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The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations of earnings management in less-developed economy using Saudi listed companies.

While numerous motivations for earnings management are proposed in the literature, many of these motivations have inconsistent empirical support. A number of studies report discontinuities in the distribution of earnings around benchmarks such as the zero profit level. However, the evidence regarding whether these discontinuities are associated with earnings management behaviour is still uncertain. In addition, evidence regarding the ability of various governance mechanisms to constrain earnings management is also mixed. These issues raise the necessity to investigate managers behaviour that incentivise earnings management practices through qualitative research approach. A questionnaire survey and interviews are mainly used to explore the motivations for earnings management in Saudi Arabia in order to obtain the different perceptions of respondents.

The findings reveal that the four main incentives for Saudi managers to manage earnings are “to increase the amount of remuneration”, “to report a reasonable profit and avoid loss”, “to obtain a bank loan” and “to increase share price”.

Hence, agency-institutional theory may provide a sensible explanation for earnings management practices in Saudi Arabia.

Previous findings could be helpful for external auditors and regulators and legislators in their attempts to constrain the incidence of earnings management and enhance the quality of monitoring mechanisms.

While numerous motivations for earnings management are proposed in the literature, many of these motivations have inconsistent empirical support. A number of studies report discontinuities in the distribution of earnings around benchmarks such as the zero profit level. However, there is no evidence that these discontinuities are associated with earnings management behaviour. In addition, evidence regarding the ability of various governance mechanisms to constrain earnings management is also mixed. These issues raise the necessity to investigate managers behaviour that incentivise earnings management practices through qualitative research approach.

The study sets out to demonstrate how a lifecycle perspective on complex, public-sector procurement projects can be used for making qualitative assessments of procurement policy and practice and reveal those procurement capabilities that are most impactful for operating effectively.

Agency theory, institutional theory and the lifecycle analysis technique are combined to abductively develop a framework to identify, analyse and compare complex procurement policies and practices in public sector organisations. Defence is the focal case and is compared with cases in the Nuclear, Local Government and Health sectors.

The study provides a framework for undertaking a lifecycle analysis to understand the challenges and capabilities of complex, public-sector buyers. Eighteen hierarchically-arranged themes are identified and used in conjunction with agency theory and institutional theory to explain complex procurement policy and practice variation in some of the UK’s highest-profile public buyers. The study findings provide a classification of complex buyers and offer valuable guidance for practitioners and researchers navigating complex procurement contexts.

The lifecycle approach proposed is a new research tool providing a bespoke application of theory by considering each lifecycle phase as an individual but related element that is governed by unique institutional pressures and principal-agent relationships.

Despite the advancement of the assumptions of agency and institutional theories whereby monitoring structures and controls form the basis of management, inadequate public finance regulatory compliance among public entities has continued to be a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how to break out of the apparent cycle of failures to comply with public finance regulations.

A cross-sectional study that integrates two approaches (cooperative and coercive models) drawing from the view that in central government agencies, there may be stewards and also agents motivated by self-interest, suggesting that the most promising framework is that which renders the traditional ways of achieving regulatory compliance to be supplemented with the stewardship model. Thus, the authors focus on four variables: management mechanisms, ethical climate, deterrence measures and public finance regulatory compliance all drawn from agency, institutional and stewardship theories. The authors collect data from 67 central government agencies in Uganda using a structured questionnaire.

The authors find that management mechanisms dimensions of leadership support and organisational commitment significantly associate with public finance regulatory compliance and so too are deterrence measures particularly oversight organs, penalties and procedural justices.

Public finance regulatory compliance can be improved through management mechanisms and deterrence measures.

The study generates empirical evidence on the applicability of stewardship theory in the management of public entities for regulatory compliance

This paper investigates organizational performance effects by using performance management (PM) practices (both quality and internal managerial practices) and the moderating effects of the organizational context (cultural aspects and government pressures) on this relationship.

Interrelationships are studied based on data collected by a unique survey administered to Portuguese government agencies. A combination of the economic theory (and the New Public Management [NPM] assumptions) with the institutional theory (inspired by the old institutional economy [OIE] and the new institutional sociology [NIS]) provides a plausibly adequate theoretical framework.

These support the hypothesis about the positive effects of PM practices use (both internal and quality-oriented practices) on organizational performance which validates economic and NPM assumptions. The regression results also show that performance would improve if PM practices were aligned with the organizational culture (at least partially). Looking at the moderating effects, the study finds that agencies more oriented to the use of internal management practices aligned with a citizen-centred approach would have improvements in internal performance, reinforcing OIE assumptions. In addition, findings confirm expectations about the insignificant impact on performance when agencies use PM practices under great government pressures (NIS in the isomorphism perspective).

The limitations appointed in the literature regarding the use of the survey method also apply to this study.

This paper innovates by the research on the interrelationships between the organizational context, the use of PM practices and the organizational performance. The use of different theories in a complementary way (economic and institutional theories) in the explanation of performance consequences provides new insights into the body of performance management in the public sector.

This paper aims to explore the emergence of accounting shared service centers (SSCs) in the municipal sector.

The theoretical framework of this interpretative study draws on institutional entrepreneurship that highlights the importance of actors and agency for institutions and institutional change.

The paper finds that institutional entrepreneurs operate on many institutional levels simultaneously. On the organizational field level they must find groups of actors with whom they share interests. At the organizational level the institutional entrepreneurs must find and recognize critical audiences that are receptive to their agenda.

The authors' data comprise interviews and archival data; they were not present to observe the institutional entrepreneurs in action.

The paper contributes to the accounting literature by investigating institutional entrepreneurship at the organizational field level, which has not been much empirically researched.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between business ethics practices disclosure and corporate governance characteristics in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study uses multiple regression to investigate the association between business ethics disclosure (BED) and corporate governance characteristics in SAA. The study sample is based on 573 non-financial corporations listed on the national stock exchanges of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe as of 31 December 2015.

The findings show that corporate governance characteristics (including the proportion of government ownership, board independence and board gender diversity) are positively and significantly related to BED.

The study contributes to the limited literature by analyzing the relationship between BED practices and corporate governance characteristics in the sub-Sahara African context, which is significantly different from the Anglo-Saxon world.

There are multiple perspectives of divestiture and its performance that require reconciliation. While research finds a positive market response to divestment announcement, divestiture of prior acquisitions are generally viewed negatively. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test different explanations for the divestment of prior acquisitions.

This research employs event study to capture market reaction at acquisition announcement and subsequent divestments in a sample of 69 public US high-technology acquisitions between 2003 and 2008 that were divested by 2015. Only initial acquisitions involving public firms were included from the Thomson One Banker SDC database. Public press releases and companies’ SEC filings were reviewed to track divestitures back to prior acquisitions. Ordinary least squared regression was used to estimate coefficients.

Results indicate a positive relation between acquisition and divestiture performance around announcement dates. This finding rejects the correction of mistake explanation, suggesting that a negative stigma surrounding divestments is largely unwarranted and that investors reward capable acquirer’s divestiture decisions.

Investors do not treat all information signals at divestiture equally. For example, acquisitions made by larger and more profitable firms, or acquisitions paid for with stock, are associated with lower return upon divestiture announcement.

This study finds that investors view divestiture as a proactive strategy, suggesting firms can improve performance by actively managing acquisitions and divestments to optimize their portfolio of businesses.

This study aims to examine trends in the global assurance practices of sustainability reports, updating and broaden the extant literature and proving new insights that could guide future research.

The data were collected for 12,783 companies and exploratory descriptive analyses of sustainability reporting assurance practices were undertaken.

The study shows that assurance growth is lagging behind the growth in sustainability reporting. It reveals that assurer switching is a common practice amongst companies. There is an increasing trend towards the use of the International Standard for Assurance Engagements 3000 by non-accounting assurers. Additionally, in terms of assurance providers, the study finds that accounting firms are dominating the market, however, engineering firms are fast increasing their share of the sustainability assurance market, whilst consulting firms’ share is decreasing. However, the switch towards consulting firms is higher than the switch towards accounting firms in the last switch period.

Overall, the results of this study provide insights about companies’ assurance practices for regulators, assurance providers and companies interested in assuring their sustainability reports.

This study is relevant for companies’ stakeholders, including investors, to enhance their understanding of companies’ current assurance practices.

Prior studies on the assurance practices of sustainability reports are limited in scope (concentrate on large companies) and depth (examine accounting vs non-accounting assures and consider the evolving patterns at the institutional rather than firm-level). This study presents developments and trajectories of assurance practices to inform researchers and practitioners on the global trends by bringing an updated and broader perspective on the topic.

Descriptive analyses of campus police agencies reveal that agencies’ tactical and operational features are similar to those found in municipal agencies. The problem is that none of these studies have examined, using multivariate models, the structural characteristics of these organizations. Using LEMAS data collected in 1995, this study answered two main questions: what are the organizational characteristics of campus police agencies; and what factors, both internal and external, explain variation in the structural dimensions of the agencies. The results indicated that campus police agencies possess the same structural characteristics of municipal police agencies identified by 40 years of police organizational research, and internal agency characteristics were most important in explaining variation in the organizations’ structural dimensions. The degree to which campus agencies have adopted organizational structures that are similar to those of municipal police is discussed and framed within an institutional perspective.

This chapter focuses on the influence of the home government on the internationalization of Russian multinational enterprises (MNEs). It views government involvement and political connectedness as a form of informal connections and networks that seriously impact operations in general and internationalization, in particular in the case of Russian multinationals. Using the literature on MNEs from emerging markets and our familiarity with Russian business and political specificities, we develop a set of five propositions devoted to the subject. We further discuss the research and management implications of our analysis.