Search results

This review summarizes the empirical literature dealing with anti-corruption disclosure as this specific type of disclosure has attracted a great deal of attention in accounting literature.

Keywords used to collect relevant papers from numerous electronic databases (e.g. Science Direct, Emerald, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer and Taylor and Francis) include “anti-corruption reporting” “anti-corruption disclosure”. The final sample encompasses a set of 35 empirical studies published between 2015 and the beginning of 2024.

The summary of reviewed studies suggests that anti-corruption empirical studies are mainly cross-country investigations. Two streams of research are identified: (i) the determinants of anti-corruption disclosure and (ii) the economic consequences of anti-corruption reporting. With respect to the first stream of research, six main categories of determinants are identified (corporate characteristics, corporate governance attributes, informal institutions, stakeholders’ pressures, country institutional effect and regulation effect). With respect to the second stream of research, findings show that anti-corruption reporting is negatively associated with profitability, reduces earnings management and enhances corporate social reputation.

With respect to regulators, this review sheds light on the importance of anti-corruption disclosure in the fight against corruption. It also suggests that the adoption of some regulations like the Directive 2014/95/EU in the European Union or the 2010 UK Bribery Act have contributed to more transparency. With respect to investors, the existence of some determinants of anti-corruption reporting (e.g. United Nations Global Compact membership, cross-listing, multinationality, board independence) may signal the adequacy of corporate reporting policy and that management is following an adequate strategy to fight corruption and enhance transparency.

This review offers future research avenues for accounting scholars with respect anti-corruption disclosure literature.

This paper aims to conduct a meta-analysis regarding the association between political connections and the cost of debt and tests for the moderating effect of the level of creditor protection on this relationship.

Keywords used to collect relevant empirical papers include “political connections, political ties, and political connectedness” from the one side, and “cost of loan finance, and cost of debt” from the other side. The search yields 24 published empirical papers from 2005 to 2022.

Findings show that there is a significant negative association between political connections and the cost of debt; this relationship is more pronounced only for countries characterized by a strong level of creditor protection. This moderating effect is further confirmed using meta-regression.

Findings are relevant for policymakers and managers in settings where relationship-based capitalism represents a prevailing feature as they highlight the important legal and institutional characteristics when considering the impact of political connections on the cost of debt. The paper also discusses some limitations inherent to this stream of research and proposes future research perspectives.

This study aims to investigate the effect of national culture (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation) on audit report lag.

The authors use two econometric approaches (ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression) using STATA software for a sample of 1,208 firm-year observations over the period of 2017–2018.

Using Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation), the authors find that masculinity and long-term orientation are positively associated with audit report lag, while uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with the same variable. Quantile regressions suggest that the adverse effect of masculinity on audit report lag is more prevailing for companies communicating companies' annual reports in a timely manner. Furthermore, the positive association between power distance and audit report lag exists only under tardy disclosure regime. Quantile regressions also confirm that the negative (positive) effect of uncertainty avoidance (long-term orientation) on audit report lag is maintained under different timely disclosure regime. Additional analysis conducted with respect to legal system shows that individualism becomes a significant predictor of audit delays with a significant negative effect for common law countries, while uncertainty avoidance has a positive effect on the same variable in civil law countries characterized by high level of discretion and secrecy.

The results of this study suggest that national culture as an informal institution may complement formal institutions (e.g. financial markets) in promoting timely disclosure. For instance, foreign investors may view high uncertainty avoidance scores, in common law emerging economies, as an indicator of transparency and timely disclosure.

This study adds to the extant literature a further understanding of the impact of cultural dimensions on timely disclosure, as proxied by, audit report lag. The use of quantile regression approach shows how different timely disclosure regime may affect the association between masculinity, power distance and audit report lag.

This study aims to provide a timely review concerning the determinants and economic consequences of fair value reporting in real estate industry, as these topics have been gaining momentum in accounting literature recently.

Diverse editorial sources (e.g. Elsevier, Emerald, Meridian Allenpress, Springer, Sage, Taylor & Francis and Wiley-Blackwell) were consulted to identify relevant studies for this review. Keywords used to collect studies include “fair value” and “IAS 40” or “investment property” and “fair value or “fair value and real estate.” This search yields 33 studies published between 2009 and 2023.

The synthesis of reviewed papers suggests that studies were mainly conducted in the European countries after the mandatory adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in 2005 and the Australian setting. The first stream of research deals with the choice of fair value approach. Reported empirical findings suggest that corporate size and market-to-book ratio are negatively associated with fair value choice, whereas ownership dispersion increases the likelihood of choosing fair value approach. The empirical evidence concerning the determinants of fair value magnitude suggests the type of appraiser represents a key predictor of the extent of fair value use. The second stream of research examines the impact of fair value reporting in real estate industry. Findings suggest that empirical evidence is still limited with respect to creditors, managers and financial analysts; fair value reporting is generally associated with higher level of value relevance for investors; and the use of Level 3 inputs in fair value estimates for investment properties is associated with high degree of estimation uncertainty for external auditors leading to increased audit risk and fees.

With respect to regulators, this review emphasizes that the beneficial impacts of fair value reporting are linked to institutional characteristics (e.g. legal system, the degree of market development), the reliability concerns regarding fair value estimates and the independence of appraiser. Because real estate industry is generally characterized by the lack of active market, regulators may adopt regulations requiring the independence external appraiser.

This literature review represents a historical record and an introduction for accounting scholars, in emerging economies and other settings, where fair value accounting has gained wide acceptance among the investment community. It also offers guidance for future research avenues.

This study aims to investigate whether organizational complexity (hereafter firm complexity) increases audit report lag (ARL) in a unique environment of GCC countries.

The research study uses a panel data set of 6,084 firm-year observations of nonfinancial firms from GCC economies from 2009 to 2022. First, the study uses an ordinary least square estimator to examine the association of firm complexity with ARL. Second, for robustness purposes, the study applies the propensity score matching technique.

This research study finds that the firms’ complexity increases ARL. Supporting the argument that auditors respond to firm complexity with increased effort, the authors find a positive relation of firm complexity with ARL. This relationship is augmented by auditor change, auditors’ tenure, auditor-qualified opinion and adoption of IFRS. In addition, the authors also find that Big-4 and audit firm industry specialization curtail the positive impact of firm complexity on ARL.

Firms in the GCC have less time to complete their audit and complex firms are likelier to have bigger ARLs. This study provided evidence regarding the curtailing effect of audit quality in GCC. Our findings suggest policymakers and reformers choose improved audit quality to reduce the possibility of larger ARL.

This study enriches the scholarship by presenting a mechanism for reducing the ARL of complex firms through higher audit quality. This study contributes to agency theory by emphasizing audit quality’s important role in emerging markets.