These are the 1998-1999 Ernst & Young
Student Fellows
| DIRECTOR'S NOTE
Let
me begin with holiday greetings to you all! It's hard to believe that three
years have already passed since the inception of the E&Y CARAT. However,
I am pleased to report that we have accomplished a lot in these three years
through our various programs.
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research and teaching,
and the profession receives experienced, welltrained students.
This program has yielded both research publications and teaching materials. For research publications, please see the list presented in later pages of this newsletter. Students selected as E&Y Fellows have varied interests ranging from auditing, information systems to taxes. All this has been made possible through the generous support of the "Ernst & Young Family." I sincerely thank them for their ongoing support. Distinguished Visitors Under the Visiting Scholars Program, we have hosted more than a dozen scholars at the Center since its inception. Some returend to the Center on frequent visits to work with us on projects that are of mutual interest, and some have just come to give a seminar and share theirs research with us. This program has provided a unique opportunity to expose our students and faculty to the research being done by other scholars |
 around the world and benefit from
it. Also, it has provided us with an opportunity to collaborate with scholars
at other schools on a continuous basis. In the last three and half years,
we have had visitors not only from US Universities but also from universities
around the globe: Germany, India, and Spain, for example.
(continued on next page...)
 FALL 1998
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Ernst & Young Center for
Auditing Research and Advanced Technology (E&Y CARAT)
Division of Accounting and
Information Systems, School of Business
The University of Kansas, Lawrence,
KS 66045
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E&Y CARAT NEWS BRIEFS
Professor Miklos Vasarhelyi,
William Von Minden Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Information
Systems, and Professor Alex Kogan from Rutgers University, and KU researchers
are working together. This project deals with issues related to continuous
monitoring, continuous auditing, online reporting, and online auditing.
Another project that has generated a stream of research deals with how
auditors analyze, aggregate, and search for subsequent piece of evidence
for audit decisions.
 Professor Theodore J. Mock, Arthur Andersen Alumni Distinguished Professor of Accounting at the University of Southern California, and Professor Arnold Wright, Arthur Andersen Professor of Accounting at Boston College,
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are also involved with
me on the above project (see the publication list given later in this newsletter
for details).
I am very pleased with the visiting scholars program; it is helping the Center to attract the best minds to work with us and provides a stimulating environment for our faculty to benefit from. Thanks again to the "E&Y Family" for their generous support. Research Support Along the dimension
of knowledge dissemination, the Center provides nominal travelmoney to
faculty and Ph.D. students to attend conferences and present research papers.
Under this program Hai Lu, a Ph. D. student, has attended the 1998 MidWest
American Accounting Association Meeting held in St. Louis.
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Moreover, during the
spring semester of 1998 while I was on my sabbatical leave from KU, I had
the opportunity to visit several Universities in Florida and also several
Universities in Australia. It was a rewarding experience to share the work
being done at the Center. Invariably, everywhere I presented the work,
the faculty would ask me how they could become a part of the E&Y CARAT.
How could they collaborate with us on some of our research projects?
Well, I don't want to bore you with too many details, but if you would like to know more, see the list of presentations and publications later in the newsletter. In fact, I am impressed by this list. Acknowledgements I would like to
recognize and thank all those who have helped us in creating the Center
and providing the financial support.
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E&Y CARAT NEWS BRIEFS
| personal support and
encouragement. Special thanks are due to Bill Taylor, Partner at the Kansas
City Office, for his continued untiring support and enthusiasm.Thanks to
the E&Y Student Fellows, E&Y.
Please visit our home page:
PROFILES OF THE 1998-1999 E&Y STUDENT
FELLOWS
Hai Lu is working with Professor Rajendra Srivastava. Hai has A BS in Engineering from Zhejiang University in China, and an M.Eng, PhD in Optoelectronics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He worked in the Australian CSIRO Division of Telecommunication and Engineering Physics from 1991-1993. He just completed his MBA from |
KU last year, and is
currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Accounting and Information Systems. He is
working on the FRAANK Project, a joint project of KU and Rutgers. His responsibilities
include the intelligent agent programming and analysis of on-line auditing.
He is also going to work on audit decision- making under uncertain items
of evidence.
Chris Abrams is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration with an emphasis in Information Systems. Additionally, he is in the University of Kansas Honors Program. Following the completion of undergraduate work, he will enter the Masters program at KU in the spring of 2000. Chris is currently working with Professor Kay Nelson as a web-master for faculty in the division of Accounting and Information Systems. Yoas Agung Wiradharma came to the United States from Indonesia |
in 1995. Yoas received his undergraduate degree in 1998 in business administration and accounting with an emphasis in information systems. He is currently in the graduate program studying for a masters in accounting and information systems and is expecting to graduate in May 1999. Yoas is working with Prof. Mike Ettredge and Prof. Raj Srivastava developing an audit risk model program using Excel and Visual Basic.
Meredith Zeppetella is
currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Accounting. She plans
to enter the
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E&Y CARAT NEWS BRIEFS
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Master’s of Accounting and Information Systems program in January 1999. Meredith is working with Professor Rajendra Srivastava and Hai Lu on the FRAANK Project. She is doing intelligent agent programming for this project. In addition to being involved in the Ernst & Young Fellowship Program, Meredith received an Undergraduate Research Award from the University of Kansas in 1998. With the assistance of Dr. Kay Nelson and Professor Susan Scholz, the research Meredith is doing under this award involves examining the context of non-financial information on corporate web sites. E&Y CARAT Supported Research Papers in
Progress or Published and/or Presented at Conferences since the Inception
of E&Y CARAT
1. Prentice, R., V. Richardson, and S. Scholz, “Corporate Web Site Disclosure and Rule 10b-5: An Empirical Evaluation,” Working Paper, School of Business, University of Kansas. 2. Ettredge, M., V. Richardson, and S. Scholz. 1998. “Financial |
Data at Corporate Web
Sites: Do Information Clienteles Matter?” Working Paper, School of Business,
University of Kansas.
3. Ettredge, M., and R. P. Srivastava, “Using Digital Analysis to Enhance Data Integrity,” Issues in Accounting Education (forthcoming). 4. Ettredge, M., V. Richardson, and S. Scholz. 1998. “The Presentation of Financial Data at Corporate Web Sites” This paper is under review at Accounting Horizons. 5. Dutta, S. K., and R. P. Srivastava, “Belief Revisions In Auditing: A Theoretical Investigation,” in Soft Computing in Financial Engineering, edited by R. Ribeiro, R.R. Yager, H. J. Zimmermann and J. Kacprzyk, Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag Company (forthcoming). 6. Srivastava, R. P. and Hai Lu, “Evidential Reasoning Under Uncertainty Using Belief Functions: A Structural Analysis of Audit Evidence,” Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science, January 5-8, 1999. 7. Wright, A., T. J. Mock, and R.
P. Srivastava, “Audit Program Planning using A Belief Function Framework,”
Deloitte & Touche/University of Kansas Symposium on Auditing Problems,
May 1998.
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8. Dutta, S. K., K. Harrison,
and R. P. Srivastava, “The Audit Risk Model Under the Risk of Fraud,” in
Applications of Fuzzy Sets & The Theory of Evidence to Accounting II,
Vol. 7, edited by P. Siegel, K. Omer, A. Korvin, and A. Zebda, published
by Jai Press Inc., 1998, pp. 221-244.
9. Srivastava, R. P., A. Wright, and T. J. Mock, “Analytical Modeling of Multiple Hypotheses Evaluation in Auditing,” at the 36th Bayesian Research Conference, February 19-20, 1998. Also, this paper was presented at the 1997 International Conference on Audit Judgment, Singapore, June, and at the 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association, August 16-17. 10.Srivastava, R. P., and T. J. Mock, “A Decision Theoretic Approach to WebTrust Assurance Ser es Using Belief Functions,” at the 1998 International Symposium on Auditing Research, Sydney, June 25-26. This paper was also presented at the 1998 International Conference on Contemporary Accounting Issues, Taipai, Taiwan, July 3-6, and the Online Auditing and Reporting Conference: Accounting 2000 Series, January 16, 1998, Rutgers University, Newark. 11. Nelson, K., A. Kogan, R. P. Srivastava, and M. Vasarhely, “Virtual Auditing Agents: The Edgar Agent Example,” Hawaii
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| International Conference
on Systems Science, Jan. 6-9, 1998.
12. A. Kogan, K. Nelson, R. P. Srivastava, and M. A. Vasarhelyi, “Towaard Internet Auditing with ‘FRAANK’,” III International Conference on Accounting, Finance, and Tax," Punta Umbria, Spain, September 25-26, 1997. 13. Srivastava, R. P., “Evidential Reasoning Under Uncertainty Using Belief Functions: A Structural Analysis of Audit Evidence,” the British Accounting Association National Conference, March 24-26, 1997, Birmingham, UK. 14. Srivastava, R. P., “Emerging Trends in Auditing Research,” Third International Accounting Research Conference, Calcutta, India, January 4-5, 1997. 15. Gillett, P. and R. Srivastava, “Integrating Statistical and Non-Statistical Audit Evidence in Attribute Sampling,” presented at II International Artificial Intelligence Conference in Accounting, Auditing, and Tax, held on September 27-28, 1996, at Huelva, Spain. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association 16. Srivastava, R. P., “Audit Decisions
Using Belief Functions: A Review,” Control and Cybernetics, Vol. 26, No.2,
1997, pp. 135-160.
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17. Srivastava, R. P.,
“Decision Making Under Ambiguity: A Belief-Function Perspective,” Archives
of Control Sciences, Vol. 6 (XLII), 1997, No. 1-2, pp. 5-27.
18. Srivastava, R. P., “Integrating Statistical and Non-Statistical Evidence Using Belief Functions,” Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, Vol. 37, edited by Allen Kent, James G. Williams, and Carolyn M. Hall, published by Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, Supplement 22, 1997, pp. 157-174. 19. S rivastava, R. P., “Discussion of An Empirical Test of Bentham’s Theory of the Persuasiveness of Evidence,” Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Supplement, Vol. 15, 1996, pp. 23-32. 20. Srivastava, R. P., S. K. Dutta, and R. Johns, “An Expert System Approach to Audit Planning and Evaluation in the Belief-Function Framework,” International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1996, pp. 165-183. 21. Inaugural speech on “Impacts of Technology on Accounting,” at the 19th All India Accounting Conference held on December 26-27, 1995, at the Vikram University, Ujjain, India. |
22. Srivastava, R. P.
“Evidential Reasoning in Auditing,” AI/ES Research Workshop at the 1995
American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, August 1995
(invited).
23. Gillett, P. “Dollar Unit Sampling under Belief Functions,” Working Paper, School of Business, The University of Kansas, 1996. 24. Srivastava, R. P., “Value Judgments using Belief Functions,” Research in Accounting Ethics, Vol. 2, 1996, pp.109-130. 25. Fanning, K., K. Cogger, and R.
P. Srivastava, “Detection of Management Fraud: A Neural Network Approach,”
International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and
Management, Vol. 4, 1995, pp. 113-126.
 26. Srivastava, R. P., P.P. Shenoy, and G. Shafer, “Propagating Beliefs in an ‘AND’ Tree,” International Journal of Intelligent Systems, Vol. 10, 1995, pp. 647-664.
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| E&Y CARAT’S RESEARCH WORKSHOP
CALENDAR
The Ernst & Young Center for Auditing Research and Advanced Technology offers two research workshops on Friday each semester, where faculty and Ph. D students share findings and exchange research ideas. The following seminars were held in Fall 1998 semester: Management Science and Information Systems Seminars, 10:3-12:00 pm, 502 Summerfield Hall Aug. 28 Catherine Shenoy/ Some Issues in Constructing Bayes Net Models for Portfolio Risk and Return Sept. 4 Prakash P. Shenoy/ Reasoning with Dempster-shafer Belief Functions Sept.11 Prakash P. Shenoy/ Decision Trees, Influence Diagram and Valuation Networks Sept. 18 Phan Grang/ On Ordering Formulae in Knowledge Bases Sept. 25 Russ Winer/ External Validity in consumer Behavioral Research: The Role of Scanner Panel Data Oct. 2 Sucheta Nadkarni/ Validation
of Causal Maps
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Oct. 16 Michael Ettredge/Incen-tives and Job Redesign:The Case of Audit Planning Technology Oct. 23 Kenneth D. Machenzie/ Knobby Analysis of Knobless Survey Items Oct. 30 Jim Nelson/ On Process Modeling Nov. 6 Liping Liu/ Representing Asymmetric Decision Problems Using Conditional Belief Functions Nov. 13 Thomas A. Ottaway/ An Adaptive Production Control System Utilizing Agent Technology Nov. 20 William Lewis Kuechler, Jr./ A Goal-based Model of Coordination in Interoperating Workflows. Accounting and Finance Workshops, 1:30-3:30 pm, 426 Summerfield Hall Aug. 28 Professor Alex Thevaranjan, Syracuse University, and Professor Kissan Joseph, University of Kansas, “Incentives and Job Design: The Case of the Personal Selling Function.” Sept. 11 Professors Michael Ettredge, Vernon Richardson, and Susan Scholz, University of Kansas, “Accounting Issues Related to Targeted Stock.” Sept. 25 Professor Theodore Mock,
Arthur Andersen alumni Professor, University of Southern California, Arnold
Wright, Arthur Andersen Professor, Boston college, and Professor
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Rajendra Srivastava,
University of Kansas.
Oct. 5 (Monday) Professor B. Banerjee, Calcutta University, “Regulation of Corporate Financial Reporting in India.” Oct. 9 Professor Paul Koch, University of Kansas, “ The Performance of International Portfolios Selected Using Forecasts of Returns, Variances, and Correlations across National Equity Markets,” co-authored with Professor Kevin Bracker. Oct.16 Professor V. K. Vasal, University of Delhi, “Determinants of Voluntary Reporting in India.” Oct. 30 Professor Inder Khurana, Baird, Kurtz & Dobson Faculty Fellow, University of Missouri, “Audit Tenure and Informativeness of Earnings.” Nov. 6 Professor Ervin Black, Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas, “Which is More Value Relevant:Earnings or Cash Flow? A Life Cycle Examination.” Nov.13 Professor Mark Lang, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, “Voluntary Disclosure During Equity Offerings: Reducing Information Asymmetry or Hyping the Stock?” Nov. 20 Professor William Lewis Kuechler,
Jr. Assistant Professor, Accounting and Information Systems, University
of Texas at San Antonio, “A Goal-based Model of Coordination in Interoperating
Workflows.”
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