Asian Review of Accounting最新文献

Purpose

This study investigates the relationship between foreign ownership, earnings quality and overinvestment in Japanese zombie firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The study makes use of data from Japanese firms listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2019. The study employs logistic and multinomial logistic models to test whether the overinvestment behavior of zombie firms is mitigated by foreign shareholdings and earnings quality.

Findings

The results show that (1) zombie firms tend to overinvest; (2) an increase in foreign ownership mitigates the overinvestment of zombie firms and (3) the mitigation of zombie firms' overinvestment by foreign ownership is stronger with higher earnings quality.

Originality/value

This study extends the discussion of earnings quality and investment efficiency to the zombie firm setting. Previous studies in accounting suggest that high earnings quality enhances firms' investment efficiency. The findings suggest that both a change in ownership structure and high-quality accounting information are necessary to mitigate the inefficiency of zombie firms.

Purpose

The present work aimed to identify the impact of accrual-based earnings management on the cost of equity (KE) through corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a moderating variable on European Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) companies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used data from a sample of 366 European firms over the 2012–2022 period. The data were collected from the Thomson Reuters Asset 4 and I/B/E/S database and analyzed using STATA 17 as a statistical software package.

Findings

As expected, the results showed a negative relationship between accruals, CSR and KE. Moreover, they suggest that the moderating variable negatively affects the relationship between accruals and the KE.

Practical implications

The results are pertinent to stakeholders and investors, who would pressure companies to enhance the quality of disclosed information and mitigate risks facing the company.

Originality/value

The main contribution lies in examining the relationship between accruals and KE through CSR in the European ESG context.

Purpose

Using attribution theory, this study examined the effects of situational factors [time budget pressure (TBP), organisational ethical culture (OEC) and quality control procedures (QCPs)] and dispositional factors [auditor professional commitment (APC) and internal locus of control (ILOC)] on audit quality threatening behaviour (AQTB). In addition, it observed the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between situational and dispositional factors and AQTB.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 189 external auditors responded to the survey questionnaire. This study employed structural equation modelling via SmartPLS to analyse the proposed model.

Findings

The results documented that the OEC and QCPs situational factors were negatively related to the incidence of AQTB, whilst TBP was positively linked to the incidence of AQTB. Dispositional factors APC and ILOC were negatively connected to AQTB. Furthermore, the findings recorded the moderating effect of religiosity on most of the situational and dispositional factors related to AQTB.

Practical implications

Regulators and accounting firms' efforts to promote high audit quality (AQ) may consider the theological/religious lens and reinforce ethical culture and quality control to reduce AQTB.

Originality/value

The findings provide further insights into situational and dispositional factors that may cause or impede the incidence of AQTB in auditing practices, as well as the moderating role of religiosity in curbing AQTB.

Purpose

This paper seeks to investigate the factors influencing auditors' behavioural intentions towards blockchain technology (BT) adoption in Iraqi government banks. It also highlights the relationships between these factors to determine if the proposed model can provide a more comprehensive means of comprehending how auditors in government banks have adopted BT.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and expands it by incorporating five external constructs: “system trust”, “cost”, “transparency”, “security” and “auditor's skill.” This study employed a quantitative and exploratory methodology through the gathering and examination of data from 300 auditors. For the evaluation of the measurement and structural models, the authors adopted the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach with SmartPLS v4.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that “auditor's skill and four government features of BT adoption” are major factors in government bank auditors' adoption of BT. Additionally, the findings indicate that social influence is a potent indicator of one's intention to adopt BT in the banking industry.

Research limitations/implications

One limit of this study is the selection of governmental perspective. This study is limited to auditors' opinions, who work at the government banks. Further studies may consider other perspectives in order to provide an in-depth analysis of blockchain.

Practical implications

This paper offers valuable insights into the factors influencing the adoption of blockchain technology in Iraqi governmental banks. It provides empirical evidence supporting auditing units and internal auditors in enhancing their job performance through the adoption of such technology.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the existing literature on technology adoption within the audit profession, specifically examining the use of blockchain technology. By exploring the features of technology adoption within government institutions in the auditing field, it introduces a new perspective, emphasizing the importance of auditor skills.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational external environmental factors on strategic management accounting (SMA) usage in an emerging economy.

Design/methodology/approach

The study collected data from 79 public limited companies listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (Bangladesh) through a questionnaire survey. Multiple regression analysis is employed to test the impact of external environmental variables such as perceived environmental uncertainty and intensity of competition on SMA usage.

Findings

The study finds a significant positive impact of environmental uncertainty (fluctuation in the external environmental factors) and intensity of competition (domination by few companies) on SMA usage. However, the direction and magnitude of this impact vary considerably for specific groups of SMA practices such as costing, competitor accounting, customer accounting and planning and performance measurement techniques.

Originality/value

This study shows the impact of several facets of environmental uncertainty (i.e. unpredictability, fluctuation, ambiguity, lack of information and uncertainty of the outcome of decision) and intensity of competition (i.e. stressfulness and domination) in the empirical-based SMA research.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the correlation between a CEO's business background and the readability of financial statement footnotes in Indonesia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilizes a sample period spanning from 2010 to 2018 and employs various statistical tests, including Propensity Score Matching (PSM), Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and the Heckman Model, to demonstrate that it can address issues of causality and endogeneity without introducing bias.

Findings

As a result, the findings of this study indicate a statistically significant negative relationship between CEOs with busy schedules and the readability of financial statement footnotes. This suggests that companies led by busy CEOs are more likely to have financial statement footnotes that are easier to read.

Research limitations/implications

These findings hold significance for clarifying research related to the challenges of contextual analysis in financial statement footnotes, which are distributed by companies on a sentence-by-sentence basis.

Practical implications

The practical implications of the findings pertain to actionable steps that management can undertake and also offer regulators opportunities to monitor the potential for standard setting.

Originality/value

Based on the results presented, the authors are optimistic that the findings will pave the way for broader research on the impact of a busy CEO, encompassing not only financial aspects but also non-financial dimensions. The growing popularity of readability is driven by the proliferation of textual reports that pose challenges in analysis and raise numerous inquiries.