Sustainable strategy for corporate governance based on the sentiment analysis of financial reports with CSR

Focusing only on shareholders’financial return is not consistent with the concept of sustainable corporate governance.In contrast to financial performance,corporate social responsibility(CSR)is a non-financial performance index.Financial reports consist of both financial and non-financial disclosures.These disclosures help investors make decisions.This paper characterizes the interaction between the sentiment analysis of financial reports and CSR scores.The classification accuracy through SVM exceeds 86%.The empirical study shows that the financial report sentiment based on the PESTEL model,Porter’s Five Forces model,and Value Chain(Primary and Support Activities)significantly correlates to the CSR score.

Characteristics of the Ownership Structure of Chinese Listed Companies and Its Effect on Financial Reports Quality

Ownership structure is brand-new to the reform of Chinese state-owned enterprises, and also a problem that urgently need to study. Because the reform wasn＇t entire, the ownership structure of Chinese listed companies looks freakish. That is to say, the ownership is highly concentrated in the state, who has just no tangible rights to control the business, which results in ＂insider control＂, ＂owner absence＂, ＂duality of manager and chairman＂, and so on. At the same time, such an ownership structure is unavoidable to supply inducement to the people who has relative benefits in it, and it eventually affects the quality of their financial reports. This paper empirically studies the ownership structure of Chinese listed companies and their characteristics in the actual situation, and finally puts forward some suggestions on how to improve the quality of the financial reports from the ownership structure approach.

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.

From EBIT to SEBIT(Sustainable EBIT):Sustainable Performance Accounting(SPA)Using the Example of CO_(2) Accounting

Corporate sustainability reporting has become increasingly important in recent years.However,conventional approaches reach their limits when it comes to quantifying and measuring the actual sustainability performance of a company.This article presents a new approach:Sustainable Performance Accounting(SPA),which is based on an extension of bookkeeping by including ESG bookkeeping.SPA enables companies to systematically measure and manage their sustainability performance.The article provides an overview of the basics of SPA methodology and uses a comprehensive example showing how SPA can be implemented in practice.The article is aimed at interested readers from science and practice as well as decision-makers who are interested in future-oriented sustainability reporting.

Behavioral Aspects in Obligatory Reports of Public Hospitals in Poland

The health care sector is the most difficult one to manage and control. Special units in this field are public hospitals which are required to prepare a lot of reports to various institutions, including the ownership body. The paper focuses on two issues. The first is the presence of behavioral factors in the reporting of public hospitals in Poland to the ownership bodies. This article aims to indicate the thematic areas of specific reports, most affected by behavioral factors and explain the causes and consequences of their occurrence. The second issue is the analysis of the legal status of obligatory reporting of public hospitals. Participants of the conducted research, due to their specific ownership and political and social position, were public hospitals in Poland. The paper uses the research methods of the meta-analysis of the literature, legal acts in Poland and empirical materials, and also the methods of synthesis, observation, and deduction. Data analysis focused on specific sample of reports issued by Polish public hospitals for their ownership body. The research shows that hospitals draw up a tremendous number of often thematically overlapping and redundant reports addressed to different institutions in different time periods. It is a consequence of legal regulations failing to streamline the reporting of the health care sector institutions, in particular public hospitals. The paper points to the large number of legal instruments that contain imprecise requirements resulting from the complex and obscure forms of control of public funds allocation in this sector. There are many behavioral factors that shape some fields of public hospitals＇ reports, for example, interpersonal relationships, egoism, private financial interests, strengthening of the employment status and professional position, and professional competences. There is considerable freedom in the reporting process fulfilled by public hospitals in Poland for their ownership body. It causes strong consequences, like poor-quality data, duplication of information, and its chaos, as well as high costs of obtaining information. Reporting system of financial and non-financial data of public hospitals in Poland is dysfunctional.

Financial Statements of Banks as a Source of Information About Implementation of IFRS 15： The Evidence from Poland

Banks in the economies of individual countries play the role of entities of public trust and are perceived as ＂too big to fail＂. In fact, they are exposed to risks associated with business operations. In practice, there are even instances of banks going bankrupt. Therefore, the reliability of the financial statements of a bank as a source of information about its financial condition is of particular importance. The main objective of creating IAS/IFRS and their implementation within the European Union is the strive to standardize accounting rules utilized by companies and other organizations. IFRS, as any other regulations, are subject to change over years. One of the recent changes is the introduction of IFRS 15 ＂Revenue from Contracts with Customers＂. In all entities using IAS/IFRS, communication of planned changes should involve disclosure ahead of time, regarding the analysis of their impact on the financial statements. The purpose of this paper has been to analyze whether the financial statements of banks contain any records on the impact of IFRS 15. These analyses are within the mainstream of studying how complete and prospective is the information contained in the financial statements for external users. The subjects for research are the consolidated financial statements of five major banks in Poland. As a result of research, it was found that in all studied cases, work on the implementation of IFRS 15 was observed. However, looking at every bank separately, a differentiated approach to presenting information on the standard is observed, which may be a hindrance for users of banks＇ financial statements.

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.

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.

International Accounting Standards Board （IASB） and Financial Accounting Standards Board （FASB） Convergence Project： Where Are They Now？

The convergence project between the International Accounting Standards Board （IASB） and the Financial Accounting Standards Board （FASB） in the United States （US） was signed on September 18, 2002 in Norwalk, Connecticut in the US. The first is responsible for issuing International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） nowadays, which were created 40 years ago. More than one century ago, local regulations are used in the US. The boards differ in years of experience. With the signing of the agreement, both institutions are working to reduce the divergence of accounting. Although they have made a significant progress, it is appropriate to examine whether the difference in approaches to accounting will affect the achieved agreements. It is relevant to investigate whether the years leading the standards adopted in different countries will impact the final result. The date of completion of the project has been postponed and still has not indicated the date of termination. This research is an analysis of the importance of the convergence of accounting standards at a global level. The study presents statistics on the status of the adoption of international standards by country. The study shows a summary of the expressions made by the directors of both boards about the future of the project.

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.

Some Aspects to Improve the Financial Accounting Report under Cyber-economy Background

Cyber-economy is the product of intemet commercialization since mid-1980s. Nowadays, cyber-economy is impacting every aspect of the social life under the background of economic globalization, with modem e-information as its base and the e-commerce as its guideline. Financial circumstance has also changed greatly as being affected by the whole economic condition. Accounting is a very important management activity. We need to study and research on how to face the changing condition and play its function constantly. This paper analyzes and discusses the financial accounting report under the cyber-economy from six aspects in order to promote accounting development.

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.

Investigation on the Quality of Financial Enterprises＇ XBRL Formatted Financial Report and Its Market Effect

The application of extensible business reporting language （XBRL） has been widely used across the globe in recent years. Many countries already made XBRL mandatory in their accounting system. The financial industry is normally the first XBRL network report implementer in these countries and it has its own industry classification standard. However, there are many issues been reported on the quality of XBRL formatted financial statement in the financial industry, such as project omission, project misstatements, account omission, and amount misstatements. This paper has conducted an empirical research on the quality of XBRL financial statement in the financial industry based on all samples available from the Shanghai stock exchange and analyzed the market effect of these issues for over six year window period. A web presentation quality evaluation criteria evaluation model was used in the investigation. Evidences indicate that the number of errors in report item omissions was the biggest problem in XBRL formatted financial reports comparing with other types of errors, while this affected the growth rate of company, unexpected rate of return, and the adoption of XBRL. Suggestions on solving these issues are then provided after comparing with the data point methodology （DPM） implementation for XBRL financial reporting in European countries, especially the World Bank.

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.

Financial statements in less developed countries： What do preparers demand？

This study reports on an empirical investigation of the characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs of preparers of external financial reports in a less developed country. The basic research instrument consisted of a questionnaire in two parts： the first addressing attitudes of professional accountants toward annual financial reports generally; the second, more specifically measuring the importance of the information items to preparers. Our results suggest that the independent auditor is the most influential group in decision-making processes. As in many developed countries, the auditor＇s report and the regulatory framework are considered to have a major influence on financial reporting practices. Preparers believe that a lack of knowledge of external users＇ needs and lack of reporting standards and accepted accounting principles are the main concerns with corporate financial reports in Iran. The results showed that the balance sheet, auditors＇ report, and income statement in that order are the three most important parts of the annual reports.

Neutrality and ＂Prism Effect＂ of the Financial Report in the Global Contest： What Prospects？

The globalization of the economy favors increasingly stringent relations between heterogeneous economic and social systems and companies that are organized and managed very differently. As a consequence, international markets are characterized by actors with different physiognomies for management styles and communication modes. It follows that there is an urgent need to agree on homogeneous standards of information, including for budget statements, traditionally considered as a primary source of disclosure to stakeholders of the company＇s economic and financial assets. Is it still possible to use a single budget that satisfies a so diverse and wider audience of potential users？ In the accounting tradition, in many countries, especially for ＂practical＂ reasons, a principle of uniqueness and therefore of ＂neutrality＂ of the budget has been established which must be drafted to satisfy all potential recipients at the same time： it must be based on independent and impartial norms, to favor the particular needs of only certain categories of users. The paper represents this principle with the ＂prism effect＂： a single source of information should at the same time adequately respond to the information needs of a large and varied audience of operators. Is this still possible in changing global and ＂glocal＂ realities where most economically strong nations want to impose their own accounting languages？ What are the possible solutions to the changing needs of information？

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.

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.

Analysis of Hidden Value and Value Relevance of Financial Statements Pre- and Post-IFRS Adoption

This study analyses the hidden value and value relevance of financial statements pre- and post-IFRS （International Financial Reporting Standards） adoption. Prior studies on IFRS adoption provide conflicting evidence on value relevance. Market-to-book ratio and IFRS adoption value relevance using price is examined for Australian listed firms. Results show that IFRS adoption is value relevant over a longer period of time. Results are opposite for profit-making firms compared to loss-making fu＇ms which may explain the conflicting results. In the presence of goodwill, IFRS is not value relevant when post-global financial crisis （GFC） period is included. Market-to-book ratio has increased in the post-IFRS period lowering the usefulness of financial statements. Moreover, results show mic changes affecting valuation of firms may explain for differences in the results for market-to-book ratio and value relevance in different jurisdictions and time periods

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.