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Considers the failure of industrial management techniques to overcome resistance to change which exists in organizations. Recounts the ideas behind David Hall′s new management technique (model management) which could possible overcome “the shadow side” of company activities. Lists the model types of model management and suggests what shadow side effects are in a company, providing five categories of activity. Reveals how to manage these negatives, and to illustrate quotes sections of Gerard Egan′s latest book.

Sports sponsorship is increasingly perceived as a powerful way for brands to connect and resonate with target markets yet, despite the proven success of worldwide viewing figures, professional boxing remains all but ignored. Brands have shied away from the sport due to its inherent violence and often-controversial image, but boxing can deliver a media-savvy young male demographic in a less cluttered marketing environment. So have sponsors overlooked a prime opportunity?

This study aims to examine the underlying determinants that may influence external audit fees paid by Emirati nonfinancial companies listed on Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

Data used in this study are mainly collected from the 2011 annual reports and corporate governance reports published by the Emirati nonfinancial companies listed on DFM. Backward regression analysis is used to measure the impact of a set of company characteristics on Emirati non-financial listed firm’s audit delays.

The findings pointed to a significant and positive association between audit fees and each of corporate size and audit committee independence variables. A significant and negative relationship has been detected between external audit fees and business complexity. The findings also revealed that audit fees are not significantly associated with company’s profitability, risk, industry type, status of audit firm and audit report lag.

The paper helps in expanding limited existing literature about the determinants of audit fees in the Arab and Middle East countries generally and in the UAE context particularly. No prior attempt had been made to investigate the determinants of audit fees paid by Emirati firms listed on DFM because the disclosure of audit fees services provided by external auditors only became effective after April 30, 2010. The findings of the study may be generalized to other Arab countries, particularly neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council states, that have a similar socio-cultural environment.

The SMART European Conference from 16–17 November, 1994 was a resounding success with over 300 delegales attending over the two days of the event. The SMART mix of high technical content and conviviality once again proved a winner.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the effect that the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) by the US Congress had on audit research. More specifically, the paper compares the nature of research about auditing conducted before the Act’s passage to the nature of research about audit regulation that dominates the literature since its passage.

The paper builds on an extensive review of the research literature before and after the passage of SOX to suggest and examine potential future research paths that might develop in auditing. The streams of research are linked and organized around four themes: auditing as a competitive process, auditing as a service process, auditing as a production process and auditing as a quality control process.

In general, auditing research prior to SOX tended to focus on issues encountered in the practice of auditing with tangential implications for audit regulation. The passage of SOX had the effect of focusing audit research on the nature, costs and benefits of regulation, particularly the components of the law that had the most effect on auditing such as the prohibition against many non-audit services, the establishment of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a standard setter that also inspects audit firms, and the introduction of the requirement that a client’s internal control over financial reporting be examined and opined upon as part of an integrated audit. Although this research has increased our understanding of auditing and regulation, the heavy focus on SOX has pushed research about auditing itself to a lesser role. The profession’s, academy’s and regulatory understanding of auditing may benefit from a more balanced approach to auditing as something separate from the regulation of auditing.

The intent of this paper is to challenge the way researchers think about research questions in auditing. Hopefully, this approach will encourage auditing researchers to look at the audit and audit regulation through a new lens, testing propositions and aspects of auditing that have been overlooked by the dominate focus on audit regulation over the past decade.

The paper aims to explore the impact of the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Greek listed companies' financial statements with a focus on net profit, shareholders' equity, gearing and liquidity. It also seeks to examine any differences in the impact across the sub‐samples of companies with Big 4 and non‐Big 4 auditors.

In line with recent literature, the paper employs Gray's comparability index. The sample consists of 238 Greek companies, representing 75 per cent of the companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange at the end of March 2006.

Implementation of IFRS had a significant impact on financial position and reported performance as well as on gearing and liquidity ratios. On average, impact on shareholders' equity and net income was positive while impact on gearing and liquidity was negative. Only companies with non‐Big 4 auditors faced significant impact on net profit and liquidity. They also faced a significantly greater impact on gearing than companies with Big 4 auditors. A large number of companies with material negative changes is identified, suggesting that transition to IFRS and the fair value option does not necessarily result in higher shareholders' equity figures. Many companies provided inadequate transitional disclosures. This is significantly related to auditor size.

The findings suggest that reporting quality has improved under the new accounting regime, especially for companies with non‐Big 4 auditors.

Prior literature indicates that the impact revealed in companies' reconciliation statements can have significant effects on users' decision making. On that basis, the study can stimulate future research and is relevant to standard setters and regulators.

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of managerial stock ownership on the relationship between material internal control weaknesses (ICW) and audit fees.

The paper uses multivariate regression analyses on a sample of 1,578 ICW and 1,578 pair-matched (based on both propensity score and managerial stock ownership) non-ICW firm observations for a period from 2004 to 2010 to investigate how managerial incentive at various stock ownership levels impacts the relationship between material ICW and audit fees.

For the firms with low managerial stock ownership (up to 5 per cent stockholdings), the authors find no significant effect of managerial ownership on the positive relationship between audit fees and ICW. However, the impact of managerial stock ownership on the relationship between ICW and audit fees is significantly positive when managerial ownership is medium, i.e. more than 5 per cent and less than or equal to 25 per cent stockholdings, and the managerial ownership effect is even higher when managerial stock ownership is high, i.e. more than 25 per cent stockholdings. The result is especially robust for the ICW firms with high managerial stock ownership (i.e. where managers hold more than 25 per cent equity stake in the firms). The additional analyses further show that this managerial ownership effect is more pronounced when the firms suffer from company-level material control weaknesses that have pervasive negative effect on financial reporting quality.

The results imply that in a low managerial ownership firms with substantial misalignment between manager and shareholder incentives, managerial stock ownership has little effect on the ICW and audit fee relationship. But when managers’ ownership interest is at a high level, they are more prone to purchase higher-quality audit service to reduce the risk of financial misstatements due to material ICW, which results in higher audit fees. The results add to the audit fee literature by suggesting that managerial incentive at various ownership levels is a critical governance factor that impacts auditor’s fee structure especially when higher reporting risk exists due to material ICW.

Prior literature documents that there is some relationship between managerial attributes and earnings quality; however, there is no substantive empirical evidence on the effect of managerial stock ownership on audit pricing when client companies face higher risk of financial misreporting as a result of material ICW. In this study, the authors seek answers to these empirical questions and fill the gap in the literature.