Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between accounting conservatism, corporate governance and political connection in listed firms in Malaysia where political influence plays a significant role in the capital market and in many business dealings.

By utilizing 824 firm-year observations comprising large listed companies over a period of four years from 2004, this study uses ordinary least squares regression models to investigate the relationship between accounting conservatism, corporate governance and political connections in Malaysia. Multiple measures of conservatism developed by Basu (1997) and Khan and Watts (2009) are employed.

The results show evidence of accounting conservatism (bad news being recognized earlier than good news) in Malaysia. Further, the results reveal that better corporate governance structure in terms of board independence is positively associated with accounting conservatism while management ownership is negatively associated with it. However, political connection has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between accounting conservatism and board independence. The results also suggest political connections have a positive association with firm’s future performance.

This study is the first in investigating the effect of political connections on accounting conservatism in Malaysian context and how political connections negatively affect the monitoring role of the corporate boards. By directly measuring political connection and controlling for various corporate governance mechanisms and firm-specific attributes, this study contributes to enhance the authors’ understanding of the political influence in financial reporting quality and firm performance in an emerging market setting.

This paper aims to examine the association between busy directors on corporate boards and accounting conservatism.

The authors use a sample of 500 firms listed on the Australian Security Exchange from 2004 to 2019. The busyness of non-executive directors is proxied by three indicators. For accounting conservatism, the authors use both conditional and unconditional accounting conservatism via asymmetric timeliness of earnings, accrual-based loss recognition, cumulative total accruals and book-to-market ratio. The authors cluster the standard errors at the firm level to compensate for potential residuals’ dependency and heteroscedasticity, in addition to analysing the main models using year and industry fixed effects (Petersen, 2009). Separately, the authors look at the impact of female busy directors on firms’ adoption of conservative accounting methods. Both propensity score matching analyses and Heckman (1979) two-stage approach systematically address endogeneity issues.

The presence of busy directors on boards leads to greater unconditional conservatism and less conditional conservatism. The relationships between busy female directors with both conditional and unconditional conservatism remain consistent with the main findings.

This paper provides useful insights for shareholders, regulators and accounting standards setters to better evaluate busy directors’ effectiveness in monitoring firms’ financial reporting quality. Directors and the companies themselves can refer to the authors’ findings to decide the best structure for their boards and committees, considering their specific monitoring requirements. Given that no mandatory restriction has been legislated, improved policies or new ones will ensure that busy directors can effectively fulfil their duties.

This research contributes to the broader research theme by examining the influence of directors’ quality on financial reporting conservatism. It also contributes to the ongoing debate in the corporate finance literature regarding the experience and busyness hypotheses of directors with multiple directorships. Additionally, this research adds value to gender diversity research by finding evidence that female busy directors follow the same pattern of reporting conservatism as male busy directors.

The purpose of this study is to successfully implement microwave irradiation for the rapid synthesis of novel fluorescent dyes. The prepared dyes are then applied for printing of polyester and polyamide by silk screen printing process.

A series of new N′-(methylene)-2-imino-2H-chromene-3-carbohydrazide derivatives 3a–r were synthesised in excellent yield and high atom economy by the Knoevenagel condensation of salicylaldehyde derivatives 1 and cyano-N′-methyleneaceto-hydrazide derivatives 2 in the presence of piperidine catalyst. The optical properties of the synthesised compounds were recorded; all of the compounds were found to be fluorescent in 1, 4-dioxane solution; they all emitted blue light (440-460 nm). This work shows that the optical properties strongly depend on the nature of the substituent, and indicate which type of substituent is favourable for a given application. It confirms that iminocoumarin derivatives could lead to a new generation of fluorescent probes, prone to easy modification of their chemical structure. These synthesised dyes are used to print polyester and polyamide fabrics using synthetic thickener in the printing paste for silk screen technique.

The structures of synthesised dyes were established and confirmed for the reaction products on the basis of their elemental analysis and spectral data (MS, IR and 1H-NMR). The suitability of the prepared dyestuffs for traditional printing on polyester and polyamide fabrics has been investigated. The prints obtained using the synthesised dyes were found to possess high colour strength and excellent overall fastness properties but relatively low light fastness.

The synthesised fluorescent dyes were prepared by a simple reaction process in microwave. The optical properties for obtained dyes show include the fact that it will have various important applications. In addition, they were used for printing synthetic fabrics and were found to have good results.

The new fluorescent dyes’ system has excellent printing properties. Also they are superior in terms of yield, purity, colour strength and fastness properties which may lend them valuable commercial production.

The result of this work aimed to define the scope and limitation of the procedures for the synthesis of novel iminocoumarin dyes via a simple and economic way.

This study aims to represent a successful simple method for the synthesis of some novel dyes based on thiazole derivatives and their applications in textile printing.

2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-ylmethyl)thiazol-4(5H)-one compound is prepared by convention heating and microwave technique then used as a coupling agent, which reacts with different diazonium Salt to form diazo dyes.

The synthesized diazo dyes are confirmed via spectral data (IR,1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and Mass spectra). The dyes are used to print polyester fabric. The obtained results clarified that the prints have good color strength, brilliant color and highly durable antibacterial activity.

The authors designed efficient synthesis for some novel thiazolone dyes. The novel procedure features short-reaction time, very good yields and a simple workup. The authors studied the antibacterial activity and their application in printing polyester fabrics.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value of interdisciplinary learning specifically in the architecture (ARCH), building construction (BC) and construction management and engineering (CEM) disciplines within the USA’s higher education system. The study attempts to expand the existing literature on integrated design and construction education and offer an alternative model for academic students’ collaboration when restructuring curriculums is not possible in the short term.

The study adopted a qualitative research methodology, which involved designing a structured learning experiment, then followed it with collecting the “lived experience” of 31 participants from three majors according to the institution’s institution review board (IRB) office’s guidelines. The author hypothesized that students from different, but related disciplines working on a real-life project, would better understand the value of each other’s knowledge brought to the teamwork before graduation. The data were analyzed and compared to existing literature on integrated project delivery, and collaborative learning models. Data collection (surveys) was approved by the higher education’s IRB No. 13-021.

Despite the already-existing curriculum obstacles, the majority of students were very pleased with this collaborative experiment. The results confirmed many of the expectations about how students viewed each other’s discipline. The preconceived notions were dissipated at the end of the study, and students expressed more appreciation for each other’s field and expressed interest in learning more about the thought processes of other disciplines.

Typical conflicting academic schedules were the greatest obstacle in this experiment. Architecture students often devote majority of their time to design studios and therefore are unable to fully engage in an integrated capstone project like this one as extracurricular. Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

It is possible to develop a successful collaborative experience in the architecture, engineering and construction higher education system without major restructuring of the curriculums. The impact on students’ learning experience is greater than the existing separated education model.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how integrated design and construction education occurs without creating new dedicated programs or coursework.

Target markets of new product brands (niche customers) differ from those of existing product brands (mainstream customers) using conventional new product brand development strategy. The purpose of this paper is to contend that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and substantiates that contention through an investigation of consumer behavior outcomes resulting from the development of new product brands that target both mainstream and niche consumers through product brand crossover, an alternative product brand development strategy that leverages on cultural pluralism.

A between-subjects experiment was conducted to test whether consumers differ in their behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands developed through product brand crossover. The experiments include marketing situations of matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images.

The results show that consumers – in general and in segmented groups – do not differ in behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands as a result of product brand crossover. Matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images do not produce significant effects on behavioral intentions.

This paper offers fresh evidence showing that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and introduces a new concept in the form of product brand crossover that acknowledges and leverages on cultural pluralism as an alternative approach for new product brand development.

This study aims to examine the impact of board female participation on Australian firms’ innovation.

Data are from the 500 largest Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed companies for 2004–2015. Measures of innovation concern input (research and development expenditure and intangible assets) and output (patents registered) indicators.

A positive and significant association exists between female director participation and firm innovation activity. This association exists across industry classifications independent of technological importance and is particularly driven by materials and health-care sectors. Findings support calls for more board diversity in line with board female membership positively influencing innovative investment and development activities.

The economic efficacy of the latest revisions to the ASX Corporate Governance Council principles and recommendations (“ASX CGC revisions”) is supported. Diverse boards are a strong source of innovation. Regulators and corporations can use the findings to establish principles and practices that promote female board diversity.

This study is the first to examine the link between board diversity and corporate innovation in Australia where there is under-representation of women on corporate boards and in key management positions. Also lacking are formal legislative or governance policy mandates on board gender diversity. Beyond confirming a positive association between board diversity and levels of corporate innovation, this paper provides new findings that this relationship is driven by women who are non-executive (independent) directors, independent of the underlying technology intensity of firms and moderated by the nature of firm-level profitability and growth opportunities.

This paper aims to develop a new isogeometric boundary element formulation based on non-uniform rational basis splines (NURBS) curves for solving Reissner’s shear-deformable plates.

The generalized displacements and tractions along the problem boundary are approximated as NURBS curves having the same rational B-spline basis functions used to describe the geometrical boundary of the problem. The source points positions are determined over the problem boundary by the well-known Greville abscissae definition. The singular integrals are accurately evaluated using the singularity subtraction technique.

Numerical examples are solved to demonstrate the validity and the accuracy of the developed formulation.

This formulation is considered to preserve the exact geometry of the problem and to reduce or cancel mesh generation time by using NURBS curves employed in computer aided designs as a tool for isogeometric analysis. The present formulation extends such curves to be implemented as a stress analysis tool.

An important question is whether lenders perceive politically connected firms as having less or higher default risk, and thus provide them with more or less preferential loan terms compared with non-connected firms. This paper aims to examine the relationship between political connections of corporate board members and cost of debt and loan contracting in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The initial sample comprises 288 GCC firm-year observations from 227 publicly listed firms in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates for the period from 2011 to 2015. It includes all the GCC publicly listed firms, excluding those in the financial, insurance and banking sectors because these entities are subject to different regulations. The ordinary least squares, logit regression and other sensitivity tests have been used to analyse the data and enhance reliability of the results.

This study finds that politically connected firms, particularly those connected through ruling royal family members, are associated with lower cost of debt, greater amounts of loans and longer-term government loans. Therefore, these findings support the prediction that political connections benefit GCC firms in the form of access to favourable terms from both government and commercial banks.

This study contributes to the extant literature by providing insightful analysis using unique political features of the GCC, integrated with agency and resource dependency theories. In particular, this study fills the gap in understanding the nature of loan contracting offered by government and commercial banks in the presence of politically connected boards within GCC setting.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the properties of analysts’ cash flows from operations (CFO) forecast generated for Australian listed firms as a productive activity, within the wider processes of financial disclosure in Australia.

Two categories of criteria are adopted: first, basic predictive statistical performance relative to a benchmark model and earnings forecasts; and second, relevance for equity pricing, as indicated by the market reaction to cash flow or forecast error reactions. The final sample comprised 2,138 observations between 2001 and 2016 and several regression models are estimated to determine the relative performance and market reaction.

Analysts’ consensus cash flow forecasts demonstrate poor predictive performance relative to earnings forecasts. Cash flow forecasts are typically naïve extensions of earnings forecasts. Furthermore, cash flow forecasts appear to be of minimal use for equity market participants in complementing earnings forecasts’ role in informing firms’ equity pricing.

While analysts’ earnings forecasts are useful for making predictions, the role of analysts’ cash flow forecasts in capital market functional efficiency appears quite limited.

This study is one of few that examines comparative usefulness of analysts’ earnings and cash flow forecasts and their predictive power using the Australian setting. Additionally, it enriches the sparse international literature on such forecasts.