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The purpose of this study is to develop an integrative model of credit granting to small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) incorporating the loan officers’ perceptual factors about SMEs (risk and trust) and accounting information (quality and usefulness). Moreover, the role of auditing on credit granting has been studied.

The structural equation modelling (SEM) approach is used to test the joint effect of explanatory variables. Empirical evidence is obtained from a questionnaire administered to 471 bank loan officers in Spain. The questions are asked for both audited and not-audited firms.

The results obtained confirm that perceived risk and trust have a significant influence on the probability that SMEs can get access to credit and obtain better financing conditions. Additionally, this research supports the relevance of presenting high-quality accounting information, as it increases information usefulness for loan officers, which improves the perceived risk and trust on SMEs and leads to better credit granting. There are no significant differences on the model between the sub-groups of audited and not-audited SMEs, although the valuations are significantly better for the former.

This study shows the need to consider subjective variables to understand properly the cognitive process underlying credit-granting decisions.

This research has relevant implications for the management of relationships between SMEs and banks.

This study contributes to the previous literature by proposing an integrative model of the variables that affect loan officers’ lending decision to SMEs, considering the influence of perceptual variables such as risk and trust, as well as the evaluation of the information available.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence concerning the effective use of qualitative materiality factors (QMF) included in the new ISA 450, and its potential consequences from the perspective of Spanish independent auditors and preparers of financial statements.

A specially designed questionnaire was distributed to a sample of both (352) auditors and (121) preparers in Spain. Frequencies and ranking comparisons, Student's t‐tests, and Mann‐Whitney tests were used to analyse the data.

Results show that the majority of auditors and preparers that participated in the study agree on the issuance of qualified audit reports when the financial statements contain uncorrected misstatements that are below the materiality levels but are related to QMF included in ISA 450. Furthermore, both groups accept that this situation would have important positive effects on the development and results of current practice in auditing, on the quality of financial statements, and on both users and society.

First, as with all mail surveys, there are some limitations associated with individuals' responses. Second, the findings of this paper should be interpreted bearing in mind that the survey was conducted before the new ISA 450 was published in October 2008. Finally, this paper is limited to the Spanish context; thus, the findings may not be applicable elsewhere.

The findings of this paper have significant practical implications for auditors, as well as for policy makers, enabling them to better understand the importance of the qualitative side of materiality in auditing judgments.

From the perspective of both auditors and preparers, this paper provides evidence about the QMF included in the new ISA 450, effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after December 15, 2009.

Although scarce in the literature of entrepreneurship, the Aztec and Mayas (as well as the Incas), two of the most important civilizations in ancient Latin America, are considered by us as entrepreneurs. This is our departing point for understanding where entrepreneurship was born and built in Latin America. Unfortunately, its indigenous communities still are far behind in terms of labor, quality of life, poverty, and economic opportunities. From the ethnic entrepreneurship theory and after a deep literature review, a model is proposed for our region, a starting point to analyze and understand its processes in our region, thus making an impact on the development of public policies that can ultimately alleviate and improve the condition of this communities, and by going back to its roots, give a clearer picture of the reasons behind the present and future condition of entrepreneurship in Latin America.

The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative and qualitative synthesis of the diverse academic proposals and initiatives for preventing and eliminating hate speech on the internet.

The foundation for this study is a systematic review of papers devoted to the analysis of hate speech. It has been conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and applied to an initial corpus of 436 academic texts. Having implemented the suitability, screening and inclusion criteria, this corpus was refined to a sample of 74 articles.

The main subject categories studied in this corpus of academic research are legal issues and social media. In the majority of the articles, the use of hate speech via social media is associated with five typologies: religion, cyber racism, political slurs, misogyny and attacks on the LGTBI community. The absence of ethical reflection is one of the major shortcomings of IT-focused research and analysis devoted to online hate speech.

To date various systematic reviews have been presented, and they focus on detecting or describing hate speech. These have used either the search appraisal synthesis analysis framework or the Cochrane network. The PRISMA protocol was applied for this study, and both Scopus and texts in German were included. To date no major, rigorous systematic review has been undertaken of proposals to combat hate speech.

The link between hate speech and poverty has not been studied in depth within the academic sphere. Tolerance and ethical compassion are not granted the attention they merit when it comes to analysing the phenomenon of hate speech.