Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation最新文献

This paper studies the manipulation of the profits reported by non-listed Colombian companies. First, we examine whether the distribution of profits shows a discontinuity around zero earnings, an empirical fact evident in other countries. Second, we investigate whether this discontinuity results from opportunistic management behavior in manipulating the profit figures to avoid reporting losses or if, on the contrary, it is the result of accounting conservatism in recognizing extraordinary items or the asymmetric effect of the expense of income tax. Moreover, frequency analysis identifies a discontinuity around zero in all analyzed earnings measurements. Additional evidence suggests that while companies use non-operating items discretionarily to exceed the zero-profit threshold, the discontinuity generated by tax expenditure results from its asymmetrical effect.

Going beyond the mere presence of the audit committee financial experts (ACFEs) within the audit committee, we examine whether the educational profile, gender, and professional experience of ACFEs reduces the extent of earnings management. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies, we find evidence suggesting that ACFEs with postgraduate qualifications and other professional certifications mitigate earnings management. Female ACFEs with postgraduate qualifications are more effective in mitigating earnings management than their male counterparts. Also, the professional experience of ACFEs helps them reduce the extent of earnings management. Results are more pronounced in the case of female ACFEs with more professional experience. In addition, we found that ACFEs working in privately-owned Chinese firms better mitigate earnings management compared to those in state-owned Chinese firms. Overall, our results remain robust after controlling for potential endogeneity problems and using alternative earnings management proxies. Our study provides implications for regulators about necessary policy reforms regarding audit committee composition and recommends that companies appoint female ACFEs in China.

This study examines the effect of social ties between the chief executive officer (CEO)/chief financial officer (CFO) and independent board members on related party transactions (RPTs). The presence of CEO/CFO-board social ties can weaken board oversight and result in propping or tunneling activities. However, firms can benefit from a socially connected board’s advice. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, the results show that CEO/CFO-board social ties are positively associated with abnormal RPTs. This positive association is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially locally owned SOEs. Further analyses indicate that firms with socially connected boards engage in RPTs that are detrimental to shareholders. Additionally, the primary results seem to be largely driven by CEOs’ connections. Chinese regulators impose strict regulations on RPTs, directing firms toward transparent transactions. The results of this study, however, indicate that regulatory frameworks should be revised to account for the influence of social ties to protect minority shareholders’ interests.

This study focuses on the value-generating and risk-reducing function of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, assurance, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) adoption by considering the moderating effects of CSR committees and executive CSR compensation. We retrieved an international dataset of 58,105 firm-year observations from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database over a long period of 16 years between 2004 and 2019. We find that while CSR reporting and external assurance are positively associated with firm value and industry-adjusted firm value, they are negatively associated with firm value volatility (i.e., risk). However, even though following GRI guidelines is not associated with firm value or industry-adjusted firm value, it is negatively associated with firm risk. Moderation analysis reveals that while CSR committees help strengthen the relationship between CSR reporting and external assurance and firm value, they fail to moderate the relation between GRI framework adoption and firm value. Furthermore, there are no significant results on the moderating effect of executive CSR compensation on firm value in any of the model configurations. However, further tests show that executive CSR compensation has a positive moderating effect between CSR reporting and assurance and accounting performance. Robustness tests confirm that the findings are largely robust to alternative sampling, methodology, and additional control variables.

We extend the existing literature on how the adoption of a lead independent director is related to corporate outcomes by documenting that the presence of a lead independent director on the board is significantly and negatively related to managerial risk-taking. The result is more pronounced for firms with a non-independent board chair. In a further analysis, we document that decreased managerial risk-taking leads to a reduction in the cost of debt for firms with a lead independent director on the board. Overall, our results suggest that the adoption of a lead independent director is an effective governance mechanism when the board chair is not independent, which supports the motivation of the United Kingdom corporate governance code.

Asymmetric cost behavior is an emerging and dynamic research area within the context of contemporary cost management research. This study systematically reviews asymmetric cost behavior research published in ABS-ranked journals (53 English-speaking journals) between 2003 and 2020. Additionally, we provide a review of the econometric models and instruments employed in empirical asymmetric cost behavior research and a meta-analysis of prior empirical evidence for the main determinants of the direction and intensity of the asymmetric cost behavior phenomenon. Several research streams are recognized within two major themes of cost asymmetry empirical research: (i) determinants of the asymmetric cost behavior phenomenon, and (ii) cost asymmetry as a determinant of earnings behavior, earnings prediction, and other microeconomic and macroeconomic phenomena. Each major component of our review is accompanied by critical analysis and suggestions for future research. Meta-analysis of the existing body of cost asymmetry studies reveals no publication bias but increasing heterogeneity within existing empirical evidence for cost asymmetry.

This paper explores the status quo of environmental goals disclosure (EGD) and empirically tests its impact on Egyptian corporate sustainability ratings and firm value. We find that Egyptian companies show a large degree of variability and inconsistency in their EGDs. However, EGDs have a positive impact on sustainability ratings and firm value. Companies that release more EGDs are more likely to gain membership in the Egyptian Sustainability Index and attain a high sustainability rank, to which the capital market reacts positively. Our findings have important implications, particularly for policymakers, companies, investors, environmental activists, and other stakeholder groups in developing nations. This study contributes insights from EGD practices in Egypt to the existing literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing nations. It also helps to resolve the conflicting predictions of socio-political theories and the voluntary disclosure theory, showing how both perspectives help to explain the relationships among corporate EGDs, sustainability ratings, and firm.

This study contributes to the accounting literature on the intersection between earnings quality and the linguistic features of firms’ financial disclosures. Specifically, it examines the relationship between earnings persistence as an attribute of earnings quality and the tone of United Kingdom annual reports. The expectations-adjustment hypothesis suggests that firms with more persistent earnings streams have incentives to signal their superior earnings quality to capital providers by increasing the positive tone of financial disclosures. Consistent with this hypothesis, this study provides evidence of a positive association between the annual report tone and earnings persistence. Additional analysis reveals that this association is less pronounced in technology firms than non-technology firms. Separating the sample into profit firms and loss firms suggests that the tone is positively associated with the persistence of profits but exhibits no association with the persistence of losses. Disaggregating the tone into positive and negative components indicates that negative tone has a stronger and more negative association with earnings persistence than positive tone. Further, negative tone is negatively associated with earnings persistence in both profit firms and loss firms. In contrast, positive tone is not associated with earnings persistence in profit firms but is negatively associated with earnings persistence in loss firms.

The quality of tax accounting can be defined as the relationship between the annual tax expense reported in firms’ financial statements and future tax cashflows. As corporate income taxes have a material proportion of earnings, assessing the tax accounting quality can help financial statement users in evaluating future commitment to internal funds. While there is an emerging US-based literature on tax accounting quality, to the authors’ knowledge this is the first study to examine tax accounting quality outside of the US and the first under a regime governed by International Financial Reporting Standards. The results indicate that tax accounting quality is significantly lower for firms that engage in higher levels of tax management or have stronger earnings management pressure. While corporate governance mechanisms do not moderate the relationship between tax management and tax accounting quality, there is some evidence of a moderating effect in the relationship between earnings management pressure and tax accounting quality. In addition, we observe variations in tax accounting quality associated with a change in tax-related financial reporting standards.

This study responds to recent calls for a better understanding of the determinants of internal audit quality (IAQ). We use the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) dataset from the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation to do two things: (1) to propose novel indexes for three determinants of IAQ, namely governance, human capital, and communication, and (2) to investigate whether these indexes enhance IAQ either independently or in combination. Although our econometric results suggest that internal audit departments should focus on improving human capital development and internal auditors’ communication skills, they show also that strong governance practices increase IAQ. An interesting finding is that organizations decide among available determinants of IAQ in that better IAQ is the result of a choice to implement these practices without seeking synergies. Our results should encourage practitioners to investigate the logic underlying their decisions aimed at enhancing IAQ.