Accounting and Society

Word limit: 3000 words (excluding references and abstract/executive summary)

_______________________________________

Background:

“Cleaning and catering contractor Spotless Group declared its first dividend since returning to the ASX as it reported a 23.6 per cent rise in pro forma profit to $60.2 million.” (Binsted, 2015)

Companies often disclose financial performance information that is not measured in accordance with the relevant accounting standards in their annual reports and in market announcements. The numbers reported are often referred to as pro forma earnings (or underlying profit or normalised earnings). Regulators have expressed concern that pro forma earnings can mislead users of financial statements (James and Michello, 2010).

Required:

You are required to write an essay which:

1. Defines pro forma earnings.

2. Explains the reasons firms may choose to announce pro forma earnings as an alternative to earnings (net profit after tax) calculated using Australian accounting standards.

3. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages for shareholders of firms’ reporting pro forma earnings rather than net profit after tax.

4. Discusses whether shareholders perceive pro forma earnings to be value-relevant.

5. Provides your opinion on whether firms should be prohibited from reporting pro forma earnings. You must justify your opinion.

Additional information:

• You are expected to undertake research in order to complete this task. Use a minimum of five (peer-reviewed) academic or professional articles (in addition to the references listed below).

• A word count must be included. Students exceeding the word limit by more than 10% will incur a mark penalty.

• You are expected to comply with the Harvard referencing style

References:

Binsted, T. (2015). Spotless eyes acquisitions among the resources wreck. The Age (24 February 2015) http://www.theage.com.au/business/spotless-eyes-acquisitions-among-the-resources-wreck-20150223-13mwre#ixzz3kYcowXDQ accessed 2 September 2015.

James, K. L., & Michello, F. A. (2010). Pro forma versus GAAP reporting: An examination of differences in investor perceptions. Journal of Finance and Accountancy, 2, 1-16.

Post 85

Measures and Scales

This week spend time discussing the similarities and differences between correlation and regression, and why one would use correlation instead of regression. Consider how often there are bivariate relationships and whether a bivariate relationship will be meaningful for your DBA doctoral study as compared to a regression, which examines relationships differently.

As a researcher, you will become familiar and comfortable with the measures and scales others in choose to measure data. Understanding study measurement methods can help clarify how you might employ these measurement instruments. In this paper, you will find an example of a test and a scale used in your discipline’s literature, analyze its use in the study, and analyze the relationships among these instruments, populations, and the concepts of reliability and validity.

To prepare for this paper

• Review Lesson 38, “Item Analysis Using Reliability Procedure” In Salkind and Green. Review in particular how to report psychometric properties, including correlation coefficients (pp. 345-347)

• Search for an example of a test and an example of a scale. For each example, determine the typical population and the reliability and validity.

To search for pre-existing measures that are available in the public domain do the following:

1. Note that most measurement development is conducted in the field of psychology. Make sure that you select peer-reviewed and full-text articles. You will also want to conduct an advanced search as multiple terms will be searched.

2. In the first box type in your construct (depression, leadership, etc.)

3. In the second box type in the word “psychometric”.
4. In the third box type in one of the following words (you may have to try a few different ones) “measure” “instrument” “scale” or “survey”.
Note: Using a public measure allows you the opportunity to view the measure without purchasing it such as the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements http://www.unl.edu/buros/bimm/html/00testscomplete.html

· What considerations need to be made to ensure that the scale and test examples are reliable and valid for another population

Resources

• Websites
Trochim, W. (2006). Web center for social research methods: Selecting statistics. Retrieved from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/
This site is an online textbook that addresses the topics of a typical graduate course in social research methods, including sampling, measurement, validity, types of designs, and analysis. Learners can navigate the textbook using a graphical research road map or simple table of contents. The textbook addresses the entire research process as well as the statistical aspects of research and is not software-specific. From the main page, click on the ” Selecting Statistics” link.