Publications

Article

Causal Inference in Accounting Research

By: Ian D. Gow, David F. Larcker and Peter C. Reiss

This paper examines the approaches accounting researchers use to draw causal inferences using observational (or non-experimental) data. The vast majority of accounting research papers draws causal inferences notwithstanding the well-known difficulties in doing so with... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Research

January 2008 (Revised May 2013)
Background Note

Accounting for Interest Rate Derivatives

Explains the accounting for interest rate derivatives under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 133. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Instruments; Interest Rates; Standards

May 2021 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Accounting for Bitcoin at Tesla

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Siyu Zhang

On February 8, 2021, Tesla revealed, through its 10-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it had purchased $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, totaling 7.5% of the company’s cash, and that it planned to accept payments in the cryptocurrency soon. These... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Accounting; Currency; Communication Intention and Meaning; Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Emerging Markets; Risk and Uncertainty; Value Creation

May 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Case

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

By: Julie Battilana and Michael Norris

In 2014, as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has just brought former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on as chairman of the board, Jean Rogers, founder and CEO struggles with how best to ensure the nonprofit's financial sustainability while... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Reporting; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Accounting Industry; United States

January 1997
Teaching Note

International Oil: Confirmation of Accounts Receivable TN

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Accounting; Energy Industry

January 1987
Article

The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Management; Accounting; Change

19 Jun 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting Information as Political Currency

Keywords: by Karthik Ramanna & Sugata Roychowdhury; Accounting

August 1997
Background Note

Accounting for Manufacturing Companies

By: Srikant M. Datar

The accounting for a manufacturing company is examined, including the flow of costs from raw materials to work in process to finished goods and the distribution between an inventoriable or product cost and a noninventoriable or period cost. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Product; Cost; Distribution; Accrual Accounting; Accounting; Manufacturing Industry

12 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Accounting Information as Political Currency

potentially controversial business activities—outsourcing, for example—understate their earnings if it might boost a candidate's chances of election. The research by HBS professor Karthik Ramanna and a colleague from MIT, Professor Sugata... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2001 (Revised February 2007)
Background Note

Accounting for Employee Stock Options

Employees who have been granted stock options have the right to purchase shares of their company's stock at a specified price within a specified time period. The accounting for such employee stock options has been a controversial and complex topic for decades. The... View Details

Keywords: Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Accounting

1977
Book

Management Accounting and Control of Data Processing

By: R. L. Nolan

Keywords: Management; Cost Accounting; Data and Data Sets

September 1998
Article

New International Accounting Standard: Impairment of Assets

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Accounting; Standards

September 1983
Article

A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Boundary Spanning Supervision on Turnover and Promotion in Research and Development

By: Michael Tushman and R. Katz

Keywords: Human Resources; Research and Development; Information; Management

October 1991 (Revised May 1993)
Background Note

Brief Introduction to Cost Accounting

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Introduces the reasons for and basics of cost accounting and cost management systems. Simple definitions of forms used in cost accounting are included. Cost behavior is discussed. Questions to which answers are needed when analyzing or designing a cost system are... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Cost Management

March 2005
Article

Accountability Myopia: Losing Sight of Organizational Learning

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

Keywords: Organizations; Learning; Corporate Accountability

26 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Accountability of Independent Directors-Evidence from Firms Subject to Securities Litigation

Keywords: by Francois Brochet & Suraj Srinivasan

2010
Working Paper

Boundary Spanning in a For-profit Research Lab: An Exploration of the Interface Between Commerce and Academe

By: Christopher C. Liu and Toby E. Stuart

In innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries.... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Higher Education; Information Publishing; Innovation and Invention; Science-Based Business; Social and Collaborative Networks; Boundaries; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

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Article

Competition and Cost Accounting

By: V.G. Narayanan and Michael Smith

The central theme of Competition and Cost Accounting is that strategic considerations may make it desirable for a firm to have divisions and product managers internalize something other than their true costs. In the case of transfer prices, a high transfer price... View Details

Keywords: Cost Allocation; Transfer Pricing; Decentralization; Bertrand And Cournot Competition; Cost Accounting