These results have implications for boards when deciding on the appointment or replacement of insiders to the board. Specifically, since only a few non-CEO executives can be granted a board seat, the board should carefully consider which executive would enhance the effectiveness of the board. The results demonstrate that the CFO can enhance board effectiveness with respect to the quality of the financial reports. Yet, the results also show that CFOs who serve on the board are more entrenched. Therefore, boards should carefully consider whether the benefits of appointing the CFO to their board outweigh the costs.
Bedard, J. C., Hoitash, R., and Hoitash, U. 2014. Chief Financial Officers as Inside Directors. Contemporary Accounting Research 31 (3): 787-817.
The author of this article believes that this book should be on the “must read” list of researchers interested in audit committees and financial reporting, regardless of their research approach. For qualitative researchers, the book not only provides valuable insights into the on-process dynamics in reaching financial reporting decisions, but it is also a textbook example of how a researcher may conduct multiple case studies in accounting and gain access to key individuals in organizations to obtain private information about the financial reporting process. For empirical and experimental researchers, the book provides explanations that could be useful in developing their theoretical framework and raises many issues that could be researched in the future. The book should also be of interest to regulators, auditors, accountants, and students who are interested in the financial reporting process and the impact of recent regulation on this process.
Bédard, J. 2012. Reaching Key Financial Reporting Decisions: How Directors and Auditors Interact. Accounting Review 87 (5): 1819-1820.
This study provides direct testing of the effects of two forms of CEO social influence pressure on actual CFO’s reporting decisions. Examining such pressures improves the overall understanding of an individual’s decision to engage in dysfunctional behavior, which can inform auditors and audit committee members who provide oversight of the financial reporting process and have responsibility for mitigating the risk of financial misreporting.
Bishop, C. C., F. T. DeZoort and D. R. Hermanson. 2017. The Effect of CEO Social Influence Pressure and CFO Accounting Experience on CFO Financial Reporting Decisions. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory 36 (1): 21 – 41.