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The establishment of a public sector enterprise in India is based on socialist philosophy, and socialist philosophy believes in the role of government as an agent for change and entrepreneurial function. A more practical definition of public enterprise is given by Friedmann, (1954) a well‐known jurist. He termed public enterprise as an institution operating a service of an economic or social character on behalf of the government but as an independent legal entity, largely autonomous in its management, though responsible to the public through government and parliament and subject to some direction by the government, equipped on the other hand with independent and separate fund of its own and the legal and commercial attributes of a commercial enterprise.

To empirically examine the changing pattern of competitive disadvantage experienced by the reporting companies in disclosing segmental information in the Malaysian environment.

The study consists of a final sample of 116 Malaysian companies listed on the Malaysian Bourse for the years 2000‐2002. Four hypotheses were developed to investigate the relationship between segmental information disclosure and competitive disadvantage. Adopting weighted average correlation (WAC) techniques and total performance index (TPI), a multivariate least square regression model was employed to test the four formulated hypotheses.

The statistical analysis employed provides a mixed pattern yet comprehensive understanding of relationship between segmental information disclosure and competitiveness level among 116 reporting companies listed in Malaysian Bourse from the years of 2000‐2002.

The proprietary theory assumes at least two forms that differ on the basis of who are included in the proprietary group. Secondly, the existence of discretionary judgments among managers in determining the segment definition, items to be disclosed and level of materiality involved. Lastly, the size of final sample leads to caution in generalizing the analysis.

The results provide insights to interested groups such as accounting standard bodies, affected companies and the accounting profession, specifically in the Malaysian environment with the introduction of the new standard on segmental information disclosure known as MASB 22 segment reporting.

The study is very timely especially with the introduction of new accounting standard governing segmental reporting by companies in Malaysian financial reporting environment. The great value of this study is highlighted by the effort to empirically investigate the competitive disadvantage experienced by the reporting companies as they disclose segmental information as required by the new standard.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what causes a firm to choose between a business segment and a geographic segment as a primary segment for its segmental information disclosure. It seeks to examine Malaysian firms' experiences as they disclose segmental information under the new accounting standard known as FRS 114, Segment Reporting.

The paper involves 374 Malaysian public‐listed companies which disclosed segmental information in their 2006 annual reports. Four hypotheses are developed to examine the influence of these five factors, namely the size of the company, listing status, financial leverage, financial performance, and industrial membership. The non‐parametric test is employed to test the formulated hypotheses.

The results reveal two important outcomes: first, size of company, financial performance, and industrial membership are significantly associated with the choice of a primary segment; and financial leverage of a company and listing status are not significantly associated with the choice of a primary segment.

The limited number in the sample and inherent segmental reporting problems present limitations.

The paper implies extensive auditing work as the new standard requires more extensive disclosure for the primary segment, although the standard allows the adoption of primary segment reporting at management's discretion.

The paper's value lies in determining what motivates a company to disclose a business segment or a geographic segment as its primary segmental reporting basis.

This paper seeks to investigate the level of competitive disadvantage experienced by Malaysian listed companies by disclosing segmental information as required by the new accounting standard on segments disclosure by Malaysian Accounting Standards Board.

A total of 116 Malaysian listed companies are included in the study. Their annual reports for financial year ended 2002 are the main sources. The dependent variable is competitive disadvantage, which is proxied by Total Performance Index. The independent variables are quality of segmental disclosure by employing weighted average correlation technique, size of companies, the use of stricter accounting standard and the choice of business segment or geographical segment as the primary segment. To examine the developed hypotheses of the study; a multivariate least square regression model is employed. The analysis is also supported by correlation technique.

The outcomes of the study indicate that competitive disadvantage exists by disclosing segments information but it is not significant. In addition, larger companies experience greater competitive disadvantage than smaller companies, more extensive segment disclosure standard leads to less competitive disadvantage and the state of competitive disadvantage is greater when geographical segment is disclosed as the primary segment.

Since the standard allows the reporting companies to disclose their segment information based on internal structure of the organization, the potential existence of materiality judgement may distort the comprehensiveness of the outcome. In addition, the limited number of companies included in the final sample leads to a more cautious approach in generalizing the findings.

Since the new accounting standard governing segment disclosure in Malaysian environment took effect in 2002, the study is considered timely. It allows the relevant accounting bodies to continue monitoring the level of compliance among the listed companies towards the new standard and, more importantly, it permits further improvement of the standard given the level of competitive disadvantage that may be experienced by reporting companies.

The remarkable contribution of the study lies in its timely effort to investigate the potential competitive disadvantage suffered by reporting companies in the first year of the implementation of the new accounting standard governing segment disclosure.

In the manufacturing industry, product quality has become a key factor in determining a firm’s success or failure in the global marketplace. Advanced, highly reliable manufacturing methods have made it possible to achieve very high standards of product quality. As a result, more and more firms are making product quality a keystone of their competitive strategy. The success of many major Japanese companies is truly rooted in their long‐term commitment to the improvement of quality. The improvement of production quality is a long‐term commitment to continuous improvement in every aspect of the production process. Today’s competitive market, in almost every category of products and services, is characterized by accelerating changes, innovation, and massive amounts of new information. Changing customer needs fuels much of the rapid evolution in markets. Most organizations that have been successful with their quality improvement effort have adopted an integrated approach commonly referred to as total quality management (TQM).

The establishment of a public sector enterprise in India is based on socialist philosophy, and socialist philosophy believes in the role of government as an agent for change and entrepreneurial function. A more practical definition of public enterprise is given by Friedmann, (1954) a well‐known jurist. He termed public enterprise as an institution operating a service of an economic or social character on behalf of the government but as an independent legal entity, largely autonomous in its management, though responsible to the public through government and parliament and subject to some direction by the government, equipped on the other hand with independent and separate fund of its own and the legal and commercial attributes of a commercial enterprise.

The goal of this paper is to examine the development and prospects of internet banking in Bangladesh, which found that lack of infrastructure is the major issues for internet banking.

An overview of newspaper reports, journal articles, workshops and presentations at the conference.

Bangladesh banks are still reluctant to use full internet base banking activities. Compared to private and foreign banks, nationalised commercial banks are far behind implementing internet banking system in banking transactions. Nationalised commercial banks provide ATM services with very few branches and also the computerised branches are very small except the foreign commercial banking.

This paper outlines the key internet banking trends and events in Bangladesh. Further, the research focuses on the issues that are related to internet banking and provides strategy and directions for the development of internet banking in Bangladesh.

This paper analyzes and reports on studies that examine the extent to which international auditing boards have accomplished the goal of reducing the expectation gap in reporting on uncertainties. This is because there has been a long‐running controversy between the auditing profession and the community of financial statement users concerning the responsibilities of the auditors to the users. Enron and WorldCom scandals have provoked the public to incite the government and professional bodies to impose stringent regulation in protecting their interests. It also suggests the solutions to minimize the gap and enhance the public’s perception towards the profession.