Nordic Accounting Research Network

University

Hanken Svenska Handelshögskolan

Aim

The course is intended to give an overview of current academic research directions and methods in the field of auditing. The perspective is primarily empirical; i.e., archival as well as behavioral auditing research. The focus will be on international auditing research, including contemporary European auditing research. The detailed contents of the course will differ from year to year depending on the research profiles of the participants and of the (guest) lecturers. The contact hours are structured as three two-day intensive seminars.

Teaching laguage

English

Förkunskaper

The course is intended for doctoral students. Those with accounting as their major subject have priority in case there are too many applicants. All students who wish to participate are requested to first contact the instructor. The maximum number of students accepted is 20.

Teaching hours

36 h

Individuellt arbete

36 h

Literature

Readings package.

Examination

Written exam. Active participation in the seminars is required.

Examinator

Viitanen, Janne

Period

19.1.2009 – 8.5.2009

* This post is to be considered as information only, as the course is organized outside the GSA/KATAJA network and consequently not part of the Nordic Accounting Research Network.

University

Hanken Svenska Handelshögskolan

Aim

To review a representative selection of key research papers from the core fields of accounting. This course is the sequel to “The science of accounting,” which is given in the autumn. The two courses are planned as an integrated whole.

Teaching language

English

Class hours

24 h

Literature

Readings package.

Examination

Written exams:The examination will be based on the literature package specified by the examinator. Extensive surveys of the research in selected areas. Active participation in the seminars is required. The essays should be about 30 – 40 pages long and should cover the most essential features of the research in a selected area.

Examinator

Ekholm, Bo-Göran

Period

19.1.2009 – 8.5.2009

* This post is to be considered as information only, as the course is organized outside the GSA/KATAJA network and consequently not part of the Nordic Accounting Research Network.

DOCTORAL COURSE
REG506b DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS IN
AUDITING RESEARCH

The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) invites participants to a course at the doctoral level in research methods in audit research.  The course consists of three sessions in Fall 2008.  It will take place in the facilities of NHH in Bergen.  The course is primarily intended for PhD students in accounting at NHH and in the Nordic countries.

Course responsibility: Professor Iris Stuart (iris.stuart@nhh.no)
Instructors: Professor Iris Stuart, NHH, 47 55 95 9348; Don Cram, Cram Associates
Program of Study: PhD program, NHH
Readings: Selected journal articles
Required: Class participation, assigned exercises, and final project
Study Points: 7,5
Teaching Language: English

Course dates
The course is divided into three sessions, each of three days (Wednesday – Friday):
Session I:    October 1-3
Session II:    November 5-7
Session III:    December 3-5

Overall course objective
The purpose of the course is to provide an introduction to research methods used in audit research and to become familiar with several research areas in audit research.

Topics
Section I covers an introduction to auditing research, including audit practices, auditor judgments, auditor litigation, fraud, audit committee impact, audit fees, audit quality, auditor changes, audit qualifications and financial distress.  Section II covers various research methods used in auditing research including:  regression analysis, ANOVA, PROBIT, and LOGIT.  Topics related to hypothesis testing and preparation of experimental questionnaires will be considered.  Students will have access to datasets and will use SPSS or SAS to solve problems developed by course instructors.  During Session III, students will use techniques learned in the prior session to analyze data, developing hypotheses to test and using research methods to analyze data in one of the research areas discussed in session I.

Requirements
This course is conducted primarily as a seminar class combining discussion of the papers with presentations by the faculty.  The participants are responsible for:  reading the assigned papers, preparing solutions to the exercises, and actively participating in class discussions to pass the course.

Each participant will be assigned papers for presentation and discussion.  When reviewing and preparing a discussion of a research paper, the student should be prepared to address the following issues:
1.    What is the “story” being told in the research paper?
2.    What is the research question being addressed in the study?
3.    Why is the question interesting to the profession and practice of auditing?
4.    What hypotheses are examined in the paper?
5.    What is the general approach taken to examine the research question?
6.    What data source is used in the study?
7.    What statistical methods are used to test the hypotheses?
8.    What are the key findings of the paper?
9.    What are the implications of the study for the profession?
10.    What are the limitations or weaknesses of the study?
11.    What follow-up research would you suggest?

Participants will be asked to present a description of an original research idea pertaining to auditing research.  Particular emphasis should be made on the research question, the hypotheses tested, and the research method used to answer the research question.

Costs
There will be no fee for participating in the course. Students attending the class should be registered in PhD programs.

GSA/KATAJA Course on Advanced Financial Statement Analysis,
August 4-6, 2008
Prof. Eli Amir
London Business School, London, United Kingdom

The course on Advanced Financial Statement Analysis will be held this year at the University of Oulu, 4-6 August. The teacher will be Prof. Eli Amir from London Business School. Students for the course will be selected in the order of registration, but the deadline for the registration is 31 May. Registrations should be done via e-mail to Prof. Juha-Pekka Kallunki (juha-pekka.kallunki@oulu.fi).

Course objective:

To familiarize the students in recent theoretical and empirical developments in financial statement analysis, covering the following main topics:
• Earnings and security prices
• Valuation-relevant information beyond earnings
• Valuation
• Accounting Choice
• Pension asset management
• Accounting Conservatism
• Earnings management

Classes:
From Monday, August 4 to Wednesday, August 6 at 9:00 – 16:00 at the University of Oulu, Oulu, Linnanmaa Campus Area, Room TA335 (Department of Accounting and Finance).

Exam:
An exam date will be confirmed during the course. The exam is closed-book. The exam questions will be sent (and the answers returned) via e-mail, thus the students need not come to the University of Oulu for the exam.

Course requirements:
Pre-course preparation according to separate instructions.
Active class participation + exam, 4 ECTS units.

Term paper instructions:
• Term paper is optional, 2 additional ECTS units.
• Term papers should be written by small groups of 2-3 students, the groups being formed by the students themselves.
• The authoring groups can choose any sensible topic that somehow deals with the preparation or use of financial statement information.
• The paper can be a literature review of a specific area, a theoretical development of a specific idea, or an empirical paper testing one or more hypotheses on defined phenomena.
• Students wishing to write a term paper should write their names and the preliminary topic of their paper on a separate list that will be distributed in the beginning of the course.
• The deadline for the term paper submission is 31 August 2008. The paper should be sent via email attachment preferably in pdf-format.