The web-based financial reporting adopted by the listed companies in the Athens Stock Exchange

Web-based corporate reporting is the provision of financial information through the Internet. Other companies prefer to disclose their financial information in order to satisfy their investors and to attract new ones while others prefer to provide as less information as possible. The purpose of this paper is twofold： first it provides a critical examination of the main reporting criteria followed by the Greek listed companies, in order to point out how many of these companies present these criteria. Second, it considers how the industry sector of the listed companies or their capitalization category is related with their disclosure degree of financial reporting.

The Link Between Internet Financial Reporting and Information Asymmetry for American Depository Receipts

We provide evidence on the effect of the presentation format and information content of Internet financial reporting on the market value of American Depository Receipts and on country-specific variables that drive Internet financial reporting. A two-stage Heckman approach was used to determine if Internet financial reporting adds incremental value to firms beyond the decision to cross-list in the United States. The results indicate that investors more highly value firms that provide information in multiple formats. We also find that country-specific variables affect the information content, but not the presentation format of disclosures on corporate websites. The results uncover a disconnection between what the market values （presentation format） and what the firms believe the market values （information content）. This implies that firms are not entirely aware of investors＇ information wants and that they are not utilizing their resources in the manner that will have the most impact on their market value.

Impact of International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） Adoption on Key Financial Ratios＂ The Case of the Czech Republic

This contribution analyzes the impact of new International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） reporting rules on financial ratios prepared in the Czech companies. Using a sample of 16 Czech firms, we attempt to measure the scope and size of the differences in the selected set of financial ratios as calculated with data reported according to the traditional Czech accounting standards （CAS） and under the IFRS provisions. Our study discovers that there are important differences resulting from the two reporting formats. Our research comes to a conclusion that translation of Czech statements to IFRS may cause changes in the values of financial indicators without relationship to the real change in the firms＇ value, performance, and stability. Even though the findings were not statistically significant, the indicative results of our measurements disclosed an important fact that the transition to IFRS could cause deterioration of key indicators and thereby could impact on the overall rating of companies. One needs to be cautious with generalization due to the small sample size.

A Corpus-based Contrastive Study of Conceptual Metaphor-A Case Study of English and Chinese Financial Reporting

Up to now there have been no contrastive studies of conceptual metaphor in English and Chinese economic field. In this paper, a corpus-based approach is adopted in comparing the conceptual metaphors in Chinese financial reporting (CFR) with those in English financial reporting (EFR). To make a contrastive study, this paper categorizes the conceptual metaphors identified in two corpora into two parts: same conceptual metaphors and different conceptual metaphors, and for the analysis of each conceptual metaphor, linguistic entity, frequency and percentage are taken as the three standards for comparison, which is analyzed with Concapp.

The Differences between Chinese Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises and International Financial Reporting Standards as well as the Convergence Strategy Method

The continuous development and progress of international economic integration has resulted in the increasing of economic and trade exchanges between various countries.In order to implement a more systematic corporate financial supervision mechanism effectively and adapt to the needs of economic development,it is necessary to clarify corporate accounting standards and international financial reporting standards.The relationship between them are crucial to improve the transparency of financial statements and optimize management levels.This paper analyzes the differences between Chinese business accounting standards and international financial reporting standards as well as discusses the convergence process and convergence strategy methods for reference.

The Relevance of International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-Sized Entities （IFRS for SMEs） in Swaziland

The purpose of this study is to explore the relevance of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） for small and medium-sized entities （SMEs） in Swaziland. The study further seeks to determine if IFRS for SMEs can be the solution to better reporting by local SMEs. There has been a growing need for different reporting standards for small firms and big firms over the years due to the unique challenges and attributes they face especially in the area of financial reporting. This research is based on a statistical analysis of questionnaires completed by accountants from SMEs in Swaziland as well as other stakeholders who have a direct or an indirect interest in the financial statements of SMEs. These stakeholders included audit firms and the financial institutions. The sampling rate of 10% was applied across each industry to come up with a sample of 60 SMEs. Furthermore, a 100% sampling rate on the other stakeholders was applied. These were nine financial institutions and eight audit finns. The findings from the study revealed that SMEs in Swaziland are having challenges with the current reporting framework but to some extent, the framework is suitable. Most SMEs are not aware of IFRS for SMEs, therefore the accounting profession in Swaziland （SIA） has a huge role to play in training auditors and accountants in the country. Overall, IFRS for SMEs is applicable in Swaziland.

The Relationship Between Integrated Reporting and Financial Reporting

With globalized world, expectations about business＇ role in the society and the world have increased; rather than just calculating profit and recording it, business has taken a step further. Accordingly, the social responsibility reporting, sustainability reporting, and environmental reporting concepts have emerged. Financial reporting just focuses on a portion of the company＇s status and is unable to show the effects of environmental factors, climate changes on the companies. In addition, sustainability reporting was unable to show financial data which aims to see the risks and opportunities better, improves corporate reputation, and evaluates the performance of the company in accordance with the laws and norms. Investors need to establish a relationship between the financial and non-financial information in order to carry out risk analysis, as a result, the idea of integrated reporting has arised. Many companies have willingly started to prepare integrated reports in various formats and every report has been formed in accordance with the needs of readers and business properties. In addition, integrated reporting principles and guidelines have been published by the International Integrated Reporting Council, in order to provide guidance to report preparers. With the increasing importance and spread of integrated reporting, debates about the benefits and problems encountered in the preparation increased. In this study, the followings are explained： the terms of financial reporting, sustainability reporting, and financial reporting; emergence of these terms; benefits of integrated reporting and problems that may be encountered while preparation; and the relationship between financial reporting and integrated reporting.

The Relationship Between Financial Reporting Standards （FRS） 139 and Audit Pricing： The Case of Malaysia

This study provides some insights for auditors to gauge the complexity of the financial statements verification process to comply with the ambiguous standard, namely, Financial Reporting Standards （FRS） 139 in Malaysia. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the adoption of FRS 139 and the audit fees charged to clients. The final sample consists of 1,050 finn-year observations covering the period from 2006 to 2008 from the non-financial companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia. In this study, the static panel data analysis is used to provide richer interpretation and a powerful understanding of the effect of standard adoption on audit pricing. The regression results from the random effects Generalized Least Squares （GLS） suggest that FRS 139 adoption has not significantly increased audit fees. The small number of observations for FRS 139 voluntary adoption is suspected to be the main limitation factor contributing to the insignificant result of the hypothesis. It is suggested that the limitation of small observations of FRS 139 voluntary adopters might be encountered during the period of mandatory adoption. Therefore, future research might investigate the impact of mandatory FRS 139 adoption.

The Effects of Audit Committee Attributes on Fraudulent Financial Reporting

This study aims to examine the relationship between audit committee attributes （audit committee independence, financial expertise, meeting frequency, gender diversity, and ethnic composition） and the propensity for fraudulent financial reporting. The sample includes 116 fraudulent and non-frandulent firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2005 to 2010. The finding of this study indicates that audit committee independence is positively associated with fraudulent financial reporting. The higher the proportion of independent or outside directors on the committee, the higher the possibility of financial fraud, and vice versa. The results also show that the expertise of members of the audit committee is negatively associated with corporate fraud. This suggests that when audit committee members are financially literate, they are more competent to curb fraudulent financial reporting. However, the findings for frequency of audit committee meetings, gender, and ethnicity show that there is no relationship between these variables and corporate fraud. The result of this study is robust after controlling for other firm-specific effects.

Objectives of Financial Reporting with Chinese Characters

Objectives of financial reporting are not immutable--they are influenced by a variety of factors, such as the economic, legal, political, and social environment in which financial reporting takes place. As the environmental contexts have changed in China since 1992, objectives of financial reporting have shown even more Chinese characters. In this paper, we focus on these special characters of objectives of financial reporting in China. In order to understand the objectives featured by Chinese characters, we are trying to find the hidden relationships between the objectives and environmental contexts. Our research shows that many researchers have already tried to establish objectives of financial reporting with Chinese characters, however current studies do have their limitations, and further studies should be done.

Harmonization of financial reporting of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic

A current problem of the present-day accounting and financial reporting consists in aligning the accounting in small and medium enterprises. In July 2009 the International Financial Reporting Standard for small and medium-sized enterprises was issued, which extended the aligning possibilities also to small and medium enterprises considerably. If the standard is adopted by the national legislation, problems connected with the standard implementation in the national legislation will have to be solved as well as practical issues connected with making financial statements. At present the yields and the problems which can arise in connection with the standard application have to be focused on. A contribution of the standard application will be a better informative ability of financial statements on the international level. At small and medium enterprises this can contribute to better comanunication with banks, with investors, rating application are： parallel reporting according to national agencies etc. The problems connected with the standard regulations, differences between the national legislation and the standard, wide practice at keeping accounts and making financial statements and limited approach of small and medium enterprises to obtaining information and to training of their employees. Another problem can be a tight link between the trading income and the tax base, when small companies prefer rather the tax point of view.

Claim reserving for insurance contracts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standards 17:a new paid‑incurred chain approach to risk adjustments

This study considers the risk management of insurance policies in line with the implementation of the new International Financial Reporting Standards 17.It applies the paid-incurred chain method to model the future unpaid losses by combining the information channels of both the incurred claims and paid losses.We propose the recovery of the empirical distribution of the outstanding claims liabilities associated with a group of contracts via moment-based density approximation.We determine the risk measures and adjustments that are compliant with the new standard using the Monte–Carlo simulation method and approximated distributions.The historical data on the aggregate Ontario automobile insurance claims over a 15-year period are analyzed to examine the appropriateness and accuracy of our approach.

Does Accounting Choices Affect Financial Reporting Communication？ Some Critical Consideration

The aim of this work is to analyze the critical issues related to stock options accounting granted to employees. Given the different ways to collect stock option plans, it follows that according to the accounting treatment adopted, it changes the financial reporting of stock option plans, and thus the information communicated to stakeholders and markets in general. The examination of the accounting treatment of stock options starts from the study of legal changes relating to the stock options and various criteria suggested will be presented for the evaluation of the options and for detection of their cost in the financial statements of companies （Guay, Kothari, ＆ Sloan, 2003）. After the analysis of international accounting standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board （IASB） on the subject, specifically the ＂IFRS 2＂, we can state that they had a strong impact on Italian companies （Ciampaglia, 2008）. The central aspect of the study, however, consists of an analysis of the market effects of accounting for the cost associated with the issuance of stock option plans （Cerri ＆ Sottoriva, 2010）. Budgeted costs relating to the adoption of stock option plans granted to employees change the measures of economic performance of the enterprise, such as return on investment （ROI） and return on equity （ROE）, with significant effects on the evaluation of the economic capital of the company. A company that does not account for costs related to stock option plans recorded a best exercise, but it could distort the valuation of fmancial analysts （Tagliavini, 2000）. Finally, it can be observed that the proper accounting of costs associated with stock options is a prerequisite for the comparability of financial statements of companies that grant, and it is therefore necessary to adequately reflect the value of the company.

Determinants of Financial Reporting Quality： An In-Depth Study o f Firm Structure

This paper examines the effects of firm structure on the financial reporting quality of Nigerian-quoted manufacturing firms by using assets, the leverage, the share dispersion, and the residuals of the modified Edward Bell Ohlson （EBO） model as proxies of firm structure and the financial reporting quality respectively. The data are extracted from 12 sample firms representing 50% （as the population of the study） of all the quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria. A multiple regression is used as a tool of analysis for the study. The result reveals a strongly positive relationship between the firm structure and the financial reporting quality of the quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended among others that the regulators should enforce more on the financial statement disclosure and transparency among companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange （NSE）, in order to ensure a higher quality of the financial reporting

Audit Committees： How They Affect Financial Reporting in Nigerian Companies

This study examines whether audit committees are associated with improved financial reporting quality for a sample of Nigerian listed companies prior to and after a corporate governance code mandated new regulations for audit committees in 2003. Using a sample of 70 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, this study uses archival data in the form of companies＇ annual reports to measure the association between audit committees and improved financial reporting quality. Dechew and Dichev （2002）＇s model was used to measure earnings as a proxy for financial reporting quality. The results indicate that formation of audit committees was positively associated with improved financial reporting quality. It was also found that audit committees having an independent chair and audit committee expertise were positively associated with financial reporting quality. Other audit committee characteristics examined were found to be insignificantly related to financial reporting quality.

Fraudulent Financial Reporting： Theory and Evidence

This paper develops a hypothesis of the four factors from the cause of fraudulent financial reporting in terms of thoughts, culture, motive, opportunity and economic trade-off. Then tests whether independent directors monitor and improve the quality of financial report on the basis of 1 170 firms in China by means of OLS regression. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis.

The Factors Affecting Financial Reporting Reliability： An Empirical Research of Public Listed Companies in Thailand

The objective of this research is to examine the antecedents of financial reporting reliability of Thai-listed companies. Accountant professional ethics, accounting information system （AIS） quality, audit committee effectiveness, and audit firm quality are assumed to be the antecedents of financial reporting reliability. The listed companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand （SET） are samples of the research. A mail survey procedure via the questionnaire was used for data collection from chief accountant officer. The overall results indicate that accountant professional ethics, AIS quality, audit committee effectiveness, and audit firm quality have a positive significant effect on financial reporting reliability. The results reveal that firms should develop accountant professional ethics, AIS quality, audit committee effectiveness, and audit firm quality in order to build reliable financial reporting. Overall, the results of this research contribute to chief accounting officers, accounting practitioners, and firms to emphasize development and support the generation of financial reporting reliability for financial reporting users.

Roadmap to Future Mandatory Application of International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） in Japan From the Perspectives of Financial Statement Preparers

This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on the future mandatory application of Intemational Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） using data from a questionnaire-based survey administered to financial statement preparers, that is, management in Japan. The important findings of this paper are as follows. The majority of Japanese companies consider that the domestic markets are more important than overseas markets; the most important differences between IFRS and Japanese standards are goodwill, comprehensive income, and the recognition of revenue; it is expected that IFRS would be applied only in consolidated financial statements or in both consolidated and parent companies＇ separate financial statements; and the lack of legislation making it mandatory is the main reason why IFRS has not been adopted by Japanese companies. Overall, this paper found that Japanese management is prudent and passive regarding IFRS adoption, leaving room for further discussions on the future mandatory application of IFRS in Japan.

Effect of Corporate Governance Compositions on Financial Reporting Timeliness in Nigerian Deposit Money Banks

This study ascertained the effect of corporate governance compositions on timeliness of financial reporting in deposit money banks in Nigeria.Ex Post Facto research design was employed for this study.Purposive sampling was used to select eight(8)deposit money banks in Nigeria with international authorization.Data were extracted from annual reports and accounts of the sampled banks and analyzed with regression analysis.The results show that board size has a positive and significant effect on financial reporting timeliness deposit money banks in Nigeria,while audit committee independence has a positive but insignificant effect on financial reporting timeliness of deposit money banks in Nigeria.Therefore,on the basis of the findings and conclusions of the study,the study recommends among other things that the number of banks board of directors should play a vital role in how well it can oversee daily operations of the institution and monitor management.

Evaluation of the Effects of Corporate Governance on Financial Reporting Quality

Corporate governance is designed to stimulate the investment environment and to create a stable financial situation in the capital markets by increasing the level of reliability,transparency,and accountability at the firm level.This study aims to examine whether corporate governance leads to higher quality financial reporting.This research has been performed using companies listed on Borsastanbul(BIST).For this purpose,two samples from the publicly held companies on BIST,which are included in the Corporate Governance Index and which are not included in this index,have been formed.Thus,we examined whether there is any difference between the financial reporting quality of the companies listed in Borsastanbul Corporate Governance Index and the financial reporting quality of the enterprises that are not included in this index.Since the quality of financial reporting is a multi-dimensional concept,it can be evaluated by different measurement methods focusing on different dimensions in the literature.One of these approaches used to measure the quality of financial reporting is the quality of earnings.The evaluation of the financial reporting quality of the enterprises included in the BIST Corporate Governance Index and the enterprises not included in the index were evaluated through different methods to compare two different samples in the context of the earnings quality approach.Panel data analysis was used to evaluate the financial reporting quality of the two samples by means of earnings quality methods.The data related to the models used in the assessment of financial reporting quality were obtained from the Public Disclosure Platform(KAP)and Equity RT database.The research covers 72 enterprises,36 of which are in the Corporate Governance Index and 36 of which are not in the Corporate Governance Index.