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Since 2013, the Indian Companies Act Section 135 has mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by Indian central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). CSR reporting is regulated by multiple Government of India ministerial agencies, each requiring different formats and often different data. This study aims to understand the impact of these multiple regulatory bodies on CSR reporting by Indian CPSEs; evaluate the expectation gap between regulators and the regulated; and investigate the compliance burden on CPSEs.

An interview-based approach was adopted to evaluate the perspectives of both regulators and regulated CPSEs on the impact of the new regulations on CSR reporting quality. The authors use the lens of institutional theory to analyse the findings.

Driven by coercive institutional pressures, CPSEs are overburdened with myriad reporting requirements, which significantly negatively impact CPSEs’ financial and human resources and the quality of CSR activity and reports. It is difficult for CPSEs to assess the actual impact of their CSR activities due to overlapping with activities of the government/other institutions. The perceptions of regulators and the regulated are divergent: the regulators expect CPSEs to select more impactful CSR projects to comply with mandatory reporting requirements.

The findings of this study emphasise the need for meaningful dialogue between regulators and the regulated to reduce the expectation gap and establish a single regulatory authority that will ensure that the letter and spirit of the law are followed in practice and not just according to a tick-box approach.

This study aims to examine the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions for audit processes in India and explore the perceptions of the profession on how technology was leveraged to conduct audits during this period. The opinions of auditors on future changes in post-COVID-19 audit practices and processes are also explored.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior auditors working in various audit firms in major business centers in India and subjected to content and thematic analysis using the institutional theory perspective.

The auditing profession used technology to respond to COVID-19-imposed disruptions of established audit process and practices while maintaining the legitimacy of audit reports. The findings indicate that auditors now seem to strongly support the integration of emerging technologies into their auditing practices post-COVID to ensure data accuracy and transparency. The interviewees displayed keen interest in continuing remote and in-person audits to maintain audit quality in the future. The experience of COVID-19 appears to have forced the auditing profession to overcome their reluctance to adopt technologies that were previously used by only Big 4 and large audit companies.

The results will be of particular interest to various stakeholders concerned with aspects of the acceptance of technology-assisted audit reports such as legitimacy, required infrastructure, cost involvement and resistance to change. The findings will also assist professional bodies and policymakers in both developed and developing economies in devising useful strategies to promote technology-aided auditing during and after COVID-19. Limitations posed by inadequate infrastructure and resistance to changes must be overcomed before implementation of technology-aided audits.

As COVID-19 pandemic is a recent phenomenon, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first few studies that have examined the use of technology to facilitate audits during the COVID-19 period, more specifically from a developing economy perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of persistence of firm performance for publicly listed firms in Indonesia. The study also explores the impact of marketing expenditure on firm’s performance.

The data comprise 165 listed firms operating in Indonesia over the period 2007–2016. Dynamic panel regression estimations using Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) techniques have been deployed to generate the results.

The findings show the existence of positive persistence and sub-optimal level of competition in the performance of Indonesian firms. The results highlight that marketing intensity has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. The positive persistence hints at creation of substantial entry and exit barriers by the Indonesian firms and also indicate that Indonesian firms are able to create behavioral inertia among their consumers by properly directing their marketing efforts.

There is a need on the part of management to strengthen the short-term profit capabilities to nurture long-term benefits of profit maximization. On the regulators part, the authorities should frame the policies to foster long-run competition.

The current study contributes to the sparse literature on persistence of firm performance in the context of emerging economies like Indonesia. This is the first study on persistence of firm performance for publicly listed firms in Indonesia.

This study aims to examine the perceptions of accounting practitioners and users about implementation challenges with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) at the pre-implementation stage. Under institutional pressures, India conveyed its decision to implement IFRS beginning 1 April 2016, despite initial reluctance to adopt IFRS. It specifically explores the responses of accounting professionals (preparers) and the banking industry professionals (users) in India to challenges in IFRS implementation, rather than more widely researched dimensions of IFRS implementation such as reasons for adoption, experience effects and diversity in practice.

A quantitative research approach was adopted, using a questionnaire survey that provided 192 responses from accounting practitioners and banking professionals working in India.

The findings convey IFRS implementation preparedness perceptions of participants with respect to education, training and information technology (IT) infrastructure. Respondents acknowledged the efforts and capability of the accounting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, but expressed reservations about training, cost, interpretation, IT infrastructure and staffing. The accounting practitioners and the users have similar perspectives on the subject of awareness and preparedness challenges of IFRS implementation.

The study heightens awareness of the challenges facing jurisdictions who express initial reluctance, although they ultimately decide to adopt IFRS on account of institutional pressures. The analysis suggests that the International Accounting Standards Board should increase focus on implementation issues, in addition to updating and making IFRSs.

The study is distinct from the studies in abundance on the creation of accounting standards, implementation benefits and their implication in a specific geography.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of perceived implications of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study analysed the causal relationships between perceptions and the willingness of the accountants to adopt IFRS.

The findings revealed that perceived benefits drove the willingness to adopt IFRS whereas the perceived disadvantages and challenges diminished the willingness. Knowledge of IFRS enhanced the willingness towards IFRS adoption. Also, legitimacy desire enhanced the association between the perceived implications and the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study contributes significantly to theory and practice as Vietnamese policy makers recently announced their strategic planning to full IFRS adoption by 2025.

This paper aims to explore the awareness of terminology related to intellectual capital (IC) among executives of Indian banks and the sources in which they mostly find IC-related terminology. The paper also explores relative and specific contributions of each selected source of information in creating IC awareness among bank executives in India and determines difference among the executives from the public and private sector.

This research paper follows a survey-based approach to capture the perceptions of Indian bank managers working middle and top management across different banks. Regression analysis and ANOVA were applied to data from 166 responses.

The study finds that IC awareness among Indian banking executives is reasonably high and is equally spread across the three sub-categories of capital (external capital, human capital and internal capital), though the relative awareness of external capital is on the higher side. However, the sources of awareness of IC terminology differ among executives from the public- and private-sector banks.

The sample was limited to middle and top managers in the Indian banking industry and suffers from the usual limitations of survey-based research such as the design of the survey instrument and the personal biases of the respondents. Some limitations may also have arisen because of the definitions of IC elements adopted by this study.

This research adds a new dimension to the IC research by exploring the practical application and awareness of IC that deviates from traditional annual report-based disclosure and valuation studies. No existing literature has examined the survey-based awareness study, particularly on the banking industry. This paper provides a foundation for future studies that examine the operational awareness and application of IC in the service industries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value relevance of segment information for both public and private sector banks in India. In doing so, this paper examines a rapidly developing economy and perhaps its most critical sector during this period of strong economic growth.

In this study uses the simplified Ohlson model, for a sample of 136 private sector and public sector banks for the period 2007-2010 in India.

The paper finds that public sector banks have higher share prices, higher earnings and more equity compared with private sector banks. Segment earnings data is highly value relevant for both sectors; however, segment equity data is only marginally value relevant for Indian banks. The number of segments is also value relevant and associated with higher share prices.

The results of this study contribute additional evidence to the literature on segment reporting by studying the effect of adoption of segment reporting in an emerging market. Findings from the paper are particularly relevant as India is currently in the process of changing its segment reporting requirements and moving to an IFRS-based segment standard.

Under a gradual long-term plan of the Saudi Stock Market (TADWUAL) from 2016, Saudi Arabia decided to work with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) board to fully adopt its accounting standards. Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance and standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This study aims to assess whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market.

This study assesses whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market. The key research hypotheses postulate that compared to IFRS status, after adoption, several independent variables influence the disclosure level. The analysis covers a local sample of 184 Saudi listed firms over the period 2016 to 2020. Using an in-depth content analysis technique, the voluntary disclosure and number of annual report pages are measured manually and year by year to capture levels and unique characteristics. The authors apply cross-sectional regression, first difference method, Pooled OLS and feasible general least square estimations. The mean of disclosure level increases from 33.03% in 2016 to 56.14% in 2020.

The results reveal that the vast majority of firm-specific characteristics were significant in pre-IFRS adoption period. First difference analysis shows a significant impact of firm size and non-executive composition on the disclosure level. The authors confirm that IFRS adoption plays a critical role in the quality of firms’ financial reports and supports to create a conducive economic environment in Saudi Arabia.

First, the implementation of IFRS adoption should impact the Saudi accounting information and disclosure quality in Saudi context markedly. Second, firm-specific characteristics align with corporate governance are the main determinants of accounting information and transparency; therefore, focusing on this angle enables regulators and policymakers to mitigate uncertainty and asymmetric information. Third, the findings of this research state that there is a negative relationship between disclosure quality and board meetings. This encourages policymakers to reconsider the number of board meetings in firms that was not as high as in the developed markets. Notwithstanding all previous implications, it is recommended that future research undertake a various quasi-experimental design such as a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of corporate governance mechanisms on IFRS 7 mandatory disclosure requirements on in Saudi Arabia context.

There is a lack of studies on this realm and such as these studies will enrich the understanding of aspects of IFRS adoption and contribute to the prior empirical literature. Importantly, the extend of this sample into other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and exhibition the difference effect can be very useful to enrich the knowledge of IFRS adoption aspects in corporate disclosure and accounting information quality.

Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance, and their standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This has been attributed to the importance of providing guidelines, practices and regulations for listed companies. One of the major turning points of financial reporting quality in Saudi listed firms was adoption of IFRSs. This adoption deems to be necessity in ensuring the highest level of transparency and information reliability. Based on the findings of this research, the present investigations set up a platform and furnish many implications for policymakers, companies’ board of directors, financial analysts and other related authorities. The results should provide policymakers with greater insight of the relationship between disclosure quality and corporate-specific characteristics throughout the IFRS adoption periods. Thus, the results derived from this study can be effective and useful for the IFRS adoption committee in the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA). According to the best of the authors’ knowledge and based on official secondary information sourced from the SOCPA website, there are several standards that are subject to difficulties in measurement and are modified from time to time, such as: IFRS1, IFRS8, IFRS12, IFRS16 and IFRS18.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of four unsuccessful merger attempts between Australia’s two major professional accounting bodies over a 30-year period (1969 to 1998), each of which ultimately failed. An analysis of the commonalities and differences across the four attempts is provided and social identity theory is used to explain the differences between members level of support for these merger bids.

This study adopts a qualitative approach using a historical research methodology to source surviving business records from public archives and other data gathered from oral history interviews.

The study found that, across all four merger attempts between Australia’s two professional accounting bodies, there was strong support from society members (the perceived lower-status group) and opposition exhibited by institute members (the perceived higher-status group). This study also found that the perceived higher-status organisation always initiated merger discussions, while its members rejected the proposals in the members’ vote.

This paper focusses on the Australian accounting profession, considering a historical account of merger attempts. Further research is required that includes interviews and surveys of those involved in making decisions regarding merger attempts.

This paper is the first to examine in detail these four unsuccessful merger attempts between the largest accounting organisations in Australia.