Browsing by Author "Larsson, Hannes"

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    Motivational Drivers for Early Adoption of Management Accounting Innovations among Incompatible Organisations: When Organisational Culture and Innovation Characteristics Do Not Fit
    (2018-07-02) Andersson, Josefin; Larsson, Hannes; University of Gothenburg/Graduate School; Göteborgs universitet/Graduate School
    Previous research has not been able to uncover what motivates incompatible organisations to adopt a management accounting innovation (MAI) in the early stages. In this study we investigate early adoption and the motivational drivers among four organisations that, by not having the same values and beliefs as those inherent in the MAI, are considered to be incompatible. Drawing on existing theory, we develop a conceptual framework that illustrates the process these incompatible early adopters go through when deciding to adopt the MAI. It is examined with a qualitative approach, to give a more detailed perspective of the process, through conducting interviews with individuals involved in the decision. The study identifies two motivational drivers that explain this incompatible adoption in the early stage of the diffusion. Firstly, the existence of a superordinate objective in the organisation that overshadows the implementation of the current MAI and where the MAI rather works as a mean to reach the superordinate objective. Secondly, the entrance of a new individual into the organisation brings existing knowledge and prior experience with the MAI which disrupts the incompatible culture. The adoption in the early stage is explained by the lack of theorisation in the diffusion process, whereupon the organisations are capable of customising the MAI to fit with present needs in the organisation. By uncovering these two motivational drivers, this study is able to give an understanding to a previously unexplained incompatible early adoption.
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    The Impartial Need of Joint Audit –Evidence from Swedish firms
    (2016-06-10) Bredinger, Josefine; Larsson, Hannes; University of Gothenburg/Department of Business Administration; Göteborgs universitet/Företagsekonomiska institutionen
    Background and Problem: Since the financial crisis, it has become of greater importance to secure audit quality, and there is an ongoing discussion concerning the matter of how to assure that auditors do contribute to a higher level of financial stability. Joint audit is mandatory in France and has been mandatory in Denmark and Sweden up until recently. Moreover, the stakeholders rely on highly qualitative financial information in the financial reports in order to make well informed decisions. Purpose of Study: The purpose is to investigate how a firm’s accounting quality is linked to joint audit. The study is carried out in accordance with the many stakeholders’ interest in minimizing information asymmetry and acquiring impartial financial reports. Is the application of an additional auditor a higher accounting quality assertion? Boundaries: Firstly, no assessment is projected to separate a firm using two audit teams from the same or different firms. Also, there are various ways to measure accounting quality and the cause for certain results in accounting quality can be due to many external factors, which have not been investigated. Methodology: From our elaborated sample on the top largest Swedish firms (developed by revenue) we use a quantitative method and earlier developed equations where joint audit is a dichotomous variable, to calculate the relationship between joint audit and accounting quality. Results and Conclusions: We state that our conclusions are of the same quality as the quality of the method. On the basis that accounting quality has been measured by addressing income smoothing and SPOS. This study discovers that joint audit is negatively linked to accounting quality through a more frequent use of income smoothing and a higher tendency to manipulate earnings by the statistically significant positive correlation between SPOS and joint audit. This implies that applying joint audit does not mean that the accounting quality is elevated. Future Studies: We wish to inspire further studies on whether there are other factors that provoke the need for an additional audit team. Research could be subjected again to Swedish firms to confirm our results. This research should then concern a wider span of accounting quality proxies in addition to a larger sample.