Languages: 
WSU Associate Professor in Accounting Sciences, Professor Joseph Akande, together with his collaborators, Daniel Gbadebo and Oluwatobi Adekunle won the Best Paper Award at an African Accounting and Finance Association (AAFA) Conference held in Cairo, Egypt recently.
The Best Paper Award, sponsored by the Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies (JCEBS), recognises and promotes quality contributions to academic research and writing among scholars.
The trio’s winning submission titled “Discontinuities in earnings distributions: new evidence in South African firms” showcases the possible manipulation of earnings in financial reporting against the current evidence of no discontinuity in the distribution of earnings in South Africa.
Akande offered that their work was inspired by the persistent financial fraud in private and public institutions embedded in financial reports.
“I am thrilled, a sense of feat, knowing that little efforts in my little space got recognition—a sense of enormous responsibility to do even more. I suppose our ability to X-ray extant literature in the domain, particularly the current study in South Africa, and adopt a novel approach to take the study to a new frontier made our contribution stand out,” said Akande.
Akande added that their work seeks to protect unsuspecting stakeholders who may find themselves precariously liable in the event of corporate failure arising from industry misdemeanours.
“Because earnings provide critical information for an investment decision, managers have incentives to manage such earnings when reporting financial statements to avoid losses and increase earnings surprises. Management of earnings is linked to discontinuity in earning distribution. Understanding the distribution pattern would mitigate the risk of managers’ opportunistic behaviour that could help circumvent future corporate scandals,” said Akande.
Through further interrogation of financial reporting practices, Akande hopes to influence quality standard settings in the profession.
“The plan, among others, is to push financial statement fraud research to the level of a research cluster or working group to get more colleagues involved in the engagements until we achieve our objective of a better standard-setting environment. That way, the quality of reporting can be enhanced to limit the vulnerability of the unsuspecting public to unnecessary financial losses,” he said.
Professor Sanjay Balkaran, Acting Dean of the WSU Faculty of Commerce and Administration, commended Akande’s contribution to shaping the future of accounting.
“In selecting Prof Akande and his fellow authors, it has recognised their ingenuity, importance, and relevance of their research, which has highlighted the theoretical and practical implications that are likely to shape the future of accounting.
Prof Akande serves as a source of inspiration to students, novice researchers and fellow collaborators as currently the Faculty of Commerce and Administration is one of the faculties leading WSU’s initiatives aimed at repositioning the University as an innovation-focused, research-active institution whose work shapes futures and changes lives, as per the University’s motto - from the remotest rural Eastern Cape villages to far-flung global commercial and industrial centres.”
By Yanga Ziwele
