Publications

2010
Working Paper

The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

What does it mean for a nonprofit organization to be accountable? Nonprofit leaders tend to pay attention to accountability once a problem of trust arises—a scandal in the sector or in their own organization, questions from citizens or donors who want to know if their... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Performance Evaluation; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Strategy

Read Now

30 Jun 2013
News

Accounting rule change undermines US banks

August 1983
Background Note

Balance of Payments: Accounting and Presentation

By: David B. Yoffie

Provides an overview of balance of payments accounting and analytical presentation of balance of payments data. Includes sample transactions to illustrate the application of the basic accounting principles and definitions of the standard balances. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Analytics and Data Science; Management; Standards; Mathematical Methods

September 2001
Background Note

Accounting for Computer Software Development Costs

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Tatiana Sandino

Summarizes the debate on accounting for computer software development costs. Provides a historical description of the development of standards on accounting of computer software development costs, both in the United States and internationally. Describes how, after much... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry; United States

January 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Background Note

Shareholders' Equity: Accounting and Analysis

By: David F. Hawkins

Technical note covering various aspects of accounting for stockholders' equity. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Equity; Stocks

July 2020 (Revised July 2021)
Exercise

Accounting for Revenues

By: Paul Healy and Marshal Herrmann

December 2018
Technical Note

National Economic Accounting

By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Robert Scherf

September 2014
Article

Accounting Standards and International Portfolio Holdings

By: Gwen Yu and Aida Sijamic Wahid

Do differences in countries' accounting standards affect global investment decisions? We explore this question by examining how accounting distance, the difference in the accounting standards used in the investor's and the investee's countries, affects the asset... View Details

Keywords: IFRS; Home Bias; Cross-cultural/cross-border; Information Asymmetry; Mutual Funds; International Relations

SSRN

Web

Accounting & Management - Doctoral

Accounting & Management The doctoral program in Accounting and Management, which falls under the PhD in Business Administration, focuses on understanding the role of information and measurement systems for... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Auditor Lobbying on Accounting Standards

By: Abigail Allen, Karthik Ramanna and Sugata Roychowdhury

We examine how Big N auditors' changing incentives impact their comment-letter lobbying on U.S. GAAP over the first thirty-four years of the FASB (1973–2006). We examine the influence of auditors' lobbying incentives arising from three basic factors: managing expected... View Details

Keywords: Auditors; FASB; GAAP; Lobbying; Fair Value Accounting; Accounting Audits

November 1987
Background Note

The Magic Matrix: Products and Accounts

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Describes an interfunctional approach to product mix management and account selection. The approach uses a matrix of products and accounts. Also describes the concepts and implementation of the approach. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customers

June 2025
Case

Accounting for OpenAI at Microsoft

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli, Nicole Zelazko and Michael Norris

In early 2025, Microsoft was evaluating the impact of its $14 billion investment in OpenAI. As OpenAI’s computing needs expanded, Microsoft positioned Azure as the exclusive provider for training and inference of their large language models. Despite the scale of the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Corporate Finance; Capital; Investment; Revenue; AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Governance; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

03 Mar 2003
What Do You Think?

Are Conditions Right for the Next Accounting Scandal?

Summing Up Responses to this month's column lead one to conclude that we can expect that more major accounting scandals are in our future. Causes, according to these thoughtful comments, range from the consolidation of the major global... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Accounting; Accounting

May 1985
Background Note

Basic Accounting Concepts

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Accounting

10 May 2023

Highlights Video: Accountability is Key to Climate Performance

October 1992 (Revised October 1993)
Case

MCI Communications Corporation: National Accounts Program (Condensed)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns the early stages of a major-account program at MCI, a telecommunications firm seeking to penetrate the corporate-account market. Among the issues are: 1) coordination of field sales efforts with national account selling efforts; 2) sales strategy for major... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Training; Compensation and Benefits; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing Strategy; Groups and Teams; Sales

August 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Plug Power (A)

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett

Set immediately after a December 2019 short-seller attack, the case explores Plug Power’s long challenging history. It then focuses on two key issues raised in the short-seller report related to lease accounting and stock warrants that Plug purportedly used to boost... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Environmental Accounting; Financial Reporting; Ethics; Management; Social Enterprise; Investment; Stocks; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Europe

January 15, 2002
Article

Analyzing Goodwill Transition Accounting

By: David F. Hawkins

Keywords: Goodwill Accounting

November 1999 (Revised June 2011)
Background Note

Accounting for Foreign Operations

By: David F. Hawkins

Students are required to compute and explain the quality annual earnings per share figures and major differences between managing domestic and global operations. View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Financial Statements; International Accounting; Globalized Firms and Management