The valuation relevance of environmental performance revisited: The moderating role of environmental provisions

This study attempts to broaden our understanding of the value relevance of environmental performance by providing empirical evidence on the moderating role of financial environmental reporting. Previous studies find that firms' environmental performance can be both positively and negatively associated with market value. Such contradictory findings can be attributed to the fact that environmental performance is associated with future economic benefits and costs. This study suggests that firms with recognized environmental provisions on their balance sheets enable investors to disentangle these opposite effects either by signaling strong future financial performance or by enhancing the reliability of environmental performance information. Regardless of the mechanism by which this moderation effect is invoked, it is hypothesized that capital market participants place a positive and significantly higher value on the environmental performance ratings of firms with recognized environmental provisions than on the ratings of firms without environmental provisions. Utilizing a sample of 692 firm-year observations of French listed firms and employing a linear price-level model that associates the market value of a firm's equity with its environmental performance, I provide empirical evidence to corroborate this thesis. In addition to contributing to the academic debate on the market valuation implications of environmental performance, this study intends to provide useful insights from a country that can be considered a pioneer of environmental reporting legislation; hence, it provides valuable lessons for other jurisdictions that are in the process of developing their sustainability reporting regulations. Finally, the findings of this study support the calls for more integrated reporting showing that the interaction of financial and non-financial information has market valuation implications.     

Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years

We commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ball and Brown [1968] by chronicling its impact on capital market research in accounting. We trace the evolution of various research paths that post–Ball and Brown [1968] researchers took as they sought to build on the foundation laid by Ball and Brown [1968] to create a body of research on the usefulness, timeliness, and other properties of accounting numbers. We discuss how those paths often link back to the groundwork laid and questions originally posed in Ball and Brown [1968].     

关联交易信息的核心质量 --层次结构及实现途径

通过对关联交易的组织理性和社会成本进行简要的经济学分析，从节约社会成本的角度，借助FASB“财务会计信息质量的层次结构模型”，构筑了一个关联交易信息的核心质量层次结构，同时，从我国有关关联交易会计规范颁布和变迁的角度，分析现有关联交易信息质量的实现途径及不足，并提出相关改进建议。     

会计国际化背景下的我国会计信息质量特征研究

会计信息质量特征是财务会计概念框架的重要组成部分。本文采用规范分析方法对西方国家的会计信息质量特征进行了国际比较，并结合实证研究结论对影响我国财务会计信息质量特征的因素进行了现状分析。最后指出在当前特殊的环境下确立我国财务会计信息质量特征体系，应该同时兼顾国际协调与中国特色，建议在透明度的总体要求下，依次将会计信息质量特征设定为：可靠性，相关性，充分披露。     

基于资产质量的会计报表项目附注披露内容改进研究——兼谈可靠性与相关性

传统观念认为可靠性和相关性在大多数情况下此消彼长，不能同方向服务于会计信息使用者。但本文基于封相关性和可靠性关系的重新思考，认为相关性是封会计信息内容的要求，可靠性是封会计信息质量的要求，相关性必须与可靠性相结合才能有效地服务于会计信息使用者。本文以此为出发点，在简要探讨相关性内涵及其与可靠性之间关系的基础上，着重探讨相关性具体信息内容，并主要以资产负债表项目附注披露内容为研究对象，建议改进应收款项、存货、长期股权投资、固定资座、在建工程和无形资产等部分报表项目附注的披露内容，以反映企业资产的变现及预期收益能力，从而提高会计报表决策相关性。     

Market Valuation of Research and Development Spending under Canadian GAAP*

Section 3450 of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Handbook requires Canadian firms to capitalize development costs that meet certain criteria and to expense those that relate to research. International Accounting Standard (IAS) No. 38 favours a similar approach. In the United States, Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) No. 2 recommends the immediate expensing of all research and development (R&D) spending. The only exception is SFAS No. 86, which requires software development costs to be capitalized when a product successfully passes a technological feasibility test. Consequently, the Canadian financial disclosure regime provides a rich setting for testing the market valuation of capitalized R&D. Our primary research question asks whether capitalized R&D provides useful information to market participants investing in Canadian firms. We use price‐level and return models to assess the value relevance of capitalized R&D disclosed in the financial statements under Canadian GAAP. In line with expectations, using a price‐level model, we find that capitalized R&D and R&D expense as disclosed in the financial statements provide information that is value relevant to market participants. However, we find that R&D capitalized during the year helps explain returns while R&D expense does not. Thus we conclude that the application of section 3450 of the CICA Handbook produces value‐relevant information.     

Value relevance of proportionate consolidation versus the equity method: Evidence from Hong Kong

Whether proportionate consolidation (PC) or the equity method (EM) provides more informative financial statements is a controversial issue. This study uses data from listed companies in Hong Kong to investigate the value relevance of the EM compared with PC during 2005–2008 when the local word-for-word equivalent HKAS 31 offered the same options. The results of this study provide evidence that PC does not offer higher value relevance than the EM. PC’s horizontal aggregation of a portion of the operations, assets and liabilities of the jointly controlled entities with those of the venturer is less informative to investors than the EM’s vertical aggregation.     

The societal relevance of management accounting innovations: economic value added and institutional work in the fields of Chinese and Thai state-owned enterprises

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the relevance of management accounting. In doing so, we widen the definition of ‘relevance’ from the largely managerialist focus dominating this debate to examine how management accounting innovations get imbued with a broader range of societal interests and how actors representing vested interests go about entrenching and resisting such innovations. We explore these issues with reference to the institutionalisation of Economic Value Added (EVA?) as a governance mechanism for Chinese and Thai state-owned enterprises. Adopting a comparative, institutional field perspective, we theorise our observations through the conceptual lens of institutional work, or the human agency involved in creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions. We extend extant research on institutional work by exploring how the evolution of such work was conditioned by differences in field cohesiveness, defined in terms of how consistent and tightly coordinated key interests clustered around EVA? are. Our analysis also draws attention to how different types of institutional work support and detract from each other in the process of upholding such cohesiveness. We discuss the implications for future research on the societal relevance of management accounting innovations and institutional work.     

日本土地区画整理融资立法以及对中国的启示

中国建设用地整理融资滞后制约了建设用地整理的整体效益与规模,相关立法是规范、保障建设用地融资的基本要件。日本土地区画整理融资立法在规范体例、融资组织结构确立和融资模式设定上的经验,可为中国建设用地整理融资立法予以借鉴。应健全相关立法体系,确立符合国情的多元复合型建设用地整理融资结构,完善建设用地整理融资机构的职能。