Editorial

ID: 35084

Authors: Fábio Frezatti.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 5-6, January-April, 2015. 2 page(s).

Document type: Editorial (Portuguese)

O conhecimento como um valor: as ideias de A-Crescimento e de Commons

ID: 35085

Authors: Nílson José Machado.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 7-10, January-April, 2015. 4 page(s).

Document type: Editorial (Portuguese)

Do Shared Interests Affect the Accuracy of Budgets?

ID: 35086

Authors: Ilse Maria Beuren, Franciele Beck, Fabiane Popik.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 11-26, January-April, 2015. 16 page(s).

Keyword: benefit of slack , budget accuracy , budgetary slack , shared interests

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The creation of budgetary slack is a phenomenon associated with various behavioral aspects. This study focuses on accuracy in budgeting when the benefit of the slack is shared between the unit manager and his/her assistant. In this study, accuracy is measured by the level of slack in the budget, and the benefit of slack represents a financial consideration for the manager and the assistant. The study aims to test how shared interests in budgetary slack affect the accuracy of budget reports in an organization. To this end, an experimental study was conducted with a sample of 90 employees in management and other leadership positions at a cooperative that has a variable compensation plan based on the achievement of organizational goals. The experiment conducted in this study is consubstantiated by the study of Church, Hannan and Kuang (2012), which was conducted with a sample of undergraduate students in the United States and used a quantitative approach to analyze the results. In the first part of the experiment, the results show that when budgetary slack is not shared, managers tend to create greater slack when the assistant is not aware of the creation of slack; these managers thus generate a lower accuracy index than managers whose assistants are aware of the creation of slack. When budgetary slack is shared, there is higher average slack when the assistant is aware of the creation of slack. In the second part of the experiment, the accuracy index is higher for managers who prepare the budget with the knowledge that their assistants prefer larger slack values. However, the accuracy level differs between managers who know that their assistants prefer maximizing slack values and managers who do not know their assistants’ preference regarding slack. These results contribute to the literature by presenting evidence of managers’ behavior in the creation of budgetary slack in scenarios in which they share the benefits of slack with their assistants.

Assessment of the methodological rigor of case studies in the Field of Management Accounting published in journals in Brazil

ID: 35087

Authors: Kelly Cristina Mucio Marques, Reinaldo Rodrigues Camacho, Caio Cesar Violin de Alcantara.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 27-42, January-April, 2015. 16 page(s).

Keyword: case study , management accounting , research strategy

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This study aims to assess the methodological rigor of case studies in management accounting published in Brazilian journals. The study is descriptive. The data were collected using documentary research and content analysis, and 180 articles published from 2008 to 2012 in accounting journals rated as A2, B1, and B2 that were classified as case studies were selected. Based on the literature, we established a set of 15 criteria that we expected to be identified (either explicitly or implicitly) in the case studies to classify those case studies as appropriate from the standpoint of methodological rigor. These criteria were partially met by the articles analyzed. The aspects less aligned with those proposed in the literature were the following: little emphasis on justifying the need to understand phenomena in context; lack of explanation of the reason for choosing the case study strategy; the predominant use of questions that do not enable deeper analysis; many studies based on only one source of evidence; little use of data and information triangulation; little emphasis on the data collection method; a high number of cases in which confusion between case study as a research strategy and as data collection method were detected; a low number of articles reporting the method of data analysis; few reports on a study’s contributions; and a minority highlighting the issues requiring further research. In conclusion, the method used to apply case studies to management accounting must be improved because few studies showed rigorous application of the procedures that this strategy requires.

Quality determinants of independent audits of banks

ID: 35088

Authors: José Alves Dantas, Otávio Ribeiro de Medeiros.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 43-56, January-April, 2015. 14 page(s).

Keyword: Audit , Banks , Discretion , Manipulation , Quality

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

Since DeAngelo’s study (1981) on audit quality, the latter has been a topic well discussed in the international accounting literature; however, there is little evidence about audit quality in the financial market. In Brazil, studies on audit quality began only in the 2000s, although without a specific focus on banks. The purpose of this study was to identify the quality determinants of audit work in Brazilian banking institutions. Using the practice of earnings management as a proxy for audit quality - more specifically, the discretionary accruals related to the process of the constitution of the Loan Loss Provision (LLP) - tests were performed based on the quarterly information of commercial and multipleservice banks and savings banks from 2001 to 2012. Empirical tests have shown that the quality of audit work has several types of relationships as follows: negative with the client importance level for the auditor; negative with the works after the sixth year of the contract; positive with the establishment of the Audit Committee by the banks; positive with the judgment of punitive administrative proceedings against independent auditors; and positive with the level of rigor of the regulatory environment. Of the tested hypotheses, three were not confirmed empirically. The first hypothesis predicted an association between audit quality and the auditor degree of specialization in the banking industry. The second hypothesis predicted that audit quality would be negatively correlated with the degree of concentration of audit activity within the National Financial System (Sistema Financeiro Nacional - SFN). The third hypothesis predicted that audit quality would be lower when the auditorclient relationship is of a short term. The results of the study contribute to the debate concerning the role of auditors in the transparency and solidity of the financial system, including their role as a complementary or auxiliary supervisor.

Analysis of the relevance of information content of the Value Added Statement in the Brazilian Capital Markets

ID: 35089

Authors: Márcio André Veras Machado, Marcelo Alvaro da Silva Macedo, Márcia Reis Machado.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 57-69, January-April, 2015. 13 page(s).

Keyword: relevance of accounting information , Value Added Statement , wealth created

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The usefulness of financial statements depends, fundamentally, on the degree of relevance of the information they disclose to users. Thus, studies that measure the relevance of accounting information to the users of financial statements are of some importance. One line of research within this subject is in ascertaining the relevance and importance of accounting information for the capital markets: if a particular item of accounting information is minimally reflected in the price of a share, it is because this information has relevance, at least at a certain level of significance, for investors and analysts of the capital markets. This present study aims to analyze the relevance, in the Brazilian capital markets, of the information content of the Value Added Statement (or VAS) – referred to in Brazil as the Demonstração do Valor Adicionado, or DVA. It analyzed the ratio between stock price and Wealth created per share (WCPS), using linear regressions, for the period 2005–2011, for non-financial listed companies included in Melhores & Maiores (‘Biggest & Best’), an annual listing published by Exame Magazine in Brazil. As a secondary objective, this article seeks to establish whether WCPS represents a better indication of a company’s result than Net profit per share (in this study, referred to as NPPS). The empirical evidence that was found supports the concept that the VAS has relevant information content, because it shows a capacity to explain a variation in the share price of the companies studied. Additionally, the relationship between WCPS and the stock price was shown to be significant, even after the inclusion of the control variables Stockholders’ equity per share (which we abbreviate in this study to SEPS) and NPPS. Finally, the evidence found indicates that the market reacts more to WCPS (Wealth created per share) than to NPPS. Thus, the results obtained give some indication that, for the Brazilian capital markets, WCPS may be a better proxy concept for referring to a company’s result than NPPS.

Exit and failure of credit unions in Brazil: a risk analysis

ID: 35090

Authors: Flávio Leonel de Carvalho, Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz, Sigismundo Bialoskorski Neto, Aquiles Elie Guimarães Kalatzis.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 70-84, January-April, 2015. 15 page(s).

Keyword: Cooperatives , Efficiency , Longevity , Microcredit , Survival

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the market exit of Brazilian singular credit unions from 1995 to 2009; it also identifies and lists the determinants of various types of market exits and analyzes whether profitability is a significant factor for credit union survival. This study was conducted with accounting data provided by the Central Bank of Brazil, which derives only from individual cooperatives, i.e. singular credit unions. Quarterly financial statements from these credit unions that were active from 1995 to the second quarter of 2009 were employed, totaling 71,325 observations for 1,929 credit unions. Based on survival and the model of competing risks (such as the Cox, Exponential, Weibull, Gompertz, and Competing Risk models), the results show that there is no statistical evidence to ensure a correlation between profitability and credit union survival. The results also suggest that the size of credit unions plays a key role in their survival and longevity and that their funding and investment management are related to their survival and risk of market exit. In conclusion, the results confirm the initial idea that the duality inherent to credit unions – cooperative principles versus economic efficiency – might influence the stability, survival, and longevity of these institutions. Such results may also imply that a credit union embracing the rationale of a private bank will become more estranged from its members, something which will hinder its future operations and increase the likelihood of its exit from the market.

Is there a difference in credit constraints between private and listed companies in Brazil? empirical evidence by the Cash Flow Sensitivity Approach

ID: 35091

Authors: Alan Nader Ackel Ghani, Roy Martelanc, Eduardo Kazuo Kayo.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 85-92, January-April, 2015. 8 page(s).

Keyword: cash flow sensitivity , credit constraints , private companies

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This article analyzes the credit constraints, using the cash flow sensitivity approach, of private and listed companies between 2007 and 2010. According to this approach, the econometric results show that the credit constraints are the same for either private or listed companies. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature because the study of credit constraints of private companies based on cash flow sensitivity in Brazil has been rare.

Perceived problems of being an Accounting teacher

ID: 35092

Authors: Tamires Sousa Araújo, Francielly Dornelas Correia Lima, Ana Clara Lacerda de Oliveira, Gilberto José Miranda.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 93-105, January-April, 2015. 13 page(s).

Keyword: accounting , Brasil , higher education , life cycle , professors

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This study aims to identify the primary problems faced by accounting professors both upon entry into the profession and during later phases. Thus, it seeks to answer the following research question: what are the problems perceived by accounting professors in Brazil during each phase of the professional life cycle? The data collection instrument was constructed based on the life cycles proposed by Huberman (2000) and the problems identified by Veenman (1984) and validated by a committee of experts. The sample consisted of 574 Brazilian professors. The results indicate that the main problems faced by professors were the following: “lack of student motivation”; “heterogeneous classes”; “amount of administrative work”; “very large class size”; and “lack of time”. It was also found that these problems tend to be the same during all phases of the professorial life cycle. However, these problems are more intense upon entry into the career; their importance decreases in each phase. It was also found that professors working for public versus private institutions confronted different problems. The large amount of administrative work and the lack of guidance by the higher education institution (HEI) are typical problems of public institutions. The degree level achieved by professors is also sensitive to the type of problems that they face. In other words, the lack of opportunities for additional training, the lack of HEI guidance, and the knowledge of academic standards are issues that most directly affect professors with lower professional degrees, whereas the lack of time and the large amount of administrative work are problems faced with greater intensity by professors with higher degrees.

Impact of retirements and pensions on the social welfare of the households from Minas Gerais State

ID: 35093

Authors: Paulo Ricardo da Costa Reis, Suely de Fátima Ramos Silveira, Marcelo José Braga, Thiago de Melo Teixeira da Costa.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 106-118, January-April, 2015. 13 page(s).

Keyword: households , impact evaluation , propensity score matching , retirement and other pensions , social welfare

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

One of the main arguments for the existence of public social security systems relates to their potential use as income distribution and welfare policy tools. In this vein, several studies have sought to evaluate the effects of social security benefits on poverty and inequality. However, the evidence obtained from Brazilian studies regarding the effects of social security remains inconclusive, and studies evaluating the impact of social security on social welfare indices are scarce. The objective of this paper is to measure the impact of retirement pensions and other pensions provided by social security programs on the welfare level of households in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The methodological approach is based on propensity score matching, and microdata from the National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios – PNAD, 2009) are used. The results demonstrate that income from retirement pensions and other pensions represents an important portion of beneficiary households’ income, especially lower-income beneficiary households. The results suggest that social security has a positive effect on the incomes, access to knowledge and living conditions of the households analyzed. The impact of retirement pensions and other pensions on households in low-income groups (Classes D and E) tends to be more significant relative to the impact on middle class households (Class C).

Informações editoriais 2014 / Nominata de avaliadores

ID: 35094

Authors: Fábio Frezatti.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 26, n. 67, p. 119-126, January-April, 2015. 8 page(s).

Document type: Other (Portuguese)