Managers' Unethical Fraudulent Financial Reporting: The Effect of Control Strength and Control Framing

Verfasser / Beitragende:
[Xiaotao Liu, Arnold Wright, Yi-Jing Wu]
Ort, Verlag, Jahr:
2015
Enthalten in:
Journal of Business Ethics, 129/2(2015-06-01), 295-310
Format:
Artikel (online)
ID: 605486085
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024 7 0 |a 10.1007/s10551-014-2156-1  |2 doi 
035 |a (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10551-014-2156-1 
245 0 0 |a Managers' Unethical Fraudulent Financial Reporting: The Effect of Control Strength and Control Framing  |h [Elektronische Daten]  |c [Xiaotao Liu, Arnold Wright, Yi-Jing Wu] 
520 3 |a In response to numerous recent cases involving materially misstated financial information arising from fraudulent financial reporting, companies, auditors, and academics have increased their focus on strengthening internal controls as a means of deterring such unethical behaviors. However, prior research suggests that stronger controls may actually exacerbate the very opportunistic behavior the controls are intended to curb. The current study investigates whether the efficacy of an implemented control is conditioned on not only the strength of the control (weaker or stronger), but also on how the firm frames the purpose for implementing the control (e.g., monitoring or coordinating). A monitoring purpose frames controls as reducing managers' opportunities to engage in self-interested behavior, while a coordinating purpose frames controls as facilitating coordination between the firm and its managers. We posit that the efficacy of stronger controls to reduce unethical fraudulent reporting depends on the control frame. Using an experiment, this study investigates the interactive effect of control strength and control frame on managers' fraudulent reporting decisions. As predicted, our results show that when controls are framed for monitoring purposes, stronger controls result in less fraudulent reporting than weaker controls. Conversely, when controls are framed for coordinating purposes, stronger controls result in more fraudulent reporting than weaker controls. Our results suggest that an inconsistency between the firm's choice of the control strength and the control frame reduces the efficacy of the implemented control to curb unethical reporting behaviors. Furthermore, supplemental analysis shows that managers' rationalization helps explain the interactive effect of control strength and communicated control purpose on fraudulent reporting. 
540 |a Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2014 
690 7 |a Unethical behavior  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Fraudulent financial reporting  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Fraud triangle  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Rationalization  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Internal controls  |2 nationallicence 
700 1 |a Liu  |D Xiaotao  |u D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Wright  |D Arnold  |u D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Wu  |D Yi-Jing  |u Department of Accountancy, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA  |4 aut 
773 0 |t Journal of Business Ethics  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 129/2(2015-06-01), 295-310  |x 0167-4544  |q 129:2<295  |1 2015  |2 129  |o 10551 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2156-1  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
898 |a BK010053  |b XK010053  |c XK010000 
900 7 |a Metadata rights reserved  |b Springer special CC-BY-NC licence  |2 nationallicence 
908 |D 1  |a research-article  |2 jats 
949 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |F NATIONALLICENCE  |b NL-springer 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 856  |E 40  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2156-1  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Liu  |D Xiaotao  |u D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Wright  |D Arnold  |u D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Wu  |D Yi-Jing  |u Department of Accountancy, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 773  |E 0-  |t Journal of Business Ethics  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 129/2(2015-06-01), 295-310  |x 0167-4544  |q 129:2<295  |1 2015  |2 129  |o 10551