Search results

This study reviews and discusses the accounting literature that analyzes the role of auditors and enforcers in the context of fraud.

This literature review includes both qualitative and quantitative studies, based on the idea that the findings from different research paradigms can shed light on the complex interactions between different financial reporting controls. The authors use a mixed-methods research synthesis and select 64 accounting journal articles to analyze the main proxies for fraud, the stages of the fraud process under investigation and the roles played by auditors and enforcers.

The study highlights heterogeneity with respect to the terms and concepts used to capture the fraud phenomenon, a fragmentation in terms of the measures used in quantitative studies and a low level of detail in the fraud analysis. The review also shows a limited number of case studies and a lack of focus on the interaction and interplay between enforcers and auditors.

This study outlines directions for future accounting research on fraud.

The analysis underscores the need for the academic community, policymakers and practitioners to work together to prevent the destructive economic and social consequences of fraud in an increasingly complex and interconnected environment.

This study differs from previous literature reviews that focus on a single monitoring mechanism or deal with fraud in a broadly manner by discussing how the accounting literature addresses the roles and the complex interplay between enforcers and auditors in the context of accounting fraud.

Risk information provides information to enable stakeholders to make informed decisions about a company. Corporate communications should be readable and unbiased so as not to hamper disclosure usefulness. This study assesses whether risk disclosures in the integrated reports are readable and unbiased.

The readability and narrative tone of South African listed companies' risk and risk management disclosures as disclosed in their integrated reports are analysed using automated software for the Top 40 JSE listed companies from 2015 to 2019.

The results show that risk and risk management disclosures are unreadable and lack any improvement in readability during the period. Additionally, these disclosures are biased toward narrative tones signalling communality and certainty.

The study adds to the literature on the readability of corporate reports, by focussing on the readability and narrative tone of risk and risk management disclosures during a period of increased scrutiny over the content of such disclosures. Also, by analysing risk disclosure and risk management disclosure separately, and by performing trend analysis to determine whether requirement changes related to content (specifically King IV) affect readability and narrative tones.

The study aims to examine how the information disclosed by the managers in the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) reports varies at the different levels of corporate performance.

To understand this quantile effect, first OLS technique was adopted and then, the quantile regression method was applied to explore the impact of MD&A disclosures on the firm performance across the lower and upper quantiles. The sample size for the study is 490 firms’ year observations for the period 2016–2022.

The results of the study demonstrate the negative but significant relationship between MD&A disclosures and corporate performance, supporting the two management strategies of “competitive disadvantage” in case of good performance and “management impression strategy” in case of poor performance. Furthermore, with other corporate governance variables, both the size of the board and the number of independent directors on the board are positively significant only in the case of the upper quantile indicating the heterogeneity in the relationship between the performance and the MD&A disclosures. Therefore, the overall findings of the study support that these results contradict the agency theory and the stakeholders’ theory as managers are not acting well as agents on behalf of the investors and work well only when they are controlled by the large board having more independent directors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study so far has incorporated quantile regression to assess the effect of MD&A disclosures on company performance at various levels of the firm performance, which gives more robust insights about the viewpoint of the managers on the different level of the firm performance. In other words, this study highlights the important information as to how the information provided in the MD&A reports varies as per the good or poor performance of the companies.

This pragmatic research paper aims to unravel the smart vision-based method (SVBM), an AI program to correlate the computer vision (recorded and live videos using mobile and embedded cameras) that aids in manual lifting human pose deduction, analysis and training in the construction sector.

Using a pragmatic approach combined with the literature review, this study discusses the SVBM. The research method includes a literature review followed by a pragmatic approach and lab validation of the acquired data. Adopting the practical approach, the authors of this article developed an SVBM, an AI program to correlate computer vision (recorded and live videos using mobile and embedded cameras).

Results show that SVBM observes the relevant events without additional attachments to the human body and compares them with the standard axis to identify abnormal postures using mobile and other cameras. Angles of critical nodal points are projected through human pose detection and calculating body part movement angles using a novel software program and mobile application. The SVBM demonstrates its ability to data capture and analysis in real-time and offline using videos recorded earlier and is validated for program coding and results repeatability.

Literature review methodology limitations include not keeping in phase with the most updated field knowledge. This limitation is offset by choosing the range for literature review within the last two decades. This literature review may not have captured all published articles because the restriction of database access and search was based only on English. Also, the authors may have omitted fruitful articles hiding in a less popular journal. These limitations are acknowledged. The critical limitation is that the trust, privacy and psychological issues are not addressed in SVBM, which is recognised. However, the benefits of SVBM naturally offset this limitation to being adopted practically.

The theoretical and practical implications include customised and individualistic prediction and preventing most posture-related hazardous behaviours before a critical injury happens. The theoretical implications include mimicking the human pose and lab-based analysis without attaching sensors that naturally alter the working poses. SVBM would help researchers develop more accurate data and theoretical models close to actuals.

By using SVBM, the possibility of early deduction and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders is high; the social implications include the benefits of being a healthier society and health concerned construction sector.

Human pose detection, especially joint angle calculation in a work environment, is crucial to early deduction of muscoloskeletal disorders. Conventional digital technology-based methods to detect pose flaws focus on location information from wearables and laboratory-controlled motion sensors. For the first time, this paper presents novel computer vision (recorded and live videos using mobile and embedded cameras) and digital image-related deep learning methods without attachment to the human body for manual handling pose deduction and analysis of angles, neckline and torso line in an actual construction work environment.

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain viability as an asset class, institutional investors and publicly traded firms have started taking investment positions in digital currencies. What firms may not be considering, however, is the effect these assets may have on their risk profiles. This study aims to (1) measure the effect of cryptocurrencies on the risk and return characteristics of publicly traded companies; (2) decipher the motives behind holding cryptocurrencies as an asset class; and (3) determine whether one reason for holding is more effective than another. To conduct this research, the four largest publicly traded holders of cryptocurrency as well as four of the most prominent cryptocurrencies are explored.

The cross-sectional analysis approach has been used to analyze the daily returns, volatility, betas and Sharpe Ratios of firms during periods without cryptocurrency strategies and during periods with cryptocurrency strategies.

The impact of the cryptocurrency asset class on common stock performance and corporate disclosures are documented. The importance of risk disclosures on cryptocurrency holdings is emphasized: Firms must better inform their stakeholders through comprehensive disclosures in financial statements. Firms utilize cryptocurrencies for various reasons such as treasury management tools or as direct sources of income. Consequently, the impact on returns and risks varies substantially.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies on cryptocurrency investments in the treasury departments of publicly traded companies. The study contributes to the literature by extracting relevant information regarding company risk reporting and cryptocurrency risk at firms. The conclusions also promote firm transparency with detailed reporting of cryptocurrency holding risks.

The paper aims to identify and analyze passengers’ riding paths for providing better operational support for digital transformation in megacity metro systems.

The authors develop a method to leverage certain passengers’ deterministic riding paths to corroborate other passengers’ uncertain paths. Using Automatic Fare Collection data and train schedules, a witness model is built to recover the actual riding paths for passengers whose paths are unknown otherwise. The identification and analysis of passenger riding paths between three different types of origin–destination) pairs reveal the complexity of passenger path choice.

The results show that passenger path choice modeling is usually characterized by complexity, experience and partial blindness. Some passengers choose paths that are not optimal due to their experience and limited access to overall metro system information. These passengers could be the subject of improved path guidance in light of riding efficiency improved through digital transformation.

This research contributes to the improvement of metro management and operations by leveraging ongoing digital transformation in megacity metro systems. Based on the riding paths and trip chains of a large number of individual passengers identified by the proposed method, metro operation management could prevent risks in areas with concentrated passenger flow in advance, optimally adjust train schedules on a daily basis and deliver real-time riding guidance station by station, which would greatly improve megacity metro systems’ service safety, quality and operational efficacy over time.

The study introduces a new approach to leverage-value relationship. Besides applying the classical regression models, the study deals with leverage as a continuous treatment variable implemented on the firm’s value using the dose-response function (DFR).

After proper model calibration and splitting the treatment (leverage) into ten doses, a response function is generated, which enables the realization of the dose level at which the firm’s value is maximized. Furthermore, the study tests the pecking order theory (POT) and the trade-off theory (TOT) using the threshold model to see whether firms are under or over-indebted. The analysis is carried out on panel data from small-medium enterprises (SMEs), providing more valuable insights than large and mature companies.

The study used two leverage measures: total liabilities ratio and bank debt ratio. Value is measured by the market capitalization and Tobin’s Q. In general, the study finds a positive relationship between leverage and value; POT is not strongly supported, firms are below their optimal leverage and there is a certain leverage dose that would maximize firms’ value.

Since the threshold model and DRF show that SMEs are under-indebted, firms could benefit from extra leverage doses without affecting the firm’s risk profile, especially in a low-interest rate regime, and the potential increase in public-private expenditure after Italy obtained the European Recovery Funds.

The study contributes to new knowledge and understanding of financial leverage from new methodological perspectives, offering valuable insights from SMEs using novel approaches.

This research aims to examine the impact of RPTs and board of directors' characteristics on the market value of Indian listed banks. Further, this study evaluates the moderation effect of board composition on the association between RPTs banks’ market value.

The sample size consists of 38 banks listed on Bombay stock exchange. The current study is based on secondary data for ten years from 2010 to 2019. Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) was used for estimating the results.

Subsidiary transactions, board of directors' size, composition, diligence, promoters, remuneration and banks' size and leverage have a significant impact on the market value of Indian listed banks. Further, board of directors' composition positively moderates the association between RPTs and banks value measured by Tobin's. Furthermore, corporate governance characteristics have a significant impact on RPTs measured by total RPTs and all subsidiary transactions.

This research is limited only to listed banks whose data are available in the ProwessIQ database, which makes it difficult to generalize the findings on other unlisted banks. This research helps policymakers, investors and creditors to categorize RPTs into different groups to identify the harmful and beneficial once to the bank. The findings suggest that policymakers, investors and creditors should not consider all key personal transactions as harmful transactions; instead, the policymakers, investors and creditors should consider all subsidiary transactions as harmful in the absence of independent directors.

The present study contributes to the existing literature on RPTs by evaluating the interaction effect of board composition on the association between related party transactions and banks' value. Further, this research focuses on the financing industry; Indian banks, which has not been sufficiently researched in comparison to the non-financing industries.

This paper aims to investigate how organization capital influences different forms of corporate risk. It also explores how the relationship between organization capital and risks varies in the cross-section of firms.

To test the hypothesis, this study employs the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model using a large sample of the United States (US) data over the 1981–2019 period. It also uses an instrumental variable approach and an errors-in-variables panel regression approach to mitigate endogeneity problems.

The empirical results show that organization capital is positively related to both idiosyncratic risk and total risk but negatively related to systematic risk. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the positive relationship between organization capital and idiosyncratic risk is significantly more pronounced for the subsample of firms with high information asymmetry and human capital. Moreover, the negative relationship between organization capital and systematic risk is significantly more pronounced for firms with greater efficiency and firms facing higher industry- and economy-wide risks.

The findings have important implications for investors and policymakers. For example, since organization capital increases idiosyncratic risk and total risk but reduces systematic risk, investors should take organization capital into account in portfolio formation and risk management. Moreover, the findings lend support to the argument on the recognition of intangible assets in financial statements. In particular, the study suggests that standard-setting bodies should consider corporate reporting frameworks to incorporate the disclosure of intangible assets into financial statements, particularly given the recent surge of corporate intangible assets and their critical impact on corporate risks.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a large sample to provide systematic evidence on the relationship between organization capital and a wide range of risks at the firm level. The authors show that the effect of organization capital on firm risks differs remarkably depending on the kind of firm risk a particular risk measure captures. This study thus makes an original contribution to resolving competing views on the effect of organization capital on firm risks.

This study aims to focus on a key unanswered question about how digitalization and the knowledge processes it enables affect firms’ strategies in the international arena.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review of relevant theoretical and empirical studies covering over 20 years of research (from 2000 to 2023) and including 73 journal papers.

This review allows us to highlight a relationship between firms’ international strategies and the knowledge processes enabled by applying digital technologies. Specifically, the authors discuss the characteristics of patterns of knowledge flows and knowledge processes (their origin, the type of knowledge they carry on and their directionality) as determinants for the emergence of diverse international strategies embraced by single firms or by populations of firms within ecosystems, networks, global value chains or alliances.

Despite digital technologies constituting important antecedents and critical factors for the internationalization process, and international businesses in general, and operating cross borders implies the enactment of highly knowledge-intensive processes, current literature still fails to provide a holistic picture of how firms strategically use what they know and seek out what they do not know in the international environment, using the affordances of digital technologies.