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The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of a struggle for power over the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) within the European Union.

The paper combines insights from institutional theory (Lawrence and Buchanan, 2017) with Vaara et al.’s (2006) and Vaara and Tienar’s (2008) discursive strategies approach in order to interrogate the dynamics of the institutional “arena” that emerged in 2001, following the European Commission’s publication of a Green Paper (GP) on CSR policy and reporting. Drawing on multiple sources of data (including newspaper coverage, semi-structured interviews and written submissions by companies and NGOs), the authors analyse the institutional political strategies employed by companies and NGOs – two of the key stakeholder groupings who sought to influence the dynamics and outcome of the European initiative.

The results show that the 2001 GP was a “triggering event” (Hoffman, 1999) that led to the formation of the institutional arena that centred on whether CSR policy and reporting should be voluntary or mandatory. The findings highlight how two separate, but related forms of power (systemic and episodic power) were exercised much more effectively by companies compared to NGOs. The analysis of the power initiatives and discursive strategies deployed in the arena provides a theoretically informed understanding of the ways in which companies acted in concert to reach their objective of maintaining CSR and SEAR as a voluntary activity.

The theoretical framework outlined in the paper highlights how the analysis of CSR and SEAR regulation can be enriched by examining the deployment of episodic and systemic power by relevant actors.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of segmental reporting disclosure and its value relevance to a sample of Qatari and Jordanian listed companies following the implementation review of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 8. This was the first standard to be subjected to a post-implementation review. Annual reports are initially analyzed to investigate the level of segmental information that was published by companies in these two countries.

Using the Ohlson (1995) model, the study employs regression analysis to test the hypotheses relating to the value relevance of the segmental disclosures uncovered. In addition, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests are used to investigate any variation in segmental reporting among sectors.

The findings indicate that the amount of segmental information disclosed by the sample firms differs across sectors. Moreover, the segmental information provided (including the number of segments and the amounts of disclosure) is value relevant and can explain the variations in firms’ share prices.

The results of the current investigation have implications for policy makers, including the International Accounting Standards Board, as well as for accounting regulators in Jordan and Qatar. They suggest that the segmental disclosures supplied under IFRS 8 are value relevant for equity prices in a developing country context. Compliance with IFRS 8 should thus be monitored to ensure that all firms provide the segmental disclosures that they are meant to supply under the terms of the standard.

This paper is one of the few to provide empirical evidence on the role of segmental reporting following the post-implementation review that was conducted for IFRS 8.

There has been an ongoing call from various groups of stakeholders for social and environmental practices to be integrated into companies’ operations. A number of companies have responded by engaging in socially and environmentally responsible activities, while others choose not to participate in these activities, which incur additional costs. The absence of consensus regarding the economic implications of social and environmental practices provides the impetus for this paper. This study aims to examine the association between corporate social and environmental practices (CSEP) and the cost of equity capital measured by four ex ante measures using a sample of UK listed companies.

First, we undertake a review of the extant literature on CSEP. Second, using a sample of 236 companies surveyed in “Britain’s most admired companies” in terms of “community and environmental responsibility” during the period 2010-2014, we estimate four implied a cost of equity capital proxies. The relationship between a companies’ cost of equity capital and its CSEP is then calculated.

The authors find evidence that companies with higher levels of CSEP have a lower cost of equity capital. This finding determines the significant role played by CSEP in helping users to make useful decisions. Also, it supports arguments that firms with socially responsible practices have lower risk and higher valuation.

The finding encourages companies to be more socially and environmentally responsible. Furthermore, it provides up-to-date evidence of the economic consequences of CSEP. The results should, therefore, be of interest to managers, regulators and standard-setters charged with developing regulations to control CSEP, as these practices are still undertaken on a voluntary basis by companies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between CSEP of British companies and their cost of equity capital. The study complements Ghoul et al. (2011), who examine the relationship between CSR and the cost of equity capital of the US sample. The authors extend Ghoul et al. (2011) by using a sample of the UK market after applying International Financial Reporting Standards.

This paper aims to examine how capital investment projects are appraised in Lebanon; whether the risk is incorporated into this process by Lebanese firms and the impact of political risk on the capital budgeting process.

This paper uses a questionnaire survey to investigate the capital budgeting practices of companies located in Lebanon, which is a country characterised by a high level of political risk.

Lebanese companies tend to use more than one method of investment appraisal and, increasingly, they are using sophisticated discounted cashflow techniques alongside the payback period. The most widely used methods to evaluate risk include scenario and sensitivity analysis. Finally, political risk plays an important role in the capital budgeting processes of Lebanese companies.

The paper reports on whether the methods of capital investment appraisal used throughout advanced Western economies are used in the context of an emerging economy. In addition, Lebanon is an ideal research site to study capital budgeting as the conflicts in the country of the past 50 years have required sizeable new expenditure on capital projects; the country is characterised by high levels of political risk which may lead corporate managers to use different approaches to investment appraisal and it provides an opportunity to study capital budgeting decisions by private, unlisted firms.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate Financial Instruments (FIs) disclosures provided by Jordanian listed companies under International Financial Reporting Standard No. 7 (IFRS 7) as compared to those supplied under International Accounting Standards (IAS) 30/32.

A sample of 82 Jordanian listed companies is used in this monograph. A disclosure index checklist was constructed to measure FI information provided by the sample companies.

The study finds that a larger number of Jordanian listed companies provided a greater level of FI-related information after IFRS 7 was implemented. Specifically, the sample firms provided 47 per cent of the disclosure index items after implementing IFRS 7 as compared to 30 per cent under IAS 30/32. In addition, the industrial analysis of FI disclosure revealed that the highest level of disclosure was provided by firms in the banking sector over the two periods; these companies disclosed 44 per cent of FI-related items pre-IFRS 7 and 69 per cent of items post-IFRS 7. Moreover, the industrial analysis of FI disclosure pre-and post-implementation of IFRS 7 revealed specific aspects of usefulness. In particular, some components of FI disclosure (Balance Sheet and Fair Value) showed no significant differences within and across sectors post the implementation of IFRS 7, suggesting that the new standard may have enhanced the comparability of such information.

The results provide timely findings to Jordanian authorities who may be trying to evaluate the current reforms adopted; stringent enforcement mechanisms are needed to ensure full compliance with accounting standards. However, the present investigation was conducted on a single nation (Jordan); the circumstances in Jordan gave rise to the importance of the current study. A cross-country comparative analysis is needed in order to examine the application of IFRS 7 in a developing country context.

The results of the current study have a number of implications for policymakers. First, they provide a great deal of insight for the International Accounting Standards Board about the relevance of its standards to countries outside the Western context. In addition, the findings provide valuable insights for policymakers in Jordan who are concerned about the implications of mandatory disclosures.

The analysis of FI disclosure in developing countries in general, and in Jordan in particular has been overlooked by the extant literature and therefore this study is the first of its kind to examine this research issue for a sample of Jordanian firms.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate volatility in African stock markets (ASMs), taking account of periodic level shifts in the mean level of volatility, where the regime shifts are determined endogenously.

Volatility estimates are incorporated into standard volatility models to assess the impact of structural breaks on volatility persistence, long memory and forecasting performance for ASMs.

The results presented here indeed suggest that persistence and long memory in volatility are overestimated when regime shifts are not accounted for. In particular, application of breakpoint tests and a moving average procedure suggest that unconditional volatility displays substantial time variation.

A modification of the standard generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model to allow for time variation in the unconditional variance generates improved volatility forecasting performance for some African markets.

This paper describes one of the first studies to incorporate endogenously determined regime shifts into volatility estimates and assess the impact of structural breaks on volatility persistence, long memory and forecasting performance for ASMs.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden understanding as to how certain social/personal dynamics influence credit decisions in Sri Lanka, elucidating them through a taxonomy and a conceptual typological matrix.

This research is an exploratory case study. The primary data collection methods are interviews and reconstruction of experiences. The data are complemented by documentary analysis and post-research events.

The research findings propose that credit officers and customers are influenced by six dynamics under three dimensions: the evaluation procedures (systematic/formal or heuristics); the relationship between customers and bank officers (personal or role relationship); and justification of credit (rational or irrational/situational). Based on the above results, a taxonomy of influential tactics and personality traits and a typological matrix are developed to classify credit decision-makers, who are labelled as BOSS, ROBOT, REBEL and BUDDY.

These case studies are from a private bank in Sri Lanka, hence it could affect the generalization of findings. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to investigate the plausibility of the findings in diverse cultural backgrounds.

Credit decision-makers and credit applicants could make use of these typological matrix and the taxonomy to understand each other and employ more influential approaches and appropriate influential techniques to make effective credit decisions. It also provides more insight into understanding the nature of credit-decisions and decision-makers and, provokes further research.

To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first study in Sri Lanka that considers certain influencing factors of credit decision-making and proposes a conceptual typology to understand those factors.

The purpose of this study is to understand mediation in divorce cases where intimate partner violence (IPV) is a concern. These cases may involve managing power imbalances, coercive control or risk for continued violence.

In this paper, the authors use feminist and sociological theoretical approaches and grounded theory to analyze triangulated ethnographic data to explore how mediators construct and manage the issue of IPV in mediation.

The results indicate that mediators often share a common discourse about IPV that asserts that mediators are professionals with the skills to both identify IPV and to appropriately conduct mediations where IPV is present. However, to achieve successful mediations mediators sometimes choose to discount the seriousness of IPV in assessments. They also use a set of fluid strategies to handle potential power imbalances that allow them to represent themselves as unbiased, even while those strategies risk the equity of the mediation.

The authors share several strategies that could enhance the social justice of the process for all parties, including uniformity in assessing whether IPV is a concern and oversight of mediators’ practices and training.

The results indicate mediators often share a common discourse about IPV that asserts mediators are professionals with the skills to identify IPV and to appropriately conduct mediations where IPV is present. To reach settlement mediators use a set of fluid mediation and accommodation strategies to handle potential power imbalances due to IPV that allow them to represent themselves as impartial, even while those strategies may risk equity in the mediation.

The unique data provide a behind-the-scenes look at mediation generated from participant observation of mediation training and actual mediations, along with interviews with 30 practicing mediators.