Abstract
How does state certification (e.g., CPA, enrolled agent [EA], or attorney) and organizational form among uncertified preparers (big box ‘‘franchise’’ firms versus not) influence client satisfaction and interactions? Results from a sample (n = 3,984) of Yelp ratings of U.S. tax preparers indicates that certified preparers receive higher ratings than do uncertified small-firm preparers, who earn higher ratings than do franchise preparers. Linguistic analysis suggests that clients of certified preparers experience tax preparation service as a ‘‘relational’’ interaction, with reviews evidencing more positive affect and inclusive pronouns (e.g., we). In contrast, the clients of franchise firms experience tax preparation as ‘‘transactional,’’ with reviews evidencing more swear words and impersonal pronouns. Linguistic results for uncertified small preparers fall between those of certified and franchise preparers. The paper is among the first to adapt emerging corpus linguistic methods to examine client perceptions of professional accounting services.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 117-136 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018, American Accounting Association. All rights reserved.
Funding
The authors thank workshop participants at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, University of Kentucky, and University of West Virginia, and the 2011 and 2015 Behavioral Tax Symposium for comments on previous drafts, and we thank Monika Causholli for useful conversations related to the manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Kentucky, the Gatton College of Business, and the Von Allmen School of Accountancy. Professor Witherspoon gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Langdale College of Business Administration at Valdosta State University, the Rea and Lillian Steele Research Grant, and her dissertation committee at the University of Kentucky Von Allmen School of Accountancy.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Gatton College of Business/Economics | |
| Lillian Steele Research | |
| University of Kentucky Von Allmen School of Accountancy | |
| Von Allmen School of Accountancy | |
| University of Kentucky | |
| Valdosta State University | |
| Research Executive Agency |
Keywords
- Certification
- LIWC
- Linguistic analysis
- Online reviews
- Professional accounting services
- Relational
- Tax preparation
- Transactional
- Yelp
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Accounting
- Computer Science Applications