Accounting Commons^™

Users’ Perceptions Of The Drivers For Corporate Sustainability Disclosures Made By Chinese Listed Companies, Junru Zhang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

China’s economy and development over decades has achieved not only its national prosperity, but also a significant degree of concern about corporate sustainability. As a vehicle of communication to society, corporate sustainability disclosures (CSD) are considered the most effective and efficient, facilitating the empowerment and acknowledgement of stakeholders in the quest for, and understanding of, sustainability. Much research has investigated the influential factors of CSD based on theories developed from Western standards and economy; however, very limited research considers the driving forces created by cultural and political influences based on the understanding of the perceptions of corporate sustainability among stakeholders …

Factors Affecting Csr Disclosure In Nepalese Banks: A Global Reporting Initiative Perspective, Gopi Bidari

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the extent of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Nepalese banks in their annual reports based on GRI G4 guidelines. Also, this thesis accentuates the relationships between the influencing factors (i.e. bank size, bank age, bank profitability and ownership structure) and the CSR disclosure levels (i.e., economic, social, environmental and the overall CSR disclosures).

A sample of 82 banks was selected from the Nepal Stock Exchange for the year 2014. CSR related information was collected from the annual reports of the sample banks. Content analysis and multiple regression analysis tools were used to test the developed …

Measuring The Quality And Identifying Influencing Factors Of Sustainability Reporting: Evidence From The Resources Industry In Australia, Siew Hoon Ong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The lack of a standardised reporting framework in sustainability reporting has resulted in companies producing unaudited generic sustainability information that are not reflective of companies’ actual sustainability performance. The disclosures also differ in quality and hinder comparison. This study addresses these problems with the development of a new scoring index that integrates the hard and soft principles in Clarkson, Li, Richardson and Vasvari’s (2008) environmental index with performance indicators of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) framework. The newly developed index comprises all three aspects of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) and adopts a standardised scoring scale that is reflective of …

The Effect Of Hypothesis Framing, Prior Expectation And Professional Trait Scepticism On Experts’ And Novices’ Evidence Selected In A Complex Task, Abhijit Das

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines evidence selection strategy among external auditors (i.e. professionals) and accounting students (i.e. novices) in a going concern assessment task considering three factors; hypothesis framing, prior expectation and professional “trait” scepticism as measured by Hurtt (2010) scale. Within this context, the study sets out to accomplish three goals: (1) to re-examine evidence selection strategy based on hypothesis framing and prior expectation, (2) to validate the Hurtt (2010) scale using expert reviews and confirmatory factor analysis and (3) to investigate whether professional trait scepticism influences selection strategy.

Owing to the incidence of high-profile accounting and auditing scandals worldwide, the …

Australian Charity Organisations: A Study Of Audit Fee Determinants, Andrew Priest

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Accounting, and more specifically auditing, plays an important role in charity organisations’ accountability processes. This has been highlighted with the commencement of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission in 2012 heralding a new era of accountability and regulation. It is in this context that this study used a stratified sample of 101 Australian charities’ 2011-2012 annual reports to study five aspects of the charity audit market, which formed its objectives. These were: a) to estimate and develop a model of Australian charity fee audit determinants; b) to determine if there was evidence of Big Four audit firm fee premiums in …

An Analysis Of Insider Dysfunctional Behavours In An Accounting Information System Environment, Mohd Saiyidi Mat Roni

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Insider deviant behaviour in Accounting Information Systems (AIS) has long been recognised as a threat to organisational AIS assets. The literature abounds with a plethora of perspectives in attempts to better understand the phenomenon, however, practitioners and researchers have traditionally focussed on technical approaches, which, although they form part of the solution, are insufficient to address the problem holistically. Managing insider threats requires an understanding of the interconnectedness between the human and contextual factors in which individuals operate, since technical methodologies in isolation have the potential to increase rather than reduce insider threats. This dilemma led many scholars to examine …

Redefining Internal Audit Performance: Impact On Corporate Governance, Razimah Binti Abdullah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

One of the preventive measures to situations akin to world financial crises increasingly forwarded is effective internal audit function (IAF) (e.g., Imhoff, 2003; Mohamad & Muhamad Sori, 2011). Internal audit, a component of corporate governance, continues to evolve due to changes in business strategies and requirements placed on it by legislators. The roles of internal auditors and audit committees (ACs), the key personnel in IAFs, are changing to a more value-added approach as business strategies move towards corporate sustainability and organisational excellence. Suggestions forwarded to improve the performance or determining the quality of IAF include effective involvement of ACs in …

Internal Auditor And Internal Whistleblowing Intentions : A Study Of Organisational, Individual, Situational And Demographic Factors, Syahrul A. Ahmad

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Whistleblowing is a type of ethical decision-making behaviour, and it has been one of
the positive outcome behaviours investigated in the ethical decision-making literature.
The issue has garnered widespread attention since the collapse of global multinational
companies which lead to the passage of the renowned Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Since then a vast amount of research has been conducted in the whistleblowing stream,
though it is still predominantly taking place largely in western countries. Such studies
as have been undertaken in Asian countries neglect to consider how Malaysian
respondents might play their roles in undertaking this type of ethical decision-making …

Auditor Stress: Antecedents And Relationships To Audit Quality, Mohd Nazli Mohd Nor

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research on Reduced Audit Quality Practices (RAQP) has consistently shown serious negative consequences in the auditing profession. It has found that under certain pressure levels, auditors tend to engage in RAQP. However, most of the previous studies that had investigated RAQP failed to examine RAQP from a stress model perspective which incorporates stressors, stress measures and stress consequences into the model and to measure the interactions among these constructs. Previous research has mainly focused on the direct effect of stressors (e.g., time budget pressure, leadership styles, individual personality etc.) on RAQP; there is no single investigation that has simultaneously examined …

The Effect Of Ownership Concentration, Board Of Directors, Audit Committee And Ethnicity On Conservative Accounting : Malaysian Evidence, Rahimah Mohamed Yunos

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines whether ownership concentration, board of directors, audit
committee and ethnicity of directors affect conservative accounting. Additionally,
this thesis examines whether the impact of firms’ governance on conservatism is
moderated by ownership concentration. Previous evidence has suggested that
conservative accounting controls the agency problem, but so far, there is no
evidence that it is applicable in Malaysian firms, as firms are closely held by the
controlling shareholders.

This thesis employs panel data on Malaysian listed companies observed over
seven years from 2001 to 2007. Malaysian firms are chosen as the sample
because they provide a useful setting for …

A Design Science Approach To Developing And Determining Web Site Quality Dimensions For The Public Accounting Profession, Casty K. Nyaga

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Public Accounting (PA) firms play an important role in both the local and the international business environment. Their accounting and business services functions cut across organisations, sectors and industries. Like other professional service firms, PA firms are becoming concerned about the World Wide Web (web) since the services they offer can be delivered via the web more efficiently (eg. at a lower cost) and effectively (24/7). Thus there is a need to assess the quality of their web site. This study developed an instrument for measuring PA web site quality based on an extensive literature review which identified the previously …

Perceived Likelihood Of Activity-Based Costing To Succeed In A University Setting, Nazmi Jarrar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study provides exploratory empirical evidence on the likelihood of Activity Based Costing (ABC) to succeed in a university setting and the association of this success with specific behavioral implementation factors. The study examined perceptions of Edith Cowan University's ABC users and preparers of the likelihood of the system to succeed in the University and their perceptions of eleven behavioral implementation factors identified by previous studies to have significant association with ABC implementation success. Results were analyzed so as to determine the significance of the correlation between the users' and preparers' perceptions of each of the eleven factors and their …

A Study Of Company Characteristics Associated With Financial Disclosure Practices In India, Monali Dasgupta

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The objective of the study is to examine firms characteristics associated with aggregate financial disclosure practices of listed Indian manufacturing and trading companies for the financial year 1999-2000. Eight research hypothesis were developed. It is hypothesised that firm size, size of the audit firm, leverage, multinational company influence, and capital increase will be positively associated with disclosure of financial information by Indian companies, while ownership diffusion, liquidity and profitability will have no association with disclosure of financial information by Indian companies. Two types of disclosure indexes (weighted and the unweighted index) were constructed for measuring disclosure. Weights were assigned to …

Voluntary Disclosure Of Segment Information In A Regulated Environment : Australian Evidence, Mui Ching Chan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an empirical examination of the relationship between six firm characteristics, namely: firm size, industry membership, minority interest, financial leverage, firm diversification, ownership diffusion, and voluntary disclosure of segment information in a regulated environment. This study provides empirical evidence that there are incentives for Australian companies with specific firm characteristics to voluntarily disclose segment information in a regulated setting. The theoretical frameworks employed in this research study are agency theory and contracting theory. Compensation contracts are employed to resolve the potential conflicts of interest between the shareholders and managers giving rise to agency cost of equity. Debt contracts …

Accounting Information And The Underpricing Of Indonesian Initial Public Offerings, Tatang Ary Gumanti

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between accounting measures of total firm risk and the magnitudes of IPO initial returns. The existing explanations of the underpricing of lPO's suggests that the extent of underpricing is positively related to ex ante uncertainty about the issues. This study argues that accounting risk measures are related to the ex ante uncertainty. Since ex ante uncertainty is positively related to IPO underpricing, accounting risk measures are also arguably related to IPO underpricing. An event methodology is employed in this study. Five accounting risk measures are examined: financial leverage, operating leverage, …

An Examination Of Methods Of Improving Audit Judgment, Janne Chung

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined three methods of improving audit judgment, namely inoculation, the group process, and counter explanation. Prior research found that auditors' judgments were not always optimum. An important question this study asked was whether the use of inoculation, the group process and counter explanation leads to more effective judgments. In Experiment One, I proposed that inoculation will reduce the effect of framing so that participants exposed to the inoculation treatment will not display a framing effect, while participants not exposed to the treatment will. In addition, I hypothesised that the relation between audit experience and responsiveness to training has …

Social Disclosure By Australian Listed Mineral Mining Companies: A Stakeholder Approach, Gary S. Kong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines the incentives of Australian listed mineral mining companies within the stakeholder theoretical framework to disclose socially responsible information in their corporate annual report. The three dimensions of the stakeholder theory were empirically tested to explain the association of a social disclosure model comprising categories of social disclosure for environment, energy, product and services, human resources and community involvement, with nine firm-specific characteristics. The sample of 179 Australian listed mineral mining companies for the financial year ending 1994 was obtained by personal contact. The extent of social disclosure was measured by a dichotomous index against the social disclosure …

Users And Accounting Information Preferences Of Government Department Financial Reports, Helen R. Mignot

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The introduction of an accounting standard requiring government departments to replace fund-type, cash-based accounting statements with business-type, accrual based accounting statements has led to criticism that business-type, general purpose financial statements do not take account of the information requirements of major users. Such criticism echoes a long standing debate in which the users of public sector financial statements and their informational requirements are analysed in competing models. One view suggests that there are many users with homogeneous informational needs, who can be classified into a few broad groups. The other view maintains that there are few users who have differential …

Earnings Management And Accounting Choices In Initial Public Offerings : Evidence From Indonesia, Tatang A. Gumanti

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Information asymmetry about the value of the firm making initial public Offering and the potential investors exists. This thesis investigates whether issuers of initial public affairs (IPOs) use accounting discretion to increase the reported earnings through the choice of accounting methods. Anecdotal evidence •suggests that accounting numbers are used in the pricing of IPO. Further, there is an economic incentive for issuers of IPOs to sell the offering shares at the highest possible price which in tum increases their proceeds and thus their wealth. This suggests a prediction that, immediately prior to the offering, issuers exercise accounting discretion to increase …

Receptivity To A Proposed Change In Accounting Education, Patricia A. Addison

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This cross-sectional correlation study is concerned with accounting practitioners' receptivity to a propose change in accounting education; specifically, that the existing three year degree course be extended to four years. This change is proposed by the Accounting Profession in Australia. A model of accounting practitioners' receptivity towards the proposed change, at the adoption stage, was revised and adapted from a general model of teacher receptivity to any system-wide change. The revised model has one dependent variable, receptivity, which is measured in three aspects; overall feelings, attitudes, and general behaviour intentions towards the proposed change in accounting education. It has eight …

Determinants Of The Decision To Capitalize Finance Leases By Lessees : Australian Evidence, Salleh B. Hassan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The objective of this study is to examine the economic factors motivating Australian listed lessee firms to adopt capitalization or footnote disclosure of their finance lease commitments from 1985 to 1987 as permitted by the transitional provision of AAS 17. Six research hypotheses are developed from the economic consequences perspective. It is hypothesised that the decision to capitalize finance lease commitments is positively related to firm’s : (1) corporate structure, (2) size, {3) political visibility, _(4) financial performance, and (5) overseas association, and negatively related to (6) debt contract financial constraints. Support for these hypotheses would be construed as suggesting …

Tax-Effect Accounting In Australia : The Nature And Treatment Of The Provision For Deferred Income Tax, Robert A. Lopez

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Tax-effect accounting has been controversy since its origin in allocation has generally been adopted the subject in the 1940s. Tax across the English speaking world, even though underlying basic issues have not been resolved. A review of the literature shows that issues such as: whether income tax is an expense; whether the provision for deferred income tax is a liability and whether the provision for future income tax benefit is an asset have not been resolved because of differing opinions as to what is an expense, liability or an asset. The development of a conceptual framework in Australia, which provides …

Interaction Of Budget Emphasis, Budgeting Participation And Task Characteristics : A Cross-Cultural Study, Liang C. Low

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is an empirical examination which links two important areas of management accounting research. The first area relates to the relation between superiors' evaluative styles and the two dependent variables of job related tension and managerial performance. The second area relates to the impact of culture on management accounting system. Two of Hofstede's (1980) dimensions of culture were used in this study. They were power distance and individualism. Two studies, Brownell and Hirst (1986) and Brownell and Dunk (1991), both of which were conducted with samples from a low power distance/high individualism nation were re-examined within the framework suggested …