Guest editorial

• Published date: 06 August 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJAIM-06-2018-0059
• Date: 06 August 2018
• Pages: 334-334
• Author: Weimin Wang,Ling Zhou
• Subject Matter: Accounting & Finance,Accounting/accountancy,Accounting methods/systems

Guest editorial

The quality of accounting information: from the guest editors

Welcome to the special edition of the International Journal of Accounting and Information

Management devoted to the topic “The Quality of AccountingInformation”. The quality of

information produced by the accounting information system, or accounting quality, is of

primary importanceto its users. This special issue aims to enhance our understandingof the

measurement of accounting quality, the institutions and mechanisms it interacts with, the

economic effects of accounting quality and how accounting quality affects the decision

process. It includesfive papers, four empirical studies and a literature review, which address

a diversity of research topics. Two papers investigate the role of institutions (laws,

regulations, and rules)in moderating the quality of accounting information. The paperby Li

et al. (2018) examines the effect of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 on the debt contracting

value of accounting information. Houqe (2018) provides a review of literature on the

determinants and consequences of mandatory IFRS adoption. Accounting quality can be

monitored, disciplined and affected by forces both external and internal to the firm. The

paper by Fedyk et al. (2018) examines the effectof media attention on firms’real and accrual

management activities around seasoned equity offerings. The paper by Yu et al. (2018)

studies how corporate governance impacts analysts’, and by proxy investors’, ability to

process accounting information and forecast firm performance in Asian markets. Finally,

and representing the diversity of factors that could influence accounting quality, the paper

by Jeong et al. (2018) examines whether the gender composite of employees of Koreanfirms

could affect the level of discretionary accruals, a common measure of accounting quality.

Collectively, these papers show that accounting quality is determined by a complex set of

stakeholders, institutions,and corporate environment that interact with one another.

Weimin Wang

Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, and

Ling Zhou

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

IJAIM

26,3

334

InternationalJournal of

Accounting& Information

Management

Vol.26 No. 3, 2018

p. 334

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1834-7649

DOI 10.1108/IJAIM-06-2018-0059