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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Identity management addresses the difficulties encountered when one physical user has separate user IDs and passwords on multiple systems and applications. Access management addresses the challenges associated [...]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * The crux of the SEC's interpretive guidance for management is a top-down, risk-based approach that puts risk first and foremost. Four key areas of opportunity can be [...]

YOU'RE A HACKER, AND YOU'RE PLANNING ON BREAKING INTO AN UNSUSPECTING, UNPROTECTED WIRELESS NETWORK. You're in luck. Apparently, it isn't that hard. More than half of all identified networks are [...]

Would you like to access the Internet, your printer and your other computers, including laptops, without stringing wires throughout your office or home? The solution is a wireless local area [...]

Concern that earnings management erodes the quality of financial reporting has prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to question the role of the external auditor. To help address that concern, this study examines the relation between earnings management and auditor litigation. While prior research on the relation between auditor litigation and total accruals has yielded inconclusive results, I find that the risk of auditor litigation is positively associated with a sharper measure of earnings management--abnormal accruals. Using a larger and more recent sample, this study provides evidence that the probability of auditor litigation increases as clients report more positive (income-increasing) abnormal accruals. This result holds in: (1) univariate analyses, (2) logit analyses that also control for auditor size, client importance to the auditor, length of the auditor-client relationship, client industry, client financial condition, client size, and client growth, and in (3) the subsample of lawsuits alleging wrongdoing in the more recent time period (1984-1998). Key Words: Auditor litigation, Earnings management, Abnormal accruals. Data Availability: A list of sample firms is available from the author. The data used in the study can be obtained from public sources.

The effects of the investment opportunity set on management's decision to capitalize or expense significant costs in two different settings were examined. These were in accounting for exploration and development costs by oil-and-gas firms and in accounting for research and development costs by firms in different industries prior to 1974. The results showed that high-growth firms were more likely than low-growth companies to select the capitalization method of accounting for expenses.