The Impact of Country Diversification on Wealth Effects in Cross-Border Mergers

We posit that country diversification via cross‐border mergers creates wealth by providing benefits for firms that are not available to their shareholders. We hypothesize that these benefits are inversely related to the extent of co‐movement in the economies of the bidder's and target's countries. We examine the wealth effects of U.S. targets and bidders involved in cross‐border mergers with firms in other countries during 1982–1991. We show that wealth effects vary, depending on country affiliations of two merging firms, and are inversely related to the degree of economic co‐movement between the two countries.     

A half-century of Accounting and Business Research: the impact on the study of international financial reporting

This paper celebrates the contribution of this journal, over its first 50 years, to research on international financial reporting, defined as comprising writings on comparative or harmonisation topics. The paper examines the journal’s output in that field and how it contributed to the field’s development. Even though the journal was sympathetic to international financial reporting, less than 1% of output in its first decade (the 1970s) related to it. In its first 35 years, a large proportion of the journal’s limited output in the field was produced by two small groups of researchers. However, during its fourth decade, the field gradually became dominant as the accounting world changed. By then, the journal had already published the seminal papers on several central topics in international financial reporting, including measuring harmonisation, using reconciliations to measure international accounting differences, assessing international differences in the influence of tax on financial reporting, and measuring international difference in the application of international standards. These topics were later taken up by many researchers in several other journals.     

Accounting standards and value relevance of financial statements: An international analysis

Using 17,743 firm-year observations of industrial companies in 21 countries from 1991 to 1997, this paper finds that the use of accrual accounting (versus cash accounting) negatively affects the value relevance of financial statements in countries with weak shareholder protection. This negative effect, however, does not exist in countries with strong shareholder protection. These findings are consistent with the belief that shareholder protection improves the effectiveness of accrual accounting, and suggest the importance of considering shareholder protection when formulating accounting policies related to accruals.     

Accounting for government guarantees: perspectives on fiscal transparency from four modes of accounting

Government guarantees are increasingly important as a policy instrument in public infrastructure investment and to assist the banking and financial sectors following the global financial crisis. This paper analyses how different modes of accounting characterize such guarantees in the contexts of public sector financial reporting, statistical accounting, budgeting and long-term fiscal projections. Guarantees are difficult to specify for accounting treatment and consistent conceptualization of liabilities. These difficulties make it attractive for governments to treat obligations as off-budget and off-balance sheet contingent liabilities, rather than recognize them in financial statements and statistical accounts. Miller and Power’s territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles of accounting are utilized to analyse the reporting of UK government guarantees. Provisioning for guarantees is complex in financial reporting statements and often absent in national accounts, a deficiency which Eurostat has attempted to address by devising the concept of standardized guarantees and by securing more disclosure of contingent liabilities. There is potential for future research especially where there is greater mediation between the four modes of government accounting.     

Accounting Quality in Private Firms During the Transition Towards International Standards

We study the historical development of Slovenian Accounting Standards (SAS) and their association with accounting quality (AQ). We focus on private firms where the financial reporting process is characterised by low demand for high-quality reporting. We investigate three distinct editions of SAS since 1994 and test how their development towards international standards is related to AQ. Aggregate earnings management measures indicate that the use of accounting discretion decreases with less earnings smoothing over time. The main features of AQ have been consistent throughout historical development. Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, the ability of earnings to predict future cash flows, and the ability of accruals to mitigate mismatching are all present throughout. We also document typical departures from properties of high AQ. For example, accruals do not (always) facilitate timely recognition of losses. However, these can be attributed to the overwhelming influence of reporting incentives (e.g. taxation, debt, size) rather than to the (lower) quality of accounting standards.     

Relationship marketing,relational capital and the future of marketing in public service organizations

This article proposes an innovative model of marketing practice for public services. This is rooted in the paradigm of relationship marketing and emphasizes the need to build relational capital between and within organizations operating in the public services arena. It is argued that this is essential for the effective management of contemporary public services in the fragmented state.     

会计环境对企业会计准则执行效果的影响——基于应计质量的经验证据

本文旨在调查两个相互关联的问题:企业会计准则施行后财务报告应计质量是否发生了显著变化?这种变化是否与会计环境相关?我们采用经典的截面琼斯模型估计操控性应计利润,以其绝对值计量应计质量,利用2001~2009年7722个上市公司样本观察值进行了统计检验,发现企业会计准则施行后应计质量下降。在给定企业会计准则是一套高质量准则的前提下,我们进一步分析应计质量下降的原因。经验证据表明:在会计环境不同的地区,上市公司应计质量的变化存在系统性差异。这反映会计环境影响了企业会计准则的执行效果。     

The Withdrawal of Current Cost Accounting in the United Kingdom: A Study of the Accounting Standards Committee

Evidence from the archives of the U.K. Accounting Standards Committee (ASC) is used to trace the events leading to the withdrawal of the current cost accounting standard, SSAP 16, from 1980 to 1988. Three central issues are addressed. First, the ASC's role as a regulatory body is considered in the light of the failure to obtain compliance with SSAP 16 and to find an acceptable replacement. Second, the decline in support for SSAP 16 is explained in terms of changes in the economic environment. Third, the roles of different interest groups in the process are analysed.     

论我国政府财务会计信息质量特征

政府财务会计作为政府会计的重要组成部分,其职能主要是对外提供满足各利益相关者进行决策所需的会计信息,从而解除政府的受托责任。作为对外会计,其所提供的产品即会计信息必须严格遵循相关准则制度的要求,并符合相应的质量标准。本文认为政府财务会计信息质量特征具有多维性,首先受成本收益的约束,只有在成本小于收益的前提下提供会计信息才是可行的,提供的所有信息从总体上要求具有可理解性,在内容上要满足可靠性和相关性,在会计信息的口径和方法上应遵循可比性,同时应保持一定程度的谨慎性,而在信息的取舍上主要取决于重要性特征。     

The Influence of Country‐ and Firm‐level Governance on Financial Reporting Quality: Revisiting the Evidence

This paper examines how firm‐level governance and country‐level governance interplay in shaping financial reporting quality. Using IFRS adoption as a source of variation in firms’ reporting discretion, and a large sample of European firms that mandatorily switch to the new set of standards, we find that in countries with low enforcement and weak oversight over financial reporting, only firms with strong board‐level corporate governance mechanisms experience an increase in financial reporting quality, consistent with firm‐ and country‐level governance mechanisms being substitutes. However, in countries with high enforcement and strict oversight over financial reporting, firms with either strong or weak board‐level governance mechanisms experience an increase in financial reporting quality, even if the increase is larger for the former group. Overall, our findings indicate that in the debate about the effects of governance on the quality of financial reporting, it is important to consider both country‐ and firm‐level corporate governance mechanisms.     

The role of a crisis in reshaping the role of accounting

Prior to 2001, international accounting standards (IAS) were insufficiently attractive to gain the support of US regulators. The potential role of IAS in the US gained prominence during a period of extreme financial reporting instability in 2001–2002. Emerging opinion increasingly upheld principles-based rather than rules-based accounting standards in the face of the financial reporting crisis. But to promote any active shift in the US position, an institutionally legitimate infrastructure for the international accounting standards setter had to be created. As this was taking shape, the globalisation of business activities grew with inter-organizational linkages and cross-national financial inter-dependencies and flows becoming increasingly complex. Given the extensively uncertain, uneven and constantly evolving nature of global business changes, the aptness of applying judgment in assessing financial performance and position rather than relying on the application of pre-defined rules continued to achieve wider acceptance. The argument is made in the paper that international financial reporting standards are today seen to fulfil a global risk mitigating role founded on a logic that had to first gain political and institutional legitimacy and that also had to be viewed as being responsive to perceived market imperatives.     

The real effects of a new accounting standard: the case of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers

International Financial Reporting Standard 15 (IFRS 15) Revenue from Contracts with Customers has significantly changed the philosophy of revenue recognition, not only to provide a fairer representation of corporate revenues, but also to inhibit the use of revenues for ‘earnings management’ purposes. We provide a framework to analyse the various effects of new and amended accounting standards. Changes in how companies recognise, measure, present and disclose their revenues (accounting effects) can affect how companies and their transactions are understood, both internally and externally (information effects), can change security prices (capital market effects) and can change how companies operate, and their costs and cash flows (real effects). We provide empirical evidence, based on a review of corporate annual reports, comment letters and interviews, on the effects of IFRS 15. We find evidence of accounting, information and, to a lesser extent, real effects, although, outside a few industries, IFRS 15 has had relatively little impact on the recognition and measurement of revenue.     

浅议核算型会计向管理型会计的转化

当前管理会计已为企业管理者所接受,管理会计的一些方法也正在为会计工作所应用,但管理会计的完善发展仍受着制约。本文拟对核算型会计向管理型会计转化的问题作一些探讨。     

Towards the Harmonisation of Local Accounting Systems in the International Context

In recent years efforts to modernise and regulate public accounting systems have been carried out in most countries, driven essentially by the interest in establishing a Public Accounting capable of satisfying the required needs for attaining efficient management of public resources, as well as for demonstrating accountability to stakeholders. In this paper we aim to analyse the degree of local government accounting harmonisation, demonstrating in a general way that their accounting systems show very little homogenisation, accounting diversity being, in fact, one of their principal characteristics. In this context, we refer to the benefits and problems involved in reducing the differences between accounting systems and in increasing the comparability of financial reporting.     

基于衍生金融工具会计教育质量的实证调查

随着融资融券和股指期货在我国的推出,我国衍生金融品市场建设又迈上了一个新的台阶。如何提高衍生金融工具会计信息披露质量已成为当前研究的热点之一,作为正确引导衍生金融交易行为,规范衍生金融市场向健康方向发展的会计教育,其质量的好坏不仅影响衍生金融工具的创新,更影响我国衍生金融市场的可持续发展。基于此,本文对衍生金融工具会计教育质量进行了调查．针对存在的问题进行了深层剖析并提出了相应的建议。     

The Impact of Adopting International Accounting Standards on the Harmonization of Accounting Practices

Over the past few decades numerous organizations have been actively participating in the efforts to improve the comparability of financial reporting. Many studies have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of comparability. This study investigated the affect on the harmonization, or comparability, of accounting practices when a sample of companies choose to use international accounting standards (IASs) when preparing financial reports.This study analyzed trends in the I index, a measure of concentration for the use of a particular accounting practice introduced by van der Tas, to determine if the choice of accounting methods by a sample of Swiss companies became more aligned with a sample of companies from three other countries. The study included a control sample of Swiss companies that did not switch from reporting using local Swiss standards during the same time period, 1988 through 1995. Four accounting practices were included; depreciation, inventory, financial statement cost basis, and consolidation practices. The practices used were compared with a sample of companies from three countries; Japan, the UK, and the US.The results indicated that across the 8-year period, the majority of the I indices comparisons were positive and statistically significant. However, the results did not support that these increases were due primarily to the adoption of IASs.     

Disclosure Interactions and the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence From the Spanish Continuous Market

Abstract:  The purpose of this paper is to provide some new evidence on the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital. We propose a new specification for the empirical test based on the idea that in the previous models one crucial variable was missing: accounting policy choice. We test our theoretical hypothesis using a sample of Spanish firms quoted on the Spanish continuous market from 1999 to 2002. We adopt the ex-ante approach to measure the cost of equity capital, taking analysts predictions as a proxy for expected earnings. As an explanatory variable we use an index measuring annual report disclosure quality. This measure of disclosure is combined with a proxy for the accounting policy choice of the firm. We measure firms' conservatism using the modified Jones model of Dechow et al. (1995) to estimate discretionary accruals. Our results confirm that the relationship between disclosure and cost of capital is affected by the choice of accounting policy.     

提高《会计专业英语》教学质量的思考

随着我国会计国际化的进程,会计环境发生了变化,这就对高校会计教育提出了更高的要求.培养学生在会计专业领域里的国际视野,是开设会计专业英语课的目的所在.本文从会计专业英语教学的实践出发,阐述了提高会计专业英语教学质量的一些思考.     

世博经济对会计人员素质的新要求

2010年上海世博会的举行为上海乃至全国经济的发展提供了一个新契机,并产生了世博经济这一新事物。面对新经济现象的要求,会计人员应提高会计技能,学习立体型知识,具备国际化眼光,提高自身整体素质,跟上时代步伐。     

Developments in accounting regulation: A synthesis and annotated bibliography of evidence and commentary in the 2017 academic literature

In this paper, recent regulation-related findings and commentaries in the academic literature are synthesized in annotated bibliography form. This annotated bibliography is one in a series of bibliographies that summarizes regulation-related academic research. Papers in top accounting outlets such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, The Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting, The Journal of Financial Reporting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Research in Accounting Regulation and Review of Accounting Studies are included. Threads in the 2017 literature included general regulatory accounting issues, general financial reporting issues, examinations of the impact of specific guidance, and examination of issues surrounding the independent audit.