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This study examines the effects of firm size on financial reporting quality (FRQ) through the mediating effects of audit committee (AC) quality and internal audit function (IAF) quality.

Based on data from a questionnaire survey and archival sources of non-financial companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the authors perform both structural equational modeling and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to test the developed hypotheses.

Results show that the firm size is positively related to IAF quality. Firm size, AC quality and IAF quality are significantly associated with abnormal accruals (FRQ). Moreover, the authors find a mediation effect of the IAF quality on the relationship between firm size and FRQ, while no mediation effect is observed for AC quality. Thus, the study advocates companies focus on AC quality and IAF quality to enhance FRQ as it has a significant impact on corporate disclosure and investor decisions.

First, the study is restricted to the survey questions that cover particular areas of the AC and IAF. Second, the sample selection focuses on relatively big industries in terms of the number of firms and excludes small sectors.

The findings provide significant implications for professionals and policymakers in making regulatory reforms and revising existing policies to improve governance monitoring performance and FRQ.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the mediation effect of AC quality and IAF quality on firm size–FRQ nexus in a developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how farm management and farm accounting may be improved from the accountant’s perspective.

There has been a dearth of qualitative studies examining accountant’s attitudes to financial reports. This study therefore interviews 13 rural accountants regarding their opinions on the usefulness of financial information they provide to farmers, and what types of financial information could aid farm management.

Accountants generally agree that the present financial reports provided to farmers are of little decision-making value, since they are made for the purposes of compliance. In response, the accountants suggest a number of management accounting reports can better aid farmers.

Accountants are important to the success of farms, yet in-depth responses have not previously been sought on the reports that accountants produce for farmers. This research provides accountants’ opinions on how reports could be more useful for farmers and how more focused management accounting reports can assist decision-making.

The qualitative approach used in this research provides a fresh and richer perspective on the usefulness of accounting to farm management. Interviewing the adviser rather than the business owner is relatively uncommon in agricultural organisations. The interviews have allowed the thoughts and concerns of accountants to come to light in a manner not previously achieved in organisational studies which relate farming and accounting.

The alternative food markets are growing and despite the evidences of heterogeneity and of organic food consumers’ special features, little has been done to develop a scale to measure loyalty to this market. The purpose of this paper is to propose and validate a scale based on consumers’ loyalty literature and on the particular features of the organic market.

Data from 604 consumers were obtained through a web-based survey, which was used to analyze the structural equation in the AMOS software, in order to validate the proposed scale model.

A one-dimensional validated scale consisting of eight questions and showing high composite reliability level (0.95) was used to measure consumer loyalty to organic food. The herein used sample presented mean True Organic Loyal (4.36) and standard deviation (0.62); these values depict Brazilians high loyalty to this food type.

The research was conducted and validated in Brazil and it can be replicated within the country as well as be transculturally validated.

The main contribution of the current study is the development and validation of a scale named scale of consumer loyalty for organic food. The suggested interpretation ranges from non-loyal to true organic loyal consumers and it helps understanding organic food consumers’ behavior. This research took under consideration consumers of any sort of organic food as well as consumers of regular food markets (farmer’s markets, supermarkets, collective groups, shops and internet).

This study aims to explore the need for improved data sources and models for COVID-19 and climate-related risk scenario analysis in primary production. The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting global markets for agricultural produce, making short-term forecasting highly uncertain. Meanwhile climate-related risk continues for agricultural businesses. Farmers and their accountants need to plan and make estimates about the potential effect of COVID-19 and ongoing climate risks to their natural and financial capital and so they need accounting-integrated biophysical and socio-economic data streams.

This research note reviews the current state of scenario-based planning for COVID-19 and other risks for Australian businesses generally, in addition to planning for farming businesses more specifically. Discussion of the authors’ current research in integrating accounting and farming data for water-related risk caused by climate and other challenges is presented as an analogous case.

Review and analogous case comparison demonstrate the need for farm data to be integrated more efficiently and effectively with accounting data for accurate scenario planning for COVID-19 and other risks, including those posed by climate.

While not strangers to the need for scenario analysis, given exposure to ever-increasing natural resource and climate variability, this research note highlights how primary producers and their accountants require increased accounting-integrated farm data and systems to make judgements, assumptions and estimates about the potential effect of COVID-19 and ongoing climate risks to their business.

The sustainability of the agricultural sector is of great relevance to all of us and so the development of tools and resources that can assist food producers in times of ongoing climate pressures and new crises, such as COVID-19, is important. Better understanding of such risks can help farm businesses develop effective strategies which minimise the potential loss of agricultural value resulting in improved flows of greater capital value for society.

Through application to the analogous case of water-related risk and decision-making, the research note demonstrates that linking of biophysical and accounting data streams will be essential for evidence-backed numbers included in scenario plans with enough legitimacy to be interrogated inside and outside of the business. The “best estimate of the directors” is no longer enough in challenging socio-economic and biophysical times ahead for primary producers.

Agriculture is under pressure to produce more food under increasingly variable climate conditions. Consequently, producers need management innovations that lead to improved physical and financial productivity. Currently, farm accounting technologies lack the sophistication to allow producers to analyse productivity of water. Furthermore water-related agricultural technology (“agtech”) systems do not readily link to accounting innovations. This study aims to establish a conceptual and practical framework for linking temporal, biophysical and management decision-making to accounting by develop a soil moisture and climate monitoring tool.

The paper adopts an exploratory mixed-methods approach to understand supply of and demand for water accounting and water-related agtech; and bundling these innovations with farm accounting to generate a stable tool with the ability to improve agricultural practices over time. Three phases of data collection are the focus here: first, a desk-based review of water accounting and water technology – including benchmarking of key design characteristics of these methods and key actor interviews to verify and identify trends, allowing for conceptual model development; second, a producer survey to test demand for the “bundled” conceptual model; third and finally, a participant-based case study in potato-farming that links the data from direct monitoring and remote sensing to farm accounts.

Design characteristics of water accounting and agtech innovations are bundled into an overall irrigation decision-making conceptual model based on in-depth review of available innovations and verification by key actors. Producer surveys suggest enough demand to pursue practical bundling of these innovations undertaken by developing an integrated accounting, soil moisture and climate monitoring tool on-farm. Productivity trends over two seasons of case study data demonstrate the pivotal role of accounting in leading to better technical irrigation decisions and improving water productivity.

The model can assist practitioners to gauge strengths and weaknesses of contemporary water accounting fads and fashions and potential for innovation bundling for improved water productivity. The practical tool demonstrates how on-farm irrigation decision-making can be supported by linking farm accounting systems and smart technology

Empirical studies on occupational choice have typically concentrated on a specific sector. The purpose of this study is to compare two sectors wherein there are grounds to hypothesise that lifestyle reasons play a key role for occupational choice.

Arguing that the potential for qualitative web scraping is still underused, the hypothesis is tested through qualitative web scraping for occupational choices.

It is shown that incomes for farmers are both documented in a better way and higher than in arts. The central roles played by farmers in the provision of basic needs and in powerful value chains are possible reasons for this difference. As a common factor between the sectors, two-thirds of both farmers and artists choose their profession for reasons of self-realisation or societal motives.

This study is the first to show both common grounds and differences in occupational choices of two different sectors.

The purpose of this paper, building on previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) and business performance, is an exploratory study of how the use of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects the business performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey method is used to capture perceptions of how cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects business performance in SMEs. The study assumes that although accounting/finance systems are generally regarded as one element of a firm’s structural capital; the introduction of a cloud-based infrastructure in the accounting/finance area has the potential to positively impact on all three elements of a firm’s IC. Based on the survey data collected, a conceptual model was formulated to test the relationship between cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure and business performance through the prism of firms’ IC.

The results indicate that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital and relational capital. On structural capital, although positive, the relationship is not statistically significant. On the relationship between the three components of IC and business performance, all three elements are both positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the R2 value generated for the ultimate endogenous construct in the hypothesised conceptual model, i.e. “Business Performance” is 71.3 per cent, indicating significant model explanatory power.

The findings suggest further more in-depth research is needed to explore in detail the effects of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure on both the IC and subsequent business performance of SMEs.

Studies on the effects of cloud computing on accounting are scarce. This exploratory research suggests that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure can potentially improve the business performance of SMEs. While a valuable finding in itself, more research in this area is to be encouraged.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that mentoring has on Canadian early career teachers’ (ECTs’) well-being. The authors describe findings from a pan-Canadian Teacher Induction Survey (n=1,343) that examined perceptions and experiences of ECTs within K–12 publicly funded schools, with particular interest in retention, career interests and the impact of mentoring on well-being.

An online survey was used to examine perceptions and experiences of ECTs within publicly funded K–12 schools across Canada. For this paper, the authors selectively analyzed 35 survey questions that pertained to mentorship and well-being of ECTs, using quantitative and qualitative procedures.

The findings revealed a strong correlation between the mentoring experiences and well-being of the participating Canadian ECTs. The teachers who did not receive mentorship indicated significantly lower feelings of well-being, and conversely, teachers who participated in some kind of mentorship demonstrated much higher levels of well-being.

This paper draws on the selective analysis of the data from a larger study to elicit the connections between the mentoring support and perceived well-being. Due to inconsistencies in terminology and multifaceted offerings of induction and mentoring supports for ECTs across Canada, there might have been some ambiguity regarding the formal and informal mentorship supports. A longitudinal study that is designed to specifically examine the connection between the mentorship and well-being of ECTs could yield deeper understandings. A comparative study in different international contexts is commended.

The findings showed that the ECTs who did not receive any mentorship scored significantly lower feelings of well-being from external, structural, and internal well-being sources, and conversely, the ECTs who participated in some kind of mentorship scored much higher levels of feelings of well-being. Policy-makers should therefore continue to confidently include mentorship as an intentional strategy to support and help ECTs to flourish. However, inconsistent scoring between individuals and their levels of external, structural and internal well-being suggest that more research on the connection between mentoring and well-being of the ECTs.

Work-life imbalance seems to be more challenging for ECTs than policymakers who provide these expectations are aware. Therefore, excessive work demands and intensive workloads need to be given proper attention for their potential negative effects (such as stress, burnout and absence) on the beginning teachers’ health and well-being. Likewise, purposeful strength-based approaches should be undertaken to establish generative and pro-social efforts to enhance the connectedness, collaboration, collegiality and resilience-building opportunities for novice professionals within flourishing learning communities.

In this paper, the authors have undertaken the first steps in exploring the impact that mentoring has on Canadian ECTs’ well-being. The study increases the understanding of how mentoring can be used as a purposeful strategy to support the well-being of ECTs and retain them in the teaching profession in Canada and potentially in different international contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate vocational teaching behaviours in facilitating pedagogical practice concerning students' classroom engagement.

A mixed-method approach with quantitative classroom observations and qualitative field notes was conducted at two higher vocational institutions in Guangdong province, south of China. Sixty lesson observations were rated combining with supplementary field notes from 20 teacher participants analysed through a comparative coding process.

Means of dimensions of teaching behaviours and student engagement were calculated based on taking the averages of the means of items theoretically associated with each dimension. Through thematic analysis of observational notes, vocational instructions and students' engagement in vocational learning environment were more diversified in terms of vocational teaching practice, which manifested that vocational teaching behaviours focused more on adjusting students' practical learning.

The limitation is shown that the quantitative sample is small, yet affords greater depth of data for further discussion.

This study develops its setting and orientation by applying the classroom observation instrument into the Chinese high vocational context and offers more in-depth insights and exploration of the characteristics of teaching practice in vocational classrooms.

This study aims to report the design, development and evaluation of a digital quality assurance application aimed at improving and ensuring the quality of assessment programmes in higher education.

The application was developed using a design-based research (DBR) methodology. The application’s design was informed by a literature search and needs assessment of quality assurance stakeholders to ensure compliance with daily practices and accreditation requirements. Stakeholders from three study programmes evaluated the application.

As part of the development of the application, module- and programme-level dashboards were created to provide an overview of the programme’s outcomes, assessment methods, assessment metrics, self-evaluated quality indicators and assessment documents. The application was evaluated by stakeholders at the module and programme levels. Overall, the results indicated that the dashboards aided them in gaining insight into the assessment programme and its alignment with underlying assessments.

Visualisation of the assessment programme’s structure and content identifies gaps and opportunities for improvement, which can be used to initiate a dialogue and further actions to improve assessment quality.

The application developed facilitates a cyclical and transparent assessment quality assurance procedure that is continuously available to various stakeholders in quality assurance.