This research attempts to uncover the following important relationships: (i) what is the intensity of the effect of innovations in economic uncertainty on the financial markets (ii) examine the duration i.e., how long does such effect lasts in the financial markets and (iii) investigate the lead-lag relationships between surprises in uncertainty and the financial market movements. It employs the time series data obtained in monthly interval during 1990-2013 on the economic uncertainty and four market portfolios: S&P 500 return, DJIA index return, value weighted return and equal weighted return. The findings of impulse response functions generated from a five variable VAR model suggest the following: (i) there are significant negative effects of uncertainty on all the four market portfolios (ii) the effects are significantly priced during the first two months and becomes insignificant thereafter; (iii) the effect is most pronounced in case of equal weighted return portfolio. Overall the findings uncover a loop wherein an unexpected increase (decrease) in economic uncertainty dampens (improves) portfolio performance causing subsequent higher (lower) uncertainty in the economic system. These findings have important implications for investment managers who aim to aim to improve their portfolio performance. Specifically, the implication is that economic uncertainties and irrational pessimistic periods are favorable time for long term investors to buy securities which have good fundamentals.

In this paper a company owner (valuation subject) is interested in selling a company (valuation object). The seller must conduct a business valuation in order to sustain his economic interest, which is assumed to be wealth maximisation. He will only engage in the transaction if the offered price does not come below the computed company value. The purpose of our paper is to introduce an innovative way to fulfil the described valuation task by applying the so-called “state marginal price model” under realistic imperfect market conditions. We show how removing the short-term credit upper limit alters the minimum demandable price of the same company noticeably.

This paper examines the impact of internal governance mechanisms on tax risk for a sample of Tunisian listed firms over the 2006 to 2010 period. Four hypotheses arise from the developed theoretical framework. These hypotheses stipulate that the independence of the board of directors, the separation of CEO and Chairman of the Board, the tax or accounting expertise of the audit committee and the tax or accounting expertise of internal audit function influence negatively the probability of presence of the tax risk. To test these hypotheses, a new measure of tax risk was conceived based on the financial statements of Tunisian listed firms as well as on a survey. The results of logistic regression show that the independence of the board of directors and the appeal to an external tax adviser has a positive and significant effect on the probability of presence of tax risk. Although, contrary to the hypothesis, these results are understandable by the measure of the tax risk used in this study. In fact, we captured the presence or the absence of this risk, by applying the statutory requirements relating to the disclosure of information on this risk in financial statements. For that purpose, we used a dichotomous variable which is equal to 1 in the presence of a tax reserve (provision) or any information about the tax risk inserted either into financial statements notes or into external auditors general reports and 0 if not. The positive relation is understandable by the dominating existence of the component of the tax reserve in this measure. Although the tax reserve allows getting the existence of a tax risk, it also represents a way of accounting management of this risk. So, the independence of the board of directors and the appeal to an external tax adviser seem to work in favor of the accounting management of the tax risk.

This paper aims to examine the moderating effect of ownership structure on the effectiveness of firms’ governance (GOV) on conservatism and firm performance. Sample companies are selected from Shanghai and Shenzhen exchange stock exchanges for the period 2007 to 2010. Panel data methodology is used to examine the effect of explanatory variables on conservatism and performance. The results show that as predicted, ownership concentration negatively moderates the relationship between GOV and conservatism based on CONACCR measure. Moreover, this paper finds that state ownership negatively moderate the effectiveness of state ownership on firm performance measured by market to book ratio (MTB). The findings of this thesis contribute to the corporate governance and conservatism literature in the context of emerging economies. This study also provides some meaningful implications for policy makers, accounting practice, researchers and users of financial statements in China.

The aim of this study is to determine the extent and trend of mandatory reporting practices of the listed companies in Bangladesh. It also identifies the factors that influenced the mandatory reporting. The final sample consists of 123 companies with 861 firm year observations listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh for the year 2004 to 2010. This study used seven self constructed checklists (items ranging from 148 to 179) based on particular year acts and laws relating to mandatory reporting. The study reveals that total mandatory reporting level presents 76.42% over the period  average mandatory reporting of before corporate governance code (2004-05) is 72.86% which is quite low than the average of after corporate governance code (2007-2010) 78.62%. Moreover, the study identifies mandatory reporting has significant positive association with firm size, firm profitability, and firm multinational parents, while it has significant negative association with firm ownerships. However, mandatory reporting has non-significant relationship with audit firm size and industry category.

Since regulatory initiatives by the EU to ascertain a consistent and faithful application of IFRS, a two-tier enforcement system has been in operation since 2005 in Germany. The mechanism consists of the private FREP and the state-funded BaFin. Both institutions investigate compliance of published financial reports of listed firms and disclose error findings as “name and shame” announcements. In regards to this system, our study investigates the determinants for erroneous financial reporting and enforcement delay, the time between the reporting date and the error finding, on the basis of a sample of 125 error findings from 2005 to 2012. We examine the determinants for errors in financial reports on the basis of the censured errors, thus distinguishing the quality of accounting with respect to the firms’ size, financial situation and its auditor’s affiliation. The determinants for enforcement delay are derived from findings in literature, to identify indicators for time and resource consumption during the enforcement procedure. The results of a multivariate regression analyses show that both error count and enforcement delay decreased since the introduction of the two-tier enforcement system, which suggests its efficiency. We find enforcement delay is substantially determined by the enforcement institution. Contrary to the concerns raised, we find no evidence that the IFRS's complexity exceeds the resources of small and medium-sized firms. There also seems to be no correlation between the auditor's affiliation to one of the four major audit firms and an increased risk for errors.

Globalisation has led to a relocation of automobile manufacturing into new regions, allowing a number of emerging markets to achieve tremendous growth in automobile production and sales during the last decade. Automakers in China and India are the main beneficiaries of this shift in global automobile industry as both countries were able to increase their market share tremendously on the back of cost leadership strategy and abundant foreign direct investment (FDI). These two countries are now the fastest growing producers of automobiles in the world and accounted for almost quarter of the world’s total automobile production in 2010. This study aims to examine the operational and financial performance of the four largest automobile manufacturers in China and India through an analysis based on accounting ratios. The results of the study show that despite the fact that Indian firms have given considerable competition in recent years, Chinese automobile manufacturers have outperformed their Indian counterparts in profitability, inventory management, liquidity and solvency. This study also identifies some critical factors such as profit margin management and cost control that Indian automobile manufacturers need to address in order to outpace Chinese Automobile manufactures in the future.

This research investigates the relationship between working capital management and profitability of firms using a sample of 43 non-financial firms listed at the Casablanca Stock Exchange for a period of 7 years from 2006 to 2012. The profitability measures used in this study as dependent variables are the return on assets (ROA) and the gross operating income (GOI). In addition, as independent variables, the study includes a comprehensive measure of working capital management that is the cash conversion cycle and its components: inventory conversion cycle, average collection period, and payables deferral period. The findings show that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between return on assets and the average collection period. They also show that a statistically negative relationship exists between the gross operating income and both the average collection period and the payables deferral period. An efficient management of these working capital components can have a positive impact on profitability of Moroccan firms.

The adoption and diffusion of balanced scorecard (BSC) has relatively been addressed in Western countries. Nonetheless, there is scant evidence on how BSC is received by organisations in developing countries. So, we are not sure how Non-Western countries are receiving BSC in practice and whether the adoption of BSC is facing similar challenges (as in Western countries).Furthermore, while the diffusion of innovation theory suggests the significance influence of characteristics of an innovation on its adoption and diffusion, no study has been reported to examine this theory in relation to BSC. Deriving from contingency and diffusion of innovation theories, this study investigates the diffusion of BSC in New Zealand and the Sultanate of Oman and examines the significance of impact of characteristics of innovation on the adoption of BSC in both countries.

This paper aims to examine the extent of financial ratio information communicated in the annual reports of Malaysian listed companies. The sample is selected from top 100 companies on Bursa Malaysia for year 2011. The annual reports are gathered and the data are hand collected. A regression model measures the Extent Financial Ratio Disclosure (EFRD) using 10 mostly referred and cited financial ratios. Findings reveal that on average, the sample firms disclose 18.4% of selected financial ratios in their annual reports. The Net Asset Per Share (NAPS) ratio is among the popular ratios presented in the annual reports. For the corporate governance score (CGS), almost 50% of the board of directors are independent. The average percentage of shareholding of 80.63% and this implies that Malaysian shareholding is consider to be concentrated. Corporate Governance (CG) element does have a positive relationship with EFRD. Higher numbers of independent directors increase the extent of the financial ratio disclosures. It explains that the role of independent directors as proposed in the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) actually works and it helps to add value to the quality of financial reporting.

The importance of forensic accounting is increasing steadily all over the world. Therefore, forensic accounting is seen as one of the most important careers in the near future, yet universities in Bahrain are still not offering separate program or course in forensic accounting. This study aims to explore educators’ opinion regarding the main obstacles to integrate forensic accounting in the accounting curriculum across universities in Bahrain. The study surveyed all accounting educators in universities across Bahrain. 34 accounting instructors from all universities in Bahrain completely answered the survey questionnaire. Like the results of the previous studies, the results of this study also indicated that the majority of instructors are expecting an increasing demand on forensic accounting. Additionally, it has been found that obstacles related to academic matters (curriculum and faculty) are the most important obstacles that prevent the accounting Department in universities across Bahrain from offering a program or a course in forensic accounting. However, the study found a significant difference among respondents as for the obstacles to integrate forensic accounting in the accounting curriculum only when the respondents are grouped according to their academic rank. Accordingly, and in light of these results the accounting departments in the universities across Bahrain should revise their academic curriculum to integrate forensic accounting, and to attract qualified faculties who have good experience in the field of forensic accounting.

This paper considers the legal liability regime for financial advisors, namely certified public accountants and auditors, in Singapore and Australia. Examination of the comparative aspects in which lawsuits against financial advisors are commenced provided an analysis of the legal and commercial environment and the regulatory regimes of the two common law jurisdictions considered. A qualitative, legal case-study method was used to meet the following objectives: (i) description of background information for the lawsuit, (ii) explanation of information collected, and (iii) analysis of the information in the context of the research topic. The law cases were evaluated to consider a range of issues including the court jurisdiction, main issues contributing to the litigation, types of alleged errors and findings of liability. Consequently it appeared that even though the two countries have similar regulatory regimes for financial advisors, there were a surprising range of differences in the legal and commercial environment in which claims were brought by parties. These differences highlighted the positive and negative aspects of the varying approaches and allowed the paper to make a range of recommendations for Australia, Singapore and the accounting profession at large. These recommendations include a strict approach to legal liability for advisors, enacting measures to limit the liability of advisors and the requirement and importance of good corporate governance approaches.