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1 – 10 of 119Feten Arfaoui, Ines Kammoun and Imen Ben Slimene
This research aims to explore the perceived usefulness of audited social information in making economic decisions, in the eyes of both Tunisian financial analysts and bankers.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to explore the perceived usefulness of audited social information in making economic decisions, in the eyes of both Tunisian financial analysts and bankers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct an exploratory qualitative study using twelve semi-structured interviews: seven are carried out with financial analysts, and five are performed among bankers.
Findings
This study’s results reveal that financial analysts and bankers paid little attention to the audited social information in making investment/credit granting decisions. The authors also show that the low perceived usefulness of social audit is due to many reasons related to political, economic, regulatory, educational, cultural and cognitive factors.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, it enriches the knowledge about the perceived usefulness of social audit. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the perception of financial analysts and bankers to audited social information and its usefulness for decision-making. Second, the focus on the Tunisian context is interesting as it was marked, since the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution, by the uncertainty and the instability of political, economic and social conditions. Third, this research goes further by exploring the most important factors affecting the perceiveness of social auditing.
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Fatemeh Saeedi, Mahdi Salehi and Nour Mahmoud Yaghoubi
Financial reports are the basis of economic decisions that affect organizational interests and shareholders. However, there is a severe research gap concerning the factors…
Abstract
Purpose
Financial reports are the basis of economic decisions that affect organizational interests and shareholders. However, there is a severe research gap concerning the factors affecting the quality of financial information (such as audit report readability and tone). Therefore, considering the importance of presenting high-quality financial information, this study aims to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) and its components on the audit report's readability and tone.
Design/methodology/approach
The multivariate regression model tests research hypotheses. Then, hypotheses are tested via a sample of 824 observations of the listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange (103 companies) from 2014 to 2021, using the multivariate regression model based on pooled data and fixed effects.
Findings
Results determine that customer capital (CC) and structural capital (SC) are likely to influence the audit report tone positively. In general, the IC and human capital (HC) negatively impact auditors' tone. More analyses also document that IC and its CC, HC and SC components positively and significantly affect audit report readability based on two readability indices, including FOG and text length. Finally, findings pertaining to the third readability index (Flesch index) reveal that only HC and SC are robust based on this measurement, whereas the IC and CC have a negative and significant impact on the readability of auditors’ reports.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to address this issue in emerging markets, and it provides helpful insights for users, analysts and legal institutions regarding IC, which significantly affects audit report readability and tone.
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Md. Mamunur Rashid, Dewan Mahboob Hossain and Md. Saiful Alam
This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational external environmental factors on strategic management accounting (SMA) usage in an emerging economy.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational external environmental factors on strategic management accounting (SMA) usage in an emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected data from 79 public limited companies listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (Bangladesh) through a questionnaire survey. Multiple regression analysis is employed to test the impact of external environmental variables such as perceived environmental uncertainty and intensity of competition on SMA usage.
Findings
The study finds a significant positive impact of environmental uncertainty (fluctuation in the external environmental factors) and intensity of competition (domination by few companies) on SMA usage. However, the direction and magnitude of this impact vary considerably for specific groups of SMA practices such as costing, competitor accounting, customer accounting and planning and performance measurement techniques.
Originality/value
This study shows the impact of several facets of environmental uncertainty (i.e. unpredictability, fluctuation, ambiguity, lack of information and uncertainty of the outcome of decision) and intensity of competition (i.e. stressfulness and domination) in the empirical-based SMA research.
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Rafael Borim-de-Souza, Yasmin Shawani Fernandes, Pablo Henrique Paschoal Capucho, Bárbara Galleli and João Gabriel Dias dos Santos
This paper aims to analyze what Samarco and Brazilian magazines speak and say about Mariana’s environmental crime. Discover their doxa in this subject. Interpret the speakings…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze what Samarco and Brazilian magazines speak and say about Mariana’s environmental crime. Discover their doxa in this subject. Interpret the speakings, sayings and doxas through the theories of the treadmills of production, crime and law.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a qualitative and documental research and a narrative analysis. Regarding the documents: 45 were from public authorities, 14 from Samarco Mineração S.A. and 73 from Brazilian magazines. Theoretically, the authors resorted to Bourdieusian sociology (speaking, saying and doxa) and the treadmills of production, crime and law theories.
Findings
Samarco: speaking – mission statements; saying – detailed information and economic and financial concerns; doxa – assistance discourse. Brazilian magazines: speaking – external agents; saying – agreements; doxa – attribution, aggravations, historical facts, impacts and protests.
Research limitations/implications
The absence of discussions that addressed this fatality, with its respective consequences, from an agenda that exposed and denounced how it exacerbated race, class and gender inequalities.
Practical implications
Regarding Mariana’s environmental crime: Samarco Mineração S.A. speaks and says through the treadmill of production theory and supports its doxa through the treadmill of crime theory, and Brazilian magazines speak and say through the treadmill of law theory and support their doxa through the treadmill of crime theory.
Social implications
To provoke reflections on the relationship between the mining companies and the communities where they settle to develop their productive activities.
Originality/value
Concerning environmental crime in perspective, submit it to a theoretical interpretation based on sociological references, approach it in a debate linked to environmental criminology, and describe it through narratives exposed by the guilty company and by Brazilian magazines with high circulation.
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Daniel Kipkirong Tarus and Fiona Jepkosgei Korir
This paper examines how board structure influences real earnings management and the interaction effect of CEO narcissism on board structure-real earnings management relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how board structure influences real earnings management and the interaction effect of CEO narcissism on board structure-real earnings management relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used panel data derived from secondary sources from publicly listed firms in Kenya during 2002–2017. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that board independence, board tenure and size have significant negative effect on real earnings management, while CEO duality positively affects real earnings management. Further, the interaction results show that CEO narcissism moderates the relationship between CEO duality and real earnings management.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that real earnings management reduces when boards are independent, large and comprising of long-tenured members. However, when the CEO plays dual role of a chairman, real earnings management increases. The authors also find that when CEOs are narcissists, the monitoring role of the board is compromised.
Originality/value
The study adds value to the understanding of how board structure and CEO narcissism influence the monitoring role of the board among firms listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange.
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Jane Andrew and Max Baker
This study explores a hegemonic alliance and the role of relational forms of accounting and accountablity in the making of contemporary capitalism.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores a hegemonic alliance and the role of relational forms of accounting and accountablity in the making of contemporary capitalism.
Design/methodology/approach
We use the WikiLeaks “Cablegate” documents to provide an account of the detailed machinations between interest groups (corporations and the state) that are constitutive of hegemonic activity.
Findings
Our analysis of the “Cablegate” documents shows that the US and Chevron were crafting a central role for Turkmenistan and its president on the global political stage as early as 2007, despite offical reporting beginning only in 2009. The documents exemplify how “accountability gaps” occlude the understanding of interdependence between capital and the state.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to a growing idea that official accounts offer a fictionalized narrative of corporations as existing independently, and thus expands the boundaries associated with studying multinational corporate activities to include their interdependencies with the modern state.
Social implications
The study traces how global capitalism extends into new territories through diplomatic channels, as a strategic initiative between powerful state and capital interests, arguing that the outcome is the empowerment of authoritarian states at the cost of democracy.
Originality/value
The study argues that previous accounting and accountability research has overlooked the larger picture of how capital and the state work together to secure a mutual hegemonic interest. We advocate for a more complete account of these activities that circumvents official, often restricted, views of global capitalism.
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The purpose of this study is to analyse historical events to argue the improbable prospect of radical accounting reform in corporate financial reporting (CFR) due to the absence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyse historical events to argue the improbable prospect of radical accounting reform in corporate financial reporting (CFR) due to the absence of abstract accounting knowledge as part of accountancy professionalisation (AP).
Design/methodology/approach
A historical database of CFR and AP events in the UK is categorised and analysed to observe the evolution of accounting in CFR from the perspective of the sociology of professions relating to abstract knowledge in professionalisation.
Findings
CFR has always been a statutory function in the UK dependent on arbitrary accounting rules rather than expert measurements based on abstract accounting knowledge. Accounting rules have evolved as part of AP and currently form part of the statutory regulation of CFR. The accountancy profession has eschewed abstract accounting knowledge in a mutually beneficial and uncompetitive relationship with the law profession in CFR.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to the history of CFR and AP in the UK and its findings are contrary to the sociology of professions regarding abstract knowledge, consistent with the accountancy profession’s 19th-century experience of court-related services, and indicative of normative accounting research’s redundancy.
Practical implications
Regarding CFR and AP in the UK, the accountancy profession is an expert subordinate branch of the law profession and has no incentive to alter the status quo of statutory accounting rule compliance prevailing over abstract accounting knowledge-based expertise in CFR.
Originality/value
The study questions the optimism of prior research of accounting in CFR that suggests the possibility of radical reform using abstract knowledge.
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Md. Abdur Rouf and Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan
This study examines, in relation to agency theory, the influence of corporate mechanism on the environmental reporting of banking businesses registered on the Dhaka Stock Exchange…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines, in relation to agency theory, the influence of corporate mechanism on the environmental reporting of banking businesses registered on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
Design/methodology/approach
This study was carried out consuming an example of 150 annual reports from 30 banks for the period 2015–2019. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to investigate the inspiration of corporate governance on the range of inclusive environmental reporting.
Findings
The outcomes reveal that insider equity, board leadership structure, and presence of female directors are statistically significant, while board size and outside directors are insignificant. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the adoption of environmental disclosure among banking businesses in Bangladesh is extra motivated by an increase in the inside skills and moderately the outside acceptability weights. Additionally, there appears to be a supposed lack of stakeholder pressure for environmental disclosure.
Originality/value
The results show that the range of environmental reporting of banking businesses in Bangladesh is good, at an average of 53.90%. It concludes that corporate governance has a substantial inspiration on the range of environmental reporting of banking businesses in Bangladesh.
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Rihab Grassa, Hichem Khlif and Imen Khelil
This paper aims to examine the development of Islamic accounting education and discuss the main challenges facing this specific type of accounting education in the United Arab…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the development of Islamic accounting education and discuss the main challenges facing this specific type of accounting education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses institutional theory to analyze the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. The collection of information in this study is based on secondary data available from published sources and websites.
Findings
This study identifies three types of institutional pressures. First, coercive pressures that were directed by the government, the UAE's Central Bank and other professional bodies [e.g. Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI)] involved in the Islamic banking industry have contributed to the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, mimetic pressures exerted by other countries that have already established Islamic accounting training and programs (e.g. Indonesia, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) have incentivized the UAE business schools to implement Islamic accounting training and programs to meet Emirati Islamic banking industry expectations. Third, normative pressures are exerted by Big 4 auditors who have an active position as faculty members, influencing status in AAOIFI and a dominant position in the Islamic banking industry’s audit market. The paper also discusses the main challenges facing Islamic accounting education in this country.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to accounting literature in general and accounting education literature in particular in the following two ways. First, this study applies an institutional analysis to Islamic accounting education in the UAE to gain more understanding about the current status of the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, by identifying the factors that may constrain the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE, this study provides recommendations to financial and higher education authorities to undertake proactive actions to position the UAE as a leading center in Islamic accounting education and training.
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This study aims to investigate how the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese outward foreign direct investments (FDI) impact the Belt and Road countries (BRCs). It…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese outward foreign direct investments (FDI) impact the Belt and Road countries (BRCs). It draws on postcolonial theory to investigate the (geo)political objectives behind the financial and economic means.
Design/methodology/approach
In line with the nature of postcolonial studies, the study applies a discourse analysis integrating it with empirical data on indebtedness and trade.
Findings
This study finds that FDI and the BRI, as a development project, need to be considered a double-edged sword for the receiving countries. The authors provide evidence that China has instrumentalized financial and economic means to gain political influence and pursue geopolitical ambitions. Moreover, investments into sensitive sectors (e.g. energy, infrastructure), combined with the BRCs’ inability to pay back loans, could eventually lead to China gaining control of these assets.
Research limitations/implications
The study investigates the financial and economic means that are instrumentalized to gain political influence while not considering flows of technology and know-how. It also limits itself to the study of FDI coming from one specific country, i.e. China. Therefore, no comparison and evaluation are made of FDI from other countries, such as the USA or European countries.
Practical implications
By revealing noncommercial objectives and geopolitical ambitions that China pursues through the BRI, the authors derive policy implications for the BRCs, third countries and China.
Originality/value
The study contributes to postcolonial theory and neocolonialism by investigating how China uses financial and economic means to achieve noncommercial objectives and pursue geopolitical ambitions. Additionally, the authors enhance the understanding of FDI by highlighting more subtle aspects of the complex and contextual nature of FDI as a social phenomenon, which have been overlooked thus far. The authors challenge the predominant positive framing of FDI and provide a counterpoint to the way FDI is often coined.
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