This study examines whether socially responsible firms behave differently from other firms in their financial reporting. Specifically, we question whether firms that exhibit corporate social responsibility (CSR) also behave in a responsible manner to constrain earnings management, thereby delivering more transparent and reliable financial information to investors as compared to firms that do not meet the same social criteria. We find that socially responsible firms are less likely (1) to manage earnings through discretionary accruals, (2) to manipulate real operating activities, and (3) to be the subject of SEC investigations, as evidenced by Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases against top executives. Our results are robust to (1) controlling for various incentives for CSR and earnings management, (2) considering various CSR dimensions and components, and (3) using alternative proxies for CSR and accruals quality. To the extent that we control for the potential effects of reputation and financial performance, our findings suggest that ethical concerns are likely to drive managers to produce high-quality financial reports. Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from public sources identified in the study.

Firms are increasingly implementing new performance measurement systems to track nonfinancial metrics such as customer and employee satisfaction, quality, market share, productivity, and innovation. This study examines the implications of nonfinancial performance measures included in compensation contracts on current and future performance. Contextual factors, environmental factors, and strategic plans vary across firms and, in turn, adopting appropriate nonfinancial measures determines the performance consequences of such measures. Our findings support the contention that firms that employ a combination of financial and nonfinancial performance measures have significantly higher mean levels of returns on assets and higher levels of market returns. Although we find evidence that the adoption of nonfinancial measures improves firms' current and future stock market performance, we find only partial support for accounting performance improvements. Overall, the results indicate that the association between the use of nonfinancial measures and firm performance is contingent on the firm's operational and competitive characteristics.

In this study, we examine the effects of healthy lifestyle for professionals in public accounting as a coping mechanism for role stress and resultant job outcomes. Prior research indicates that professionals in public accounting endure considerable stress, particularly during busy season, and as a result, many capable professionals leave public accounting. We collected data from accounting professionals in a large U.S. national public accounting firm and analyzed the causal relationships of role stressors and healthy lifestyle on job outcomes using a multidisciplinary research model. We found that role stress, mediated by job burnout and its effect on psychological well-being, has a negative impact on job outcomes. However, the negative effects of role stress and job burnout can be mitigated by a healthy lifestyle, mediated by its effect on vitality and psychological well-being.

earnings management behavior, professional commitment, ethical orientation, decision-making, structural equation modeling,

This study developed and tested a model of culture's effect on budgeting systems, and hypothesized that system variables and reactions to them are influenced by culture-specific work-related and ethical values. Most organizational and behavioral views of budgeting fail to acknowledge the ethical components of the problem, and have largely ignored the role of culture in shaping organizational and individual values. Cross-cultural differences in reactions to system design variables, and in the behaviors motivated or mitigated by those variables, has implications for the design and effectiveness of budgeting systems. The data largely support our research model, demonstrating the hypothesized national cultural differences in system design variables (e.g., participation, standards tightness, budget emphasis, etc. which we characterized as the opportunity and incentives to create budgetary slack), and the expected relationship between incentives (but not opportunity) to create slack and slack creation behavior. The data demonstrate hypothesized cultural differences in ethical ideology but show ethical ideology related to slack creation behavior only for U.S. managers. A discussion of the results and their implications is included.