Search results

The purpose of this paper is to test whether firms audited by the same Big 4 audit firm (Big 4 continuing clients) are more/less likely to report material weaknesses (systemic material weaknesses) in internal controls over a financial reporting than those audited by the same Non‐Big 4 audit firm (Non‐Big 4 continuing clients) over the period 2005‐2008. It also investigates whether the number of material weaknesses and that of systemic material weaknesses varies among the two groups.

Logistic regression and count regression analysis for panel data tests the hypotheses using all firms that had SOX 404 filings and that were audited by the same auditor over the period 2005‐2008 (1,668 firms; 6,672 firm‐year observations).

Findings document that Big 4 continuing clients are less likely to report material weaknesses and systemic material weaknesses than Non‐Big 4 continuing clients, especially during the first two years of investigation. Results also demonstrate that the number of material weaknesses and that of systemic material weaknesses reported by Big 4 continuing clients is significantly lower than that reported by Non‐Big 4 continuing clients, primarily for the years 2005 and 2006.

Findings support the risk avoidance perspective where large audit firms avoid riskier clients due to potential litigation costs and/or due to potential sanctions by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Results also suggest that smaller audit firms did not extensively test the quality of internal controls prior to the year 2004. They highlight that the enactment of SOX 404 and the establishment of the PCAOB heightened audit firms focus on internal controls and raised their sensitivity to audit risk arising from weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mediating effect of social capital (SC) on knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC).

A conceptual model of the connections between IC, KM, and SC was developed and the posited hypotheses were tested using a survey data set of 281 questionnaires collected from knowledge workers working in 72 information and communications technology companies operating in Jordan.

The findings show that knowledge documentation and knowledge transfer emerged as having the strongest effects on IC, followed by knowledge acquisition and knowledge creation, while knowledge application was found to have an insignificant effect. Also, knowledge transfer and knowledge acquisition emerged as the only two significant processes for the development of SC. Moreover, SC was found to partially and significantly mediate the effects of all processes on IC.

To promote the development of IC, particularly, in a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) sector, documentation, transfer, acquisition, and creation of knowledge are especially effective processes. Furthermore, SC can be significantly enhanced through ensuring effective internal knowledge transfer and acquisition practices. Nurturing IC in a knowledge-intensive context can also be significantly enhanced through looking at the firm as a cooperative knowledge-sharing entity, i.e. investing in SC.

This is the first empirical study that has examined the links among KM processes, SC, and IC in a KIBS sector within an “oil-poor,” “human resource-rich” Arab developing country context.

This study aims to develop and empirically test a “stocks and flows”-based model of intellectual capital (IC) that examines how human-embodied knowledge (i.e., human capital) can be transformed into organisational non-embodied knowledge (i.e., organisational capital) through the mediating roles of social capital and the knowledge management (KM) process of knowledge transfer.

A structural model was developed and empirically tested using a survey data set of 295 questionnaires collected from the “knowledge-intensive” pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Jordan.

Empirical results revealed that each of human capital, social capital and knowledge transfer has a positive and significant effect on organizational capital. In particular, knowledge transfer emerged as having the strongest effect. Social capital, on the other hand, emerged as having a positive and significant effect on knowledge transfer. Mediation analysis revealed that while human capital significantly affects organizational capital, such an effect is partially and significantly mediated by each of social capital as well as knowledge transfer.

This study provides senior managers in pharmaceutical manufacturing firms with valuable insights pertaining to the development of their IC, in terms of how to exploit their knowledge stocks (i.e. human-embodied knowledge and organizational non-embodied knowledge) through managing knowledge flows between them. This was shown to be significantly leveraged by the mediating roles of social capital as well as knowledge transfer.

This study provides important theoretical and empirical contributions to the extant literature in a number of ways. It provides better understanding of the intricate linkages among IC dimensions, and how these play complementary roles in organizational capital development. It has also provided important empirical evidence highlighting the vital mediating roles of social capital and knowledge transfer in facilitating knowledge flows, which aid in transforming human-embodied knowledge stocks into organizational-embodied ones.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants and consequences of using disclaimer language in the banks’ audit committee (AC) reports. This study aims to analyze the factors tempting AC members of banks to disclose disclaimer language in the AC reports and the effect of such language on the cost of equity.

The data cover the period from 2006 to 2015 and considers the top US bank holding companies. Voluntary disclosure in the AC report is manually coded by using a scoring grid. Multivariate regression analysis is mainly used in the study.

The findings suggest that the ACs are using the disclaimer language to protect themselves when disclosing a high level of voluntary information that describes their oversight activities or to reduce their liability exposure due to lower financial reporting quality. The findings also reveal that investors are requiring a higher return on their investments whenever ACs use disclaimer language in their reports.

The AC report provides useful information to shareholders who evaluate the AC’s performance and accordingly vote for or against AC members on annual basis. The paper sheds lights on the motives and consequences of disclaimer language in the ACs report. Thus, the study benefits shareholders by providing empirical evidence in regard to the usage of disclaimer language. Also, the findings benefit industry, corporate governance organizations, standard setters and regulators that analyze AC disclosures and issue recommendations or new standards for improving those disclosures.

With over 3,000 academic journals in the fields of Business and Economics, most academics face a hard time selecting an adequate journal to submit their work to. In today's demanding academic environment and with the presence of different journal ranking lists (JRLs), the selection becomes more difficult when considering employment, promotion and funding. The purpose of this paper is to explore key differences among multiple JRLs pertinent to the latter common objectives. An extensive analysis is conducted to compare the content of journals in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality list, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) in the fields of Business and Economics. Then, a case of a university with medium research output is considered where scholarly performance evaluation is based on the ABDC Journal Quality List.

After ranking journals in the fields of Business and Economics based on SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, JCR's Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and JCR's Eigenfactor (EF), a methodology is proposed to categorize journals in the three JRLs into the same categorization adopted by ABDC. The latter establishes a way to compare the four JRLs under consideration and serves as a basis to compare and analyze the content of journals in the ABDC Journal Quality list, Scopus and WoS. As a proxy impact metric, a normalized citation count is associated with each article based on Google Scholar. The publications of the considered university are then evaluated from the perspective of the four JRLs in terms of citation-based impact and quality while considering the exposure to popular world university ranking tables.

For journals classified under fourth tier by ABDC, over 53 and 59% are not indexed by Scopus and WoS, respectively. In this case study, over 42% of the publications appear in journals that are not listed in JCR despite the fact that over 94% of them are listed by the SJR list. Generally, publications that appear in journals listed by JCR achieve, on a yearly average, significantly higher citation rates when compared to those that appear in journals listed in ABDC and SJR Lists.

A four-tier mapping is proposed for consistent comparison among JRLs. Normalized citation count associated with each article based on Google Scholar is employed for evaluation. The findings provide recommendations for scholars, administrators and global universities, including Euro-Med Universities, on which JRL can be more influential for both faculty development and positioning of the university.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between Islamic governance and the social performance of Islamic banks, pioneering a new aspect in terms of the impact of the National Shariah Board (NSB) on the social performance of Islamic banks. The essential body in the Islamic banks in charge of Islamic governance is the Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB). Therefore, in this study, the authors explore how the characteristics of the Shariah board and Islamic governance mechanisms influence the social performance of Islamic banks.

Panel data methods are applied to the annual data of 43 banks from 14 countries over the period 2012–2018 to explore the impact of Islamic governance on Islamic banks’ social performance. The authors have used all available bank annual reports in the given period. Social performance is measured by Maqasid al-Shariah (in terms of the goals of the Islamic moral economy) index using a comprehensive evaluation framework. Islamic governance is represented by the improved Islamic Governance Score (IG-Score) index, which measures the quality of Islamic governance in Islamic banks. In the research, the authors also introduce the frequency of SSB meetings in IG-Score.

The findings suggest a strong link between Islamic governance and the social performance of Islamic banks, illustrating the importance of the Shariah board in achieving maqasid. On the other hand, the research discovered that NSBs are inefficient and the existence of NSB can jeopardize the social performance of Islamic banks. The results of this research imply valuable recommendations for Islamic banks that are keen to improve their social performance.

Besides investigating the impact of SSB governance on the social performance of Islamic banks by using an improved IG score index, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of NSBs on the social performance of Islamic banks.

The nature of the relationship between the Arabs and China in its historical and current dimensions raises the issue of compatibility and coexistence and the possibility of its continuity among nations and cultures. During the fifteenth-century-period, in which Arab–Chinese relations developed, a model of coexistence and harmony between the two civilizations and cultures emerged, which is rare to find in the history of relations between societies and countries. In this chapter, the researchers attempt to return to history to discuss the forms of the development of peaceful relations between China and Arab societies, and the cultural and psychological motives that led to the normalization of political relations in a pattern of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation on many common issues, which still continue to affect positively the relations between China and the Arab world nowadays. The study found that the nature of the eastern mentality of both parties and the positive stereotypes that each side has about the other long time ago have contributed decisively to shaping these relations in the subsequent centuries.