Mario Maleta - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mario Maleta
Journal of Accounting Education, 1999
This study examines the eects of direct work experience, gained through internships and cooperati... more This study examines the eects of direct work experience, gained through internships and cooperative educational experiences, on subsequent knowledge acquisition. In particular, theoretical and empirical research in education, cognitive psychology and accounting suggests that experienced individuals develop organizational knowledge structures which allow them to better assimilate new information into memory than inexperienced individuals. Consistent with this notion, the research investigates whether the bene®ts of prior direct work experience on knowledge acquisition is a function of the nature of the learning tasks (structured versus unstructured) used in subsequent educational experiences. As hypothesized, the results indicate that inexperienced subjects were assisted to a greater extent in the knowledge acquisition process by structure oriented tax return preparation tasks than by relatively unstructured tax research assignments. Also consistent with expectations, the opposite was true for experienced subjects. When experienced subjects were provided with instruction supplemented by unstructured tax research assignments, they demonstrated a greater level of tax knowledge than when assigned structured tax return problems. Further, the knowledge level of experienced subjects was found to be greater than that of inexperienced subjects only when unstructured tax research assignments were provided. These ®ndings suggest that all bene®ts of direct work experience on the knowledge acquisition process cannot be realized without the speci®c consideration of such experiences on the design of educational and ®rm training materials. Finally, the study also indicates that the bene®ts of direct work experience on subsequent knowledge acquisition are generally greater for individuals with low versus high learning aptitudes.
International Journal of Auditing, 1998
A vital concern to the international auditing community is the litigation risk created by the 'ex... more A vital concern to the international auditing community is the litigation risk created by the 'expectations gap', the existence of potential differences between societal views of the scope of auditor responsibility and those of audit professionals. The focus of this study is to investigate the role that factors identified as important in professional audit standards and in the international press play in attributions of auditor responsibility in two important audit contexts: fraud and going concern. With respect to fraud detectability, the factors investigated were collusion and materiality, while those factors related to going concern predictability were evidence reliability and timing of unpredicted events. US auditors and practicing judges participated in the study. Consistent with expectations, the results indicate that auditors' attributions of responsibility were significantly affected by the detectability and predictability variables examined. The effect of the factors on judges' attributions of auditor responsibility was moderated by their general attitudes toward the auditing profession. Specifically, in the absence of mitigating factors, judges with unfavorable attitudes made greater responsibility assessments than those with favorable attitudes. However, in the presence of mitigating factors such as collusion or when the time period between the audit opinion date and bankruptcy was long, judges with unfavorable attitudes made significantly lower responsibility assessments. Lastly, while evidence reliability and materiality significantly affected auditors' attributions, they did not play a role in the attributions of the judges.
Contemporary Accounting Research, 2005
AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 1999
Numerous studies in the audit judgment literature provide evidence indicating that auditors can b... more Numerous studies in the audit judgment literature provide evidence indicating that auditors can be susceptible to recency effects. This study extends the research by examining auditor susceptibility to primacy, an order effect, which, like recency, can lead to suboptimal audit-planning decisions (see Ashton and Ashton 1988) and yet, unlike recency, has received very little attention in the accounting literature. Specifically, the research investigates whether primacy effects in auditor belief revisions are a conditional function of the level of inherent risk present in the audit environment (high/low) and the nature of the information contained in the latter portion of the information sequence (e.g., whether the information is positive or negative with respect to the client's internal controls). The results, consistent with expectations, indicate that auditors are susceptible to primacy effects when making likelihood of error and audit-hour planning judgments in settings that ar...
The Accounting Review, 2007
Accounting decisions often involve similar types of judgments regarding different clients, projec... more Accounting decisions often involve similar types of judgments regarding different clients, projects, or employees. These tasks may use similar information items and be performed within the same work session. While independent consideration of the information for each respective decision may be desired, psychology research on contrast effects suggests that the information from a previous decision may be retained and compared to the information provided for a current judgment. Such contrast effects are potentially critical to accounting judgments because they suggest that the information associated with a given decision task will be evaluated differently depending on the nature of the prior contextual information. Using a multi-client audit context, we find that auditors are susceptible to contrast effects such that their judgments on a current client are influenced by their exposure to similar judgment information on a prior client. We also extend prior psychology and accounting rese...
Journal of Accounting Education, 1999
This study examines the eects of direct work experience, gained through internships and cooperati... more This study examines the eects of direct work experience, gained through internships and cooperative educational experiences, on subsequent knowledge acquisition. In particular, theoretical and empirical research in education, cognitive psychology and accounting suggests that experienced individuals develop organizational knowledge structures which allow them to better assimilate new information into memory than inexperienced individuals. Consistent with this notion, the research investigates whether the bene®ts of prior direct work experience on knowledge acquisition is a function of the nature of the learning tasks (structured versus unstructured) used in subsequent educational experiences. As hypothesized, the results indicate that inexperienced subjects were assisted to a greater extent in the knowledge acquisition process by structure oriented tax return preparation tasks than by relatively unstructured tax research assignments. Also consistent with expectations, the opposite was true for experienced subjects. When experienced subjects were provided with instruction supplemented by unstructured tax research assignments, they demonstrated a greater level of tax knowledge than when assigned structured tax return problems. Further, the knowledge level of experienced subjects was found to be greater than that of inexperienced subjects only when unstructured tax research assignments were provided. These ®ndings suggest that all bene®ts of direct work experience on the knowledge acquisition process cannot be realized without the speci®c consideration of such experiences on the design of educational and ®rm training materials. Finally, the study also indicates that the bene®ts of direct work experience on subsequent knowledge acquisition are generally greater for individuals with low versus high learning aptitudes.
International Journal of Auditing, 1998
A vital concern to the international auditing community is the litigation risk created by the 'ex... more A vital concern to the international auditing community is the litigation risk created by the 'expectations gap', the existence of potential differences between societal views of the scope of auditor responsibility and those of audit professionals. The focus of this study is to investigate the role that factors identified as important in professional audit standards and in the international press play in attributions of auditor responsibility in two important audit contexts: fraud and going concern. With respect to fraud detectability, the factors investigated were collusion and materiality, while those factors related to going concern predictability were evidence reliability and timing of unpredicted events. US auditors and practicing judges participated in the study. Consistent with expectations, the results indicate that auditors' attributions of responsibility were significantly affected by the detectability and predictability variables examined. The effect of the factors on judges' attributions of auditor responsibility was moderated by their general attitudes toward the auditing profession. Specifically, in the absence of mitigating factors, judges with unfavorable attitudes made greater responsibility assessments than those with favorable attitudes. However, in the presence of mitigating factors such as collusion or when the time period between the audit opinion date and bankruptcy was long, judges with unfavorable attitudes made significantly lower responsibility assessments. Lastly, while evidence reliability and materiality significantly affected auditors' attributions, they did not play a role in the attributions of the judges.
Contemporary Accounting Research, 2005
AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 1999
Numerous studies in the audit judgment literature provide evidence indicating that auditors can b... more Numerous studies in the audit judgment literature provide evidence indicating that auditors can be susceptible to recency effects. This study extends the research by examining auditor susceptibility to primacy, an order effect, which, like recency, can lead to suboptimal audit-planning decisions (see Ashton and Ashton 1988) and yet, unlike recency, has received very little attention in the accounting literature. Specifically, the research investigates whether primacy effects in auditor belief revisions are a conditional function of the level of inherent risk present in the audit environment (high/low) and the nature of the information contained in the latter portion of the information sequence (e.g., whether the information is positive or negative with respect to the client's internal controls). The results, consistent with expectations, indicate that auditors are susceptible to primacy effects when making likelihood of error and audit-hour planning judgments in settings that ar...
The Accounting Review, 2007
Accounting decisions often involve similar types of judgments regarding different clients, projec... more Accounting decisions often involve similar types of judgments regarding different clients, projects, or employees. These tasks may use similar information items and be performed within the same work session. While independent consideration of the information for each respective decision may be desired, psychology research on contrast effects suggests that the information from a previous decision may be retained and compared to the information provided for a current judgment. Such contrast effects are potentially critical to accounting judgments because they suggest that the information associated with a given decision task will be evaluated differently depending on the nature of the prior contextual information. Using a multi-client audit context, we find that auditors are susceptible to contrast effects such that their judgments on a current client are influenced by their exposure to similar judgment information on a prior client. We also extend prior psychology and accounting rese...