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Research in behavioural accounting is immense and has covered many difcerent

spheres of accounting activit;~.~ Some BAR studies have, for instance, been
applied in the area of auditing to improve auditors' decision making. For example,
when auditors are planning the way they will conduct an audit of a particular client,
they must assess how much risk is associated with the client. The higher the risk,
the more audit work that will have to be done. Assessing risk is a highly complex
task that could have serious consequences for the auditor (and investors) if an
incorrect assessment is made and the auditor consequently performs a poor audit.
BAR has been used to help analyse the risk assessments of auditors and improve
them. Another major area of BAR has been in the field of management accounting.
For example, BAR has been used to help explore and understand the various
incentive and disincentive issues associated with different types of budgeting
processes and how organisational form and accounting systems can affect the
behaviour of individuals within firms. However, since this is a text on financial
accounting, the main focus of this chapter is on the information contained in
financial statements for users external to the firm. The major type of BAR in this
area has become known as human judgement theory (HJT) or human information
processing (HIP) and encompasses the judgement and decision making of
accountants and auditors and the influence of the output of this function on users'
judgements and decision making3 The airn of research within this model is often
more than that of explaining and predicting behaviour at an individual or group
level. It is also concerned with improving the quality of decision making. In the
context of financial accounting, that aim translates into improving decision making
by both prodilcers (including auditors) and users of accounting reports. WHY IS BAR
IMPORTANT? There are a number of very good reasons that BAR is important to
accounting practitioners and others: We noted at the start of this chapter how other
accounting research schools such as capital markets and agency theory are not
equipped to answer questions about how people use and process accounting
information. To fill this void we need research that specifically examines the
decision-making activities of the preparers, users, and auditors of accounting
information. BAR can provide valuable insights into the ways different types of
decision makers produce, process and react to particular items of accounting
information and communication methods. We can use these insights to improve
decision making in a variety of ways as described later in the chapter when we
discuss the 'Brunswik lens model' of decision making. Improving decision making is
important, of course, to both users of financial information (who want to avoid
making bad decisions which lead to losses) and to preparers and auditors of
financial information (who want to avoid being sued). An understanding of the
information-processing aspects of accounting is also important to you in your own
career. As information professionals, accountants need to develop high levels of
expertise in information gathering, processing and communication. BAR can help
lead to training and knowledge that improves these skills, thus allowing you to
perform better in the workplace and improve your chances of obtaining work,
gaining promotions and achieving better pay.4 BAR can potentially provide useful
information to accounting regulators such as the Australian Accounting Standards
Board (AASB). As the main objective of accounting is to provide 'decision useful'
inf~rmation,~ members of the AASB are CHAPTER 13 Behavioural research in
accounting constantly grappling with the problem of which accounting methods and
what types of disclosures will prove 'useful' to the users of financial statements.
Behavioural accounting researchers can directly study specific accounting options
and report to standard setters on which methods and disclosures improved users'
decisions. The findings of BAR can also lead to efficiencies in the work practices of
accountants and other professionals. For example, the expertise of senior and
experienced members of an accounting firm can be recorded and harnessed by BAR
methods to develop computerised expert systems for a variety of decision-making
contexts. These expert systems can be used to train inexperienced practitioners
and to undertake routine tasks that would otherwise tie up the valuable time of
experienced staff. Some accounting firms, for instance, have used BAR methods to
develop expert systems to conduct risk assessments of potential audit clients. In
the past, this timeconsuming task would have been done by senior members of the
accounting firm, but a detailed screening of potential clients can now be done by
less qualified staff using the computer expert system, subject to a final review by
the firm's partners. Development of behavioural accounting research The term 'BAR'
first appeared in the literature in 1967,6 but HJT research had its foundations in the
psychology literature with the seminal work of Ward Edwards in 1954.7 The
application of the research to accounting and auditing can be dated to 1974 when
Ashton published an experimental study of the internal control judgements made by
auditors8 The last 30 years have seen an explosion of BAR in general and HJT
research in particular, especially in auditing, where the importance of judgement to
the audit process is paramount. To some extent, the development of behavioural
research in the area of financial accounting has been eclipsed by the dominance of
contracting theory since the 1980s. Nevertheless, important insights into the link
between accounting information and human behaviour have been forthcoming.
Many disciplines (e.g. political science, organisation theory, sociology and statistics)
have played a role in BAR'S growth, but by far the most important behavioural
science in terms of contribution has been psychology. The growth of HJT research in
accounting owes much to the adaptation of a research method already well used in
the psychology literature, the Brunswik lens model.g This technique represented a
powerful new research approach which could be applied to the old question of which
data users take notice of. Ashton is credited with being the first accounting
researcher to use this technique, followed closely by Libby who was the first to use
it in a user-oriented context. Both researchers have continued to play a dominant
role in the development of BAR.

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