Whether used as predictors or indicators of stock prices, financial risk, merger candidates, or bond yields, financial ratios have been, and continue to be, a popular tool for analyzing a firm and its performance. Practitioners and academics who employ financial ratios often compare and contrast across several industries, but such evaluations assume that the ratios of one industry measure the same underlying concepts as the ratios of another. This book provides evidence on the comparability of financial ratios across several industries, assessing the similarity or dissimilarity of ratios among industry taxonomies, or groups of ratios.

Extending previous studies that focused primarily on manufacturing firms, this work surveys a wide variety of both manufacturing and retail corporations, and determines the classification patterns of their respective financial ratios. The taxonomies of thirty two ratios, in seven representative industries, are examined for the ten-year period from 1978 through 1987. Two introductory chapters detail the nature of the research, the data utilized, variables employed, and statistical methodologies, as well as providing a brief summary of the results. A third chapter furnishes results for the entire economy by factors of return, cash flow, cash position, inventory, sales, liquidity, and debt; while seven separate chapters describe the study's conclusions for each of the primary industries: automobile and aerospace; chemical, rubber, and oil; electronics; food; retail; steel; and textile. The work concludes with a summary of the study and its conclusions, and an examination of the limitations of this type of research and possibilities for its extension. This book will be a valuable practical resource for accounting and finance professionals, as well as an important reference for courses in finance, accounting, and management. Public, academic, and business libraries will also find it a useful addition to their collections.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research annual whose purpose is to meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve their classroom instruction. It publishes thoughtful, well-developed articles that are readable, relevant and reliable. Articles are peer-reviewed and may be either empirical or non-empirical. They emphasize pedagogy, i.e., explaining how faculty members can improve their teaching methods, or how accounting units can improve their curricula/programs. The series examines diverse issues such as software use, cultural differences, perceptions of the profession, and more.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research annual whose purpose is to meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve their classroom instruction. It publishes thoughtful, well-developed articles that are readable, relevant and reliable. Articles are peer-reviewed and may be either empirical or non-empirical. They emphasize pedagogy, i.e., explaining how faculty members can improve their teaching methods, or how accounting units can improve their curricula/programs. The series examines diverse issues such as software use, cultural differences, perceptions of the profession, and more.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research annual whose purpose is to meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve their classroom instruction. It publishes thoughtful, well-developed articles that are readable, relevant and reliable. Articles are peer-reviewed and may be either empirical or non-empirical. They emphasize pedagogy, i.e., explaining how faculty members can improve their teaching methods, or how accounting units can improve their curricula/programs. The series examines diverse issues such as software use, cultural differences, perceptions of the profession, and more.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research annual whose purpose is to meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve their classroom instruction. It publishes thoughtful, well-developed articles that are readable, relevant and reliable. Articles are peer-reviewed and may be either empirical or non-empirical. They emphasize pedagogy, i.e., explaining how faculty members can improve their teaching methods, or how accounting units can improve their curricula/programs. The series examines diverse issues such as software use, cultural differences, perceptions of the profession, and more.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research annual whose purpose is to meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve their classroom instruction. It publishes thoughtful, well-developed articles that are readable, relevant and reliable. Articles are peer-reviewed and may be either empirical or non-empirical. They emphasize pedagogy, i.e., explaining how faculty members can improve their teaching methods, or how accounting units can improve their curricula/programs. The series examines diverse issues such as software use, cultural differences, perceptions of the profession, and more.

For years accounting ethics has been viewed as an unimportant adjunct of academic and professional accounting. However, the economic scandals of the early twenty-first century have dramatically nullified this characterisation, with the ruination of investors in Enron, WorldCom, Waste Management, Aldelphia, Tyco and scores of other business concerns raising questions about the adequacy and relevance of academic research into accounting ethics, as well as the ethical nature of professional parties.

Presenting important papers that reassess these theories, research studies and professional practices in the field of accounting ethics, this collection scrutinizes the body of knowledge that did not protect the investing public, and examines the current crisis in the creditability of financial reports.