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This paper aims to attempt to empirically investigate the impact of privatization on the performance of central public sector enterprises in India. Further attempt is made to explore whether privatization is a necessary or sufficient condition for improvement of performance of central public sector enterprises.

The scope of the study is limited to financial and operating performance analysis of 206 central public sector enterprises in India. Multiple regression analysis has been used to determine the magnitude and direction of relationship between dependent and independent variables and identify variables other than privatization which affects performance.

The study found that financial and operational performance of firms has improved significantly due to privatization. Further, firm-specific factors and other parallel reforms adopted by enterprises have significantly influenced their performance. The established regression model is highly significant with F-ratio of 31.825 at 99% significance level. The degree of explanation of the model is robust with adjusted R² at 0.956 implying that only 4.40% of explanation in the dependent variable cannot be explained by designated independent/explanatory variables.

The study would be useful to public policymakers to reach to a policy view on whether further disinvestment/privatization of central public sector enterprises need to be continued, and if so, then to what extent and direction.

The purpose of this paper is to review several influential empirical studies that examine the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The paper undertakes a citation analysis of journals, authors and titles in the area of privatization and firm performance in general, and assesses the impact of privatization on the performance of SOEs in particular.

The methodology is based on a systematic and structured review of over 100 papers published in economics, public management, business strategy and related social sciences. The systematic review is based on citation analysis of journals, authors and titles. The journal and author citation counts were tabulated by leveraging the databases of SCImago Journal Rankings and Google Scholar and filtered it to find out the most highly cited journals and authors. The structured review is based on the framing opinion with respect to major findings, variables selected, measurement techniques and statistical tools applied by different researchers. The impact is measured through coding a value “P” in case of positive effects, “N” in case of negative effects and “NT” in case the study found both positive and negative effects.

The citation analysis reveals that American Economic Review, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies and Journal of Finance as the top-cited journals, and Megginson and Netter (3,468), Megginson et al. (1,737), Djankov and Murrell (1,356), Boardman and Vining (1,320), Balsam et al. (1,094) and DeWenter and Malatesta (1,018) as the top-cited authors in this particular research field. While majority research studies have revealed a significant improvement in the performance of SOEs in the post-privatization period, few studies have reserved their impact as neutral or even negative in some respects.

Given that economic transitions, corporate governance, and performance of SOEs have attracted a great attention from public management and business strategy scholars in recent years, this paper aims to summarize a large number of empirical studies that examine the performance of SOEs. The paper would be useful to future researchers especially the beginners and early career researchers in terms of its current trends, selection of variables, measurement techniques and statistical tools applied.

Earnings management are euphemisms referring to accounting practices that may follow the letter of the rules of standard accounting practices, but certainly deviate from the spirit of those rules. Companies across the world follow earning management practices in a way so as to show a favourable position to their stakeholders. Satyam scam in India was a similar type of case. The present study has been carried out with the aim of examining the perception of auditors on earnings management in Indian perspective.

A questionnaire was administered on 65 auditors and was analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis methods.

The analysis shows that most of the firms indulge into such practices even in the presence of regulatory framework available to keep a check on these practices. The management tries to interpret and modify the law provisions as per their will and do manipulations in the financial results.

The research findings would guide regulators and management to curb such malpractices. The auditors, top management and government have to become more aware, socially responsible, have ethical behaviour, become more transparent to protect the interests of stakeholders associated with the organizations.

The paper provides an insight into auditor's perception on earnings management during a time when financial scams like Satyam in India have taken place and auditor's integrity is questioned.

Web‐based corporate reporting has emerged as a new mode of communication between companies and stakeholders. The purpose of this research is to assess the perception of various stakeholders on adequacy, usefulness and the future of web‐based corporate reporting.

A questionnaire was administered to 255 respondents and factor analysis was applied to analyse the data.

Factor analysis identified eight factors, which describe stakeholders’ perceptions about web‐based corporate reporting. These include usefulness of web reporting, future prospects, legal acceptability, adequacy of information, usefulness for investment decision, standardisation of content, mandatory requirement and substitute for traditional reporting.

The research findings will guide companies, regulators and service providers to deliver better information to stakeholders through disclosures on corporate websites.

The paper provides an insight into stakeholders’ beliefs and perceptions with respect to web reporting practices by companies and the future of these practices.