Accruals quality vis-à-vis disclosure quality: Substitutes or complements?

The impact of accruals quality and disclosure quality on stock returns is a topical issue in market-based accounting research. Most of the debate is centred on their incremental ability to predict future earnings. Recent studies suggest that higher information risk proxied by either lower accruals quality or lower disclosure quality results in higher stock returns. This paper examines the relationship between accruals quality and disclosure quality, and investigates whether they are complements or substitutes in explaining the time-series variation in portfolio returns. Applying portfolio groupings, we find a positive association between accruals quality and disclosure quality, suggesting that firms with higher disclosure quality engage less in earnings management and have higher accruals quality. Asset pricing tests show that an accruals quality factor and a disclosure quality factor explain the time-series variation in the excess returns of similar sets of portfolios. This suggests that they contain similar information and confirms the substitutive nature of accruals quality and disclosure quality factors.     

Attitudes to pay systems:an exploratory study within and across cultures

The present study investigates employees’preferences for criteria that are used in pay systems, namely, performance, cost of living, tenure, educational qualification, collective bargaining, skill, market rate, responsibility and special demands. The study also explored variation and similarities of employees’preferences for the criteria across four countries, namely Australia (N = 162), Indonesia (N = 100), Malaysia (N = 129) and Hong Kong (N = 39). The results indicate that the respondents prefer multiple criteria to determine their pay. Preferences for length of service and educational attainment were found to be significantly different across countries, particularly between Australian and Asian samples (Indonesian and Malaysia). This variation is, in part, attributed to cultural differences. Other variables, such as age, educational qualification, position, and industry sector, have been found to be significant correlates of preference for pay systems. Implications for reward management have been discussed.     

The Coastal Community Perception on the Socio-Economic Impacts of Agro-Tourism Activities in Coastal Villages in Malaysia

This paper is concerned with the socio-economic impacts of agro-tourism activities in coastal villages listed as Desa Wawasan Nelayan (DWN) in Malaysia. The paper discussed the impacts of the two major components of socio-economics dynamics, namely social and economic activities. This account highlights a number of discussions with specific reference to DWN in Malaysia. It identifies the similarities and differences with regard to socio-economic impact, and it is expected that these points will be of practical use for other agro-tourism areas around the globe, and help to increase interest in agro-tourism activities.     

Testing the Random Walk Behavior and Efficiency of the Gulf Stock Markets

Inferences drawn from tests of market efficiency are rendered imprecise in the presence of infrequent trading. As the observed index in thinly traded markets may not represent the true underlying index value, there is a systematic bias toward rejecting the efficient market hypothesis. For the three emerging Gulf markets examined in this paper, correction for infrequent trading significantly alters the results of market efficiency and random walk tests. The Beveridge–Nelson (1981) decomposition of index returns is done to estimate the underlying index.     

Utilising a typology of management accounting change: An empirical analysis

Management accounting change, currently an increasingly popular focus for research, is not a uniform phenomenon. Its nature and form may vary across multiple dimensions and this variation has been neglected by researchers who have tended to study change per se rather than distinguishing it though a categorisation by type. This paper explores the forms which management accounting change has taken in a sample of manufacturing companies by utilising a simple typology of management accounting system change, derived from the existing research literature, consisting of addition, replacement, output modification, operational modification and reduction. This classification is combined with information on the incidence, location, importance and success of management accounting changes to provide some analytical insights into the variety and patterns of change within these companies and to derive some guidance for future research on the topic.     

Corporate social responsibility and Islamic banks: a systematic literature review

Although CSR is an extensively studied topic, a systematic, comprehensive and diverse review in the domain of CSR and Islamic banking is missing. This paper intends to present a broad review of this domain. Through a state-of-the-art review, we have divided the paper into different sections, the first two are general i.e. CSR measurement, it deals with measuring methods of CSR in Islamic banking, and CSR theories, it gives a brief overview of theories referred in under-review studies. While, the other three sections are separated according to the nature of studies i.e. CSR narrative under the Islamic paradigm, CSR disclosure by Islamic banks, and CSR exposition in Islamic banks. At the end of each section, we have included a ‘commentary’ to discuss and summarize major points, highlight trends and issues, provide insights into limitations and suggest future research directions.

     

Ethical orientations of managers in Malaysia

In view of the heightened societal attention to the ethical aspects of business behaviour, there has been, in recent years, a great deal of discussion regarding individual and organisational factors influencing managerial decision making. The main focus of this paper is on understanding the attitudes of managers toward ethical dimension of their choices and judgments, as also the forces that pressurise, provide them with opportunities, or contribute to shaping their intentions, for ethical or unethical actions. Findings reported here are based on a questionnaire-survey of 381 managers from 41 commercial organisations in Malaysia.Dr. J. L. Gupta is Professor at National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune, India. He has authored two books on management and has published several research articles on the subject of Leadership and Ethics. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Development.Mohamed Sulaiman is Professor of Management at University of Science Malaysia (USM), Penang. He has authored several research monographs and published articles in reputed business journals. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of Corporate Policy and Strategic Management, Organisation Design and Marketing. Dr Mohamed Sulaiman is currently the Dean of School of Management, USM.     

The effect of quantitative easing on stock prices: a structural time series approach

A structural time series model is estimated and tested to examine the effect of quantitative easing (QE) on US stock prices. The model is estimated by maximum likelihood in a Time-varying parametric (TVP) framework, using the S&P 500 index as the dependent variable and the Fed’s balance as an explanatory variable in addition to the unobserved components accounting for the behaviour of variables that do not appear explicitly in the equation. The results show that QE had a sizeable, but not exclusive, effect on stock prices and that stock prices were also affected by other missing variables and cyclical movements. Several explanations are presented for the rise of the US stock market in the post-QE period, particularly since the election of Donald Trump.