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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) on the performance of UK investment closed-end trust funds with domestic equity focus using Carhart’s Four-Factor model.

The paper is based on the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which argues that all available information is already included in the price of assets, and therefore, investors cannot beat the market or generate abnormal returns.

The results show that on average, UK investment trusts neither do generate abnormal returns, nor is their performance persistent. This paper provides empirical evidence to support the efficient market hypotheses and provides proof that the adoption of IFRS has, on average, a decreasing impact on the excess returns generated by UK investment trusts.

The findings of this paper have business policy implications for investment trust in the UK.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the probability of deal success/failure in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) transactions is influenced by a range of deal, firm and country-specific characteristics which tend to affect acquirers’ shareholder returns. The specific hypotheses under investigation relate to the method of payment (cash versus stock), target status (listed versus non-listed), diversification (domestic versus cross-border and industry-wide) and acquirers’ prior bidding experience. Additionally, the authors also investigate whether announced deals reflect an expectation about likelihood of deal completion.

The authors analyse the probability of deal success/failure in M&As by combining event study and probit regression-based methods. The authors use the standard event study methodology to calculate acquirers’ abnormal returns for up to 10 days before and after the announcement date. In the probit model, the dependent variable is the probability of deal i being failure depending on four sets of explanatory variables: method of payment, target status, diversification and acquirer bidding experience, along with a set of control variables.

The findings from event study confirm that market reaction is indifferent to whether announced deals are likely to be successfully completed or not, consistent with the efficient markets hypothesis. However, the results from cross-sectional, cross-country regressions confirm that the aforementioned deal characteristics, as well as certain firm and country level attributes do influence the likelihood of whether an announced deal is subsequently completed or terminated.

In examining whether the specific characteristics affecting the likelihood that M&A transactions, once announced, will ultimately succeed or fail, it seems natural to ask whether the market reaction at the time of deal announcement reflects an expectation regarding deal completion. This could be associated with specific deal or firm-level characteristics influencing shareholder returns or risk, and represents a unique contribution of this study, over and above the use of a global sample of M&A data. The empirical analysis investigates these issues by using an extensive, global sample of 46,758 M&A transactions from 180 countries and 80 industries, which took place between the years 1977 and 2012.

This paper aims to examine value gains to acquirers in large commercial bank mega‐mergers (with transaction values over £1 billion) that occurred in the European Union during the period 1997‐2007, distinguishing between domestic and cross‐border transactions.

Based on a sample of 62 bank mega‐mergers, an event study methodology is employed using a market model to determine cumulative standardised abnormal returns (CSAR) to acquiring banks around the announcement date of merger deals. This is followed by cross‐sectional regression to determine specific characteristics driving acquirers' CSAR.

Cross‐border bank mergers have been more frequent in recent years, reflecting a growing trend of banking sector consolidation in the EU. However, such mergers are found to yield significant negative announcement period acquirer returns, while domestic deals have marginally negative but insignificant returns. The operational cost efficiency and capital strength of acquiring banks are found to be significant in influencing excess returns.

Constraints on data availability limited the scope for sensitivity analysis and incorporation of target characteristics in the cross‐sectional regression of drivers affecting acquirers' CSAR. Further research is aimed to address these issues.

Event study and regression results indicate that potential downside risks are judged by market participants to outweigh the benefits from cross‐border M&As in the retail banking market despite evidence of increased financial sector consolidation in the EU.

The study reflects the recent period of increased cross‐border banking consolidation in the EU and reveals findings that differ in some respects from previous studies on EU bank M&As.

This paper provides evidence on the impact of regulatory environment on financial reporting quality of transitional economies. This study compares the financial reporting quality of Hong Kong firms which are cross-listed in mainland China with those of Hong Kong firms cross-listed in China using specific earnings management metrics (earnings smoothing, timely loss recognition, value relevance and managing towards earnings targets) under pre- and post-IFRS regimes.

The financial reporting quality of Chinese A-share companies and Hong Kong listed companies are examined using earnings management measures. Using 2007 as base year, the study used a cumulative of −5 and +5 years of convergence experience which provide a total of 3,000 firm-year observations. In addition to regression analyses, we used the difference-in-difference analysis to check for the impact of regulatory environments on earnings management.

Through the lens of contingency theory, our results indicate that the adoption of the new substantially IFRS-convergent accounting standards in China results in better financial reporting quality evidenced by less earning management. The empirical results further shows that accounting data are more value relevant for Hong Kong listed firms, and that firms listed in China are more likely to engage in accrual-based earnings management than in real earnings management activities. We established that different earnings management practices that are seemingly tolerable in one country may not be tolerable in another due to level of differences in the regulatory environments.

The findings show that Hong Kong listed companies’ exhibit higher level of financial reporting quality than Chinese listed companies, which implies that the financial reporting quality under IFRS can be significantly different in regions with different institutional, economic and regulatory environments. The results imply that contingent factors such as country’s institutional structures, its extent of regulation and the strength of its investor protection environments impact on financial reporting quality particularly in transitional and emerging economies. As such, these factors need to be given appropriate considerations by financial reporting regulators and policy-makers interested in controlling earnings management practices among their corporations.

This study is a high impact study considering that China plays a significant role in today’s globalised economy. This study is unique as it the first, that we are aware of, to compare real earnings activities against accrual-based earnings management in pre- and post-IFRS adoption periods within the Chinese and Hong Kong financial reporting environments, distinguishing between cross-listed and non-cross-listed firms.

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.