Financial statements in less developed countries： What do preparers demand？

This study reports on an empirical investigation of the characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs of preparers of external financial reports in a less developed country. The basic research instrument consisted of a questionnaire in two parts： the first addressing attitudes of professional accountants toward annual financial reports generally; the second, more specifically measuring the importance of the information items to preparers. Our results suggest that the independent auditor is the most influential group in decision-making processes. As in many developed countries, the auditor＇s report and the regulatory framework are considered to have a major influence on financial reporting practices. Preparers believe that a lack of knowledge of external users＇ needs and lack of reporting standards and accepted accounting principles are the main concerns with corporate financial reports in Iran. The results showed that the balance sheet, auditors＇ report, and income statement in that order are the three most important parts of the annual reports.     

Controversies over fair value accounting： The case of SMEs

This study analyses IASB＇s stipulations on fair value usage in its standard designed for SMEs and the reactions of national standard setters, preparers and users of financial reporting in this respect. It tries to clarify fair value applications such as market value and value in use and the appropriateness of their usage for the case on hand. This research determines the inconsistencies within IASB ED IFRSfor SMEs （2007） related to the usage of fair value, underlined by the respondents＇ comment letters. The content analysis of all the above, conducted according to the type of economy and nature of respondent, along with the statistical techniques applied, indicates a partial approval of fair value usage under the following conditions： clarification of the concept, details on its usage in relation to market liquidity and the nature of the asset, additional guidance regarding the measurement methods. We advocate for the value in use, an application of the fair value based on internal valuations, which offers an adequate cost-benefit rate. The final version ofIFRSfor SMEs highlights both the preference of market information over the internal valuations and the insufficient information regarding solutions suited for non-liquid markets. It may be appropriate for the IASB, maybe in collaboration with the IVSC, to provide guidance and details regarding the implementation and disclosure of the valuation techniques applicable to this type of entities.     

Control and its role in the process of ensuring knowledge continuity

With the commencement of the 21st century, the information age, knowledge economy and integration of information and knowledge among production factors, organizations show increasing interest in knowledge management. Managers are trying not only to preserve knowledge and transfer it efficiently within their organization, but also to ensure that it is not lost when a knowledge employee leaves the organization. Therefore, it is indispensable for organizations to monitor, record, transfer and preserve their knowledge. In order to ensure efficient preservation of knowledge by the organization, it is essential to integrate the area of the so-called knowledge continuity into the general management and ensure its maximum value. The goal of the article is to identify the role of control in the transformation process and its impact on ensuring knowledge continuity within the organization. A partial goal lies in identifying output quality control by means of productivity One of the conclusions of the article is that in today＇s economic situation, ignoring the existence of knowledge continuity could result in a crisis of management of knowledge and its loss.     

Research on environmental accounting information disclosure for thermal power enterprises in China： Current situation, countermeasure and implement way

Along with the unceasing expansion of the human society production and the economic activity scale, the influence and harm of the social economy to the global environment is more and more serious. As one of the high-polluting industries in China, the environment problems of the thermal power enterprises attract attention from the country and society. It is crucial for the country to improve the laws and regulations about the disclosure of environmental accounting information gradually, and the thermal power enterprises should also disclose more valuable environmental accounting information to the public. This paper analyzes and elaborates the current situation, countermeasure and implement way of the environmental accounting information disclosure systematically.     

The analysis of determinants of going concern audit report

Going concern is one of essential things for user to make a financial decision. This research aims to explore factors that caused the issuance of going concern audit report by auditor. This research adds two new variables, audit size and audit committee, besides the other factors that cause auditor issue a going concern audit report. This research uses a regression logistic analysis to determine the relationship of each variable （liquidity, solvability, profitability, cash flow, audit firm size and audit committee） to going concern audit report. Different from previous researches, the results of this research show that liquidity, profitability, cash flow, and audit committee are not significant to influence the issuance of audit opinion. Audit size has a more significant relationship to audit opinion, while solvability is the most significant factor.     

The web-based financial reporting adopted by the listed companies in the Athens Stock Exchange

Web-based corporate reporting is the provision of financial information through the Internet. Other companies prefer to disclose their financial information in order to satisfy their investors and to attract new ones while others prefer to provide as less information as possible. The purpose of this paper is twofold： first it provides a critical examination of the main reporting criteria followed by the Greek listed companies, in order to point out how many of these companies present these criteria. Second, it considers how the industry sector of the listed companies or their capitalization category is related with their disclosure degree of financial reporting.     

How value relevant are earnings when they are transitory？ Empirical evidence for France

Capital market participants take seriously into consideration the value relevance of earnings for security valuation. This study examines the value relevance of earnings when earnings are transitory, i.e., there is great variability in earnings. It hypothesizes that the relationship between earnings and security returns worsens when earnings are transitory and this robustness is country specific. The dataset consists of more than 1,100 French firm-year observations over a nine year period. Empirical results show that when earnings are transitory, investors pay more attention to operating cash flows and less attention to earnings, a result indicating that investors penalize firms with unstable earnings. These results should be of great importance to financial analysts, investors and bankers for investing and credit decisions, especially after the recent global financial crisis.     

Malmquist indices of productivity growth for Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia

This paper studies the total factor productivity （TFP） of banks in Malaysia with the emphasis on comparing the relative productivities of Islamic and Conventional banks. The Malmquist index approach is used to decompose productivity growth into technical efficiency and technological change. The productivity growth is measured and decomposed into technical change and efficiency change. The efficiency change is further decomposed into pure efficiency change and scale efficiency. It is found that Islamic banks＇ productivity growth is limited by its lack of technological change compared to its conventional counterparts. Nonetheless, both types of banks are operating at the correct level in terms of scale or size.     

Risk signal, financial derivatives transactions and the Indonesian GAAP

Motivated by the accounting events of firm＇s default related to derivatives and other financial instruments transactions, this study is aimed to investigate the capability of accounting information to signal the risks associated with the use of financial derivatives for hedging. Hypothesis are developed based on the theory and empirical evidences of manager＇s motive to use derivatives for hedging （Berkman ＆ Bradbury, 1968; Dune, et al., 2003） as well as signaling theory of accounting information （Ball ＆ Brown, 1968; Beaver ＆ Dukes, 1972; Jensen ＆ Meckling, 1976; Megginson, 1997）. The hypotheses are formulated in the Ordinary Least Square model. The study uses Statistical Product and Service Solutions （SPSS） version 14 as software to conduct the statistical tests. Non-bank and non-financial institutions firms with financial derivatives transactions listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange during 2001 to 2006 are chosen as the sample. Determinations of the time frame has considered the timing of introduction of revisions of accounting standard on derivatives and other financial instruments in Indonesia PSAK 50 Financial Instruments： Presentations and Disclosures which was published in July, 1998, as well as PSAK 55 Financial Instruments： Recognition and Measurements which was published in 1998. Based on the sample selections procedure and the completeness of the data required by the model, 24 firms listed during 2001-2006 or equal to 66 firm-years observations were identified as the data to be tested. Empirical evidences suggests that Indonesian GAAP is capable of providing signal associated with： （1） Fair value exposures related to manager＇s motive to reduce the cost of financial distress; （2） Cash flow exposures related to manager＇s motive to practice tax arbitrage as well as to overcome underinvestment problems; （3） Interest rate risks related to manager＇s motive to avoid the risk default due to limitations of debt covenants; （4） Forex risk related to manager＇s motive to control forex exposures caused by foreign operations as well as foreign sales.     

The determinants of shareholders＇ wealth of acquiring firms in India

Corporate restructuring has become a major component in the financial and economic environment all over the world. Industrial restructuring has raised important issues for business decisions as well as for public policy formulation. Since 1991, Indian industries have been increasingly exposed to both domestic and international competition and competitiveness. The companies started restructuring there operations around their core business there M ＆ A. But M ＆ A is an area of potential good and harm in corporate strategy including manufacturing industry. Therefore, an attempt has been made to analyze the security returns and to find out the net wealth increase or decrease to the shareholders of acquiring firms. In India, there are totally 58 manufacturing companies which have undergone mergers and acquisitions during 2000, 2001 ＆ 2002. Thirty percentage from the total population was taken as sample size （i.e., 17 companies out of 58）. The present study is mainly based on secondary data. The Market Model and Market Adjusted Returns Model analysis are used as tools of analysis.     

From risk society to audit society

Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, the 2008 banking crisis occurred in an ultra-regulated environment. Legislative and regulatory financial-security regimes have in fact multiplied in recent years. The economic crisis is accelerating the transition of the risk society towards the audit society. But the G20 （Group of Twenty） declarations in Washington and London also reveal a managerial utopia： the march towards a society of confidence or harmony that would make controls superfluous. In this context, the article seeks to call upon philosophical, sociological and managerial references to risk, from Foucault to Power by way of Beck, Giddens ＆ Ewald, to shed light on the official declarations of the leaders of the world＇s main economies. The documentary corpus examined includes all the G20 works published between November 8, 2008 （preparation for the Washington Summit） and April 2, 2009 （conclusions of the London Summit）. The political philosophy underlying the G20＇s works remains fundamentally liberal, even though saving the worldwide market economy involves established security systems as well as self-control and control of others. In the end, the leaders do not decide between reinforcing the existing tools and inventing new systems. The updating of security technologies is meant to serve the preservation of the capitalist managerial utopia. This gives rise to a new variant of Beck＇s risk-society paradigm, too often confined to environmental threats alone, in three phases： （1） The crisis is a consequence of financial modernity and in particular of the inefficiency of regulation in the face of growing sophistication in techniques; （2） To restore confidence, the states and international institutions want, paradoxically, both to reinforce regulation and promote flexibility; （3） Thereupon, flexi-security controlled by worldwide economic governance characterizes the second financial modernity.     

Are Islamic incomes relevance to commercial banks in Malaysia？

A significant price-to-earnings relation is evident in many research findings, which includes study on Malaysia Stock Markets, that the strength, consistency and magnitude of the relation are not as large as those reported in institutionally more developed markets. However, the price adjustment is stronger if price reaction is measured over a long periods, which is consistent to speculative trading. Firm-specific variables such as revenue, firm size and debt-equity have no incremental information content beyond earnings implies that the market monitoring process in an emerging market focuses on earnings only during financial announcement. Therefore, this paper revisited the study on the relevant of accounting banks in Malaysia using the earnings response coefficients, earnings by looking at Islamic Income for commercial which are the earnings-to-share return coefficients that are estimated for sub earnings components by including Islamic banking incomes in the analysis. This paper discovered that though there is a positive effect, the earnings from Islamic banking operation are small. Thus, the total earnings as well as the sub-categories of earnings of banks appear to enter the pricing considerations of investors.     

Role of supply chain management in target costing

Standard costing is used as a control for product costing. But with life cycle becoming shorter, costing should be done at the design and development stage of a product. This is achieved through target costing.The implementation of target costing and target pricing is done with the ultimate purpose of cost reduction, cost understanding, continuous improvement, competitiveness, early purchasing and supplier involvement, and improved design and accountability by manufacturers. The study explores the participation of the purchasing and supply chain management＇s role in target costing and target pricing process. Supply management plays an active role in monitoring the ongoing cost and performance of suppliers during the early stages of product development. Implementation of target costing and target pricing in various organizations are also explored. Leading Japanese manufacturers have used target costing and target pricing systems to their advantage and the paper also examines the adaptation of the Western companies to these proactive cost management techniques to improve their product development processes.     

An empirical study on information content of accounting earnings and cash flow

Based on deep analyzing the colluding and checking relation of income statement and cash flow statement, this paper chooses and designs the corresponding profit index, carries on the comparative study of information content between accounting earnings and cash flows. The paper utilizes the financial data of Chinese listed company in manufacturing industry from 2003 to 2005, adopts the price model and analyzes empirical study about two kinds of profit indexes and value relevance. Studies have suggested： accounting earnings and cash flows all have relevant relations to stock prices; however, the relevance between cash flow and stock price is stronger, and cash flows have higher information quality.     

Accounting regulation and IPSAS implementation： Efforts of transition countries toward IPSAS compliance

The need for high quality standards to enhance sound and consistent financial reporting and the fact that the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public sector extended to a belief that public and private sectors did not have to be managed in fundamentally different ways, fostered a wide-ranging discussion about the harmonization of public sector accounting systems and their convergence towards the private sector financial reporting standards. This paper discusses the state and perspective of public sector accounting and financial reporting in transition countries. Precisely, this paper aims to examine the adequacy of governmental accounting and financial reporting model, reflecting the existing accounting regulation and financial reporting framework in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The motivation for this paper emerges from international discussions about IPSASs development and adoption, and the fact that the topic is becoming more and more relevant as many countries are moving towards adopting full accrual accounting using IPSASs as their method of financial reporting. Our results show that the degree and dynamics of government accounting systems＇ transformation in transition countries depends upon several specific factors which have to be taken into account when evaluating the systems and making comparison between government accounting system reforms in countries in the analysis. Thus, the study distinguishes certain similarities but also discrepancies regarding the status and possible further development of governmental accounting in countries examined.     

A system dynamics model for the assessment of the effects of advertising and sales promotion on profitability

Advertising and sales promotion have significant impact on raising customer awareness. They are tools by which customers become acquainted with new and innovative products and services of the companies. Despite the importance of these tools in increasing sales, it is not easy to evaluate their effect on sales. One of the problems confronted by the marketing managers is the determination of a clear relationship between the effectiveness of advertising and sales promotion on profitability. In this article, considering the relationship between these tools and brand equity, we have attempted to determine the relationship between effectiveness of these two factors and profitability. Next, a system dynamics model for representing the effects of marketing communication tools on company profitability is offered. Finally, using the data from a corporation and the numeric values related to each of the elements in the model, an attempt has been made to determine a number representing the magnitude of the effect of advertising and sales promotion on the corporation＇s revenue and profitability and to draw the respective curves related to the effects of these two factors.     

Symbols In Hills like White Elephants

The purpose of this paper is to study the function of symbolization in short story by analyzing the symbols in Ernest Hemingway＇s work： Hills like White Elephants.     

Corporate governance mechanisms and firm valuation in Malaysian listed firms： A panel data analysis

Corporate governance mechanisms emerge to tackle agency problems in ensuring that shareholders＇ funds are not expropriated or wasted on unprofitable activities. The issue arises as to whether these improvements have been effective in reducing agency costs, and therefore enhancing firm value. The objectives of this paper is to examine the effects of governance mechanisms of dividend, types of ownership structure, and board governance on firm value. This paper utilises a panel data analysis of 403 firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia over a four-year period from years 2002 to 2005. A hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses and the data is analysed using the generalized least square （GLS） estimation technique. Overall, the results highlight the importance of moderating role played by board governance variables with types of ownership structure to influence firm value. However, the benefits of better corporate governance through enhanced board governance are not the same across all firms since their incentives vary with respect to dividend and different types of ownership structure mechanisms.     

Annual risk reporting of listed companies in Malaysia

This study examines risk reporting in annual reports of Malaysian listed companies. The mandatory and voluntary disclosures of risk information are analyzed and the authors examine whether a relationship exists between company size, leverage, and industry type and risk disclosure levels. 150 listed companies from five industries are selected as sample. Content analysis and risk disclosure index of dichotomous measurement are used in data collection. Overall the results indicate that level of risk information disclosed in the annual reports is still minimal. OLS （Ordinary least squares） regression analysis indicates that the level of risk information disclosure is positively associated with size and not with leverage. However, a mixed result has been found for industry type; where only property industry shows a significant relationship with level of risk disclosure, and not for the other industries. This study contributes to financial reporting literature in relation to risk reporting, particularly the practice of Malaysian companies. Findings from this study are also useful to regulators and accounting standard setting body to assess the level of compliance to regulations and standards relating to risk reporting by these companies. More studies are required to further understand the importance of risk information disclosure, such as risk disclosure within specific industry, cross-country studies and usefulness of risk information disclosure from the stakeholders＇ perspectives.