Auditor Switching and Investors＇ Reliance on Earnings： Evidence From Bursa Malaysia

This study provides some insights of investors＇ view on auditor independence focusing on auditor switching. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of appointing a new auditor on investors＇ reliability on reported earnings in financial accounts. Analyses are based on a matched-pair sample of 162 listed companies in the Bursa Malaysia for the year 2011. The results of the ordinary least squares （OLS） regression show that earnings response coefficients for auditor switching companies are significantly higher than for non-auditor switching companies. The results provide support for the contention that investors place greater reliability on the financial accounts audited by newly appointed auditors. This finding is consistent with the Malaysian audit market where long audit tenure is a common practice and auditor switching is considered rare. Findings provide support for the long discussed issue of the importance of auditor rotation in maintaining auditor independence.     

Does Big 4 Affect the Earnings Response Coefficient （ERC）？ Evidence From Malaysia

This study examines the effect of audit quality （AQ） on the earnings response coefficient （ERC） based on a sample of 1,884 firm-year observations comprising 471 firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia from 2007 to 2010. This study tests whether AQ affects ERC after controlling the established determinants of ERC： beta, growth, earnings persistence, and size. Using reverse regression, the study confirms that Big 4 is significant and positive to ERC. Auditor switching from non-Big 4 to Big 4 indicates the same results; however, the switching of auditors among Big 4 is not significant. The study thus provides systematic and comprehensive additional evidence on the effect of AQ via the measurement of Big 4; and auditor switching from non-Big 4 to Big 4 and switching among Big 4 on ERC. This is an important contribution to the literature but especially so given that the evidence comes from Malaysia, an emerging economy, whereas the existing empirical literature relates mainly to the developed countries.     

Does an Auditor＇s Within-Industry Market Share Still Capture Auditor Industry Expertise in a Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation Regime？

Prior studies commonly use an auditor＇s market share in an industry as a proxy for auditor industry expertise and find that audit quality is positively related to an audit partner＇s within-industry market share in a voluntary audit partner rotation regime where the length of the client-partner relationship is not limited. Mandatory audit partner rotation, however, limits the length of the client-partner relationship and can artificially increase or decrease the market shares of incoming and departing partners, thus making the audit partner＇s within-industry market share an unreliable proxy for auditor industry expertise. Using a sample of banks in Taiwan, we find that audit quality is positively related to an audit partner＇s within-industry market share in the voluntary audit partner rotation regime. However, such a positive relation disappears in the mandatory audit partner rotation regime. Thus, we conclude that mandatory audit partner rotation decouples the link between an audit partner＇s within-industry market share and auditor industry expertise and caution researchers against using an audit partner＇s within-industry market share as a proxy for auditor industry expertise in a mandatory audit partner rotation regime.     

Corporate Governance and the Financial Value of Financially Distressed Listed Companies

The article combines the background of Chinese system, theoretically derivates the relationship between corporate governance and their financial value, selects a sample of loss listed companies from 2003 to 2009, and studies how the level of corporate governance affects the value of listed company losses. Research results show that, among corporate governance factors, the largest shareholder and the market for corporate control have obvious positive effects on the financial value of loss listed companies; the proportion of state-owned shares, the type of audit opinion, and corporate govemance factors have obvious negative effects on the financial value of loss listed companies; and managerial ownership, the proportion of independent directors, and the size of the board have no obvious driving effect on the financial value of loss listed companies.     

Earnings disaggregation and analysts＇ forecasts

Accounting concepts dictate that separately disclosed components should contain separate useful information. This paper examines the relations between income statement components and analysts＇ earnings forecasts and forecast errors. Regressions explaining earnings forecasts using earnings components provide a better fit than regression using just aggregate income to explain forecasts. We interpret this as consistent with the hypothesis that analysts use incremental information in components not available in aggregate income. However, additional tests based on predictability of forecast errors indicate that analysts do not incorporate all information available in components into earnings forecasts. In addition, this inefficiency appears to increase at longer forecast horizons.     

The Reliability of Impairment Tests： The Case of Vessels

For a shipping company, the vessel is the most valuable and important asset. In most cases, the value of the vessel is the bigger part of total assets. Under International Accounting Standards （IAS） and also United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles （US GAAP） （IAS 36 and Statement of Financial Accounting Standards （SFAS） 144 respectively）, entities are required to conduct impairment tests where there is an indication of impairment of an asset. It is of high importance that the assumptions and the methodology of these tests be right, in order for the results of these tests to be valid. Always, there is the risk that the accountant manipulates the test in order to avoid any impairment losses. Our purpose is to examine the way that the results from these tests are related with market values. Also, we aim to examine under what test assumptions the results from these tests are close enough to market values of vessels.     

The effect of earnings forecast precision on firm value and insider trading under voluntary disclosure in Taiwan

Taiwan changed its earnings forecast policy from mandatory to voluntary disclosure in 2005. In this study, the inferences of voluntary earnings forecast are examined based on forecasts issued by listed firms. This study suspects that insiders have a temptation to strategically manipulate financial forecast information to influence markets and thus receive extra rents. Under the new earnings forecast disclosure policy, the number of disclosing firm decreases but the precision of earnings forecast increases. The empirical result from dynamic panel data evidences the forecast error of voluntary disclosure may negatively impact firm values. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between insiders＇ trading profit and manipulation of earnings forecasts. As volatility in insider manipulation increases, it is difficult for the investors to predict the real intention of insiders, and insiders may achieve greater benefits from trading. This study also observes that many listed companies hold investor conferences to provide earnings guidance in Taiwan. The reason may be that investor conference is more flexible and has less forecast error cost than the formal financial forecast. This study provides important insights into earnings forecast policy in emerging markets. The competent authority should improve corporate governance and develop monitoring functions to abate forecast manipulation.     

What are affecting earnings quality： A summarization

Researches on factors that affecting earnings quality are significant for regulators＇ decisions and the improving of earnings quality. After reviewing the research findings on what are affecting earnings qualities from the following 6 fields： accounting standards, firm characteristics, board and auditing committees＇ characteristics, managerial characteristics, auditing firm characteristics and other factors, the author conclude the current findings and foresee the future research focus on earnings quality.     

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.     

Missing quarterly earnings benchmarks, CEO cash compensation and institutional ownership

Research suggests that transient institutions, i.e., institutions with short-term investment horizon,make management focus on short-term earnings goals. This study examines incentive in terms of CEO cash compensation that explains why management concentrates on short-term earnings results when transient institutions hold high levels of ownership. Using quarterly consensus analysts＇ expectations as a proxy for short-term earnings benchmarks, the author finds that CEO cash compensation and the frequency with which management misses quarterly earnings benchmarks in a year （MISSNUMt） are more strongly negatively associated in firms with high transient institutional ownership than in firms with low transient institutional ownership, suggesting that transient institutions strengthen the inverse relation between CEO cash pay and missing short-term earnings benchmarks and hence increase pressure on management in terms of cash pay for short-term results. Moreover, the author shows that change in CEO cash compensation is positively associated with change in transient institutional ownership, consistent with the idea that selling shares by transient institutions influences the boards of portfolio firms in CEO cash compensation decision. This study contributes to the governance literature and is relevant to business managers by providing additional evidence that transient institutions provide less patient capital and may not benefit long-run firm value creation.     

Ethics and the Financial and Budgetary Discipline in the Ministry of Defence

This article deals with the relation between ethics and financial and budgetary discipline during economic and social recession in the Czech Republic. We find causes of economic and social recession in the Czech Republic in the loss of democratic and human values. Czech Republic was ranked the 57th place in the Corruption Perceptions index 2013 out of the 177 countries assessed, which is the same result achieved by Bahrain, Croatia, and Namibia. Among the 31 European Union （EU） member states and Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland, the Czech Republic is on the 25th site. Market as well as public sector and public finances should follow unwritten rules of ethics and ethical behavior. Such rules should be followed especially by politicians, officials, soldiers, and businessmen. Do we need ethics in present time？ How is the role of the code of ethics in increasing financial and budgetary discipline in the defence sector？ Is it possible to measure efficiency of the code of ethics for financial and budgetary discipline？ We explain the importance of codes of ethics and formulate essential elements that each code of ethics must contain. Next, we deal with the main rules of both financial and budgetary disciplines. Furthermore, this article offers a comparison of several codes of ethics and describes the main problems in our implementation. In the end, we introduce our draft of Code of Ethics for Economic Service Officer in the Ministry of Defence and talk about possible influences of these codes on the quality of employee＇s performance.     

Does the reputation matter？ Corporate reputation and earnings quality

Good corporate reputations are critical not only because of the potential for value creation, but also because their intangible character makes replication by competing firms considerably more difficult. This paper tests the relationship between the reputation and the earnings quality. Through a partial correlation test and a regression test, I do find the evidence that the reputation is not only positively correlated with superior earnings quality, but also does have positive effect on superior earnings quality, as well as the superior total sales do in Chinese public companies.     

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.     

Assumptions Regarding the Development of Selected Europe 2020 Objectives in Terms of Public Finances in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic

This paper uses regression analysis and econometric modeling foundations to track public expenditures in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic （Fejesova, 2011） and their influences on the development of the following two targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy： to increase the employment of the selected population groups to a predetermined percentage level and to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty. In addition to the selection of monitored indicators, we included other indicators from the social sphere, which are funded by mandatory national public expenditure budgets and which are expected to have a positive development in terms of improving the demographic structure of the country--the unemployment rate and the number of live births.     

Some of the Conventional Accounting Concepts That Are Not in Accordance With the Paradigm of Islamic Accounting

This paper discusses some of the conventional accounting concepts, such as historical cost concept, conservatism concept, matching concept, objectivity concept, stable monetary unit assumption, and going-concern assumption, which are not in accordance with the Islamic accounting paradigm due to their divergence with some verses of the Holy AI-Qur＇an, the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him （pbuh）, and the basic of Zakat calculation. This is a conceptual paper describing some of the conventional accounting concepts that are not in accordance with the paradigm of Islamic accounting. The paper concludes that the historical cost concept can be replaced by： current cash equivalent concept, historical cost and current value concepts （market selling price）, current cost concept, historical cost concept in all （except for Zakat purposes） accounting calculations, current valuation concept, and fair value concept. Conservatism concept must be eliminated if historical cost concept is not used anymore. Matching concept can be replaced by asset-liability approach concept. Objectivity concept can be replaced by Zakat accountability concept. Stability of the monetary unit assumption can be replaced by gold or silver measurement, or Dirham currency, and going-concern assumption must be eliminated.     

Evaluating the Performance of Investment Funds in Turkey

It is important to determine the most appropriate levels of risk and return for small investors. For that purpose, the investment funds are very important tools to create a portfolio for small investors, to deploy the potential risks in optimal proportions, and to direct investors. In this study, the performance of 83 pieces of investment funds will be evaluated which are treated in Turkey dates from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012 with performance evaluation methods such as Sharpe, Modigliani （M2） that is based on the standard deviation, and Treynor, T2, Jensen that is based on systematic risk （beta）, and the highest and lowest performance investment funds will be presented. The aim of the study is to examine the success of the investment fund managers whether they could estimate the course of the market well or not regarding time period. The empirical results show that the investors who invest on the funds that have negative risk premium by investing in the investment funds getting under the risk cannot get more excess return than getting the return from the risk-free interest rate as treasury bills. The result implies that it could be said that the systematic and total risks of all investment funds are low and they are not sensitive to the developments in the market, and thus, regarding funds could be called as conservative funds.     

On earnings management countermeasures of listing companies in China

This paper overviews earnings management incentive of listed companies, cost in transactions with stockholders and major in researching some countermeasures how management.     

A Study of the Factors Affecting Choice of the Accounting Profession

An accounting professional is called a ＂Certified Public Accountant Financial Advisor （CPAFA）＂ in Turkey and the profession has a notable status in the country. Individuals choosing this profession have to complete a minimum 3-year internship program before becoming members of this profession. They have to pass an exam both to start and finish the internship program. The profession and the reasons for choosing it are highly significant issues. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the factors directing the professional choices of prospective individuals who wish to be CPAFAs and the significance of such factors. Along with these objectives, a nation-wide study was conducted on candidates who took the CPAFA internship exam in periods of 2012-3, 2013-1, and 2013-2 （three periods）. The factors affecting candidates＇ choices to be an accountant professional were gathered under five groups. The factors ＂influence of immediate surroundings＂, ＂prestigious social status of the profession＂, ＂high life-long income potential＂, ＂flexible working hours＂, and ＂future guarantee of the profession＂ had higher factor loadings than other factors.     

Simulation Models for Evaluation and Selection of Depreciation Policy for Agricultural Companies in the Republic of Bulgaria

In the present paper, the results from research on the influence of criteria （factors） such as depreciation method, materiality threshold, and inflation rate on the selection of depreciation policy are shown. The research has been carried out with the help of specifically devised simulation models. The simulation is realized in accounting for the unevenness of money in time and the profitability of the company, the tax rates for corporate tax, and the inflation rate. The models have been devised after analyzing methodology issues, related to depreciation policy and investigating current practices in its implementation in specific agricultural companies in present-day Bulgaria. It has been determined that there is a clear-cut relation between the profitability of the companies and the materiality threshold and depreciation method chosen. The main conclusion is that when the companies develop their depreciation policy, at ceteris paribus they should select higher materiality thresholds and diminishing balance depreciation methods due to the inequality of money in time, the acceleration of obsolescence, and the inflation processes.