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Much concern has been expressed in recent years regarding the state of business ethics in the People's Republic of China, and it has been suggested that unethical behavior is common both in the business community and in accounting firms. Despite such concerns, very little empirical research has been done on ethics in the Chinese public accounting profession, and no previous study has examined the ethical culture or climate in Chinese CPA firms. The current paper reports the results of a preliminary study of the ethical climate in local and international CPA firms operating in China, and the influence of ethical climate and personal ethical orientations on decision-making. Contrary to expectations, the perceived ethical climate in local firms was not more negative; however, auditors employed by local firms judged questionable actions as more ethical and indicated a higher likelihood of committing similar actions. Consistent with our hypotheses, perceptions of the ethical climate in one's organization had a significant effect on intentions to commit ethically questionable acts. In addition, high relativists (who tend to reject broad moral principles in favor of situational analysis) were significantly influenced by the perceived organizational ethical climate, but low relativists were not similarly influenced.

SYNOPSIS: The current trend toward corporate acquisitions of CPA firms poses potential threats to the autonomy and ethical standards of public accounting professionals. This recent consolidation movement suggests that for [...]

The research found that Certified Management Accountants who saw themselves as less professional also felt high professional conflict levels, lower job satisfaction feelings, and higher turnover expectations.

New assurance services are being touted as opportunities for accountants to broaden the coverage of their services by furnishing more added-value products to information users. Several issues have been raised regarding such assurance services, however. A survey of a random sample of CPA firms indicates that most small practices are not well acquainted with new assurance services and have no plans as yet to explore this avenue but they consider most of the services invaluable to information users., Many recent articles have appeared in accounting literature which promote new assurance services as opportunities for accountants to expand the scope of their practices by providing additional value-added services to [...]

The accounting profession experienced tremendous growth and success in the 20th century. The expanded role of accountants in U.S. society can be traced to a number of specific factors such [...]

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and several Chartered accountant Associations are currently promoting the XYZ designation, in an attempt to develop a formal certification process for work that [...]

Several surveys of a large number of Chinese auditors are conducted to explain the impact of the ethical climate on the organizational-professional conflict (OPC) and organizational commitment (OC) in the Chinese firms. The Chinese auditors are shown to present an extremely biased report of these variables based on the social context.

This study investigates auditors' perceptions of the effectiveness of formal sanctions as incentives for maintaining independence. A model of the effects of formal sanctions on auditors' ethical judgments and behavioral intentions was developed and tested using structural equations. A sample of practicing auditors responded to a case involving audit client pressure for the use of aggressive reporting. The moral intensity of the ethical dilemma was manipulated on a between-subjects basis. The results indicate that litigation risk and peer-review risk were perceived as significant deterrents to aggressive reporting decisions, but the risk of disciplinary actions by professional organizations was not. In addition, situational factors that influence moral intensity, such as the intended use of the audited financial statements and the dollar amount of the misstatement, significantly affected the perceived likelihood of sanctions occurring, as well as the perceived acceptability of aggressive reporting. The findings of this study also raise concerns regarding auditors' willingness to acquiesce in aggressive financial-reporting decisions. For example, participants estimated a 51 percent chance that the average auditor would issue an unqualified opinion on a set of financial statements that contained an apparent misstatement equal to 40 percent of net earnings.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * THERE ARE NUMEROUS OPPORTUNITIES for CPAs to make a difference in their communities. Many volunteer accounting services are provided through such not-for-profit groups as Accountants for the [...]

The 150-hour education requirement has been passed in 48 of the 54 U.S. licensing jurisdictions, and it has been implemented in 39 of them. Data is becoming available to accurately [...]

Public confidence in the professionalism of auditors is precariously low, thanks to the Enron, WorldCom, and other well-publicized audit failures. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act now places greater restrictions on the ability [...]

The deluge of criticisms relating to CPA2Biz voiced by the rank and file membership of file profession were largely ignored by American Institute of CPAs management until members of the [...]