Citation
Chapple, E.(L). (2015), "Editorial", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-07-2015-0093
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Accounting Research Journal, Volume 28, Issue 2
Welcome to issue 2 of volume 28, published in 2015, of the Accounting Research Journal. Since the last general issue in 2014, I am pleased to report some additions to our editorial advisory board (EAB). I am delighted to report that several high profile academics have accepted our invitation to join the board. All of these colleagues have been enthusiastic supporters of the Journal in the past, and I look forward to the benefit of their advice and wisdom in the future as part of the editorial team. Welcome to:
Professor Karen Benson (The University of Queensland, Australia).
Professor Kevin Davis (The University of Melbourne, Australia).
Professor Paul de Lange (Curtin University, Australia).
Professor Kerrie Sadiq (Queensland University of technology, Australia).
Professor Graeme Wines (Deakin University, Australia).
Associate Professor Sue Wright (Macquarie University, Australia).
Professor Pam Kent (Griffith University, Australia).
Professor Tony van Zijl (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand).
In other news, I was recently contacted by Professor Julie Cotter, who informed me of her decision to step down from the Board, given other significant professional commitments. I wish to thank Professor Cotter for her many years of service on our EAB and I hope that going into the future, we can continue to rely on her support for the Journal in more general ways.
This issue comprises a general issue, and the topics are accounting related. Once again in this collection of papers, the Journal demonstrates the global appeal of the Journal to its readers and authors. Further, the papers show a commitment to accepting a range of research methods, across broad sectors including public sector, state-owned enterprises, capital markets and banking.
Graeme Wines (now on our editorial Board) with Helen Scarborough (both from Deakin University, Australia) examine reporting in the public sector in the first paper in this issue, “Australian government budget balance numbers: the hybrid nature of public sector accrual accounting”. Using case studies, they analysed the headline budget balance numbers in the general government sector budget statements of each of the Australian state, territory and federal governments for the eight financial years 2004-2005 to 2011-2012. They found some variation in the measurement bases adopted by governments and a number of departures from the reporting frameworks.
Leon Wong, from the University of New South Wales, Australia, submitted his sole authored paper on “Related party transactions and performance in China”. This is a hot topic in accounting at the moment and Dr Wong has found that whilst state-owned enterprises engage in related party transactions (RPTs) to a greater degree than privately controlled firms, they outperformed the latter unadjusted for RPTs but this performance advantage was completely offset after adjusting performance for RPTs.
In their jointly authored paper, Joseph D. Beams (University of New Orleans, USA) and Yun-Chia Yan (University of Texas at Brownsville, USA) examine the effects of the recent financial crisis on auditors’ going-concern audit opinions in the USA setting. Their study suggests that the data show that auditors were more conservative during financial crisis, but by 2010, the financial crisis had eased and the level of going-concern opinions quickly dropped to pre-crisis levels not seen since before the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Please refer to their paper herein “The effect of financial crisis on auditor conservatism: USA evidence”.
Mohammed Amidu and Ransome Kuipo (both from the University of Ghana Business School, Ghana) submitted their paper on the banking system in Africa, “Earnings management, funding and diversification strategies of banks in Africa”. They raise two issues pertinent to bank earnings management: first, whether there is evidence of earnings management by banks in the selected African countries; and second, what accounts for the banks to engage in such practices?
In the final paper in this issue, I am pleased that Dr Mark Russell, an early career researcher at The University of Queensland, Australia, chose to send to this Journal his sole authored paper on the Australian continuous disclosure regime, “Continuous Disclosure and Information Asymmetry”.
The Journal continues to nurture emerging research talent, and in 2015 we sponsored the “best paper” award for emerging scholars at the 2015 Financial Markets and Corporate Governance conference, held in Fremantle Western Australia in April 2015. Thanks must be recorded to Professor Robert Durand and his team who organised the conference and assisted in promoting the prize. I am pleased to congratulate Dr Jamie Y. Tong (University of Western Australia) as her paper “Ethical Image, Corporate Social responsibility and R&D Valuations” was selected as the best paper in the category of Emerging Scholar. I hope Jamie favourably considers the Journal as a possible future publishing outlet.
Emerald also has its Awards for excellence, and on behalf of the Editorial Advisory Board and readers, I wish to formally record our congratulations to the best papers from 2014 volume 27:
Winner:
Kevin Stevens, Ning Du & John E. McEnroe, “The joint effects of management incentive and information precision on perceived reliability in fair value estimates”.
Highly commended:
Raihana Mohdali, Jeff Pope, “The influence of religiosity on taxpayers”.
Prodosh Simlai, “Firm characteristics, distress risk and average stock returns” (Source http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/literati/awards.htm?year=2015).
Finally, I express my thanks to my team comprising co-editor and associate professor Aziz Islam and editorial assistant Ms Elizabeth Marsland. I also acknowledge continued support of the QUT Business School.
Ellie (Larelle) Chapple - Co-editor, School of Accounting and Business Information Systems, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia