Editorial

ID: 6893

Authors: Gilberto de Andrade Martins.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 5-5, January-April, 2009. 1 page(s).

Document type: Editorial (Portuguese)

Management accounting research development: the restrictions of Zimmerman’s monoparadigm approach

ID: 6365

Authors: Fábio Frezatti, Artur Roberto do Nascimento, Emanuel Junqueira.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 6-24, January-April, 2009. 19 page(s).

Keyword: Economic monoparadigm , Management accounting , Management control

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This study aims to analyze the conceptual development of management accounting, in view of its peculiarities and possible influences. This is an essay based on a bibliographic research. The goal is to identify demands, conflicts and methodological needs for management accounting research, against the background of a debate between Ittner and Larcker (2001; 2002), Zimmerman (2001), Hopwood (2002), Lukka and Mouritsen (2002) and Luft and Shields (2002), who are considered extremely relevant in analyzing the course of management accounting research. The innovation consists in discussing research particularities, the monoparadigm as a limiting factor of research, organizational theories as research opportunities, the political power of mainstream and the lack of methodological rigor in the studies. It is concluded that the growth of management accounting derives from countless elements, fundamental for the qualitative improvement of research. Among them, the need for a clear personality for research, the non-acceptance of the monoparadigm and the researchers' greater responsibility in terms of methodological depth are highlighted.

Accounting system for company eco-efficiency management

ID: 6366

Authors: Cassio Luiz Vellani, Maísa de Souza Ribeiro.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 25-43, January-April, 2009. 19 page(s).

Keyword: Case Study Research , Corporate Sustainability , Eco-efficiency , Environmental Management Accounting

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

Sustainable Development, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability are concepts that converge towards the same objective: to integrate economic, social and ecological aspects of business. Many companies maintain actions aimed at environmental protection. To contribute to corporate sustainability, however, these activities should converge to eco-efficiency. Therefore, the company's ecological activities should act on the waste produced by company operations and the incurred expenses should result in economic-financial benefits for the business. In this context, this article identifies the following research question: in accounting terms, how can the company's ecological actions be categorized to provide information on events related to the eco-efficiency of the business? Attempts are made to answer this question through a (holistic) Multiple Case study (type 3), with the following goal: corporate ecological actions (AEE) were classified according to their objectives, that is, treatment of own waste, deriving from internal actions; and actions resulting from external events, such as the preservation of green areas, recovery of contaminated areas, environmental education programs aimed at the external community. This can allow managers to verify the eco-efficiency of the operating process itself (internal AEE) and the aspect related to global environmental management (internal and external AEE). Three types of material are analyzed and 608 examples of ecological actions are identified, performed by 181 companies. The empirical research reported in this article reveals that the proposal is in line with practice and results in an accounting system to manage companies' eco-efficiency.

Capital structure, dividends and interests on equity: tests in Brazil

ID: 6367

Authors: Mariano Seikitsi Futema, Leonardo Fernando Cruz Basso, Eduardo Kazuo Kayo.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 44-62, January-April, 2009. 19 page(s).

Keyword: Capital structure , Dividends , Interest on equity

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

Capital structure and dividends have been frequently studied in corporate finance. In 2002, Fama and French simultaneously analyzed these two subjects in the context of tradeoff and pecking order theories. The simultaneous analysis means acknowledging that dividend influences capital structure and vice versa, leading to an endogeneity problem. Extending and adapting Fama and French's study to the Brazilian environment and including yet another dependent variable, i.e. interest on equity, this article aims to analyze the relationship among capital structure, dividends and interest on equity in the context of Brazilian companies. The analysis comprises the period from 1995 to 2004. Results corroborate many of the predictions of tradeoff and pecking order theories, despite the fact that dividend payout in Brazil is low when compared to the United States. Profitability was the most significant variable in explaining dividend and leverage.

Study of the scale economy in the brazilian mobile telecommunication sector aft er privatizations

ID: 6368

Authors: Maria Ivanice Vendruscolo, Tiago Wickstron Alves.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 63-78, January-April, 2009. 16 page(s).

Keyword: Costs function , Economies of scale , Telecommunications

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

In recent decades, the telecommunication sector has gone through significant structural transformations, technological innovations and changes in regulatory processes around the world. In Brazil, after the state monopoly had been broken, mobile telephony followed the same trend, developing a complex oligopolistic structure. Initially, when the market opened, a structure was in which competition took place between A and B Band operators. In a second phase, when universalization targets were achieved, foreseen in the new Brazilian telecommunications model, competition between the operators was intensified, with the entrance of D and E Band operators. Given the changes in the market structure of the Brazilian telephony sector, in the period after privatizations, this study aimed to verify if the Brazilian mobile telephony operators were enjoying economies of scale, through the analysis of the polynomial cost function and of cost curves. An applied documentary research was carried out, using the statistical method of least squares with a model for panel data. The estimated results of the cost function for the sector revealed that production based on the number of clients presented growing returns and decreasing production, evidencing the existence of economies of scale in the sector. However, the sector contained an excessive number of companies, given the market's demand for Brazilian mobile telephone companies to enjoy the benefits of scale gains.

Applications of the Newcomb-Benford law in the tax audit of the service tax (ISS)

ID: 6369

Authors: Josenildo dos Santos, José Francisco Ribeiro Filho, Umbelina Lagioia, Bartolomeu Figueiredo Alves Filho, Ivson José Caldas de Araújo.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 79-94, January-April, 2009. 16 page(s).

Keyword: Accounting-fiscal auditing , Frauds , Newcomb-Benford Law

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This paper aimed to check if the quantitative accounting model based on the Newcomb-Benford Law (NB-law) is applicable to ISS tax auditing. For this purpose, the result of the quantitative accounting model was confronted with the result of the accounting-fiscal audit registered in the Final Fiscalization report elaborated by the tax authorities of a municipal government in a city in the Brazilian Northeast. A case study was carried out in a publicity company and the analysis period covers the receipts (NFs) issued between 2002 and 2005. For data collection, multiple sources of evidence were used within reach for the study objectives. As for data treatment, descriptive (position and dispersion measures) and inference statistics (hypothesis and significance test and correlation analysis) were used. The results of the case study evidenced the applicability of the model based on the NB-law for the ISS tax auditing process, because this signaled the possible deviations in the issuing and bookkeeping of the receipts, which were confirmed by the results of the fiscalization.

Disclosure level × cost of debt of brazilian companies

ID: 6370

Authors: Gerlando Augusto Sampaio Franco de Lima.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 95-108, January-April, 2009. 14 page(s).

Keyword: Cost of capital of third parties , Disclosure analysis , Panel data analysis , Relevance of accounting information

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relation between the voluntary disclosure level and the cost of capital of third parties. Increased disclosure by companies is expected to result in decreased information asymmetry, reducing the risk offered to the company's financial backers, as well as a rise in visibility and liquidity of its bonds and in the information quantity disseminated to its stakeholders in general. Before analyzing the regression with panel data, the multivariate Correspondence Analysis (ANACOR) technique was used for an exploratory analysis of the study variables. We examined 23 publicly-traded companies between 2000 and 2004, looking at the disclosure level (ND), and between 2001 and 2005 to look at the cost of capital of third parties (Kd) and the control variables, in accordance with the following equation: (Kdt) = ƒ(NDt-1, control variablest -1). The empirical results demonstrated that, based on the use of the pooling effect and the generalized least squares method, whose R² was approximately 28.49%, the voluntary disclosure level is inversely related to the cost of capital of third parties, that is, the higher the disclosure level, the lower the cost of capital of third parties. Thus, the study hypothesis was not rejected.

A study about the management model and the succession process in family businesses

ID: 6371

Authors: Luiz Inácio Petry, Auster Moreira Nascimento.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 109-125, January-April, 2009. 17 page(s).

Keyword: Family Businesses , Management Model , Succession Process

Document type: Article (Portuguese) Show Abstract

The present study, based on a field research, aimed to identify the main characteristics present in the management model of family businesses, starting from the possibility to explain their longevity in the succession process. Top-level managers of 71 enterprises in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) were interviewed. The findings based on a set of interviews were tested through the descriptive statistics, supported by Pearson's correlation. The study compared the field research with the managing practices acknowledged by specialized literature. The results suggest that the largest enterprises have a better management model with characteristics close to the specialized literature, while the smallest ones partially discord from this specialized literature. However, there is not enough evidence to support the idea that these characteristics are determinant for the going concern of the organizations under study.

An institutional analysis of the implication of the MAS change process for the evolution of SMSC efficiency

ID: 6372

Authors: Carlos Eduardo Facin Lavarda, Vicente Mateo Ripoll Feliu, Mercedes Barrachina Palanca.

Source: Revista Contabilidade & Finanças, v. 20, n. 49, p. 126-141, January-April, 2009. 16 page(s).

Keyword: Change , Efficiency , Institutional Theory , MAS , SMSC

Document type: Article (Spanish) Show Abstract

This study's general objective is to get to know the relation between the change process of a Management Accounting System (MASO in small and medium-sized companies (SMSC) and the success of this change. The success of the MAS change is measured by two indicators. The first, internal success, measures the distance between the expectations (what was expected) about the new management techniques put in practice and the realities (what they are). The second indicator, external success, measures the variation in the company's relative efficiency level within its sector. The basic study hypothesis is that the change process can explain the level of (internal-external) success achieved in the change of an MAS. Two techniques will be used for data collection and analysis: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Case Study method (CS). The research results reveal factors that influenced and therefore explain the success of a change in the MAS of a SMSC in the wood and furniture sector located in the Comunidad Valenciana, Spain, including: knowledge and skills of agents involved in the change, influence of external experts, management professionalization, informatics resources, internal training in MAS, trust among agents and people's involvement. Moreover, it was observed that the changes produced over the years under analysis positively influenced the organization's efficiency level.