1,354,095 research outputs found
The quality of mandatory non-financial (risk) disclosures: the moderating role of audit firm and partner characteristics
Get PDFRisk disclosures are among the most important types of non-financial information valued by investors. Risk disclosures are mostly narrative, proprietary in nature and, consequently, the importance of their accuracy and assurance is high to prevent them becoming boiler-plate and lose their relevance. By exploiting the unique features of a setting in which risk disclosure is mandatory and under a positive assurance requirement, we investigate whether the quality of audited risk disclosures is associated with the type of audit firm (Big-4 vs. non-Big-4), the characteristics of the audit firm and the attributes of the audit partner. Our results show an association between risk disclosure quality and auditors, but not in the ways that one would have expected. After the enforcement of a regulation that requires a detailed description of risks in the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) and a positive assurance of external audit over these disclosures, we do not document any significant Big-4 effect. The quality of risk disclosures is associated with the attributes of the audit partner, namely familiarity with different client risk disclosures, expertise and gender, independently from her belonging to a Big-4 audit firm. Along this way, we extend the recent evidence on the audit partner effects in the assurance of non-financial narrative information
Essays on corporate risk and transition disclosures in the IFRS era
Get PDFHigh-quality narrative communication in corporate financial reports is important to make company reporting more useful to investors. However, standard-setters face a taxing challenge in deciding how these sections in corporate financial reports could be regulated most effectively. The objective of this dissertation is to examine risk and transition disclosures by Finnish listed firms in the IFRS era. It will address whether corporate risk and transition disclosures can be improved by releasing a detailed risk disclosure standard and authoritative disclosure recommendations. Also, the economic consequences of high-quality risk disclosures on stock markets will be examined. Finally, this research examines the non-regulatory determinants of risk and transition disclosures.
This research uses positivist research methodology, which is the mainstream methodological avenue in financial accounting research. The main test methods are the standard mean test and the multivariate regression analysis. The sample firms in all essays consist of Finnish listed firms. The disclosure data were manually collected and coded. Data for the other variables were retrieved from the Thomson One Banker Financial, IBES, Worldscope and Datastream databases, or collected manually from the annual reports of the firms or from the register of Euroclear Finland Oy.
This dissertation documents that a detailed national risk disclosure standard increases the quality of overall risk reviews in several dimensions. The results also demonstrate that risk disclosure quality associates negatively with information asymmetry. Additionally, it was found that the usefulness of risk disclosures to investors depends on firm riskiness, investor interest and market conditions. Regarding corporate transition disclosure, the results indicate that recommended disclosure has more mandatory characteristics than voluntary disclosure. Moreover, this dissertation documents several significant non-regulatory determinants of risk and transition disclosures such as firm size, profitability, financial leverage, growth prospects, listing on the NYSE, and board independence.
The results benefit regulators, managers, investors, and analysts. This dissertation demonstrates for standard-setters such as the IASB, and the FASB, the SEC, and other national regulatory bodies that risk reporting under IFRS can be influenced through a detailed national disclosure standard. The findings suggest that a single legislative provision may not be effective enough to ensure transparent disclosure of abstract issues such as risks. Many managers may need detailed descriptions of the required disclosures with illustrative examples. We also demonstrate that managers react to the CESR (now ESMA) transition disclosure recommendation, which is actively promoted by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority. Thus, in some cases (for example when urgent disclosure improvements are needed) authoritative disclosure recommendations may be a faster and more cost-efficient way to achieve disclosure improvements than laws or standard
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
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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Business students’ learning and assessment in a COVID-19 world: empirical evidence from Finland
No full textPublisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This study examines business students’ learning and assessment under remote teachings during the COVID-19 pandemic in a well-established Finnish university. A survey method is used to collect information on 336 business students including 42 accounting students. As indicated by students’ responses, a majority of the students succeeded in assessing and self-regulating their learning, but a considerable group of students failed in this task. Students gave a lot of positive feedback on supervised electronic exams, such as scheduling efficiency, improved ability to focus, and reduced stress level. Students also reported a low number of monitoring problems in these exams. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that some students see the risk that problems in monitoring coursework threaten the value of their university degrees. However, about half of the students did not want to increase monitoring. Accounting students’ opinions were mostly similar to those of the other business students. This study contributes to the literature by showing key factors that influence students’ learning in remote teaching under abnormal conditions. In addition, it demonstrates how the constructivist model of learning can be used to explain students’ learning and assessment in these circumstances.Peer reviewe
Author, publisher and bookseller : a tripartite synergy in Nigerian book industry
Get PDFThis work is about the roles of Author, Publisher and Bookseller in Book development in
Nigeria. The paper started by delving into the history of Book Publishing in Nigeria after
which it proceeded by defining who an author, a publisher, and a bookseller is and
expatiated on the indispensable roles of these key actors in Nigerian Book Industry and in
the emerging Information Society. Furthermore, the various constraints to book
development were identified while the paper advised on how the Book Industry can be
further promoted in Nigeria. However, the paper concluded and made recommendations
on how the Book sector can help in enhancing scholarship in the country
The Thursday Murder Club: Launching a megabrand author - a publishing case study
Get PDFIn 2020, the Christmas book charts in the UK made headlines: Barack Obama’s eagerly awaited autobiography, The Promised Land, was beaten to the top spot by The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, a debut cosy crime novel set in a retirement village. Not only did Osman’s book beat the former US president’s expected bestseller, it also broke records, becoming the fastest-selling debut crime novel of all time. Although Osman has a certain level of fame in the UK from his TV appearances on shows such as Pointless, his celebrity status does not entirely explain the novel’s huge sales. This article tracks the acquisition, publication, and promotion journey of The Thursday Murder Club in order to understand the industry and cultural context of its success and to interrogate the role of celebrity in the creation of author brands. The findings suggest that the unexpected scale of the success of the book owed to a number of factors, including in-depth editing by the novel’s agent, editor, and author to tighten up the plot, an extensive and strategic promotional campaign, the pandemic (which drove interest in the book’s genre and themes), and the quality of the writing. We find that the book’s success was accentuated by Osman’s celebrity status rather than being entirely reliant on it. This research adds to the growing scholarship on celebrity authorship by means of an in-depth case study and provides insight into the processes behind publishing a ‘celebrity’ book and launching a megabrand author
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