...JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING RESEARCH Vol. 9, No. 2 2010 pp. 21–43 American Accounting Association DOI: 10.2308/jiar.2010.9.2.21 The Effect of Institutional and Cultural Factors on the Perceptions of Earnings Management Marshall Geiger and Joyce van der Laan Smith ABSTRACT: In this study we examine the effect of stakeholder orientation versus shareholder orientation, and the level of cultural secrecy on individuals’ perceptions of earnings management practices. Examining perceptions from 1,260 participants from 13 countries indicates that individuals from stakeholder-oriented institutional backgrounds were less accepting of earnings management, including both accounting earnings management and operating earnings management activities, than participants from shareholder-oriented institutional backgrounds, and that individuals from secretive cultures were more accepting of both types of earnings management activities. Our findings provide evidence of the anticipated perceptual differences across countries with respect to earnings management and suggest the need for further research linking perceptions to reported earnings management measures. I. INTRODUCTION constant pressure in accounting and business across the globe is for companies to report stable, if not growing, financial position to stockholders, creditors, analysts, and other interested parties. With this strain comes the pressure on the firm’s financial reporting executives to “manage” the company’s reported...
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...1 Sensory Perception 2 Sensory Perceptions Sensory data is an exploration of collected abilities formed through the senses of observation throughout a person’s life span. The ability to analyze and categorize images, sounds, tastes and touch sparks the likes and dislikes of gathered information. In other words, accuracy and inaccuracy takes form in what a person perceive about the collected data in that moment. Even though, perceptions of information can change at any given time, there is the ability to memorize certain behaviors and information. Furthermore, one simple reason is because as a person evolves, senses are mature enough to form decision based on learned, environmental data Accuracy of sensory information is a perception of a person’s belief pattern. For example, how a person view his or her religion as being the accurate path to the heavens or God. As mentioned before, often than not what a person believes to be accurate is their reality to learned information. However, there are no advances for achieving the right conclusion on any situation but there are derived ambitions to reach desired results. Should a person only perceive their conclusion of information to known accuracy? Most likely not because there are alternatives and differences of gathered data to reach a conclusion. Three reasons for believing in the accuracy or inaccuracy of sensory information are not limited to 1.) Environmental cues, meaning the cultural views and environment that we have...
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...Discuss Gregory’s top-down (indirect) theory of perception Gregory’s theory of perception is a top-down theory, the theory states that our mind takes in physical information that we see through the eye and combines this with previous knowledge stored in the brain, in order to make sense of the mass of information that we receive. According to Gregory our brain develops hypotheses to understand the incoming sensory data. It is a constructivist view as the sensory information on its own is seen as insufficient, therefore what we are seeing is not what is directly in front of us, but is instead a combination of the interaction with the stimulus, our previous knowledge and hypotheses that we create in order to be tested. The fundamental idea of this process is knowledge stored from past experiences, which then affects our perception. However context is also important as this provides us with more information so that we can eliminate hypotheses. The main supporting evidence for Gregory’s indirect theory is visual illusions as these can be explained in terms of indirect perception through the formation of incorrect hypotheses. The Necker Cube illusion is an example of hypothesis testing and shows how we use additional contextual information to confirm one hypothesis over another. The Cube contains no other additional clues so the red dot seems to move closer and then further away, therefore we cannot solve the illusion. The Necker Cube illusion does not change even when participants...
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...Can your mental models about your world both assist and limit your perceptions when you meet a person for the first time? (Senge, 2006) advocates the notion that mental models are the images, assumptions and stories which we carry in our minds of ourselves other people, institutions and every aspect of the world. I believe this to be a true statement when it comes to way in which we interact and reciprocate with a person we have met for the first time. It is the ideas we form consciously or unconsciously from our own experiences and which either lead or limit our activities and thoughts through various channels. Our world is so complex that when we meet a new person for the first time our initially inclined to try and make sense of who the new person actually is. All representations of what I perceive to be reality explain the cause and effects, of my understanding in its entirety of my expectations with regard to certain things which produce meaningful events, whilst allowing me to behave in certain ways. Mental models profoundly influence our lives on an individual level like a coloured lense becoming more saturated overtime (Senge, 2006), I think this statement is definitely advocated through the notion of perception in its simplest definition being a process allowing us to experience the world around us (Cherry, 2014). People are probably the most important feature in the world around me; my perceptions are something that is shaped by many factors ultimately affecting...
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...How can Perceptions and Attributions Of Certain Roles in the Organization Be Controlled Within Organizational Change? Christine Freese 4020 Derby Drive, Cumming, GA 30040 cfreese@ariba.com 770-402-6287 MGMT591- Leadership and Organizational Behavior Joseph Walkowicz September 29, 2013 * Introduction a) The organization discussed in this research paper is Ariba, Inc (an SAP Company). Ariba is a software and information technology services company located in Sunnyvale, California. It was acquired by German software maker SAP AG in 2012. Ariba provides "Spend Management solutions" which help companies "analyze, understand, and manage their corporate spending to achieve cost savings and business process efficiency." Currently, 94 of the Fortune 100 and more than 200,000 other companies use Ariba's SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions to manage their spend and commerce activities. (Ariba, 2013) b) The role of the researcher is Senior Director of Global Commercial Operations for the Sales Organization. She manages the following teams; Requests for Proposals, Deal Pricing, Deal Bookings, Non Corporate Compensation, Commissions and overall Sales Operations. For the purposes of this paper her role will be related to the Account Executives (Sales people). Specifically in the area of recruiting and retention. c) Prior to the acquisition, Ariba was a 3,000 employee company with approximately 100 Account Executives worldwide. The main objective...
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...Learning Objectives Chapter 2 Perception CONSUMER BEHAVIOR Global Edition 9e Michael R. Solomon When you finish this chapter, you should understand why: • Perception is a three-stage process that translates raw stimuli into meaning. • Products and commercial messages often appeal to our senses, but we won‟t be influenced by most of them. • The design of a product today is a key driver of its success or failure. 3/8/2012 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 2-1 2-2 Learning Objectives (continued) Sensation and Perception • Subliminal advertising is a controversial— but largely ineffective—way to talk to consumers. • Sensation is the immediate response of our sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and fingers) to basic stimuli (light, color, sound, odor, and texture). • We interpret the stimuli to which we do pay attention according to learned patterns and expectations. • Marketers use symbols to create meaning. • Perception is the process by which sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted. 3/8/2012 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 2-3 3/8/2012 Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education 2-4 Figure 2.1 Perceptual Process We receive external stimuli through our five senses Hedonic Consumption • Hedonic consumption: multisensory, fantasy, and emotional aspects of consumers‟ interactions with products • Marketers use impact of sensations on consumers‟ product...
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...important to understanding of the universe than Locke’s idea of the ‘veil of perception’. The idea that what we take in with our senses is not necessarily correspondent with reality shows us, more than anything, that critical thought is as or more important to understanding than observation alone. I think that this lesson is of paramount importance because it runs contrary to our intuition and general ideas about the nature of reality yet must be respected despite the limits it places on what we can objectively ‘know’. Descartes uses the idea when breaking down what he can know exists. He uses the argument that we could be dreaming, our sensory experience coming from a source other than reality, and have no idea that we are viewing an illusory world. From this he states that the only thing we know for sure is that we are beings that have thoughts. Understanding that we are inextricably linked to our bodies’ perception yet cannot trust it is a difficult concept to accept, and one that we try to ignore, however it reminds us that things are not always how they appear. Plato references the perception problem in his theory of forms. The allegory of the cave illustrates that our perceptions of the world are inherently unreliable, and that what we sense is ‘shadows’ of the true forms of objects. While Plato was making an entirely different point about the nature of reality, he too understood that perception cannot be trusted fully, that we are prisoners in our bodies, and unable...
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...skills that can be useful in the process. Skills that are used would be client perspective of situations, embarrassment, reluctance to admit, perceptions of helpers, cultural factors, cost of services, transportation, time, and fear. Using helping skills are crucial in the helping process. The client’s perspective of the situation is very important in the helping process. Many clients may lack resources, skills, or even both to solve their problems. Clients and helpers may disagree about client’s situations. Clients that recognize the existence of problems are not guaranteed to seek help. Clients who consider their problems too difficult to solve, too overwhelming, or too embarrassing to admit are less likely to seek professional help. Often clients perceive seeking help as a burden or waste of time. The nature of problems in living involves a reluctance to admitting to having problems. Men are less likely to seek help because they are socialized to solve problems on their own. When it comes to the perception of human services professionals, helpers are viewed as strangers and experts. This requires individuals to talk about personal matters with someone unknown to them. A “stranger” evokes distrust and suspicion in our society. Fears of the stranger and expert are another barrier that prevents individuals from seeking help. Sometimes cultural factors prohibits seeking help. In some ethnic groups there are strong prohibitions against sharing problems with people outside the family...
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...linguistic barrier. The cross cultural variations may be due to language differences, which mean that perception may be similar, but is reported in a different way. This would decrease the validity of findings. Gregor and McPherson compared two groups of Australian Aborigines. One group lived in a carpentered environment, whereas the other lived in a natural environment. The two groups did not differ on their susceptibility to the Muller Lyer illusion. This suggests that cross cultural differences in perception may depend more on training and education than on the environment. Even so, this suggests that it is nurture, rather than nature that determines our perceptual development. The external validity of this research may be limited due to the use of visual illusions; they are not representative of cultural differences in everyday perception. Hudson investigated perception of simple two dimensional drawings. He found that non Western societies had difficulty perceiving 3D scenes in drawings, whereas those from Western societies had no problem. This again suggests that perceptual development is influenced by training and education, as those in Western societies are trained from a very young age to perceive pictures in 3D. The task used in this research was however, extremely ethnocentric. The two dimensional picture perception task is a culturally specific task based on Western drawing styles. Thus we must be careful in drawing conclusions on cultural differences as the findings...
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...Self-serving biases can be either beneficial or harmful to individuals. Self-serving bias is a process by which an individual distorts their perception of reality or ignores negative feedback in order to maintain their ego. To put it simply: “people want to feel positive about themselves, and most manage to see themselves favorably much of the time” (Baron, Byrne, Branscombe, 2007, p. 136). This bias often manifests as a failure to identify oneself as the source of errors, instead placing the blame on external, uncontrollable factors. Despite the fact that it represents a discrepancy in perception and reality, self-serving bias can be viewed as a sense of optimism about one’s life and abilities, and may be an important part of the maintenance of self-esteem. Perhaps the most significant evidence that self-serving bias is not maladaptive is that it is ubiquitous in nearly all parts of the population, yet there is no associated dysfunction with average levels of expression. If the level of self-serving bias seen in the general population was maladaptive, there would be an expected associated disorder or dysfunction. Self-serving bias is an effective method of maintaining and even raising self-esteem and confidence Although an “average” amount of self-serving bias may be adaptive and important in maintenance of one’s mental well-beingone can imagine there are situations in which exhibition of self-serving bias may have negative consequences. One way self-serving bias can...
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...Individual and Community Perceptions of Mental Illness According to Kring, A.M., Davidson, G.C., Neale, J. M., & Johnson, S.L (2007) Abnormal Psychology (10th Ed.) abnormal behavior is at the center of mental disorders and stigma remains a problem. However, the perceptions concerning mental illness vary within cultural groups and often are linked to not only cultural variations but also socioeconomic differences. According to some studies, groups that have higher levels of education and financial security are more likely to have more accepting attitudes concerning mental illness and treatment compared to groups with limited education and that fall within lower socioeconomic levels. “Treatment” is viewed as a natural course of action among individuals and their families resulting in the destigmatization of the “illness”. This compared to individuals who live in lower socioeconomic communities’ mental illness is often viewed as real or perceived oppression initiated by a society that historically has established systems that perpetuate inequality. My observation has been that this perception leads to a belief that “true” mental illness does not exist, resulting in the stance that if only there was a level playing field the “illness” would go away. There is also a quiet acceptance within families and a reluctance to acknowledge that “professional” help might be needed. This often becomes a nightmare for the individual and his/her family. Thus the strain the illness places...
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...Sensory Perceptions Calvin Douglas Hunter Critical Thinking-PHI 210 SONJA SHEFFIELD Strayer University January 17, 2013 When we are first born our five senses are just starting to develop from the first taste of food to hearing our mother and father speak, even the touch of a person hand. Some would say at the time a baby is born they are not aware of their surroundings and unable to survive it is very important for parents to help in their survival. They will hear words and not understand, hear sounds around them and will not know what they mine, until they are taught, they do not know at this time how important their senses will be to them until later in life and how their senses will interact with their brain. Our brain can help us make statements which will help us personally, perceive. Kirby and Goodpaster (2007), pg. 53 believes “there is nothing in the mind unless it is first in the senses says in stark simplicity, that our brain would be empty without our senses. If this view is correct, then sensing would be the main source of raw data for our thinking: If we sense better, we can think better.” Whenever there is nothing contradicting to our beliefs there would be any reason to believe that which we perceive to be inaccurate. However, factors that may contribute to the accuracy of sensory data are as follows: Source of data and cognitive ability: To obtain accurate sensory data, the source of data must be received through the senses of sight, hearing, smell...
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...Chapter 3 Perception: What you see is what you get Adam Grant Dr. Mildred Charles Film Analysis April 10, 2014 About the Chapter The way we communicate relies heavily on our feelings about the world around us and how the world feels about us. These feelings can be greatly altered by correct or incorrect perceptions based on many factors. In Looking Out/Looking In, Adler and Proctor warn readers “we’re aware of only a small part of what is going on around us” (2011, p. 83). Chapter 3 of the book explores how a person’s perceptions are formed as well as how physiological, social, and cultural factors influence our perception of reality. The Perception Process is broken down into four steps: selection, organization, interpretation, and negotiation. Selection is what attracts your attention and things out of the normal are more likely to grab a person’s attention. These same abnormal things are easier to remember such as an abnormally tall or short person. After information from our environment is selected it must be organized. Figure-ground organization is a principle that describes something or someone that stands out to a person among a plethora of others items to notice. To help with organization we organize or classify people by their appearance, social roles, interaction style, psychological traits, and membership. These classifications affect how we perceive and react to people. These classifications lead to stereotyping and generalization of people. Punctuation...
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...those with low self-esteem feel safer sharing on Facebook. However, the study also found that those with low self-esteem frequently post updates that work against them. They tend to criticize their friends with negative details of their lives, making them less likeable as "friends." Forrest and Wood also found that those people with high self-esteem, who usually posted more positive updates, received more positive responses (Williams, R. 2012, March 2). Self-Knowledge Socialization is being a participant of different activities and interactions with people, being part of a culture that we are born into or a religion, etc. Reflected Appraisals are reactions about our actions with people and how we evaluate them and or perceive us. Self-perception theory says that, 'When people are unsure about their feelings and motivations, they will use their own behavior to infer what they feel (Sears, D. O., Peplau, L. A., & Taylor, S., 2012). Social identity, relates to how we identify ourselves in relation to others according to what we have in common (Sears, D. O., Peplau, L. A., & Taylor, S., 2012). While social identity can provide people with a sense of self-esteem and a framework for socializing, and it can influence their behavior. Ethnic Identity in minorities is being part of two cultures and being able to adapt to the changes or changing schools or first time to college. This next concept about Independent Versus Interdependent relates to the key differences between an...
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...The story is about a ski instructor named Miranda who is having several issues with her new boss, Hank because he has done and said many things over the course of the time that he has been there to show that he may be sexist. This scenario has a lot to do with perception. Perception is defined as “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment” (Robbins & Judge, 166). This paper will discuss what perception is and how much of an impact in can have in the work place. Miranda’s perception of her boss Hank is that he is a sexist. The initial problem that is discussed is the fact that she did not like the fact that as one of the most experienced ski instructors at the resort but she was only being assigned to teach the children instead of the adults, the same for all the other female instructors. She sees how Hank separates the men and the women instructor to have a meeting about work procedure, “After introducing himself and Harika, he took the men to one room, and Harika took the women to another,” (Cohan, Fink,Gadon, Willits & Josefowitz, 2013). That was the first thing that bothered her because she could not understand what it is that had to be said to only the male instructors that could not also be said to the female. Although this bothered her initially, she decided to find a positive side to the situation, and went along with it. The more she went along with what was going around the job place...
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