Category: press

Does Practice Make Perfect? The Effect of Online Formative Assessments on Students’ Self-Efficacy and Test Anxiety

This study investigates the potential of voluntary online exercises – online formative assessments (OFAs) – to increase self-efficacy and decrease test anxiety. The results make educators aware of an unfavourable change in students’ self-efficacy and test anxiety throughout the semester. However, this study also provides accounting educators with a solution to this problem. More specifically, this research proves that students who use OFAs experience an increase in self-efficacy, and those students also tend to experience lower test anxiety. Students confirm these favourable effects based on their experiences with the OFAs. The results demonstrate how OFAs support accounting students to increase their self-efficacy and decrease their test anxiety.

Blondeel, E., Everaert, P., and Opdecam, E. (2023). Does Practice Make Perfect? The Effect of Online Formative Assessments on Students’ Self-Efficacy and Test Anxiety. The British Accounting Review, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2023.101189.

New publication in Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde

On May first 2019, the new Belgian corporate law, “Wetboek van vennootschappen en verenigingen” (WVV) replaced the former “Wetboek van Vennootschappen” (W.Venn.). In this study, we focus in-depth on one specific novelty: the replacement of the former “Private Company with Limited Liability” (BVBA) by the “Private Company” (BV). Earlier, Belgium had voluntarily chosen to apply many of the stringent European regulations to the former BVBA. The BV now ends this phenomenon of “goldplating”. Although existing literature gives a profound justification to include less stringent regulation in corporate law, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to the impact on practice. This research reveals important insights for practitioners by means of a qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (database) study. In doing so, we conclude that the new BV, although much more flexible, does not differ fundamentally from its predecessor.

Read our full article here: Van BVBA naar BV: what’s in a name? . (article written in Dutch)

Reference: Waeye, D., Maussen, S., & Everaert, P. (2022). Van BVBA naar BV: what’s in a name? Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde 2022(2): 20-38.

New publication in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy

Following up on their previous publication in Radiotherapy and Oncology (Defourny et al., 2019), the authors now report the policy implications of their interdisciplinary costing project, in which they estimated the cost of radiation treatments at the national level.

Defourny, N., Hoozée, S., Daisne, J.-F., Lievens, Y., forthcoming. Developing time-driven activity-based costing at the national level to support Belgian policy recommendations for radiation oncology. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2022.107013

Nieuwe editie handboek Management Accounting

De nieuwe editie van het “paarse boek” is vanaf nu beschikbaar. In deze nieuwe editie hebben de auteurs heel wat extra oefeningen toegevoegd, vooral in dienstenbedrijven en non-profits.

Everaert, P., Hoozée, S., Bruggeman, W., 2022. Handboek management accounting: kostprijsberekening voor managementbeslissingen, 12de editie, Lefebvre Sarrut.

New publication in the Journal of Management Control

This study addresses differences and similarities in a wide variety of management control practices in Anglo-Saxon (Australia, English Canada), Germanic (Austria, non-Walloon Belgium, Germany) and Nordic firms (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). Unique data was collected through structured interviews from 584 strategic business units (SBUs).

Read the full article here (Open Access): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00187-022-00342-x

Malmi, T., Bedford, D.S., Brühl, R., Dergård, J., Hoozée, S., Janschek, O., Willert, J., forthcoming. The use of management controls in different cultural regions: an empirical study of Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Nordic practices. Journal of Management Control.

User-generated reviews and the financial performance of restaurants

Restaurant-level review data are extracted from TripAdvisor and matched with firm-level data from the financial reports gathere from the Belfirst database of Bureau Van Dijk. The resulting sample contains data on 2,297 Belgian firms over the periode 2007-2018, for which 134,831 reviews are investigated. The author’s regression model of firm-level profitability is estimated against online review characteristics and various financial control variables, including past profitability. This research model and estimation technique address the endogeneity concerns that typically weaken this kind of study.
While comparable studies on hotels document a positive association between review characteristics and profitability, the authors find no relationship between review rating, volume and variability in the profitability of restaurants.

S. Abdullah, P. Van Cauwenberge, H. Vander Bauwhede, P. O’Connor. User-generated reviews and the financial performance of restaurants, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. DOI: 10.1108/IJCHM-10-2021-1236

The hurdle model: Analysing the influence of country characteristics on participation in IPSASB’s due process

This article makes a case for a new statistical approach to analyse the influence of country characteristics on IPSASB stakeholder participation—the hurdle negative binomial regression model. This model was used to analyse the influence of certain characteristics on how often a stakeholder participates, as well as whether they decide to participate in the first place or not. Three stakeholder characteristics were examined for their influence on participation in IPSASB’s due process: IPSAS implementation; English proficiency; and economic development.

A. De Wolf, J. Christiaens. The hurdle model: Analysing the influence of country characteristics on participation in IPSASB’s due process. Public Money & Management, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2022.2066817

Fostering team work skills by design thinking

In this quasi-experimental study (N = 640 students), data were collected twice: in the middle (t1), and at the end (t2) of the course. Each time, students were rated by their teammates, themselves, and the teacher, using a rubric to map teamwork skills. Results show a significant improvement in teamwork skills during the course.

This study addresses researchers’ demands on the lack of robust evidence to assess the impact of design thinking in higher education.

Guaman-Quintanilla, S., Everaert, P., Chiluiza, K., & Valcke, M. (2022). Fostering Teamwork through Design Thinking. Education Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040279

Students applying design thinking during a course called “Analysis and problem solving”

Design thinking, problem solving and creativity

Design thinking has gained popularity among universities as a way to promote key skills, demanded by labor markets. Two of those skills are problem solving and creativity, which are sometimes referred to as 21^st century skills.

In this paper, the results of a large-scale study (910 students) are analyzed, by multiple actors. The design thinking methodology was used in a multidisciplinary course for all 1ste year undergraduate students, working on a real life problem, at an Ecuadorian University.

Results show a significant improvement on students’ problem solving and creativity skills throughout the semester. This improvement was validated by self-reported measures, as well as by the objective measured by the peers and teachers, three times, i.e. i.e. at the beginning (t0), in the middle (t1) and at the end (t2), after solving a case study.

Guaman-Quintanilla, S., Everaert, P., Chiluiza, K., & Valcke, M. (2022). Impact of design thinking in higher education: a multi-actor perspective on problem solving and creativity. International Journal of Technology and Design Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-021-09724-z

New publication in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

Organizations pursuing a hybrid mission balance multiple objectives without singling out the financial objective as the dominant one, they. Based on a case study undertaken at a luxury hotel chain, this study investigates how a control package that fosters staff’s basic psychological needs can be designed to the persistence of such a hybrid mission.

Bouten, L., Hoozée, S., forthcoming. Hybridity in a hotel chain: designing a package of controls to sustain a hybrid mission. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
https://d oi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2020-4622