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Symposia Programme
SYMPOSIUM 1 ICAEW - Is the IFRS for SMEs good for SMEs? Wednesday 10 May: 15.00-16.30 ROOM: Auditorium II Small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) play an important role in the global economy and represent over 95% of companies worldwide. The introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities in 2009, which offered a simplified set of accounting principles suitable for SMEs (primarily private companies), was therefore significant to the IFRS movement. Eight years on, it is a good time to reflect on how effective the IFRS for SMEs has been in improving the overall quality of financial statements and in making them more relevant and useful to both internal and external users. Supporters of the IFRS for SMEs suggest that greater transparency and comparability should be of particular use to finance providers and thereby improve a firm’s access to capital as well as lower the cost of capital. However, the costs associated with implementing some of the rigorous requirements of the IFRS for SME may inhibit its adoption in certain jurisdictions or lead to adoption with modification. This symposium, organised by ICAEW, brings together leading academics and practitioners to debate issues surrounding private sector reporting including;
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This symposium is sponsored by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
SYMPOSIUM 2 EAA – Are we ready for the future: what management accountants can and ought to study? Wednesday 10 May: 17.00-18.30 ROOM: Auditorium II Organizations, today face new challenges. Organizations become more knowledge driven and innovation and creativity are on the forefront. As a result, including more forward looking information into decision making tools becomes crucial to business survival. This change towards more knowledge driven organizations, puts challenges on both the decision-facilitating and decision-influencing role of accounting. Are we as management accountants still studying the right topics? How should bookkeeping systems and management reporting systems change in this changing environment? How do management, and employees deal with forward-looking information and how can such measures distort or improve performance (e.g. distortions in operations, myopia)? In the symposium, we will zoom into some topics which management accountants can study in the light of this changing environment. Chair:
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SYMPOSIUM 3 On the centrality of peripheral research and the pitfalls of tight boundary gatekeeping Thursday 11 May: 09:00 - 10:30 ROOM: Auditorium II This symposium aims to reflect on the processes by which accounting research boundaries are socially constructed, henceforth demarcating a division between central and peripheral research. Recognizing that serious indications of tight boundary gatekeeping are on the rise in the accounting research domain, the panelists especially reflect on the extent of boundary gatekeeping within their own research paradigm, and the extent of negative consequences ensuing from this kind of behavior. In addition, the following questions will be explored. What can we gain, collectively speaking, from developing more receptive attitudes toward the periphery? What role does research at the periphery have in terms of supporting the development of new ideas and innovations? Does an excessively protective center prevent new ideas and innovations from emerging and becoming visible? If so, how? Does the longer-term sustainability of accounting research require the incremental development of spaces of receptivity toward the unexpected and peripheral? The symposium is intended to stimulate reflection on these fundamental questions. Chair:
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SYMPOSIUM 4 Accounting and Business Research Special Issue Symposium: The Role of Accounting Information in Debt Markets Thursday 11 May: 11:00 - 12:30 ROOM: Auditorium II This Symposium focuses on the role of accounting information in debt markets. It is organised in conjunction with the Accounting and Business Research Special Issue on this particular theme (http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/bes/rabr-debt-markets). Although companies and organisations worldwide rely heavily on debt markets for short, medium and long term financing, the interface between accounting and debt markets remains comparatively under-researched. As the 2007-08 financial crisis and its aftermath show, debt markets and financial intermediaries can have significant effects on the real economy. The Symposium brings together experts to discuss current and future developments of research and regulations in the relevant topic area. The issues that will be addressed include the standard setting for expected-loss-based methods, the influence of fair value accounting and conservatism in debt contracting, and the theoretical underpinnings for the role of accounting information in debt financing. Chair:
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This symposium is sponsored by Accounting and Business Research.
SYMPOSIUM 5 Editors’ panel: Dealing with the review process in accounting journals Thursday 11 May: 14:00 - 15:30 ROOM: Auditorium II The editors of accounting journals provide insights about the review process. The panelists summarize current review practices and address the changes needed in the review process to improve the quality and efficiency of the publication process. The debate highlights how reviewers and authors can handle reviews to contribute to the progress of research. Chair:
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SYMPOSIUM 6 EAR - Textual analysis research in accounting Thursday 11 May: 16:00 - 17:30 ROOM: Auditorium II This symposium aims to discuss ways to advance the use of textual analysis research in accounting with the purpose of measuring the quantity and quality of information provided by financial disclosures to investigate accounting related research questions. Textual disclosures may include news articles, earnings conference call transcripts, regulatory and tax filings, internal firm reports, social media postings, reports issued by market intermediaries and other textual disclosures. Textual analysis can cover computational linguistics, statistical language processing, information retrieval, content analysis or stylometrics to capture constructs such as the amount of disclosure, sentiment, similarity, style and readability. The symposium will present the views of different speakers on issues relating to textual analysis. The symposium is related to the Special Issue on ‘Textual Analysis Research in Accounting’ of the European Accounting Review. The special issue is Guest Edited by Reuven Lehavy (University of Michigan) and Florin P. Vasvari (London Business School). Chair:
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SYMPOSIUM 7 Audit Analytics - The 2006 Audit Directive, EARs and the Future of Audit Reporting - A Conversation with the Experts Friday 12 May: 09:00 - 10:30 ROOM: Auditorium II As we speak, key-audit-matters are being drafted, audit committee reports are being presented, companies are preparing to change auditors, audit resources are being redeployed, and liability issues are starting to identify themselves. In this context, we have assembled a highly qualified panel of professionals who have been in the middle of it all. Profound opportunities abound for academics looking into research topics that will matter to accountants, auditors, regulators and standard setters. Join us for this 90 minutes of presentations and debates about these important current matters. Chair:
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This symposium is sponsored by Audit Analytics.
SYMPOSIUM 8 Accounting in Europe – EAA Financial Reporting Standards Committee (FRSC) - Transposing the new EU Accounting Directive and the role and current status of IFRS in the completion of European National Law/GAAP Friday 12 May: 11:00 - 12:30 ROOM: Auditorium II Accounting in Europe has just recently published a special issue on transposing the new EU Accounting Directive (DIRECTIVE 2013/34/EU published on 26 June 2013) and the role and current status of IFRS in the completion of European National GAAP/Law. The symposium is an opportunity to discuss the results of the special issue and other concurrent work on the topic. What is/what should be the current status of IFRS in the development of European national GAAP? What now for IFRS for SMEs? Chair:
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SYMPOSIUM 9 EFRAG - How do we assess the wider impact of IFRS? Friday 12 May: 14:00 - 15:30 ROOM: Auditorium II There is an increasing attention to the wider impacts, including on economic behaviours, of regulation such as accounting standards. There have been calls to deepen and strengthen the assessment of these impacts as part of evidence based standard-setting. The IASB published with IFRS 16 Leases its first effect analysis on a major standard. Since the Maystadt reform, EFRAG has been asked to include an assessment on the European public good in its endorsement advice to the European Commission. Impact analysis is an important element of this assessment and EFRAG employed significant more time and resources in the context of IFRS 16. We wish to share EFRAG’s experience and discuss how these assessments could be conducted in future. With the focus in the IASB and in EFRAG shifting to normative research, the question comes up about the role of impact analysis at an early stage in the standard-setting process. What should ex-ante analysis aim to achieve, how can they be effectively conducted and what are the challenges? How can experience with ex-post impact analysis help? What and how can academics contribute? Chair:
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This symposium is sponsored by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).
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