1,720,976 research outputs found
An investigation of the information requirements of users of Australian public sector financial reports
No full textThe emergence of new public management has been implicated in the changes that have occurred in the public sectors of western democracies. One outcome of these changes is that the public sector is expected to operate in a more commercial manner and that it be accountable not only for the money that it spends but also for the effectiveness with which it spends those funds. In response to these expectations, changes have occurred in both the accounting technologies and reporting mechanisms for the public sector. The Treasuries and Departments of Finance for each jurisdiction in Australia set accounting and financial reporting policy for the public sector. However, since the establishment of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board in 1983, the commonwealth and state governments have shown a willingness to adopt standards issued by the accounting profession. The adoption of three specific public sector accounting standards developed by the accounting profession in accordance with the conceptual framework, mean that a financial reporting model, based on the private sector 'decision-useful model', has been adopted in the Australian public sector. The 'decision-useful model' incorporates dependent users who are reliant on general purpose financial reports to make economic decisions. The decision to adopt this model for all public sector reporting entities, did not receive unanimous support. The complexities of the public sector formed the foundation for critics to question the applicability of this model to the public sector. In addition, critics argued that the model lacked empirical substantiation. The purpose of this research is to determine the applicability of the 'decision-useful model' to the public sector by empirically identifying users of public sector general purpose financial reports and their information requirements. Prior empirical research has been piecemeal in terms of both scope and research method. As a result, it has not been cumulative. This research will refine and extend the work of previous studies in two ways. First, in terms of scope, it will encompass all public sector entity types and will address all three elements of the 'decision-useful model' - the identity of users, what information they use and their purposes for requiring information. Second, this research will adopt a method which directly accesses users across public sector entity types. As a consequence, an assessment is able to be made of the applicability of the 'decision-useful model' in general and its application to specific public sector entity types. The findings of this research indicate that the 'decision-useful model' is misspecified in the public sector and that there are significant differences among public sector entity types in terms of users and their information requirements. First, the classification of users as normatively determined is not exhaustive and includes a large representation of non-dependant users. Second, all users preferred performance information and narrative information was preferred over general purpose financial reports. Further, users considered that general purpose financial information was more useful for accountability purposes than for decision making. These results should be useful to policymakers and accounting standard setters in the future prescription of the contents of financial reports for public sector entities
The Influences on Queensland Local Government Authorities to Adopt Triple Bottom Line Reporting
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Auditor obligations in an evolving legal landscape\ud
No full textPurpose – \ud
The purpose of this paper is to look at auditor obligations to their clients and potentially to third parties such as investors, with a focus on the quality of financial disclosure in an evolving legal framework.\ud
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Design/methodology/approach – \ud
The article outlines and compares established and emerging\ud
trends relative to information disclosure and contractual performance in parallel contexts where information asymmetry exists. In particular, this article considers the disclosure regime that has evolved in the insurance industry to address the substantial imbalance in the level of knowledge possessed by the insured in comparison to the prospective insurer. Abductive reasoning is used to\ud
identify causal constructs that explain the data pattern from which the theorised potential for judicial revision of the interpretation of “true and fair” in line with “good faith” in legal regulation is derived.\ud
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Findings – \ud
The authors conclude that there is little doubt that a duty of good faith in relation to auditor-company contractual dealings and potentially a broader good faith duty to third parties such as investors in companies may be on the horizon.\ud
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Originality/value – \ud
In the context of stated objectives by organisations such as the International Federation of Accountants to reconcile ethical and technical skills in the wake of the global financial crisis, there is an increased need to rebuild public and investor confidence in the underpinning integrity of financial reporting. This paper offers a perspective on one way to achieve this by recognising the similarities in the information asymmetry relationships in the insurance industry and how the notion of “good faith” in that relationship could be useful in the audit situation
The Influence of Regulation on the Publication of Consolidated Statements
No full textThe impact of regulation on the publication of consolidated statements by Australian listed companies is examined by reviewing evidence of the first use of consolidated statements by holding companies listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange, excluding companies incorporated elsewhere, and relating that evidence to the chronology of the development of statutory, professional and stock-exchange regulations permitting or prescribing the use of consolidated statements. The findings are that the wider adoption of consolidation accounting has been associated with changes in statutory and other forms of regulation. These findings contradict the conclusions of earlier studies (Whittred, 1986, 1987, 1988), namely that regulation was of minimal influence, and that the adoption of consolidation accounting was explainable by ‘contracting cost variables’. Major flaws identified in these earlier studies were an apparent failure to recognize that Sydney listed companies may have been subject to regulations established in other jurisdictions, and a crucial misinterpretation of the history of Australian stock exchange listing rules, which led to the misidentification of listed companies as having adopted consolidation ‘voluntarily’.\ud
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The findings also underline comments made previously in critiques of other papers which have tested hypotheses incorporating agency or contracting costs. While historical analysis can assist the exercise of judgment in the classification of events, those who rely on historical evidence in the development of theories and in framing hypotheses should use that evidence with care, having regard to pertinent contextual factors
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Who selects the 'right' directors? An examination of the association between board selection, gender diversity and outcomes
No full textUsing a sample of companies from the top 500 listed firms in Australia, we investigate whether the presence of a designated nomination committee and female representation on the nomination committee affect board gender diversity. We also examine whether gender diversity on the board affects firm risk and financial performance. We find that board gender diversity is significantly and positively associated with the presence of a designated nomination committee and that female representation on the nomination\ud
committee is a significant explanatory factor of increasing board gender diversity following the release of the 2010 Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance Council (ASXCGC) recommendations. Further, our results support the business case for board gender diversity as we find greater\ud
gender diversity moderates excessive firm risk which in turn improves firms’ financial performance. Our results are robust after correcting for selection bias\ud
and controlling for other board, firm and industry characteristics
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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