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Studies on Islamic calendar anomalies in financial markets tend to apply quantitative analysis to historic share prices. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research investigating whether the participants of such markets are aware of these anomalies and whether these anomalies affect their investment practice. Or is it a case that these practitioners are completely unaware of the anomalies present in these markets and are missing out on profitable opportunities? The purpose of this paper is to analyse the views of influential participants within the Pakistani Stock Market.

The study documents the findings for 19 face-to-face semi-structured interviews conducted with brokers, regulators and high-net-worth individual investors in Karachi.

The paper’s major findings indicate that the participants believed that anomalies were present in the stock market and market participants were actively attempting to exploit these anomalies for abnormal gains. Interviewees suggested that predictable patterns can be identified in certain Islamic months (Muharram, Safar, Ramadan and Zil Hajj). The most common pattern highlighted by the interviews related to the month of Ramadan. Furthermore, interviewees mentioned the influence of the “Memon” community in the Pakistani Stock Market. Respondents also suggested that investor sentiment played an important role in influencing the stock market prices and trading patterns.

Because all the prior studies investigating Islamic calendar anomalies in Muslim-majority countries adopted quantitative method using secondary data, the current investigation is of particular value, as it focuses on the qualitative analyses and reports the views of market participants. This allows to fully explore the topic under investigation and to draw robust conclusions.

This study explores the impact of institutions, policies, and regulations at the global, national, and sectoral levels on digitalisation within the Italian and Australian wine industries.

Drawing on qualitative research data collected from interviews with key personnel in the wine industry, this study shows that both jurisdictions are at a similar stage of emergent digital development despite very different settings.

Accordingly, the authors find that digitalisation is constrained by common policy and regulatory issues emanating at the global and national levels, such as a lack of data infrastructure and data governance, and the need for institutions at the local and regional levels to spur innovation, especially with SMEs.

This is the first study to analyse the role of policy, regulation, and institutional arrangements in digital diffusion using a cross-country comparison of the wine sector.

Derivatives reporting requirements are numerous and varied – from the disclosure only requirements of FRS 13, to the abolishment of hedge accounting proposed by the JWG. The present article attempts to outline the differences and similarities between the various derivatives accounting standards and proposed standards.

Diversity and inclusion is a key focus of the profession. This paper investigates the ecological inherited niche of Indonesia and which employers accounting students choose and whether this will result in a diverse and inclusive profession. The authors conceptualise diversity as the demand-from the profession encompassing professional accounting firms, and inclusion as the supply of individuals wishing to enter the profession.

The 1377 responses to a questionnaire survey of students deciding on their career paths were analysed using a multinomial logistic regression and path model.

The findings show that a lack of diversity in the profession is caused by the ecological background, constructing a local niche, that prevents diversity. This is manifest in ethnicity, gender and education, whereby the local niche consists of Chinese males recruited from B-rated private universities. To bring diversity and inclusivity into the workplace, the profession needs to entice people from multi-faceted groups and match ecological niche underpinnings to expectations of the professional landscape. Non-Chinese females are needed to become role models and trail blazers to establish a diverse profession. The public interest will then be better served.

This study uses niche construction as the theoretical framing and demonstrates that the profession needs to take action to become truly diverse and inclusive.

The Ludwig report concerning currency trading losses at AIB plc was issued in March 2002. This paper reviews the Ludwig report and assesses possible implications of the report for internal control and corporate governance procedures in treasury departments.

The past twenty years have seen a significant increase in the use of derivative financial instruments by companies throughout the world (Berkman and Bradbury 1996; Berkman, Bradbury and Magan, 1997a; Berkman, Bradbury, Hancock and Innes, 1997b; Bodnar, Hayt, Marston and Smithson, 1995; Bodnar, Hayt and Marston, 1996; 1998; Collier and Davis, 1985). This paper examines the impact of Financial Reporting Standard 13: Derivatives and Other Financial Instruments, Implementation and Disclosures, on treasury department activities. In particular, the researchers conducted interviews with UK treasury department staff to assess their general attitudes to, and the perceived impact of, FRS 13. In general, the treasurers responded favourably to the standard, and considered the narrative disclosures to be particularly useful. The numerical disclosures were considered to be very detailed and specialised; interviewees thought that users might have difficulty in understanding them. However, the implementation of IAS 39, that becomes mandatory for all EC countries from 2005, was causing treasurers far more concern.

The swaps market has been the world’s fastest growing financial market in the last few decades and the literature has sought reasons to explain this rapid growth. This study addresses this issue from a UK perspective and seeks to find out which UK organizations participate in the swaps market, why they choose to use it and the problems that they have encountered. The study consisted of a survey of the treasurers of 594 organizations in the UK. The most important reason why UK companies used swaps was to match their asset and liability cash flows and to stabilize their bottom line earnings. The results of this research will be of interest to both academics and to financial managers worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interest rate risk management (IRRM) practices of UK companies. In particular, the study examines five theories that have been advanced in the literature to explain why companies hedge: tax and regulatory arbitrage; under‐investment, volatility of earnings and future planning; financial distress; managerial self‐interest; and economies of scale.

The paper uses a questionnaire survey to examine the importance of hedging theories and to look at the detailed risk management practices of companies.

The research findings confirm that all five theories of financial risk management have some support in practice. However, while the responses to some questions supported the theories, other information elicited from the questionnaires did not. This finding demonstrates that studies which employ large disaggregated datasets that result in generalised conclusions often miss the dynamic nature of corporate affairs and that, as such, more qualitative research is needed in this area.

The use of a questionnaire survey facilitates an investigation of the IRRM practices of companies on an individual basis rather than the aggregated analysis afforded by most quantitative studies in finance. In addition, the qualitative approach adopted here permits an examination of many factors that relate to risk management practices, rather than just a limited number of financial ratios or factors that are typically used in studies of large datasets.

This paper aims to examine the interest rate risk management (IRRM) practices of UK‐listed companies. In particular, it examines the significance of interest rate risk (IRR) to these companies as well as the risk management practices adopted, including: the methods used to assess the level of IRR and the types of interest rate forecasts used in the process; derivatives activity; and corporate governance, reporting and control.

A series of semi‐structured interviews was conducted with the treasurers of ten UK companies in order to provide an in‐depth analysis of IRRM.

The results of this research suggest that IRR is important to UK companies and that their IRR hedging strategies are geared towards managing shareholder considerations and protecting banking covenants and corporate credit ratings. Moreover, companies rely extensively on financial derivatives to manage their IRR although their corporate governance practices relating to derivatives usage, in some instances, are lacking. Finally, there was a mixed response in relation to the implications of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39; while some companies fear that the new standard may curb managerial practices, others are in favour of the more stringent reporting requirements.

The research indicates that IRRM is important to UK companies, and especially so for firms that have loan covenants in place. Thus, the interest rate decisions of the Bank of England will have a major effect on UK industry. The study also suggests that the implementation of IAS 39 may have unanticipated consequences on the risk management behaviour of UK firms as the possible reduction in the use of options and exchange‐traded products may result in less efficient IRRM within companies. Finally, the research suggests that corporate governance practices relating to financial risk management need to be improved.

The use of an interview‐based approach facilitates an investigation of the IRRM practices of companies on an individual basis rather than the aggregated analysis offered by most studies in the area. In addition, the paper addresses the more qualitative aspects of IRRM, such as the form and significance of IRR, IRR policy and strategy, and the use of derivative instruments.

High profile disasters such as those experienced at Barings in 1995 and more recently at Enron and AIB Group, have resulted in increasing attention being focused on the internal control procedures of companies, in particular on the control mechanisms and processes in place in treasury departments. This paper uses interviews to investigate the internal control procedures at 11 treasury departments in the UK.