwerp): Entrepreneurship and War Uncertainty: Evidence from the Second Industrial Revolution
   
• 12h-13h, Ulrike Thürheimer (Maastricht University): The effect of the interplay between liability and regulatory incentives on audit outcomes 

Programme

• 11.00h - 12.00, Encarna Saorin (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid): Takeover Protection through Narrative Disclosure
   
• 12.00h - 13.00, Xavier Walthoff-Borm (Ugent): Capturing the attention of small investors in equity crowdfunding: an eye tracking experiment

Tuesday March 26th 2019, 11.00h – 13.00h

Programme

• 11.00h – 12.00h, Thomas Matthys (Postdoctoral Researcher, Vlerick Business School): Targeted by an Activist Hedge Fund, Do the Lenders Care?
   
• 12.00h – 13.00h, Sanne Janssen: Individual-level professional skepticism profiles: Investigating differences across ranks and factors associated with professional skepticism (draft paper)

Venue
UAntwerp, Stadscampus, Annex

Thursday, 29 November 2018, 11h Christina Martinez-Sola – 13h Gertjan Verdickt

Programme

• 11.00h – 12.00h  Cristina Martinez-Sola (University of Alicante): 'Cash holdings in SMEs: speed of adjustment, growth and financing'
   
• 12.00h – 13.00h  Gertjan Verdickt (University of Antwerp) : 'Bad news travels fast: the importance of time-varying war risk'

Coffee and sandwiches will be offered.

Venue
UAntwerp, Stadscampus, Room  S.A.108

Programm

11.00h – 12.00h Leentje Moortgat (Researcher University of Antwerp): “Stubborn dividends: 180 years of evidence from Belgium” (co-authors Jan Annaert & Marc Deloof)

12.00h – 13.00h Oveis Madadian (Assistant Professor of Accounting, IÉSEG School of Management): “A behavioral theory of R&D expenditures: The impact of risk-taking tendency” (co-author: Maud Van den Broeke)

Coffee & sandwiches will be offered.

venue: city campus, room  S.A.108

Monday 8 October 2018 at 11:00 in room C102

Steven Bradley (Baylor University)

Community Level Aspects of New Firm Survival: An Examination of Social Capital and Income Inequality

Abstract

The environment in which organizations form has a significant influence on their long-term survival chances.  However, management scholars often focus on industry environments as the primary source of external influence for new firms.  We examine the additional role of community-level factors which varies in both economic vibrancy and shape aspects of trust, exchange and support that foster firm emergence and survival.  We combine Kauffman Firm Survey and U.S. county-level Census data examining the survival rates for a diverse cohort of 3,324 U.S. firms founded in 2004 through the 2011 year. 

In the first study (social capital and organizational exit: a multilevel perspective), we theorize that social capital is more than the availability of firm-level social ties, but also builds from local geographic social patterns that foster informal interaction, trust, knowledge sharing, and support that facilitate firm-level social exchange.  We examine whether community-level social capital modifies the effect of firm strong and weak ties to improve survival chances.   

In the second study (Economic Inequality and New Venture Survival), we examine community-level inequality in U.S. incomes.  While most public and academic perceptions of income inequality are negative, we theorize that inequality increases variance in communities in terms of consumer buying preferences and also opportunities for new business formation to meet consumer demand.  We use a fine-grained analysis of community income distribution showing that inequality and the shape of the inequality distribution improves new firm survival chances. 

Bio

Steven Bradley is a Full Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship. He received his Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship with a minor in Business Strategy from the Indiana University, Kelley School of Business. Steve has extensive practical experience as an entrepreneur as the founder and manager of numerous businesses in the areas of engineering consulting, real estate, and product development and sales.

He has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. Steve previously worked as an engineer for McDonnell Douglas and Law Engineering and has conducted research for 3M at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Steve’s teaching responsibilities are currently in the area of strategic entrepreneurship. He has played an important role in developing program strength in the areas of social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy. His work has been published at the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and the International Journal of Development. He currently serves on Editorial Boards for the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.

Programm

• 11.00h – 12.00h  Gertjan Verdickt: The Realm of Uncertainty (work in progress)
• 12.00h – 13.00h  Afsoon Qutbyar (HU, Hogeschool Utrecht): A qualitative content analysis of SME governance: Linking SME governance and growth research
  Abstract

Coffee & sandwiches will be offered.

venue: citycampus, room  S.R.annex

Thursday May, 9th, 11.00h – 13.00h in room A.107

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h, Capturing the attention of small investors in equity crowdfunding: an eye tracking experiment, Xavier Walthoff-Borm, Ghent University

12.00h – 13.00h, Takeover Protection through Narrative Disclosure, Encarna Guillamon Saorin, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Venue
UAntwerp, Stadscampus, room A.107

Program:

• 11.00h – 12.00h  Lode Lancksweerdt (Research Centre for Finance, Accountancy & Tax (FAcT)  KU Leuven): “Informational Opacity as an Additional Driver in Explaining Nonprofit Organizations’ Capital Structure”

Abstract:

Informational Opacity as an Additional Driver in Explaining Nonprofit Organizations’ Capital Structure

From 2006 onwards Belgian nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are legally required to disclose financial statements. We explore the impact of this increase in NPOs’ financial disclosure requirements (the treatment)  on NPOs’ capital structure, captured by means of different debt ratios. We adopt a difference-in-differences approach, this is, we use a matched sample of for-profit firms (FPs) as a control group to filter out general economic trends (such as the financial crisis) and to empirically isolate the effect of the financial disclosure requirements. We use data from 7,936 Belgian NPOs and 15,435 FPs over the period 2006 – 2015 to test the research question. Our results suggest that NPOs were able to mitigate the negative effects of the financial crisis on access to debt by means of the introduction of mandatory financial disclosures.  Among FPs, we observe significant changes in capital structure (shift from long-term debt to short-term debt, shift from financial debt to non-financial debt) which can be perfectly explained by the effects of the financial crisis. That is, due to the financial crisis, bank lending became much more difficult to obtain and firms therefore started to focus more heavily on efficient working capital management. In contrast to FPs, NPOs do not demonstrate such shifts in their capital structure, even though NPOs and FPs operated in the same economic climate and one would normally expect the same shift in patterns. We conclude that the increase in financial disclosure requirements for NPOs has a significant effect on capital structure.  In addition, we also find that the quantity of information provided in the financial statements (complete versus abbreviated format) plays a significant role as well in further reducing information asymmetry and relatively increasing NPOs’ access to debt.

• 12.00h – 13.00h Céline Coeckelbergs (UHasselt):The influence of the CEO on audit (quality) demand in private firms: an interplay of willingness and ability

Abstract:

While auditor choice is generally considered to be determined by the level of agency conflicts, recent studies indicate that management is often the driving force behind auditor appointments and terminations. However, the few studies that empirically examine this management influence focus solely on the willingness of management to influence auditor choice. However, willingness will only have an impact when management is also able to push through its will. The present study therefore examines to what extent the CEO’s ability strengthens the influence of the CEO’s willingness on auditor choice. Using a dataset of 322 private firms, regression results show that when the CEO is willing to appoint a non-Big 4 auditor and also has sufficient power, it is more likely that a non-Big 4 auditor is actually appointed, at least on the condition that the control effectiveness of the board is weak such that the CEO can actually exert his/her power.

Thursday, December 7th

D.424

11.00h – 12.00h Ine Paeleman, UGent: “Do firms consume or stockpile financial slack during an environmental jolt? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment.”

Abstract:

Using the recent financial crisis as a quasi-natural experiment and drawing on organizational and economic theory, we investigate how an environmental jolt affects firms’ level of financial slack. While organizational theorists suggest that managers will consume financial slack during an environmental jolt to protect their firms’ technical core, financial economists suggest that a precautionary motive will drive managers to stockpile financial slack. Using longitudinal data of 95,366 Belgian firms, we contrast these seemingly incongruent perspectives by showing that young firms and firms with lower creditworthiness (i.e., firms with lower legitimacy) will consume financial slack during the financial crisis, while old firms and firms with higher creditworthiness will stockpile financial slack during the financial crisis. Moreover, we clarify key mechanisms and managerial actions underlying these relationships.

12.00h – 13.00h Piyada Daowadueng: “Complex costing systems: an analysis of antecedents and their usefulness”

Abstract:

Costing systems vary from very simple costing techniques to complex systems of detailed cost allocation and cost estimation. Whether or not more complex costing systems also lead to increased usefulness is still an issue of debate. Prior studies resulted in mixed findings (Kallunki and Silvola, 2008; Al-Omiri and Drury, 2007; Drury and Tales, 2005; Pizzini, 2006; Abernethy et al., 2001; Datar and Gupta 1994; Labro and Vanhoucke 2007). In order to shed more light on the relationship between the level of cost complexity of a cost system and its usefulness, we address two research questions. First based on contingency theory we formulate hypotheses with respect to the drivers of the adoption of more complex costing systems in companies. These hypotheses allow us to identify when firms do adopt more complex cost systems. Second using a cognitive psychology theory, we develop hypotheses on the relationship between the complexity costing systems and their usefulness. We define cost usefulness as providing cost information for decision making, as providing cost information that satisfies the users, and providing cost information that is accurate. In this study we capture cost systems complexity by focusing on the level of detail applied in the allocation of costs to cost objects and on the diversity of costing systems used in a company. Survey data collected from Thai medium and large manufacturing and service firms are used to test the hypotheses.

With this study we contribute to the literature by distinguishing between antecedents that trigger the adoption of more complex cost allocation systems and antecedents that trigger the adoption of a wider set of different costing systems in the company. The results show that the adoption of more complex cost allocation systems in all industry and manufacturing industry is significantly related with operational turbulence and IT-integration, the adoption of different types of product costing systems in all industry and manufacturing industry is associated with the level of IT-integration. In addition the results also provide evidence that the relationship between the adoption of complex cost systems and cost usefulness is fully mediated by the level of knowledge creation. 

Thursday, October 5th

A.108

Program:

11.00h – 12.00h  Seminar Business Economics (doctoral program FAE) Karla Johnstone: Labor market implications for non-implicated CFOs of fraud firms. 
                                           

Karla Johnstone is the EY Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Business. She received her PhD from the University of Connecticut in 1997 and has spent her entire career at Wisconsin. Karla has served on the Executive Committee of the Auditing Section of the AAA in the role of treasurer, Vice-President, and she is now serving as the President.  Her research interests include auditors' client acceptance and continuance decisions, how fraud risk and fraud brainstorming affect audit planning and audit fees, client-auditor negotiation, and audit budget-setting processes, among others. She has published over 40 papers in leading journals, including Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.    

coffee and sandwiches will be offered.        

Please confirm your attendance: secretariaatACF@uantwerpen.be

Thursday, Ocotber 5th

room: A.108

12.00h - 13.00h  Karla Johnstone: Workshop: Some advice for young researcher in accounting (and finance)

Karla Johnstone is the EY Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Business. She received her PhD from the University of Connecticut in 1997 and has spent her entire career at Wisconsin. Karla has served on the Executive Committee of the Auditing Section of the AAA in the role of treasurer, Vice-President, and she is now serving as the President.  Her research interests include auditors' client acceptance and continuance decisions, how fraud risk and fraud brainstorming affect audit planning and audit fees, client-auditor negotiation, and audit budget-setting processes, among others. She has published over 40 papers in leading journals, including Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. 

Coffee and sandwiches will be offered.

Please confirm your attendance by email: secretariaatACF@uantwerpen.be