Abstract The fundamental importance and relevance of the behavioral sciences to accounting is exemplified by the number of recent behaviorally oriented accounting research studies, as of April 1975. A subset of these studies has been concerned with organizational and social psychological aspects of accounting firms. These studies seem to have the potential for contributing to both the accounting profession and the behavioral sciences. Within this trend, the purpose of this article is to explore the organization of public accounting firms using a behavioral science theory of organization. An organization can be modeled as a cycle consisting of three basic units, namely, an input unit, a transformation process, and lastly, an output unit. An audit engagement is not a completely standardized input. Different client organizations have different accounting systems. Accounting systems either are tailored to an organization or they evolve as the organization evolves. Consequently, each accounting system has some idiosyncracies representing the particular characteristics and information requirements of the organization.

Abstract This article presents a comment on the study of behavioral business utilizing students as surrogates in the U.S. The question of the relationship between individual attitudes and individual behavior is far from settled in psychology. It appears to be nondemonstrative, for it seems perfectly possible for the conclusion to be false even if the premises or the statistical results are true, since it seems possible to find some students that would be good surrogates. A valid surrogation is dependent upon certain properties of the object not necessarily the objects in total.

Abstract This article presents a behavioral approach to transfer pricing problems. Since the transfer pricing problem only arises within a recognizable social system, be it an organization or a socialist economy, this article considers the solutions in a social system context. The paradigm developed can then be used to evaluate the usefulness and limitations of the various proposed solutions. Decentralization is one approach to organizational design. Implicit in this approach is the segmentation of the organization into various specialities. Numerous reasons are provided in the transfer price literature for decentralization. Decentralization, however, does not quite explain the process involved. A consequence of the segmentation of the organization into parts is that the behavior of organizational members will be influenced by the segmentation. Therefore, the term "differentiation" is used to include not only the segmentation of the organization into specialized parts, but also to include the consequent differences in attitudes and behavior of organizational members.

Abstract Comments on an article about the accuracy of corporate and security analyst's forecast of earnings. Conditions for accurate forecasting; Criticisms on the article.