Accounting may be viewed and analyzed as its own special sort of language says Riahi-Belkaoui, and accounting is the language of business. It represents phenomena in the business world as language represents phenomena in the larger world. To understand accounting as a language one must study such things as its readability and understandability, its impact on users behavior, its various linguistic repertories, and the impact that bilinguality has on accounting practices. Riahi-Belkaoui covers all this in a way that not only academics versed in linguistics will understand, but in a way that trained accountants will also find fascinating and useful, particularly in their international and multicultural activities.

Riahi-Belkaoui examines what he considers to be the four major aspects of his topic. First, he explores how accounting messages are based on levels of readability and understanding. Second he shows how accounting includes both lexical and grammatical characteristics, and how these shape the perceptions and thoughts of users. He then illustrates the ways in which different linguistic repertories are used by different professional groups, and shows how this leads to communication problems and from there to a schism between academics and practitioners. Finally he argues that bilingualism in accounting has clear advantage. It provides greater mental and cognitive flexibility, increased metalinguistic ability, and also makes it possible to formulate concepts better and to deal with divergent thinking.

This ground-breaking book introduces macro accounting. Most modern money emerges out of accounting documentation of private executory debt contracts within exchange processes. Money-information markers are basically negotiable (exchangeable for value) debt instruments. Macro accounting techniques provide sufficient detail to examine the complex coupling relations and the resulting constraints among exchanges of good, services, and money-information markers of various sorts.

The book begins with a discussion of the fundamental concepts of trades, exchanges, and the accounting basis of money. Accounting is then described as an aspect of empirical science--a means of observing concrete processes. Drawing on these basic ideas, Swanson extends organizational accounting to societies and supranational systems. The last four chapters simulate economic processes. The book should be read by serious students of economics, accounting, and political science as well as societal policy markers and the international banking community.

This book analyses the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) systems in improving information quality through an empirical analysis carried out in Italy. The study begins with a detailed examination of ERP features that highlights the advantages and disadvantages of ERP adoption. Critical success factors for ERP implementation and post-implementation are then discussed, along with the capabilities of ERP in driving the alignment between management accounting and financial accounting information.The study goes on to illustrate the features of BI systems and to summarize companies' needs for BI. Critical success factors for BI implementation are then presented, along with the BI maturity model and lifecycle. The focus of the research entails a detailed empirical analysis in the Italian setting designed to investigate the role played by ERP and BI systems in reducing information overload/underload and improving information quality by influencing the features of information flow. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed and future avenues of research are suggested. This book will be of value for all those who have an interest in the capacities of ERP and BI systems to enhance business information quality.

The functioning of the global economy depends very much on the quality and quantity of information provided by multinational corporations, not only to investors and taxing agencies but also to governmental policymakers. Underlying this is the concept of disclosure adequacy. It refers to ways in which the quality of information that MNC's divulge about their economic transactions can be measured, and such information and its adequacy can vary widely from country to country. How this happens and why it should be so-what the nature of disclosure adequacy and its determinants are-is the subject of Riahi-Belkaoui's latest Quorum book. Academics in finance and accounting will recognize quickly the beginnings of a contingency theory of disclosure adequacy internationally, one that identifies various relativisms and presents empirical evidence for their validity. Financial analysts and other investment professionals will gain useful ways to work with (and make sense of) foreign firms' annual reports, while public policy people will find insights to aid in the harmonization of accounting principles.

Riahi-Belkaoui's contingency approach to disclosure adequacy identifies determinants based on cultural, linguistic, political, civil, economic and demographic relativisms, on legal and tax relativisms and even on religious relativism. He presents evidence that accounting for information adequacy does in fact have a positive impact on economic growth. It is also an ideal mechanism by which firms can control conflicts created by favorable or unfavorable information regarding the general investment climate of a particular country. He examines international differences in disclosure adequacy, then proves there is a positive relationship between the functionings of global stock exchanges and economic and human development. From there he discusses the relationship between disclosure adequacy and political, economic, and civil factors. Finally, he examines four cultural dimensions-individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-and their impact not only on disclosure adequacy but on the way the entire accounting enterprise is practiced internationally.

A book that goes behind the more official presentations and accounts of research methods to explore the lived experiences, joys and mistakes of a wide range of international researchers principally working in the fields of accounting and finance, but also in management, economics and other social sciences.
The authors of the articles in this book address a wide range of issues and obstacles that they have confronted at various stages in their respective research careers. In reflecting on their personal experiences, they provide practical guidance on how to overcome the types of problems that typically confront academic researchers in their day-to-day work.
Includes:
- Practical tips on how to undertake research and get findings published
- Research project management skills
- Inernational and interdisciplinary perspectives

"Revenue Management, Cost Control and Financial Analysis in the Hospitality Industry" uses a step-by-step spreadsheet approach to accounting and financial analysis. It teaches students budgeting and other financial competencies needed in the hospitality industry and was designed for students and managers to use with little or no facilitation by an instructor.
The book begins with an introduction to financial analysis and spreadsheet modeling. Subsequent chapters focus on specific skills such as forecasting, revenue management, and cost control, which support the maximization of profits.
Readers will create annual operating budgets, analyze financial statements, and understand the impact of each variable on the organization's performance.
Filled with examples and scenarios that are real-world applicable, the material focuses on the facts and solutions needed to solve accounting and financial problems.
"Revenue Management, Cost Control and Financial Analysis in the Hospitality Industry" can be used in hospitality accounting and finance courses. It is also a helpful supplement for courses in recreation and sports management, and a useful resource for current and future hospitality managers.
Godwin-Charles Ogbeide is a faculty member in the Department of Food, Human Nutrition, and Hospitality Management at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. He has developed and taught many courses in the field of hospitality management including Food, Beverage, and Labor Cost Management; Front Office Revenue Management; Meetings, Events and Conventions Management; and Hospitality Operations and Financial Analysis. Dr. Ogbeide received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees with emphasis in Hospitality Management and Leadership Development from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He also has an M.B.A. and more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Dr. Ogbeide is a winner of many awards including several "innovation awards."

Volume 20 of Studies in the Development of Accounting Thought (SDAT) is another fine example of informative and reflective analysis in the series. SDAT again provides readers with the firm historical foundations on which the profession is based, the historical antecedents of today's accounting institutions, the historical impact of accounting, as well as exploring the lives and works of pre-eminent individuals in the profession's history. Studies in the Development of Accounting Thought focuses on bringing the past into today and using it to point towards the future.

From internal control structures that are not fraud-specific to insufficient communication in the fraud discovery-to-investigation and conviction process, fraudulent activity is a widespread fact of life in the business world. Historically, the corporate tendency has been to react to fraud after the fact, rather than to be proactive in its prevention. And in most cases, blame is directed at accountants and auditors. Unfortunately, these officers are rarely provided with the resources, proper training, and commitment from top management that are essential to effective fraud detection and control. The Accountants Guide to Fraud Detection and Control offers comprehensive direction for this largely uncharted area.
Two types of fraud are addressed in this book: fraudulent financial reporting, also known as "Treadway" fraud, usually originating in the top management sector; and "asset-theft" fraud, the more common and more costly type, likely to be practiced by virtually anyone, including outsiders. Treadway fraud is being adequately detected by independent auditors (CPAs) in their annual audits. Asset-theft fraud is not being adequately detected by anyone, with very few exceptions. From following clues to achieving a prosecution, here is sound advice that accountants and auditors will find invaluable.

Businesses lose over $100 billion a year to fraud. Only 20 percent is discovered. Whos to blame?

Accountants and internal auditors are often the scapegoats for managements insufficient fraud detection operations and guidelines. At last, here is comprehensive, intermediate training for evaluating, devising, and installing fraud-specific internal controls, and for conducting proactivefraud-specific examinations. Including actual case studies, the authors show accountants and auditors how to:

• Anticipate problems and follow clues
• Successfully disclose fraud
• Compile the evidence necessary to prosecute acts of fraud
• Develop investigative techniques
• Create effective internal controls . . . and much more, to fill the needs of this crucial area.

www.wiley.com/account ing

Advances in International Accounting is a referred, academic research annual, that is devoted to publishing articles about advancements in the development of accounting and its related disciplines from an international perspective. This serial examines how these developments affect the financial reporting and disclosure practices, taxation, management accounting practices, and auditing of multinational corporations, as well as their effect on the education of professional accountants worldwide. Advances in International Accounting welcomes traditional and alternative approaches, including theoretical research, empirical research, applied research, and cross-cultural studies.

Dan Bavly takes a fresh look at how business is supervised and how that system can be improved. He begins by assessing the performance of the government regulator and suggests reasons for the failure to prevent many of the debacles of the recent past. New fiascoes often engender a spate of legislation, but the regulator remains the one who gets away--he is simply not accountable and does not shoulder the blame. Clearly, a new definition of regulator responsibility is required.

Drawing on his years of company board and auditing experience, Bavly analyzes why the average director cannot do his job, and he shows how a complete, but feasible, overhaul of the way company boards function can help solve this problem. Bavly then goes on to explore, as an insider, the profession of accounting and to show why the CPA should be considered an endangered species. Along the way, Bavly examines many of the difficult issues of contemporary ac counting: Where is the trend of mammoth accounting organizations leading? Is the addiction to mergers suicidal? How is the accounting profession coping with technology? What is the relationship between the outside CPA and the corporate internal audit division? For each specific flaw in the system, Bavly provides a practical remedy. The general message is the need for constant reassessment and, perhaps, a plea to cut all the agencies of corporate governance back to human proportions.

This book attempts what for many in the accounting profession has been the impossible: a unified accounting system for measuring and reporting the performance of human service organizations as well as firms in the profit sector. The model developed recognizes the centrality of the consumer and the significance of optimizing consumer preferences whether the consumer is an individual purchasing services and products in the profit sector or the consumer is society in the role of consumer-payer of the services and products of human service organizations. Equating society as the consumer-payer of human services leads to the use of societal income as a measure of the effectiveness of human service organizations.

Accounting is a social institution whose chief function is measurement. Given a statement of goals, accounting should measure the achievement of these goals. Thus accounting can be viewed as a feedback system to report the differences between goals and their achievement. In a democratic society, the economic goal for its members should be their continuing gains in independence from a self-sufficiency viewpoint and satisfaction of their needs and wants from a consumption viewpoint. These are common goals in the profit and nonprofit sectors. The societal model developed by Herson, Gordon, and Cherny has long-run implications for the professions of accounting, human services, economics, and political science and the book will be a provocative work for professionals in these disciplines for some time to come.