Question

How are accounting judgments regarding internally generated intangible influenced by accountants’ heuristics and biases?

Answer 1

The development of initial accounting for internally generated intangible assets, relevant to both academics and practitioners, examining what happens when accountants are given principles-based discretion. We draw on existing insights into heuristics or experience-based techniques for making accounting judgments. Knowledge about judgment under uncertainty, and the general framework offered by the heuristics and biases program in particular, forms the underlying logical structure. An interview study concerning initial accounting for internally generated intangible assets in the consumer goods and services sector provides the empirical base for the analysis and discussion. Identifying and recognizing internally generated intangible assets is a typical case of judgment under uncertainty. From an accounting point of view, it is vital that the judgments and intentions produced by System 1 can be modified or overridden by the deliberative operations of System 2, that is, that a direct interrelationship exists between intuition and reasoning. This indicates that heuristics are experience-based, which makes it interesting to study accounting judgments from a heuristics and biases perspective. By studying the underlying processes on which accounting judgments are founded, we can learn more about how accountants reason in relation to various accounting standards given different economic situations. One of the practical implications of this study is that accountants can gain a better understanding of how to avoid judgmental biases when tackling complex accounting problems, such as accounting for internally generated intangible assets. This paper takes a different view on heuristics and biases related to accounting judgments from that of previous research in that the focus is primarily on the use and design of heuristics and biases and to a lesser extent on departures from normative decision-making behavior.