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The main objective of this study is to investigate whether adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) improve the quality of financial reporting in Nigeria. Financial reporting quality was measured in terms of fundamental qualitative characteristics such as relevance and faithful representation and enhancing qualitative characteristics such as understandability, comparability, verifiability, and timeliness as contained in the conceptual framework. The study was conducted on a sample of 162 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A compound measurement tool in form of an index was developed to comprehensively assess the quality of financial reporting based on information disclosed in the financial statement of the selected companies. From both univariate and multivariate analysis, I found strong evidence suggesting that accounting standard used in the preparation of financial statement have significant influence on the quality of financial report of the reporting entity. The result persists for all the three models (overall financial reporting quality, fundamental, and enhancing qualitative characteristics) tested in this analysis. The result also revealed that apart from firm age and firm growth, most of the firm-specific variables investigated have statistically significant influence on the financial reporting quality.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the presence of professional accountants in the top management team (TMT) on financial reporting quality (FRQ) in public limited companies using the context of Bangladesh, which is an emerging economy.

This study adopts a modified version of Beest et al.’s (2009) FRQ index to measure the quality of information published in 351 annual reports of listed companies in Bangladesh. It also uses a qualitative characteristics approach to measure the quality of financial reporting, as defined by the International Financial Reporting Standards framework 2018, as opposed to an accrual or value relevance approach that solely depends on the information disclosed in the financial statements.

This study finds that the presence of professional accountants in the TMT is positively and significantly associated with FRQ. The findings also show that the sample companies disclosed better quality information in the enhancing qualitative characteristics category, as compared to the fundamental qualitative characteristics category.

This study uses the context of Bangladesh to explore a new type of relationship between the presence of professional accountants in the TMT and FRQ.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how teaching broader accounting concepts through real life non-financial case study information (such as COVID-19 case reporting) can assist students understanding accounting’s technical, social and moral perspectives. Accounting education and practice has traditionally focussed on the technical aspects of accounting and has situated accounting within a financial context.

This exploratory study uses content analysis of COVID-19 case and death numbers reported by several international health reporting agencies. This study does not set out to provide a detailed technical or comparative jurisdictional analysis of the decision-usefulness of COVID-19 information. Rather, this study looks at the “decision-usefulness” of the COVID-19 case and death number information, and provides examples that educators can draw upon for inspiration when showing how the qualitative characteristics of decision-useful information can be applied to non-financial information. This study also highlights, by use of a “novel data set”, the technical, social and moral aspects of accounting.

This study finds that the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for accounting education by positioning the qualitative characteristics of decision-useful information beyond a financial context. The exploration of accounting within this setting effectively demonstrates that accounting has “technical”, “social” and “moral” dimensions.

This paper fulfils an identified need to include teaching of decision-usefulness of non-financial information in the accounting curriculum to ensure that future professional accountants possess technical and professional competency skills.

Australia's early adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in 2005 was influenced by the argument that the quality of financial reporting would be improved as a result. The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical review of quality in relation to financial reporting in Australia by investigating how the qualitative characteristics of relevance, reliability, comparability and understandability developed in Australia between 1961 and 2004.

This paper reviews the relevant academic and professional literature during the period as well as reporting on a survey of academics and others who contributed to debates about the characteristics of accounting.

In Australia the notion of “quality” can be captured by relevance, reliability, comparability and understandability although the names and descriptions of these elements have been debated over a 40‐year period. The paper contends that the exact meanings of those elements in relation to financial reporting remain unresolved, in spite of their adoption by the AASB Framework (2004) as the qualitative characteristics of accounting information.

Future research into the qualitative characteristics in Australia, which include questions such as the extent to which certain reporting practices or standards meet the requirements of one or more of the qualitative characteristics could be based on the historical development of these characteristics, as described in this paper. This paper also identifies critical areas that require further dialogue between researchers, standard setters and users of general purpose financial statements.

This paper describes links between a comprehensive list of attributes of accounting information that have been considered important over the past 40 years, and the four qualitative characteristics adopted by the AASB Framework. It also provides a history of contemporary accounting dilemmas, and reveals a lack of resolution to issues associated with each of the qualitative characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial reporting quality (FRQ) on share price movement (SPM) of listed companies in an emerging and developing economy – Bangladesh.

The study analyzed 296 annual reports for the year 2015 and 2016 in examining the effect of FRQ on SPM. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is used to examine the hypothesized relationship among the variables. A modified version of Lang et al. (2003) has been adopted in measuring the SPM. FRQ is measured using the qualitative characteristics approach as defined by the International Financial Reporting Standard Framework and used by Beest et al. (2009) and Braam and Beest (2013).

The study finds a positive association (though not significant statistically) between the FRQ and SPM in the country’s leading stock exchange (Dhaka stock exchange). Furthermore, the effect of enhancing quality on SPM is found to be stronger as compared to fundamental quality. Majority of the FRQ constructs demonstrate an improvement in the quality score in the year 2016 as compared to 2015 except for relevance.

The key limitation of the study is that it focuses only on two years (2015 and 2016) annual reports data in measuring FRQ and its effect on SPM.

The study uses qualitative characteristics approach in measuring the FRQ and to examine its effect on SPM using the context of an emerging and developing economy – the case of Bangladesh.

The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) power, audit committee effectiveness and earnings quality in regulated firms in Uganda.

The authors employed cross-sectional and correlational research designs, based on a sample of 136 regulated firms in Uganda. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from Chief Finance Officers and Chief Audit Executives. Data were analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling.

Results indicate that CEO power causes negative variances in earnings quality. The results also reveal that audit committee effectiveness positively relates relatively similarly with earnings quality. In addition, CEO power and audit committee effectiveness are negative and significantly related. The results further indicate that CEO power and earnings quality are mediated by audit committee effectiveness.

CEO power creates an opaque accounting environment which may leave the stakeholders unable to evaluate the true economic reality of the firm. Audit committee effectiveness is an important enabler for reporting high-quality earnings even in the presence of a powerful CEO.

This study contributes toward a methodological stance of using perceptions to understand earnings quality in regulated firms in Uganda. This is probably the first study that has specifically explored earnings quality using only the fundamental qualitative characteristics of accounting information (as proxies) as enshrined in the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting 2018 particularly in Uganda since Her adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in 1998. Second, the indirect effect of audit committee effectiveness and CEO power is tested.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of 18 users and preparers regarding the corporate internet reporting (CIR) practices of companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX).

A decision-usefulness theoretical framework is used as a lens for the study, in order to shed light on: internet infrastructure and its use for disclosure purposes in Egypt; the benefits of and trends in practices relating to CIR in Egypt; how the information presented accords with the qualitative characteristics of “usefulness” set out in the IASB’s conceptual framework of 2010; and the potential economic consequences of CIR.

The results indicate reasonable satisfaction with internet infrastructure in Egypt. The interviewees are intensive users of the internet, including accessing electronic sources of corporate information, but the perception remains of hard copy financial reports as the most important source of disclosure. With the exception of verifiability, the majority of respondents viewed CIR as having a (potentially) positive impact on the qualitative characteristics of accounting information as set out in the IASB framework.

The use of the interview method is subject to some limitations. These include: the perceived lack of anonymity, which may restrict the extent to which participants speak honestly or openly about the topic being investigated; the non-standardisation of responses – which can result in the inability to make systematic generalisations; and interviewees’ perceptions being influenced by events which have taken place prior to the discussion.

This research provides substantive insights for policy makers about the current attitudes of interested parties concerning CIR in Egypt.

This study contributes to our knowledge in a number of ways, as it provides up-to-date evidence of interested parties’ views concerning CIR practices and it indicates how CIR has affected the quality of financial information disclosure practices. Moreover, this study extends prior research on the use of the internet as a disclosure channel by considering a different empirical site, namely Egypt, and also by adopting a different theoretical framework.

The enormous success of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in becoming globally accepted accounting standards leads to challenges in the future. The purpose of this paper is to outline challenges that arise from political influences and from the pressure to sustain a successful path in the development of standards. It considers two strategies for future growth which the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) follows: the work on fundamental issues and diversification to private entities.

The development of IFRS is discussed and evaluated against insights gained from accounting theory. In particular, results from information economics illustrate potential difficulties of the development of a new conceptual framework for international accounting standards.

The main findings are: the growth strategies adopted by the IASB are risky; the conceptual framework does not sufficiently take into account the diverse objectives of financial reporting; stewardship, prudence, and aggregation can be desirable characteristics of accounting information; and standards that are developed for listed companies need not be well suited for private entities.

The paper suggests that skepticism is warranted about the viability of a consistent framework that applies globally, and that there are benefits to constrained competition among different standards.

The paper reviews academic research that has implications for standard setting and identifies key issues in developing global accounting standards.

This paper aims to examine differential perceptions of lenders and investors on (1) the use, perceived usefulness, importance and adequacy of annual reports, (2) the importance of qualitative characteristics (QCs) and (3) the perceived impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on financial reporting quality (FRQ) in Sri Lanka.

A questionnaire survey study of practising professionals consisting of Sri Lankan investors (N = 214) and lenders (N = 235).

In relation to (1), lenders and investors rank three out of ten information sources ahead of the remaining seven: both include annual reports and personal knowledge. However, the highest average response for lenders is direct communication with clients, and for investors, it is stock market publications. Within annual reports, both decision-makers identify financial statements as the most useful part. Concerning (2), they both identified understandability as the most important QC followed by timeliness. Relevance ranked last, surprisingly. In relation to (3), both groups perceived that the new IFRS reporting environment improved the FRQ compared to the previous Sri Lanka Accounting Standards regime.

Ranking understandability as the most important QC in terms of decision usefulness contradicts IASB's categorisation. The authors provide empirical data on the perceived degree of success of adopting IFRS in a developing economy.

The authors design a decision-oriented (lending vs investing) and context-specific (IASB's financial reporting framework) questionnaire to examine the perceptions of key capital providers separately on the issues mentioned above in “Purpose” within a developing economy. The survey fits into two aspects of the decision-useful theory: useful to make what decisions and useful to whom.

This study aims to empirically investigate the role of accounting information quality (AIQ) as a mediating factor in the relationship between knowledge management (KM) processes and business performance (BP) of the financial institutions (FI) operating in Jordan.

Based on a literature review and knowledge-based theory, an integrated conceptual framework has been developed to guide the study. The study’s conceptual framework is constituted of three primary constructs, namely, KM processes (acquisition, integration and utilization), BP (financial indicators and non-financial indicators) and AIQ conceptualized using the International Accounting Standard Board’s (2010) framework fundamental qualitative characteristics (relevance, understandability, faith representation and comparability). Data has been collected through a self-administered questionnaire applied to 247 respondents. The targeted respondents have been FIs (commercial banks and insurance companies) in Jordan.

The main findings supported accounting information as a mediator factor in enhancing the relationship between the FIs’ KM process and BP (FI) operating in Jordan.

This study contributed to theory by filling a gap in the literature regarding the role AIQ as a mediator factor between the KM process and BP of the FI operating in Jordan as a developing country.