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The purpose of this study is to provide a harmonisation framework for the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries.

The study takes a three-stage approach. The first involves a comprehensive literature review of the historical evolution of accounting regulations by extractive industries. The second involves constructing an accounting practice index for extractive industries. The third involves constructing a harmonisation framework.

The accounting practice index provides empirical evidence of the wide diversity of accounting practices by extractive industries. Analysis of the literature review addresses the several attempts by accounting and regulatory bodies to standardise the diverse practices of accounting by extractive industries and reasons for the lack of successful standardisations. The authors extract lessons from these previous attempts and propose a harmonisation framework.

The proposed harmonisation framework can be used to align together the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries and enhance comparability and consistency of accounting figures and statements produced by these industries. Harmonising the diverse accounting practices is crucial for investment decision-making.

The harmonisation framework is the first of its kind that could enhance the comparability of accounts of extractive industries’ firms and be used to harmonise diverse accounting practices by other industries.

This study aims to investigate the accounting role’s deficiencies in managers’ decision-making processes.

The current research applies a critical review method, which along with a deductive approach – based on a library review of existing sources – examines the underlying causes for the deficiencies of accounting role in the decision-making process of managers; moreover, based on the results obtained, the current study proposes a structural model to explain the issue.

The results exhibit the inadequacies of the accounting role in the decision-making process of managers into three sections: “dilution of financial reporting information content,” “malpractice of accounting information providers” and “managers’ unwillingness to use accounting information.”

This research provides a new perspective on critical accounting studies for the accounting profession, policymakers and managers and invites them to examine the roles of accounting information in more depth and breadth.

This article is the first study that critically expounds upon the literature on the deficiencies of accounting role in the decision-making process of managers and presents these deficiencies in the form of a structural model from three different perspectives.

Current research aims to investigate the relationships between Chinese national cultural values (uncertainty avoidance (UA), power distance, masculinity (MAS), individualism (IDV) and Confucian dynamism) and accounting practices (professionalism, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy).

A sample of 842 users/preparers of financial statements participated in this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey from China. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the proposed relationship.

Results show that cultural values strongly impact financial reporting practices in China. Chinese society is characterized by low UA, high power distance, collectivism, future orientation (Confucianism) and masculine traits. These values show an overall preference for uniformity, conservatism and secrecy in financial reporting with weak professionalism. The findings show that Chinese society emphasizes law abidance, strict codes of conduct, written rules and regulations and respect for consistent orthodox measures.

This study provides valuable input for policymakers in developing regulations and accounting standards in the Chinese market. Understanding the relationship between cultural dimensions and accounting values helps to address societal challenges and align policies with cultural values to acquire desired financial reporting values. Global firm managers must consider cultural dimensions in accounting when entering Chinese markets or negotiating with partners from different cultures. Findings also suggest local managers gain self-awareness of their cultural biases and accounting values, enabling them to navigate businesses and society's financial reporting needs.

This study enriches the existing literature on cultural and accounting practice studies by validating the role of stakeholder and social contract theories in Gray–Hofstede’s framework and highlighting the influence of dominant cultural values on accounting values. The study provides a unique empirical analysis of the Chinese market by using a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling (SEM). Further, it also opens avenues for future research on the relationship between cultural dimensions, accounting practices and their global impact. These findings emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability, especially in multicultural environments.

This study aims to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of accounting infrastructure (calculative practice and the communicative dimension of accounting) in extractive industries (EIs) towards a sustainable orientation from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective.

This study is a literature-based analysis of the calculative property and communicative dimension of accounting in EIs, using the concepts of calculability, assemblage and other related concepts from ANT to identify potentialities and limits of the roles of accounting in this sector.

While accounting infrastructure can influence social and environmental outcomes, it has not, as yet, led to ecologically and socially sustainable practices in EIs. Calculative properties and the communicative dimension of accounting infrastructure have capabilities to foster the phenomenon of “sustainability” in EIs by valuing, disclosing (reporting) and governing EIs towards a sustainable orientation. Conceptualizing sustainable EIs as a promissory economy, accounting infrastructure serves as a tool not only to represent past performance but also to enact the future: it helps to shape a sustainable future for the industry by informing and triggering behavioural decisions of EIs firms towards sustainable practices.

This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future sustainability accounting research. The research agenda discussed in this paper can be used to enrich our understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability.

This paper charts a direction for future research by interpreting the role of sustainability accounting within networks of sociotechnical relations, using ANT concepts which attach importance to the dualism of nature and society. Conceptualizing sustainability accounting and reporting as an infrastructure, which draws more attention to the relationality characteristic of accounting, the study goes beyond the traditional interpretation of accounting as a mediation device and draws on a contemporary view of accounting by invoking the dynamic relation between accounting and society, in the context of EIs.

This study examines whether country-level financial integration affects firms' accounting choices and the quality of financial information.

This study employs Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and panel regressions of a large sample of data from 20 emerging markets over the period 1987–2018.

This study finds evidence that increased level of financial integration is significantly positively associated with firms' accruals earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM).

Findings in the study have implications for standard-setting bodies that aim to enhance the usefulness of financial reporting quality. The study also has implications for various initiatives by governments in emerging markets aimed at raising investor confidence and fostering stock market development through greater financial integration.

Findings in the study have implications for standard-setting bodies that aim to enhance the usefulness and quality of financial reporting. The findings can be of interest to analysts, auditors and other monitoring institutions who play a crucial role in detecting earnings management and reducing information asymmetry. Finally, the study has implications for various initiatives by governments in emerging markets aimed at raising investor confidence and fostering stock market development through greater financial integration.

Findings in the study reveal how country-level financial integration affects accruals and real earnings management in a sample of firms from 20 emerging markets. Further, the study adds to the growing body of literature on emerging markets where capital markets mechanisms, regulatory environment and firm's corporate governance are distinct to developed markets.

This study aims to investigate earnings management practice of classification shifting of revenues in Chinese-listed firms.

The study employs a dataset of 2,920 A-listed firms from Chinese stock exchanges of Shanghai and Shenzhen for the period of 2003–2019. We apply both univariate and panel regression analysis by using fixed effect estimation with robust standard errors.

Our findings reveal that firms misclassify revenues by taking advantage of the flexibility provided by applicable financial reporting standards. The empirical evidence obtained through regression analysis suggest that managers reclassify non-operating revenues as operating revenue to alter the economic reality while seeking the advantage of financial reports users’ vulnerability for valuing the upper half of income statement items more as compared to lower part. The results further indicate that international financial reporting standards adoption inhibits the earnings management practices using classification shifting of revenues. It is also concluded that firms, which are suffering losses or having low growth, are more persistently involved in misclassification of revenues.

The study is unique from the point of view that it investigates earnings management from the prospective of revenue’s classification in an emerging market characterized by various market imperfections such as lower investor protection and higher information asymmetry.

This paper aims to provide insights into the complicated relationship between earnings management (EM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) during the financial downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parametric t-tests and non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum tests accompanied by ordinary least squares regression analysis, augmented with Newey–West procedure approaches, are used for a sample that consists of 1,984 firms from 47 countries for the period of 2014–2020. EM was proxied once with discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model (1995) and once with real earnings management (REM) using the Roychowdhury model (2006). This study uses environmental, social, and governance scores from the Thomson Reuters database as a proxy for CSR.

The results reveal that firms tend to engage more in EM practices during the pandemic and that more socially responsible firms tend to be honest and transparent during the financial reporting process. Interestingly, it was found that more socially responsible firms engaged less in REM practices during the pandemic.

The findings of this research help lenders, investors, policymakers and managers gain a better understanding of EM practices during a negative shock and shed light on the importance of CSR in being ethical.

The findings extend both the literature on the role of CSR in promoting financial reporting quality and the literature on the impact of COVID-19 on accrual and REM practices.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between earnings quality and corporate cash holdings in an emerging economy. Existing literature posits that earnings quality is a result of information asymmetry and firms with lower earnings quality increases cash holdings, to shield the firm from future uncertainties. In this paper, the authors propose a ‘private benefits hypothesis’, which suggests that lower earnings quality is an indicator of opportunism and expropriation of resources in the firm, through tunneling or excessive executive compensations. As a result, firms with lower earnings quality increase cash holdings in their control, to increase their private benefits and to avoid the scrutiny of the external stakeholders. The authors further examine the monitoring role played by institutional investors on cash holdings, with varying degrees of earnings quality.

This study uses an unbalanced panel data sourced from Prowessdx, from 2000 to 2019. The analysis employs 20,231 firm-year observations from 2,421 firms. Earnings quality is calculated following Dechow and Dichev (2002).

Empirical analysis confirms that the firms with higher earnings quality reduce cash. Further, institutional investors reduce the cash holdings in firms with higher earnings quality. Institutional investors effectively reduce the cash only in firms with at least 10% of equity shareholding. The results are robust to alternative measures of earnings quality and endogeneity concerns.

This study diverges from the information asymmetry hypothesis in the existing literature on earnings quality and cash holdings and highlights the underlying private benefits hypothesis, that will impact cash holdings. Next, the 10% institutional shareholding is important in the Indian context as it represents the minimum threshold at which block holders can request extraordinary general meetings (Section 100 of the Companies Act 2013) or the involvement of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) (Section 213 of the Companies Act 2013). This study highlights that unlike in Anglo-Saxon economies, institutional investors or other minority shareholders are empowered by the Companies Act 2013 to play a vital role in corporate governance with a mere 10% equity.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the gender of an audit engagement partner (EP) is associated with the quality of the EP’s audit output.

This paper defines a low-quality EP as an EP who leads the audit of at least one client firm that subsequently restates its financial statements, while a high-quality EP is an EP that is not associated with any restatement. Using a sample of 6,082 observations from 2016 to 2020, the study estimates a logistic regression of EP quality on EP gender and control variables.

The results show that female EPs are more likely to be high-quality EPs. With an odds ratio of 1.25, the results imply that female EPs are 1.25 times more likely to be associated with higher-quality audits compared to male EPs.

The results of this study imply that female EPs are more likely to perform high-quality audits, and it supports the assertion that EP gender plays a significant role in determining EP quality. Further studies may apply gender theory to investigate the behavior of female EPs.

The results show that female EPs are more likely to be high-quality EPs. With an odds ratio of 1.25, the results imply that female EPs are 1.25 times more likely to be associated with higher-quality audits compared to male EPs.

The results of this study should be of interest to stakeholders such as audit committees, regulators, investors and creditors, as they provide an indicator for assessing the quality of audits. Moreover, considering the EP’s important role in an audit, the current study extends the existing literature by providing evidence of a relationship between EP gender and EP quality.

In 2018, the International Financial Reporting Standard 9-Financial Instruments became mandatory, effectively changing the underlying accounting principles of financial instruments. This paper systematically reviews the academic literature on the implementation effects of IFRS 9, providing a coherent picture of the state of the empirical literature on IFRS 9.

The study thrives on a systematic review approach by analyzing existing academic studies along the following three broad categories: adoption and implementation, impact on financial reporting, and risk management and provisioning. The study concludes by providing research prospects to fill the identified gaps.

We document data-related issues, forecasting uncertainties and the interaction of IFRS 9 with other regulatory standards as implementation challenges encountered. Also, we observe cross-country heterogeneity in reporting quality. Furthermore, contrary to pre-implementation expectations, we find improvement in risk management. This suggests that despite the complexities of the new regulatory standard on financial instruments, it appears to be more successful in achieving the intended objective of enhancing better market discipline and transparency rather than being a regulatory overreach.

As the literature on IFRS 9 is burgeoning, we provide state-of-the-art guidance and direction for researchers with a keen interest in the economic significance and implications of IFRS 9 adoption. The study identifies gaps in the literature that require further research, specifically, IFRS 9 adoption and firm’s hedging activities, IFRS 9 implications on non-financial firms. Lastly, existing studies are mostly focused on Europe and underscore the need for more research in under-researched jurisdictions, particularly in Asia and Africa. Also, to standard setters, policymakers and practitioners, we provide some insight to aid the formulation and application of standards.