Australian Accounting Review最新文献

Financial provision for retirement consists of two phases, accumulation and decumulation. Young people as an age group have generally been ignored in previous research and there has been little research investigating financial literacy levels of young people and attitudinal aspects of their decision making. As such, this paper examines university students’ views on decumulation. We find that student predictions of their costs in retirement are inaccurate, and this is driven by overconfidence and somewhat mitigated by better financial literacy. Furthermore, when planning for retirement income, the Age Pension is expected to be used the least while interestingly personal savings are expected to be used more than superannuation. The biggest drivers of the different levels of usage for the different funding sources are opinions on the effectiveness and understanding of superannuation. These results demonstrate that there is a lack of understanding of the costs of living and the characteristics of the different pillars of the Australian retirement system. Increasing skills and knowledge in financial literacy and of the Australian retirement system is paramount. The implications of our findings are of interest to government, finance professionals and academics from an education and research perspective.

Paying taxes to support the societies in which they operate is both a legal and ethical responsibility of business. Nevertheless, some companies work to avoid taxes, which could cause society to question the legitimacy of the organisation. Many companies provide reports on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities; more transparent CSR reports may help to restore the legitimacy loss associated with tax avoidance. We investigate the relationship between tax avoidance and CSR report readability among Chinese companies. We find a positive relationship between corporate tax avoidance and the readability of CSR reports. This relation is weaker among state-owned enterprises, which may have stronger pre-existing legitimacy owing to their relationship with the state. The relationship is also weaker among companies in less developed regions of China, which have less developed institutions to monitor organisational legitimacy. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that CSR reporting represents an attempt to overcome legitimacy concerns arising from tax avoidance. Our findings indicate that tax avoidance and CSR reporting are alternative means of establishing legitimacy, rather than complementary reflections of an organisational culture that values (or devalues) CSR.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants issued exposure draft ED78 Property Plant and Equipment in April 2021. It proposes valuing ‘heritage items’ for recognition as ‘heritage assets’ in statements of financial position. This proposed requirement for global application casts the spotlight on a highly controversial topic in regulated financial reporting. The monetary valuation of cultural, heritage and scientific collections of public not-for-profit museums, art galleries and similar repositories has been subject to considerable discussion and debate for the past three decades. Our purpose is to critically examine this perennial financial reporting controversary, in the context of the three conceptions of accounting: accounting as technical practice, social practice and moral practice as articulated in the definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b) for discussion, debate and potential adoption in the accounting profession, including by accounting standard setters in all sectors. This article is intended to challenge accounting to enhanced self-awareness in reaching its full potential.

We examine whether the quarterly filing COVID-19 disclosures reduce uncertainty for investors and analysts. We find a negative relationship between COVID-19 disclosure and return volatility, suggesting COVID-19 disclosure reduces investor uncertainty. This reduction effect concentrates mainly during the short window following 10-Q releases and phases out over time. We then detect that industry-wide COVID-19 disclosure dispersion is positively associated with return volatility, suggesting high variation of industry-wide COVID-19 disclosures reduces information comparability across firms, resulting in increased investor uncertainty. Moreover, we find that COVID-19 disclosures are positively associated with analysts’ downward earnings forecast revisions and negatively associated with analyst forecast dispersion after 10-Q releases, suggesting the disclosures reduce information risk even for sophisticated market participants. Further analyses show that COVID-19 disclosures are negatively associated with future financial and operational performances (i.e., sales, operating cash flow, operating income and ROA). Lastly, we find that the low readability of COVID-19 disclosure attenuates the negative relation between COVID-19 disclosure and market volatility. Collectively, our findings suggest that 10-Q COVID-19 disclosures contain value-relevant information that temporarily assists market participants in evaluating the changes in firms’ values in the time of a crisis.

Currently, professional football clubs only recognise purchased player contracts (player registrations) in their financial statements. The costs associated with home-grown players are expensed. Furthermore, acquired player registrations must be held under the historical cost model because revaluations are only permitted when an active market for identical intangible assets is available. This is rare and results in a club's most important asset class either being excluded from the balance sheet or carried at outdated amounts. Comparability among clubs is also compromised. Clubs with a player development strategy are disadvantaged in comparison to those that actively purchase established players because they report weaker balance sheets. Additionally, because the development and changes in the value of registrations are not accounted for over time, current revenues are mismatched with expenses related to investments in assets distorting performance assessments. In response, the current paper develops a normative framework for accounting for player registrations designed to provide a more detailed and transparent account of how clubs manage these important assets. The model complements financial statements by incorporating elements of historical cost and fair value whilst maintaining compliance with IFRS. The model's practical application is illustrated using three well-known football clubs namely, Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United.

The purpose of this paper is to examine companies’ business model disclosures in their integrated reports and to explore the possible determinants of more detailed business model disclosures. Content analysis is used to identify disclosure themes in the integrated reports of 40 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Descriptive statistics are generated for each disclosure theme/item and hypotheses are tested, using non-parametric testing. The results suggest that financial performance does not have a material effect on how companies explain their business model. This is not the case when it comes to environmental performance as firms with strong environmental performance devote more attention to explaining how financial and non-financial elements are managed. This is consistent with an emerging body of research which suggests that higher-quality integrated reporting can be used to lower information asymmetry and reinforce investors’ ability to understand a firm's performance. This paper complements a growing body of work which has considered the determinants of better-quality environmental or sustainability reporting and answers the call for more research on the factors that may influence the nature and extent of disclosures found in an integrated report.

This study examines the association between corporate environmental performance and financial distress. Using a sample of Australian firms, we find that environmental performance is negatively related to the financial distress probability perceived by the market. In addition, the negative association between environmental performance and the financial distress probability is more pronounced for firms with a higher level of risk. The findings provide important empirical evidence regarding the implications of environmental performance on firms’ risk management.

Rounds of corporate collapse linked to failure of transparency in reporting frequently result in governance reforms aimed at audit processes. The 2004 CLERP 9 reforms in Australia were intended to improve standards of auditor independence and thereby enhance auditing practice in general. This study longitudinally examines three sources of archival evidence in an Australian context, before and after the introduction of the CLERP 9 reforms. It finds little support for any success of the CLERP 9 reforms with respect to auditor independence and questions whether lack of auditor independence is in fact a significant causation factor in audit failure.

This paper describes research undertaken to understand current market practice in relation to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reporting in New Zealand. Our research sampled 237 large New Zealand entities. The results show that 31% of entities were doing some form of voluntary GHG emission reporting. Of the entities reporting GHG emissions, 73% were reporting some Scope 3 emissions. The majority (51%) do not appear to get assurance for their GHG emissions reports. This is a useful benchmark to assess the level and development of GHG emissions reporting in the future. It indicates the approach reporting entities should take if future regulations and standards follow the current market practice.