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This study aims to examine the resignations of Indian audit committee directors after a systemic shock (failure of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.).

The authors develop the research questions based on interviews with company directors and audit partners, in addition to economic theory. The authors then use archival data to test the research questions.

The authors find that social and peer pressure is a very important factor in explaining such departures and provides the basis for some counter-intuitive empirical results, for example, directors were less likely to resign from companies audited by Indian affiliates of PricewaterhouseCoopers even though Satyam was audited by one such auditor and ownership by founding families was not associated with director departures.

Going beyond economic theory and analyzes can be useful in examining issues related to corporate boards and audit committees.

Regulators should consider requiring disclosure about director attendance percentages, in addition to the number of meetings, at audit committee – and, perhaps, other board sub-committee – meetings.

Caution is warranted when using results from the USA and other Anglo-Saxon countries to address governance-related issues in India or other Asian countries.

A triangulation of economic theory and societal norms enables us to gain valuable insights about the resignations of audit committee directors in India.

Through state-of-the-art insights on whistleblowing in India, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of sociocultural dynamics in whistleblowing.

A review of literature on wrongdoing and whistleblowing in India revealed various aspects of the national context pertinent to different stages of the phenomenon. Thematic analysis of these dimensions, allowing for a nomothetic approach, resulted in identifying six sociocultural themes common across wrongdoing and whistleblowing.

Sociocultural dynamics impacting the emergence, persistence and recognition of wrongdoing, the decision to blow the whistle, engagement in whistleblowing and the outcomes of whistleblowing encompass social relationships, power distribution, materialistic considerations, sense of propriety and fairness, public/civic orientation and ideological leanings. These factors coexist with international influences, institutional framework, workplace ethos and individual orientation. The presence of wrongdoing and the trajectory of whistleblowing in India are affected by the aforementioned factors.

The paper is based on secondary data rather than empirical endeavours.

By underscoring the relevance of contextual dynamics, in particular sociocultural factors, in the whistleblowing process, the paper indicates an important basis for appropriate interventions to manage wrongdoing and encourage whistleblowing while protecting whistleblowers and ensuring attention to rectifying wrongdoing and sanctioning offenders.

Apart from providing a contemporary and comprehensive overview of whistleblowing in India, the paper uncovers the significance of sociocultural factors which have been overlooked so far in the substantive area. Moreover, a contextualised process model of whistleblowing is proposed based on the analysis. In subsuming temporality, context and outcomes for all stakeholders, the model displays complexity and causality, emphasising holism.

In the post-Enron era around the world, the role of auditor is widely debated. There is an increasing concern that an auditor’s continuous involvement with clients could impair audit quality – the negative view. There is also a positive view that a long auditor tenure leads to accumulation of client-specific knowledge over time, which could lead to high-quality audits. The empirical result with regards to impact of mandatory auditor rotation (MAR) is mixed world-wide. This study aims to examine whether MAR rules implemented in 2017 impact audit quality in India.

Using a unique setting in which MAR was required from 2017 to 2018 onwards in India, this study provides empirical evidence of the impact of MAR regulation on audit quality (modified audit opinion). The study uses data for 714 firms (4,284 firms) for six years (three years before MAR and three years after MAR regulation in India).

The study found that auditor tenure and MAR had significant negative impacts on audit quality, validating the “positive” view of audit tenure and audit quality. In addition, concentrated ownership had a negative impact on audit quality, implying the control and influence by concentrated ownership on auditors and audit opinion. The analysis shows that MAR regulation has not yielded the intended objective of improving audit quality in India. MAR is not a good template for improving audit quality.

The findings of the study are useful to policymakers, regulators, managers, investors and users of financial reports. The study calls for public policy on auditor rotation based on objective scientific evidence. In light of the evidence in India that MAR does not lead to better audit quality, the study calls for reset of regulatory policy in India.

The study provides valuable insights to analysts, regulators and other users of financial accounts about the implications of MAR in India.

The study is one of the few to report on the impact of MAR, particularly in the context of an emerging market economy such as India.

This study aims to examine the value relevance of earnings in terms of predicting the value variables such as cash flow, capital investment (CI), dividend and stock return under the Indian institutional settings.

The study used panel Granger causality tests to examine causality relationships among variables and panel data regression models to check the statistical associations between earnings and value variables.

Based on a data set of 7,280 Bombay Stock Exchange-listed firm-years spanning over ten years from March 2009 to March 2018, the results show higher sensitivity of earnings toward cash flows, CI, divided and stock return and vice-versa. Further, the findings deduced from the empirical results demonstrate that earnings are positively related to value variables. Overall, the results established that earnings are value-relevant and have predictive ability to forecast the value variables that facilitate investors in portfolio valuation. The results are consistent with the predictive view of the value relevance of earnings. Several robustness checks confirm these results.

This study brings new empirical evidence from a distinct capital market, India, and provides a new facet to the value relevance debate in terms of its prediction view. The study is among earlier attempts that jointly measure the ability of earnings in forecasting different value variables by taking a uniform sample of firms at the same period. Hence, the study provides a comprehensive view of the predictive ability of reported earnings.

This study investigates the moderating role of Big-4 audit firms on the association between board independence and classification shifting (CS) in Indian firms.

This study has employed a fixed-effect panel data regression model to analyze the sample data. Board independence is measured by taking the proportion of independent directors on a firm’s board. CS is measured from the core earnings expectation model (McVay, 2006). Principal Score Matching is applied to validate the results.

Based on 6,016 firm-year observations of Indian firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, results show that firms with a higher proportion of independent directors on board are effective in limiting expense CS. Further, firms that Big-4 audit firms audit play a significant role in curbing expense CS. Overall, results also exhibit that Big-4 audit firms significantly influence the association between board independence and CS.

This study is one of its kind to examine the moderating role of Big-4 audit firms between board independence and CS.

This study investigates the development of absorptive capacity. Using an integrated cognitive learning perspective, this study provides empirical evidence about the conceptual absorptive capacity model through examining the full process step by step. Two groups of moderating variables were studied—namely, social integration and appropriability—to examine their impact on the process.

This study employed a longitudinal study from a community service program (Kuliah Kerja Nyata) at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, by using surveys at the beginning and the end of the project. Of 492 teams from 2,444 students participated in the study. Each individual within a team had at least one project assigned to him/her during the project. The absorptive capacity process was examined through six consecutive models and analysed using hierarchical linear modelling. The moderating variables were tested using the Moderated Regression Analysis and Wald tests.

The study confirms the full cycle of absorptive capacity as an independent, dynamic and complex process; it involves acquiring, assimilating, transforming and exploiting sequencing variables from the individual level to the team level and vice versa using feed-forward and feedback mechanisms adopted from the 4I framework of organisational learning. However, the roles of the moderating variables are still inconclusive due to some possible factors, which were also reflected by the U-phenomenon.

This study provides vital support to the learning theory as well as to the organisation learning concept. This study also reveals empirical evidence about the unsupported moderating variables behave during a project cycle, such as what they function, how they evolve and what we should do about the moderating factors during a project. The findings of this study provide practical suggestions and highlight areas for future research.

This study aims at investigating the moderating role of family business generation on the association between board independence and earnings management practices of Indian family firms.

This study uses panel data regression models to analyze the data. Board independence is operationalized via the proportion of independent directors on board and the dual role of chief executive officer. Earnings management is operationalized through discretionary accruals, which are estimated by the performance-adjusted modified Jones model (Kothari et al., 2005). Family business generation is based on the firm’s age, where each generation is equated to a period of 25 years. The parameters of interest are estimated through the hybrid model (Allison, 2009) which controls for the unobserved cross-sectional heterogeneity across firms while estimating the coefficients for time-invariant variables.

Based on a sample of 26,962 Bombay Stock Exchange–listed firm-years, spanning over 13 years from the year ending March 2007 to March 2019, the results exhibit that Indian family firms are less likely to be engaged in earnings management; board independence is ineffective in controlling the earnings management practices of firms, and this relation is found to be more pronounced among family firms; first-generation family firms are more likely to be engaged in earnings management than second- or third-generation firms; and board independence has a weaker role in curbing the earnings management practices of first-generation family firms. Overall, the results exhibit that generational involvement significantly influences the association between family firms and earnings management and moderates the relationship between board independence and earnings management. These results are robust to sensitivity measures.

This is the first study that examines the moderating impact of family business generation on the association between board independence and earnings management according to the author’s knowledge. Besides, this is among the earlier attempts to investigate the earnings management practices of Indian family firms.

We examine whether systematic risk of the financial services industry (banks, finance, insurance, and real-estate sectors) declined after the passage of GLBA. This study differs from prior work in that we examine changes over a long period of time (5 years before and 5 years after the Act) and we use the Carhart (1997) four-factor model for assessing changes in risks. The study finds that banks, insurance, finance, and real-estate segments load on the market, size, and value factors before as well as after GLBA (the real-estate segment loads on the value factor only after GLBA). Except for finance companies, betas decline significantly for all the other segments after the GLBA. In the case of banks even their loadings on the size and value factors decline after the GLBA, while in the case of finance and real-estate companies the loadings on the momentum factor exhibits reduction in risk after the Act. Overall, the GLBA had a risk reducing impact on the financial services industry.

The Indian Companies Act 2013 mandated auditor rotations in the financial year 2018–2019. Similar regulations are being considered in many countries, based on the assumption that longer tenure is detrimental to audit quality; yet, the evidence from investigations of this assumption is inconclusive. This paper aims to examine the effect of moderating factors on the relation between audit quality and audit tenure, given the regulatory trend and the lack of consensus in extant literature.

This paper examines the relationship between audit quality and audit tenure among Indian firms from 2001 to 2015 and tests for moderating factors including auditor compensation, business group affiliation and chief executive officer (CEO) duality.

Contrary to the objective of mandatory rotations, this study finds that longer auditor tenure generally enhanced audit quality among Indian firms prior to mandatory rotations. However, for companies paying abnormally high compensation to auditors, this paper finds that longer tenure decreases audit quality, particularly if the firm is affiliated with a business group or firms where the CEO also serves as the board chair. Thus, the potential benefits of mandated shorter tenure appear to be confined to high-fee paying companies with a business group affiliation and/or a dual-role CEO.

This study is one of the first to examine conditioning factors that affect the relationship between audit quality and auditor tenure. Results suggest that regulations limiting auditor tenure would be beneficial only to the shareholders of a narrow group of firms; while for the majority of firms, limiting auditor tenure may actually be counter-productive.

This study aims to examine the association between mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulations (CSR mandate) and social disclosures (SOCDS) in India. It also investigates whether CSR committees mediate the relationship between CSR mandate and SOCDS. Furthermore, this paper explores how business group (BG) affiliation moderates CSR committee quality and SOCDS.

This study uses a data set of 5,345 observations from the Bombay stock exchange (BSE)-listed firms over 10 years (2011–2020) to examine the research questions. Baron and Kenny’s (1986) three-step model is estimated to examine the mediating role of CSR committees on the relationship between CSR mandate and SOCDS.

The study reveals that the CSR mandate positively impacts SOCDS in India due to coercive pressures. CSR committees mediate this relationship, with higher CSR committee quality leading to increased SOCDS. Furthermore, the authors report that SOCDS in India is positively related to CSR committee quality, and this relationship is stronger for BG firms. Finally, the supplementary analysis reveals that promoting CSR committee quality enhances firms’ likelihood of meeting CSR mandatory spending and actual CSR spending in India.

This research contributes to the academic literature by shedding light on the intricate dynamics of CSR mandates, CSR committees and SOCDS in emerging economies. Notably, the authors identify the previously unexplored mediation role of CSR committees in the link between CSR mandates and SOCDS. The creation of a composite index that measures complementary CSR committee attributes allows us to undertake a novel assessment of CSR committee quality. An examination of the moderating influence of BG affiliation documents the importance of CSR committee quality, particularly in governance, for enhancing SOCDS transparency within BG firms.