LIBRI DI GIULIO GRECO

Il peggioramento delle condizioni economiche, in seguito alla pandemia da COVID-19, ha determinato un impatto negativo sui risultati e sui flussi di cassa, che ha portato le imprese a svalutare le proprie attività, tra cui l’avviamento. Questo volume evidenzia i tratti teorici ed empirici che caratterizzano l’impatto del COVID-19 sull’applicazione dell’impairment all’avviamento, nonché le implicazioni che ne derivano, e analizza come le imprese abbiano recepito le raccomandazioni emanate da ESMA e da CONSOB in merito all’informativa sull’impairment dell’avviamento.

This paper investigates whether family ownership affects decisions to take a writeoff of the goodwill and the amount written off. This study is based on a panel of public United States firms. Consistent with predictions based on agency theory and socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, the findings demonstrate accounting discretion in goodwill impairment is lower in family firms than non-family firms. The results also show that first-generation family firms are more likely to exploit accounting discretion in goodwill impairment decisions than second or later generation family firms, due to greater concerns associated with the negative consequences of the write-off. This paper contributes to previous research on accounting in the context of family firms. Family firms cannot be considered a homogeneous group with the same propensity to exploit the discretion allowed by accounting rules in highly subjective fair value measurements. Generational change significantly influences firms’ accounting choices, leading to more credible earnings and asset values for second or later generation family firms. This study also suggests the earnings management literature would benefit from additional in-depth investigation into how the generational stage of family businesses affects accounting discretion.

La ricerca affronta la teoria e la pratica della valutazione dell’avviamento, senza trascurare i concetti fondamentali degli studi della tradizione contabile italiana ed estera. Il testo prende in esame poi il caso del Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato, una primaria realtà economico-aziendale italiana, attiva in significative operazione di acquisizione. La natura degli avviamenti acquisiti, legati a un settore caratterizzato da investimenti duraturi, rende il caso ricco di implicazioni teoriche e pratiche su temi oggetto di dibattito come l’ammortamento dell’avviamento e la procedura di impairment.

In this paper, we discuss three issues of current debate about financial accounting research. Firstly, we discuss the popularity of quantitative methods in financial accounting and the research limitations related to this dominance. As second issue, we critically discuss the epistemological approach underlying research methodologies. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of current financial accounting research and the need to search for a real impact factor besides the academic contribution.

This paper explores causes and implications of the auditor changes. We investigate the US setting in which the changes are voluntary and there is mandatory disclosure about the reasons for the change. The findings show that changes with a departing Big-4 are motivated by the auditor’s concerns about the client firm weaknesses in internal control processes and compliance with law. The changes between Non-Big-4 auditors are associated with the issuance of going concern qualified opinions, suggesting possible audit opinion shopping by client firms. The switches from a Non-Big-4 to a Big-4 auditor are associated with issues related to the application of accounting standards. Overall, our findings suggest that changes allow auditors to better organise their audit, and balance the objectives of their assignments and the maintenance of effective client relations. The balance of reasonably effective internal controls systems and of risk-proportioned audit fees is at the core of negotiations between audit and client firms. Also, the search for more effective audit and higher governance and financial markets reputation may motivate the switch from a smaller audit firm to a Big-4. The information regarding auditor changes can shed light upon the financial reporting practices and management behaviour, signalling to investors any potential misrepresentation, to the management potential risk areas and to regulators where they might need to intervene to enforce auditor and management independence.

The paper critically compares and discusses the periodic scientific research assessment systems of Italy and of four comparable Countries. The four Countries are: United Kingdom, Australia, France and Spain. The key features of the above mentioned systems are discussed, including: the research quality assessment criteria, the reference to international research quality standards, the impact and relevance of the research outside the academia, the consistency of the scientific researcher’s outputs with the scientific discipline and with the hosting institution’s strategy and activities. The paper concludes with a direct comparison with the Italian system and with some possible proposals for improving the current Italian scientific research assessment framework.

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