Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards: Impact on the Value Relevance of Intangible Assets

We examine whether the value relevance of reported intangibles differs between financial reporting regimes pre- and post-adoption of Australian Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (AIFRS) and Australian Accounting Standards (AGAAP) respectively. Using AIFRS and AGAAP measures of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets for the same financial year and testing their association with share prices, we find evidence that AIFRS generally convey incremental useful information for investors about goodwill. For aggregated identifiable intangible assets there is no evidence that AIFRS conveys information beyond that in AGAAP. In contrast, we find evidence that AGAAP provides incremental information for investors in relation to identifiable intangibles, but not goodwill .     

Market-Share Contracts with Asymmetric Information

In this paper, a dominant firm and competitive fringe supply substitute goods to a retailer who has private information about demand. We show that it is profitable for the dominant firm to condition payment on how much the retailer buys from the fringe (market-share contracts). The dominant firm thereby creates countervailing incentives for the retailer and, in some cases, is able to obtain the full-information outcome (unlike in standard screening models, where the agent earns an information rent in the high-demand state and output is distorted in the low-demand state). Our results have implications for fidelity rebates, all-units discounts, and competition policy. Although some crowding out of the fringe may occur when demand is low, we show that market-share contracts need not be harmful for welfare.     

Brand portfolio options for the UK retail banks

Following deregulation in the late 1980s, many financial service companies rapidly grew their product portfolios. Developing these extensive portfolios has raised complex issues for financial service companies regarding how the new products and services should be marketed and, in particular, how they should be branded. This paper seeks to identify the relevant issues concerning the marketing and branding of large portfolios of financial service products. Using the brand portfolio model developed by Aaker and Joachimsthaler,¹ the paper analyses the brand portfolio strategies adopted by the UK's leading retail banks (Barclays, Lloyds TSB, NatWest/RBS and HSBC). The paper concludes that given the complexity of branding as a concept and in predicting how consumers will respond, ultimately all financial services need to experiment more both with how individual brands are positioned and advertised and what portfolios are optimal.     

Indonesian politics in 2011: democratic regression and Yudhoyono's regal incumbency

In 2011, a number of trends in Indonesian politics became clearer. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has not become a more reformist and risk-taking president in his second term, contrary to the hopes of many, but has rather become more cautious, aloof and regal in style. He is irked by criticism and dislikes any disturbance to the authority of his rule. The political elite, often in concert with the SBY government, pushed through a range of democratically regressive measures, including allowing politicians to be appointed to the Elections Commission. The malaise within the party system deepened, with less than a quarter of the electorate professing any party affiliation. Most Islamic parties slid closer to the political periphery, and the largest one, PKS, was beset by controversy. Government and community responses to a brutal attack on the Ahmadiyah sect in early 2011 showed the limits of Indonesia's much lauded religious tolerance.     

Effects of exposure to the International Education Standards on perceived importance of the global harmonization of accounting education among Japanese accounting academics

This exploratory study empirically examines the degree to which the Japanese accounting academics is exposed to the IESs and explores their perception of the importance of global harmonization in accounting education in terms of ensuring quality global control of the accounting profession. Responses from 76 questionnaires found that accounting staff, particularly in the post graduate Accounting Schools, have a basic understanding of the IESs and view this global harmonization as favorable whereas staff who teach at undergraduate level or at ordinal postgraduate level in tertiary schools have a much lower understanding and perception. This is of concern to the accounting profession as it is in these undergraduate schools and ordinal postgraduate schools from where the majority of successful CPA examinees graduate each year. The findings also indicated that the IESs can be effectively used as a benchmarking tool within the Japanese accounting academics.     

The influence of international taxation structures on corporate financial disclosure patterns

This paper investigates the extent of financial instrument disclosures (FIDs) within the annual reports of Australian listed extractive resource companies over a 4-year longitudinal period (2003–2006) and its association with international tax characteristics. Statistical analysis shows that thin capitalisation structures and withholding taxes are positively and significantly associated with disclosure patterns. In contrast, the occurrence of foreign sourced income and tax haven links are significantly negatively associated with FID patterns. These findings demonstrate that international tax structures can influence corporate disclosure patterns. This paper contributes to an understanding of the extent, trends and rationale behind resource firms’ financial instrument disclosure practices in Australia.     

The Relationship between the Environmental and Financial Performance of Public Utilities

A growing body of research has centered on theissue of the relationship between financial andenvironmental performance. The lack ofconsensus in this literature can be attributedto several factors. The cost of complying withenvironmental regulation can be significant anddetrimental to shareholder wealth maximization.Conversely, a firm that can effectively controlpollution might also be able to effectivelycontrol other costs of production and henceearn a higher rate of return. We utilize datafrom the Investor Responsibility ResearchCenter as well as a proprietary database toinvestigate the relationship betweenenvironmental performance and financialperformance in electric utilities. Utilities,as producers and distributors of energy,produce substantial amounts of pollution.However, since public utilities are regulated,studying the financial and environmentalperformance of utilities affords us theopportunity to see what role regulation playsin enhancing or diminishing the relationshipbetween financial and environmentalperformance.Our results differ from earlier studies in thatwe find do not find a positive relationshipbetween holding period returns and anindustry-adjusted measure of environmentalperformance nor do we find that regulatoryclimate appears to explain returns. While theredoes not appear to be a clearly definedrelationship between regulatory climate and acompliance based measure of environmentalperformance, there is evidence of a negativerelationship between financial return and amore pro-active measure of environmentalperformance. We offer several possibleinterpretations of these results and extensionsfor future research.     

Industry structure and the choice of product reliability

Epple and Raviv (1979) and Saving (1982) argued that product reliability may be independent of market structure. Using a two period oligopoly model we show that this conclusion is correct only if the firms are risk-neutral and output is rented. If either of these conditions is violated, the firm's reliability will not be socially optimal. Our results provide further rationale for Avinger's (1981) empirical findings on product obsolescence in the vacuum tube and electric lamp industries. We do find, however, that the independence result can be reestablished in sales markets if firms are required to provide warranties.     

建立适合本国实践与国际接轨的评估准则

国际评估准则委员会（IVSC）由世界评估行业的若干主要组织为全球经济利益和全球经济的发展而提议设立,并最终于20世纪80年代初正式创立。国际评估准则委员会的建立有利于促进一项评估协议的实施,该协议包括： 一为那些已经建立评估规范和评估准则的国家提供能被全球接受且一致采用的实务操作准则：