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The study investigates the co-movements amongst real estate investments trust (REITs). This study examines the co-movements between the world and individual countries' REITs and the co-movements amongst country-pair REITs. This study explores the responsiveness of the REITs markets' co-movements to the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the Russian–Ukraine conflict.

The study employs a wavelet coherency technique and relies on data from six REITs markets over the 1995–2022 period.

The evidence shows a generally high level of coherency between the global and the country's REITs. The findings further indicate higher co-movements between some country pairs and a lower co-movement for others. The results suggest that the REITs markets increased in co-movements around the 2008 GFC, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian–Ukraine conflict. These increased co-movements mostly lasted for a short period suggesting REITs markets contagion around these global events. The results generally suggest interdependence between the global and the country's REITs. Additionally, interdependence is observed for some of the country-pair REITs.

The evidence indicates that REITs markets respond to global events. Thus, the increasing co-movement amongst REITs observed in this study may expose domestic REITs to global crisis. However, this study provides opportunities for minimising the cost of capital for real estate projects. Also, REITs provide limited diversification gains around crisis times. Therefore, countries need to open the REITs markets to global investors whilst pursuing policies to ensure the resilience of the REITs markets to global events. Investors should also take note of the declining geographic diversification gains from some country-pair REITs portfolios.

With Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the self-regulation of the auditing profession was replaced with standard setting and oversight by the government. The authors focus on the audit fees literature to examine how this change impacted research trends over time and shaped different aspects of audits.

The authors utilized bibliometric and content analysis to identify research themes pre- and post-SOX.

The change in regulation contributed to an increased focus on clients and continued interest in engagement characteristics as added requirements emphasized the client's governance structure, the auditor's tenure and the type of services provided.

The prominent issue that emerged is how deficiencies in the audit processes and in the client's internal controls are translated into audit fees. The authors discuss regulatory initiatives pursued in other jurisdictions, including mandatory rotation of firms, joint audits and further limitations on non-audit services, as intended and unintended consequences of these requirements warrant further examination.

The authors examine the association between two important audit partner characteristics and the readability of key audit matters (KAMs) disclosed in the audit reports. Specifically, the authors examine how the readability of KAMs is associated with audit partner tenure and workload.

The authors conduct the study in the audit context of Norway and applied the Flesch reading ease scale to measure the readability levels of reported KAMs in the audit reports of companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Panel data estimation techniques are applied in estimating how partner tenure and workload are associated with the readability of KAMs. In addition, several robustness tests including different measures of KAMs readability and subsample analyses are performed.

The authors find that audit partner tenure and workload have significant associations with the level of KAMs readability. Specifically, the results show that the reported KAMs become more readable as the audit partner tenure increases but are less readable for partners with more workload. These results appear stronger in subsamples of KAMs typically noted to be more complex and associated with higher risks.

As KAMs represent the most significant issues in financial statements audit, these results provide important insights to stakeholders on the potential impact of audit partner tenure and workload on KAMs readability. Less readable KAMs could derail stakeholders' desire to bridge the information gap between auditors and users of the audit report. The uniqueness of this study lies in its focus on audit partner characteristics as opposed to the audit firm.

Excessive audit partner workload impairs KAMs readability.

As KAMs represent the most significant issues in financial statements audit, these results provide important insights to stakeholders on the potential impact of audit partner tenure and workload on KAMs readability. Less readable KAMs could derail stakeholders' desire to bridge the information gap between auditors and users of the audit report. The uniqueness of this study lies in its focus on audit partner characteristics as opposed to the audit firm.

This paper aims to examine the theoretical underpinnings of international financial reporting standards (IFRS)-related studies and offers directions for theoretical and empirical research. Specifically, this study examines the main theories in IFRS adoption research (i.e. adoption, compliance and effects).

The sample contains 67 empirical papers that have used theories and was collected from Web of Science database. This study uses a systematic review technique.

Generally, the review shows the prevalent and pervasive use of institutional theories of isomorphism across all the three areas of IFRS adoption. Particularly, regarding IFRS adoption stream, this study finds the institutional theory as a dominant theory used to explain IFRS diffusion around the globe. For IFRS compliance, this study finds that the agency and the capital need theories are widely used. For IFRS adoption effects stream, this study finds a few studies using the contingency and neo-institutional theories. Overall, the review provides theoretical lens for IFRS adoption, IFRS compliance and IFRS adoption effects.

Given the lack of a well-defined set of theories in the domain of accounting, the findings provide further guidance on theory building within the field. Further, accounting regulators, academics and practitioners may benefit from the findings when explaining various changes in the world of accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential use of international transfer pricing (ITP) as an income shifting mechanism by multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries. The paper postulates that income shifting through ITP is likely to be more pronounced in developing countries where weak institutions are present.

The paper uses a unique unbalanced panel data of 18 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange covering the period of nine years (2008–2016), to investigate whether MNCs use ITP to shift income out of the country. The comparison is made using an indirect approach where performance (e.g. profit before tax) and post-performance measures (e.g. dividend payment) are used for an equal number of foreign and local companies. The empirical analyses include t-tests, pooled and random effects logistic regressions.

The results show significant differences between foreign controlled entities (FCEs) and Ghanaian controlled entities in terms of capability, profitability and dividend distribution. Since there is a positive between these measures, the results do not suggest possible income shifting by FCEs through ITP.

This paper uses an indirect method of investigating income shifting among MNCs. For future studies, a more direct method can be adopted by examining import and export prices of specific products for both foreign and domestic firms.

The study investigates the possibility of income shifting arising from ITP practices among multinationals in developing countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first in this regard. Thus, the study contributes to the transfer pricing and income shifting literature by providing evidence from a developing country.

This study aims to review the auditor-client relationship (ACR) literature spanning 1976 to 2019 to provide future research directions.

The study analysed 140 articles from the Web of Science database, authored by 259 scholars across 28 countries and published in 47 journals. It identified three major research streams to understand the ACR dynamics: auditor tenure, ACR attributes and auditor-client negotiation.

Three major findings emerged based on this review. First, few studies examine auditor-client negotiation relative to other streams; thus, it offers scope for further research. Second, given that various fields have used diverse frameworks as theoretical underpinnings in prior studies, continuing this trend can better portray ACR from multiple perspectives. Finally, despite strong international regulations on ACR aspects such as auditor independence, tenure and rotation, implementation in several countries warrants special considerations, specifically on legal enforcement and investor protection, given diverse cultures and country-level institutional environments.

This study contributes to the synthesis of existing and emerging research streams and provides future research suggestions.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there exists employee-client matching at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) and the most favourable employee-client categorization in terms of employee productivity when serving the BOP market. This is important in a bid to determine how to effectively operate at the BOP given the market’s unique characteristics.

This study uses two methods depending on the research question. First, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the different employee-client categories based on socio-economic status. Second, fixed effects analyses are performed based on these categories to determine the most suitable employee-client category.

The results show the existence of employee-client matching based on similar socio-economic status. However, multivariate testing reveals that the mismatch category, where employees are of higher socioeconomic status than the clients, generates more favourable employee productivity. Moreover, this result may be contingent on the geographical location of the firm.

The findings are important for human resource management particularly the employment strategy of BOP firms. It suggests the need to consider employee profiles and client profiles when deciding which new markets to target.

The paper uses a global database of microfinance institutions as a case of BOP firms to investigate employee-client matching at the bottom of the pyramid.

This paper aims to examine marriage and family-related determinants of performance of micro and small businesses owned by women in Tanzania.

The authors surveyed a total of 429 micro and small women entrepreneurs using a one-stop semi-structured questionnaire. The authors used hierarchical logistic regression analysis to determine the effect of marriage and related variables on enterprise performance.

The multivariate results have established that marriage has both positive and negative effects on businesses owned by women. Businesses experienced growth when owners received moral support, made an independent decision regarding business activities and used family labour and household resources to support business operations. Businesses were affected when the business owner faced difficulty in balancing business-family responsibilities. Also, some forms of spousal and family support appear to hurt business growth.

The present study adds to the literature and provides evidence of the influence of marriage and related responsibilities on the performance of women businesses. This understanding can help policymakers and other stakeholders to design appropriate and effective policies and programmes that could help to improve the performance of businesses owned by women for their economic empowerment, graduation out of poverty and improvement in the overall household welfare. The interventions should also consider both women businesses specific needs and the needs of their households and address intra-household decision-making processes.

Women entrepreneurs face numerous challenges to start and grow their businesses. Among the significant challenges facing women’s entrepreneurship include marriage and family-related responsibilities. Nevertheless, little is known about how marriage influences and shapes women entrepreneurial processes in Tanzania.