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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Business
A Stakeholder Analysis Of Employee Disclosures In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker
A Stakeholder Analysis Of Employee Disclosures In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker
Pamela Kent
Little empirical research has identified what drives companies to voluntarily report employee-related information. Ullmann’s three-dimensional stakeholder theory model is applied as a framework to analyse associations with corporate employee-related disclosures. Measures are developed to estimate stakeholder power, strategic posture and economic performance associated with employeerelated disclosures. Results indicate that employee-related disclosures increase with more employee share ownership, employee concentration, the quality of corporate governance, employee recognition in corporate mission statements, adverse publicity about employees and economic performance measured by profit per employee.
Do Corporate Governance Recommendations Improve The Performance And Accountability Of Small Listed Companies?, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Do Corporate Governance Recommendations Improve The Performance And Accountability Of Small Listed Companies?, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
This study examines whether the implementation of the 2003 Australian Securities Exchange Limited governance recommendations influenced the governance choices of small companies and whether compliance improves their accounting and market performance and earnings quality. Our analysis examines small and large companies because we are interested in the different effects of the governance recommendations on the two groups. The analysis shows a significant shift by small and large companies to comply with the recommendations around the time of their introduction. We find that formation of an audit committee surrounding the reform period is significantly associated with improved earnings quality for small …
Attaining Legitimacy By Employee Information In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker
Attaining Legitimacy By Employee Information In Annual Reports, Pamela Kent, Tamara Zunker
Pamela Kent
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide evidence on the category, quantity and quality of voluntary employee-related information Australian listed companies disclose in their annual report. An explanation is also sought to determine whether companies adopt employee-related disclosures to legitimise their relationship with society. Voluntary adoption of corporate governance best practice recommendations is used as a measure of companies’ attempts to attain ex ante legitimacy. Media agenda setting theory is used as a measure of an attempt to gain legitimacy ex post following adverse publicity from the media. Design/methodology/approach – The annual reports of all companies with …
Determinants Of Voluntary Board Remuneration Committee Formation And Composition, Pamela Kent, Kim Kercher, James Routledge
Determinants Of Voluntary Board Remuneration Committee Formation And Composition, Pamela Kent, Kim Kercher, James Routledge
Pamela Kent
This study provides evidence on factors that determine the voluntary adoption of corporate governance recommendations regarding remuneration committees in 2008. The findings indicate that remuneration committee existence is significantly associated with insider share ownership, institutional shareholding and change in CEO. Composition of the committee is significantly explained by independent directors and complexity measured by geographical segments (marginally). Other variables controlled for are growth opportunities, free cash flow, asset turnover, size, governance quality, debt levels, age and the presence of a big four auditor.
Incentives For Prior Period Error Corrections Under Ias 8, Amanda Carol, Pamela Kent
Incentives For Prior Period Error Corrections Under Ias 8, Amanda Carol, Pamela Kent
Pamela Kent
This study examines whether International Financial Reporting Standard IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors (IAS 8) is used to engage in opportunistic reporting practices by Australian companies. IAS 8 requires prior period errors to be amended retrospectively by restating the comparatives as if the error had never occurred (International Accounting Standards Board, 2009). Hence, the impact of any prior period errors is shown through retained earnings rather than being included in the current period’s profit or loss. Managers could use this treatment for prior period errors as a method for manipulating current period earnings. If this …
Board Gender Diversity And Going Concern Audit Options, Larelle Law Chapple, Pamela Kent, James Routledge
Board Gender Diversity And Going Concern Audit Options, Larelle Law Chapple, Pamela Kent, James Routledge
Pamela Kent
This paper examines the relation between gender diversity on the board of directors and audit committee and the likelihood that a company receives a going concern audit opinion. We find that, after controlling for the strength of corporate governance and relevant financial characteristics, boards with at least one female director are less likely to receive a going concern opinion. We attribute this result to the improved monitoring and risk aversion of female directors. We find that the presence of an audit committee is associated with an increased likelihood of a going concern opinion indicating the important role that the audit …
Voluntary Employee Disclosures In Australian Annual Reports Applying Ullmann’S Stakeholder Theory, Pamela Kent, Carolyn Windsor, Tamara Zunker
Voluntary Employee Disclosures In Australian Annual Reports Applying Ullmann’S Stakeholder Theory, Pamela Kent, Carolyn Windsor, Tamara Zunker
Pamela Kent
Extract:Many companies state in their reports that their employees are the company’s most valuable resource (Flamholtz, 1999; Gröjer and Johanson, 1999; Guthrie, Petty and Johanson, 2001; Mouritsen, 1998; Petty and Guthrie, 2000). The purpose of this paper is to examine voluntarily employee 1 disclosures in Australian corporate annual reports by applying Ullmann’s (1985) three dimensional stakeholder framework comprising stakeholder power, strategic posture and economic performance. This study first investigates the propensity of companies to disclose voluntary employee information in relation to stakeholder employee power which is represented by employee share ownership and union membership. Second, strategic posture denoted by corporate …
Are Corporate Governance Recommendations Relevant For Small Companies?, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Are Corporate Governance Recommendations Relevant For Small Companies?, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
This study examines the extent to which small listed companies in Australia comply with the Australian Securities Exchange corporate governance recommendations, and whether applying these recommendations is associated with benefits in terms of performance and accountability. The results indicate that many small listed companies comply with the recommendations, although the benefits to these companies from doing so appear to be low. We do not find evidence of a positive association between small company compliance with recommendations regarding board independence, diligence and formation of an audit committee and performance. However, we find that compliance with the recommendation against having a dual …
Corporate Governance And The Quality Of Green House Gas Emission Disclosures, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, James Routledge
Corporate Governance And The Quality Of Green House Gas Emission Disclosures, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, James Routledge
Pamela Kent
The introduction of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Cth) legislation is evidence of the importance the Australian Government places on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reporting. Australian corporations’ GHG disclosure information in annual reports is currently unknown as most research has focused on environmental voluntary disclosures in general. We used content analysis to produce an index wherein we assessed the quality of GHG disclosures made in the annual reports of Australian public-listed companies in 2007. Our interest was focused on whether good quality corporate governance influences the quality of GHG emission disclosures. We examined the …
The Decision To Outsource Risk Management Activities, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent
The Decision To Outsource Risk Management Activities, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent
Pamela Kent
This study uses transaction cost economics (TCE) to identify factors influencing Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies’ decision to internally generate or outsource activities required to manage risk. Limited research has been conducted applying TCE in a risk management context with most in the accounting discipline concentrating on internal audit. Increasing our understanding of risk management practices benefits organisations, accounting professionals and regulators concerned with governance practice. Using a unique data set obtained from a survey sample of 271 listed ASX companies in 2009 combined with archival data hypotheses are operationalised and analysed using multivariate and logistic regression. Broadly in line …
The Decision To Outsource Management Advisory Services, Pamela Kent
The Decision To Outsource Management Advisory Services, Pamela Kent
Pamela Kent
Purpose – The purpose of this paper, using transaction cost economics as a theoretical framework, is to seek an understanding of a company's decision to purchase Management Advisory Services (MAS) from their external auditors and other consultants as opposed to assembling MAS internally within the company.Design/methodology/approach – Data from annual reports for a pooled sample of 3,154 company years were collected for listed Australian companies to determine MAS from auditors. Data for a second sample were collected by undertaking a survey of listed companies to provide a figure for total management advisory services paid to auditors and other consultants. Ordinary …
Auditor Tactics In Negotiations: A Research Note, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, Ray Mcnamara
Auditor Tactics In Negotiations: A Research Note, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, Ray Mcnamara
Pamela Kent
This study provides a broad set of tactics identified and used by mediation experts widely cited in the psychology literature. Seven auditing partners are provided with this broad list of tactics and asked to apply these tactics to two examples of an audit judgment setting. Another group of auditors consisting of 11 partners and 11 managers identify the degree of importance they plan to place on these 38 adapted tactics in the same audit judgment setting. Factor analysis is used to group the tactics into dimensions and it is found that there are four underlying factors. These are contending (forcing/asserting), …
Choice Of Non-Audit Services' Supplier: Other Consultants Versus The External Auditor, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, Jenny Stewart
Choice Of Non-Audit Services' Supplier: Other Consultants Versus The External Auditor, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
Extract: The research problem for this study is to identify factors that influence a company’s decision to purchase non-audit services (NAS) from their external auditor rather than from an alternative external NAS provider (hereafter described as an external consultant). The study examines whether a company’s competitive position and its corporate governance characteristics influence its choice of NAS provider. It also explores whether receiving a qualified audit opinion is associated with its decision to source NAS from an external consultant.
Innate And Discretionary Accruals Quality And Corporate Governance, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Innate And Discretionary Accruals Quality And Corporate Governance, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
This paper extends previous research on the association between corporate governance mechanisms and accruals quality. We derive measures of the discretionary and innate components of accruals quality and regress them against corporate governance characteristics. For discretionary accruals, we find use of a Big 4 audit firm and a larger audit committee as the primary governance mechanisms associated with higher accruals quality. For innate accruals quality, we find that higher quality is associated with an independent board of directors, a larger, more independent and more active audit committee, and use of a Big 4 audit firm. Our findings suggest a stronger …
Corporate Governance And Company Performance In Australia, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, Jenny Steward
Corporate Governance And Company Performance In Australia, Jacqueline Christensen, Pamela Kent, Jenny Steward
Pamela Kent
This study tests whether the adoption of Australian best practice corporate governance recommendations have a positive or negative relation with financial performance measured by return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q. The governance mechanisms associated with increased ROA and Tobin's Q are the existence of an audit, nomination and remuneration committee in Australia suggesting they are particularly beneficial to companies. We found evidence that a significant negative relation exits between the number of directors and proportion of independent directors on the board and the presence of a dual CEO/Chairperson and ROA. There is a significant positive relation between the number …
Application Of Stakeholder Theory To Corporate Environmental Disclosures, Pamela Kent, Christopher Chan
Application Of Stakeholder Theory To Corporate Environmental Disclosures, Pamela Kent, Christopher Chan
Pamela Kent
Ullmann's (1985) three-dimensional model of social responsibility disclosure is tested to determine whether it can be operationalized to help explain the quantity and quality of environmental disclosures in Australian annual reports. The stakeholder power dimension of Ullmann's framework is significant in explaining environmental disclosures while content of the mission statement and existence or otherwise of environmental or social responsibility committees also find strong statistically significant support in the results. Ullmann's stakeholder theory has previously been applied to explain social disclosures in general (Roberts, 1992) and is an important theory because it introduces a measure of strategy. The current paper demonstrates …
What Drives Tbl Reporting: Good Governance Or Threat To Legitimacy?, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem
What Drives Tbl Reporting: Good Governance Or Threat To Legitimacy?, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem
Pamela Kent
This paper provides two complementary explanations for the adoption of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting by Australian companies. The first explanation is that companies adopt TBL reporting to legitimise their relationship with society because of adverse publicity from the media. The second explanation is that TBL reporting is adopted because of the company’s desire to achieve high-quality reporting and transparency inferred by strong corporate governance. Companies with TBL reporting had significantly more adverse media coverage before implementing TBL reporting than non-TBL companies. TBL reporting is also significantly and positively related to the existence of an environmental or sustainable development committee …
Innate And Discretionary Accrual Quality And Corporate Governance, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Innate And Discretionary Accrual Quality And Corporate Governance, Pamela Kent, James Routledge, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
The empirical analysis presented in this paper provides further insight into the important issue of the association between corporate governance structures and the quality of reported company earnings. The analysis uses the measure of accrual quality developed by Dechow and Dichev (2002) which provides a direct measure of the quality of current accruals. We derive measures of the innate and discretionary components of accrual quality following Francis et al. (2005), and subsequently include these measures in regressions against corporate governance characteristics. The results show that sound governance structures have a positive association between the innate and discretionary components of accrual …
Auditor Orientation, Strategies, And Tactics In Audit Negotiations, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, Ray Mcnamara
Auditor Orientation, Strategies, And Tactics In Audit Negotiations, Janice Hollindale, Pamela Kent, Ray Mcnamara
Pamela Kent
This paper establishes the tactics that auditors use in negotiations with their client-management. It analyses those tactics to determine whether they are related by some underlying dimensions and their relevant strategies. Auditors performed a sorting task on 38 audit-specific tactics and assembled the tactics into groups of similar tactics. We used the auditors’ own cognisant representations of those tactics to determine their underlying structure. Multidimensional scaling found that there are four dimensions to the tactics that auditors use. During negotiations with their clients, auditors employ tactics representing core dimensions which can be interpreted as “Concern for Self”, “Concern for Client”, …
Droughts And Big Baths Of Australian Agricultural Firms, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem, Glenn Cuffe
Droughts And Big Baths Of Australian Agricultural Firms, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem, Glenn Cuffe
Pamela Kent
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Australian agricultural firms display big bath behaviour during droughts by recognising extraordinary and abnormal losses. It is hypothesised that Australian agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses in drought years than in non-drought years and, in a given drought year, agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses than firms in other industries.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse 405 firm-years data for agricultural firms over 1980-1995. For comparison, they also analyse matched-pair samples of 17 and 30 non-agricultural firms for the drought years of …
Corporate Governance And Disclosures On The Transition To International Financial Reporting Standards, Pamela Kent, Jenny Stewart
Corporate Governance And Disclosures On The Transition To International Financial Reporting Standards, Pamela Kent, Jenny Stewart
Pamela Kent
For reporting periods ending on or after 30 June 2004, Australian companies were required to disclose the expected impact of applying Australian equivalents of International Financial Reporting Standards effective from 1 January 2005. The objective of this paper is to examine the association between the level of disclosure and corporate governance quality. Using a sample of listed companies with 30 June balance dates, we find that the quantity of disclosure was positively related to some aspects of superior corporate governance, such as the frequency of board and audit committee meetings and the choice of auditor.
Governance Structures, Ethnicity, And Audit Fees Of Malaysian Listed Firms, Puan Yatim, Pamela Kent, Peter Clarkson
Governance Structures, Ethnicity, And Audit Fees Of Malaysian Listed Firms, Puan Yatim, Pamela Kent, Peter Clarkson
Pamela Kent
This study examines the association between external audit fees, and board and audit committee characteristics of 736 Malaysian listed firms. It is hypothesised that good corporate governance practices reduce auditors' risk assessments, resulting in lower audit fees. Drawing on the existence of a clearly identifiable ethnic domination of board membership and ownership of Malaysian listed firms, the study also posits that Bumiputera-controlled firms pay higher audit fees because of their weaker governance practices. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs a cross-sectional analysis of 736 firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia for the financial year ending in 2003. Multiple regression analysis is …
Psychological Characteristics Contributing To Expertise In Audit Judgement, Pamela Kent, Lois Munro, Tony Gambling
Psychological Characteristics Contributing To Expertise In Audit Judgement, Pamela Kent, Lois Munro, Tony Gambling
Pamela Kent
Prior research has sought a better understanding of the relation between audit expertise and judgment of auditors. The motivation for this study is derived from the need to further understand psychological characteristics contributing to audit expertise. This paper adopts part of a framework derived from the decision-making literature in psychology and applies it to auditing. Shanteau proposes that expert decision makers inherently possess 14 psychological characteristics. The importance of these characteristics is assessed using the perceptions of 55 practising auditors from three national accounting firms in Australia within and across four phases of the audit using a survey instrument. The …