Kent State’s College of Business Administration Accounting Professor and Student Win Paper Award

KENT, Ohio - May 28, 2015 - PRLog -- Assistant Professor of Accounting, Arno Forst, Ph.D. and Barry Hettler, Ph.D. candidate, received the American Accounting Association’s, 2015 Andrews Best Paper Award in the Ohio Region for their paper titled “Insider Ownership and Auditor Monitoring: Evidence from Dual-Class Firms.”

Their research examines the association of insider ownership and clients’ demand for audit quality in the unique setting of dual-class firms. Insider ownership creates the unclear demand for audit quality and exerts two effects: a positive incentive-alignment effect and a negative entrenchment effect. Using a hand-collected sample of U.S. dual-class firms, Forst and Hettler found that insider cash flow rights are negatively associated with audit fees, auditor independence and the inclination to hire a Big Four or industry specialist auditor, while insider board control rights and the extent of inconsistent insider control display opposite associations.

Forst received his Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009. He is an assistant professor in accounting at Kent State.

Hettler is a fourth year accounting Ph.D. student from Rochester, New York. He received his undergraduate and master’s degree from The College at Brockport State University in New York.

“The paper represents the culmination of a great deal of research and effort and it is rewarding to see it has been recognized,” Hettler said.

The American Accounting Association was founded in 1916 and is the largest community of accountants in academia. Its focus is to ensure strength in accounting through teaching, research and a powerful professional network.

For more information about College of Business Administration’s Accounting Department, visit http://business.kent.edu/departments/accounting

For more information about the American Accounting Association, visit http://aaahq.org

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Kent State University’s College of Business Administration is one of only 180 colleges or schools of business worldwide to achieve dual accreditation in both business and accounting from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, the global accrediting body providing specialized accreditation at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. The College of Business Administration is home to 4,502 students, the second largest college of business in Ohio. The college boasts a satellite office of Kent State University’s Career Services Center dedicated to business students, and operates the Global Management Center, the Center for Information Systems and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation all propelling scholarly research, establishing innovative industry partnerships and providing outreach to Northeast Ohio and beyond.

Media Contacts:

Michelle Parrish Manning, Director of Marketing Communications, (330) 672-2717, mparris3@kent.edu

Bri Figley, Marketing Communications Specialist, (330) 672-1279, bfigley2@kent.edu