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This study aims to explore the relationship between the degree of state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) mixed reform and the environmental response of enterprises, against the background of actively promoting the reform of mixed ownership in China.

The study is conducted on a sample of A-share listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen of China, investigated for the period 2015 to 2020. The baseline regression results are robust to a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. To deal with the issue of endogeneity, the technique of instrumental variable method has been applied.

The study confirms the U-shaped effect of the depth and restriction of mixed ownership on SOEs’ environmentally responsive behaviour in the manufacturing industry, especially for lower environmental regulation and higher level of risk-taking firms. The findings indicate that the government, shareholders and other stakeholders of enterprises should not simply consider that the mixed reform is directly promoting or reducing the environmental response behaviour of enterprises.

SOEs should improve their shareholding structures to undermine performance enhancement at the expense of the environment and increase environmentally beneficial behaviours. Regulators and governments should improve the institutional mechanism of environmental regulation and make efforts to promote corporate awareness of the environment.

Although the adoption and implementation of environmentally friendly policies are costly, improved environmental response and other social responsibilities are helpful to corporate long-term growth and reputation and obtain more capital market attention. Therefore, firms would benefit from improving their environmental response to protect nature, as well as to enjoy the economic and social benefits of a better environmental response.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a lack of studies focussing on the environmental behaviour of SOEs of mixed reform. As the mixed reform in China has come to a climax phase in recent several years, SOEs of mixed reform is an ideal environment for research. The study focusses on manufacturing firms as these firms are more susceptible to contribute to environmental pollution, exploitation of natural resources and labour concerns.

This study examines the impact of China’s mixed-ownership reform on the innovation of non-state-owned acquirers, with a particular focus on the impact on firms with high financing constraints, low-quality accounting information or less tangible assets.

We use a proprietary dataset of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges to investigate the impact of mixed ownership reform on non-state-owned enterprise (non-SOE) innovation. We employ regression analysis to examine the association between mixed ownership reform and firm innovation.

The study finds that non-state-owned firms can improve innovation by acquiring equity in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the reform. Eased financing constraints, lowered financing costs, better access to tax incentives or government subsidies, lowered agency costs, better accounting information quality and more credit loans are underlying the impact. Additionally, cross-ownership connections amongst non-SOE executives and government intervention strengthen the impact, whilst regional marketisation weakens it.

This study adds to the literature on the association between mixed ownership reform and firm innovation by focussing on the conditions under which this impact is stronger. It also sheds light on the policy implications for SOE reforms in emerging economies.

New public management (NPM) has transformed the public sector auditing context, although in quite different ways. Further, investigations into NPM’s impact on public sector auditors and audit institutions have been largely unconnected, with the exception of the critical examination of performance audits. We investigate the question of how public sector auditors’ roles and activities have changed as a result of NPM and later reforms.

We examine and synthesise public sector audit research examining reforms since the year 2000. The research presented considers changes to external and internal public sector audits as well as the development of public sector audit institutions – known as supreme audit institutions (SAIs).

Considerable changes have occurred. Many were influenced by NPM, but others have evolved from the eco-system of accounting, auditing and public sector management. External auditors have responded to an increase in demand for accountability. Additional management and governance techniques have been introduced from the private sector, such as internal auditing and audit committees. NPM has also led to conflicting trends, particularly when governments introduced competition to public sector auditing by contracting out but then chose to centralise to improve accountability. There is also greater international influence now through bodies like the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and similar regional bodies.

NPM reforms and the eco-system have impacted public sector auditing. Sustainability reporting is emerging as an area requiring more auditing attention; auditors also need to continue to develop better ways to communicate with citizens. Further, research into auditing in non-Western nations and emerging technologies is also required, especially where it provides learnings around more valuable audit practices. Empirical evidence is required of the strengths and weaknesses of SAIs’ structural variety.

The paper aims to examine the sufficient and necessary conditions upon which the innovative “partial shock model” was implemented in China.

The study employs a multi‐method approach, involving a case study of Wuhan city in 2004.

Evidence suggests that implementation of the partial shock model in state‐owned small and medium‐sized enterprises (SOSMEs) is not only essential, but also feasible. More than 1,000 enterprises in Wuhan have restructured properties, and hundreds of thousands of workers have changed their state‐owned identity, which has resulted in positive social and economic outcomes in SOSMEs.

The paper suggests that there is a need to combine business reorganisation with government's timely intervention so as to overcome potential problems such as unjust occupation of state assets and unfair distribution among different enterprises in the same city.

The paper explores the distinct Chinese experiences in reforms of SOSMEs, which is a relatively under‐researched area of entrepreneurship.

Many developed countries have seen significant reforms of their health systems for the last few decades. Despite extensive investment in these changes, health systems still face a range of challenges which reform efforts do not seem to have overcome. The purpose of this paper is to argue that there are two particular reasons, which go beyond the standard explanations of changing demographics and disease profiles.

The paper is a commentary based on the literature.

The first explanation relates to the relationship between substantive health care reform and governance reform. These are intertwined processes and the pattern of interaction has distorted both types of reform. Second, reform has multiple meanings and may sometimes be more of an intra-organizational ritual and routine than a coherent plan aiming to bring about particular changes. As such, part of the reason why reform so frequently fails to bring about change is that it was not actually intended to bring about specific changes in the first place. The limited success of reform in recent years, the authors argue, has been a result of the fact that reform has focused too much on the substantive aspects of healthcare, while ignoring the governance aspect of the sector.

As a result, governance has often been obstructed by interest groups inside the system, resulting in paralysis. The authors conclude by arguing that substantive reform of public organizations without an accompanying reassessment of the governance of these organizations are more likely to fail, compared to more comprehensive reform efforts.

After three years of economic reform in urban areas, China has been confronted with a series of choices. Six of these choices are examined: the focus of the reform, its approach, its target, the pattern of national economic macro‐management, the macro‐economic policy, and the pace of the reform. It is held that the focus of the reform should be the establishment of a planned commodity economic system, which is the correct target of the reform; such a reform must be carried out step by step, systematically and in the light of an integrated design worked out in advance, with greater paces to shorten the period in which two systems confront each other; the macro‐management of the economy should be carried out by the central authority on the basis of an integrated market rather than administrative decentralisation; the money supply should be controlled in order to create a relatively relaxed environment for reform. On each of the six aspects, other prevailing views are analysed.

Since the late 1970s, Chinese policymakers have implemented many policies to reform their country's administrative systems for the purpose of promoting economic development. In the area of public budgeting and finance, reform policies have been introduced to improve China's taxation system, budgeting system and intergovernmental fiscal relations. The implementation of these policies has resulted in many changes and improvement to China's society and has also created new challenges to China's future development. This symposium introduction provides a brief review of the development of reform policies and a summary of five articles that examine China's revenue system, public expenditure structure, budgeting control, incentive policy, and education finance.

Reforms set forth in Sarbanes‐Oxley and the NYSE, AMEX, and NASD are designed to prevent the reoccurrence of corporate collapses at companies such as Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc., and Global Crossing Ltd. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the possible impact the reforms may or may not have had in controlling the abuses uncovered in recent corporate failures.

This paper examines the reforms to corporate governance and the rationale behind the reforms, and examines how the actual governance structures of Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing during the years of their accounting scandals compared to the new requirements. It also offers a discussion as to whether the new reforms would have been helpful in preventing management's manipulation of earnings.

Global Crossing's governance structure would have satisfied a majority of the reforms. Enron's and WorldCom's governance structures would have satisfied less than half of the reforms.

This paper highlights the need for management and shareholders alike to focus on the substance of the reforms and not merely the form of the reforms in order to make meaningful improvements to corporate governance.

This paper should serve as a warning to the investing public. The reforms in and of themselves should not be relied on to prevent future corporate scandals. The reforms, however, do focus the spotlight directly on corporate boardrooms where shareholders can now insist that directors' interests be separate from those of the CEO and upper management.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to a dialogue between practitioners and academics. The article discusses the relevance of Public Sector Accounting (PSA) reforms, including their key approaches and challenges, and the role of the World Bank's Public Sector Accounting and Reporting (PULSAR) Program.

This is a practitioner's viewpoint, which reflects World Bank and PULSAR Program's publicly available documents and the opinions of a practitioner involved in the implementation of PSA reforms.

Implementation of PSA reforms, based on the good international standards and practices, such as International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), represents an opportunity for governments to significantly improve (1) the quality, reliability and comparability of their financial information; (2) decision-making process of the high-level public officials; and (3) the overall levels of fiscal transparency and public sector accountability and performance. There are several main approaches of the PSA reform implementation that could be observed across the globe. In practice, many countries and different jurisdictions face multiple challenges associated with PSA reform implementation. The World Bank and PULSAR Program in particular represent a valuable source of knowledge generation and sharing, and also acts as a catalyst for promoting PSA reforms in beneficiary countries.

The limitations of this article (which are also its strength in terms of fitness for purpose) are that as a practitioner's viewpoint, it provides a brief overview and personal judgements rather than an empirical analysis of developments applying a theoretical framework.

A practitioner's engagement with academic supports increased understanding of the respective views leading to better outcomes for practitioners and academics working in the area of public sector accounting.

The article provides a practitioner's input on the relevance of PSA reforms and their key challenges.