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This paper aims to investigate the impact of the separation between control and cash flow rights (control-ownership disparity) on the earnings management practices of Chinese firms. The notable features of Chinese firms are those of concentrated ownership and the severe disparity that exists between the control and cash flow rights of controlling shareholders.

This study measures the level of Chinese firms’ earnings management by adopting two different methods of measurement: accrual-based earnings management (AEM) and real activity earnings management (REM). The authors also consider the possible trade-off effects between these two types of measurements. The data set in this study encompasses over 2,000 Chinese firms, using data from 2003 to 2015.

The results indicate that controlling shareholders are more likely to engage in AEM as their cash flow rights are more concentrated, while they are less likely to use REM as the disparity of control-cash flow rights increases. Further, this inverse relationship between REM and control-cash flow rights disparity becomes more pronounced in the case of a low cash flow rights group. As REM generally causes distortions in firms’ operations, it is possible that the controlling shareholders are more likely to constrain the use of REM as the disparity is perceived to grow. This result may indicate a reduced agency problem between controlling and minority shareholders due to the developing and/or existing ownership dispersions, which are mainly driven by recent reforms applied to Chinese capital markets. However, we do not entirely exclude the possibility of other types of expropriations by the controlling shareholders. It appears that the controlling shareholders are still able to exert a significant level of control, even following a substantial ownership dispersion, and they may seek alternative expropriation methods, including but not limited to intercorporate loan or related party transactions as the disparity of control-cash flow rights increases.

Although the Chinese economy is experiencing a series of reforms to infuse market forces into capital markets, little has been known about the effects of ownership-control disparity in Chinese firms. Our findings highlight the importance of the country specific context in this vein of research.

This paper aims to examine the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on accounting conservatism in Korean firms. An increase in EPU could widen information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders, to the detriment of a firm’s investment decisions, stock price and cost of capital. This paper hypothesizes that Korean firms are likely to decrease accounting conservatism during high EPU due to inefficient institutional structure and weak corporate governance, together with the vulnerability of the Korean economy to exogenous shocks.

This study measures a firm’s level of conservatism using three accrual-based models proposed by Ball and Shivakumar (2006): 1) the cash flow model (CF model), 2) the Dechow and Dichev model (DD model) and 3) the Jones model. As a robustness test, this paper uses C-score model as an alternative measure of accounting conservatism. The data set used in this study is a total of 23,109 firm-year observations during the sample period from 2000 to 2018.

The test results show that an increase in EPU adversely affects Korean firms’ accounting conservatism, and that this adverse impact is more pronounced in financially distressed and non-manufacturing firms. This study’s findings highlight the importance of institutional structure during a period of high EPU, which can create incentives for either improving or deteriorating reporting quality.

This study adds new evidence to extant literature on the effects of EPU on managers’ choice of accounting policies and demonstrates that managers in emerging markets may have different incentives to cope with country-specific EPU fluctuations.

China is currently developing and promoting an industrial cluster policy at the government level. By enacting the ‘Opinion on promoting industrial cluster development’, China is supporting the development of industrial clusters. Building an industrial cluster is done by using a single factor but requires many additional factors like regional characteristics, competitiveness factors are also diversified. To evaluate the competitiveness of the Chinese automobile industry cluster, a competitiveness element index should be developed and a competitiveness evaluation method is needed to evaluate the importance of each element. To accomplish this objective, this research applied the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and focused on the importance of the competitiveness elements.

This research investigated the character is tics regarding cases of clusters and also analyzed the competitiveness of the Changchun automobile cluster located in northeastern China. The purpose of this research is to help Korean enterprises who enter China in the hopes that Korea will emerge as a top automobile production country.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence, made possible by human capital data that became available after IFRS adoption, on the productivity of intellectual capital and its components. These productivity measures are modelled to determine their value-relevance in the share market, and the modelling is extended to comparative productivity measures for the book-value of assets.

Financial data are sourced from financial databases and company annual reports on a sample of 160 Australian listed firms over a five-year period. Panel regression analysis is used to test five models built from Riahi-Belkaoui's (1999) general price model of the value-relevance of accounting numbers.

The results show that the productivity of human capital, structural capital and intellectual capital are each significantly positively related to share price (i.e. have value-relevance), whereas the productivity of total assets at book-value is non-significant and tangible assets is inversely significant.

This study constructs a new improved method of computing the amount of structural capital, and uses recently available financial statement data to provide first-time evidence on human capital and its inclusion in the determination of the amount of intellectual capital. These new models and data enable a direct comparison to be made between the value-relevance of intellectual and the book-value of assets.

This paper aims to investigate changes in corporate disclosures of labour‐related costs in financial statements arising from a change in the accounting regime from generally accepted accounting principles (GAAPs) to international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) in Australia.

An archival empirical approach is taken. Data are sampled for 160 listed companies in Australia over seven years covering Australian GAAPs (2003‐2005) and Australian IFRSs (2006‐2009) periods. To measure disclosures, a classification and count is made of line items for labour‐related costs found on the face of and in the notes to financial statements. These disclosures are analysed against firm‐specific characteristics and industry categories.

Results reveal companies disclosing “total labour costs” rose from about 60‐85 per cent, and the discretionary disaggregation of “total labour costs” became more prevalent. Companies providing disaggregated information in the post‐IFRSs period are characterized by lower total assets, lower sales and lower labour costs. Their return on equity and labour intensity are not found to be differentiating characteristics. Reasons for these phenomena are addressed.

Previous studies have not analysed the effect of IFRSs adoption on disclosures of labour‐related information. This study provides new evidence about the types of firms that have responded to IFRSs with new or enhanced labour‐related financial disclosures. It points to new opportunities for research and financial analysis from the enhanced availability of corporate‐level labour cost data.

This paper aims to explore avenue where suppliers and manufacturers are aligned with health-care providers to improve supply chain visibility. Supply chain finance is explored to link suppliers/manufacturers with health-care providers.

Existing literature on supply chain visibility in health care forms a basis to achieve the study purpose. Alignment calls also for financial health where supply chain partners’ working capital is readily available to execute joint supply chain plan.

There is a disjoint in supply chain alliance between suppliers/manufacturers and providers where providers are unable to trace the origin of supplies. Quality care suffers and cost of care rises as providers search for supplies on an emergency basis. This paper provides a framework where solution can be formulated.

Suppliers/manufactures form a direct strategic alliance with providers where product visibility enables health-care providers with a better patient management with lower cost of supplies. Inventory management and logistics cost will be lowered as better planning/forecasting is in place. This paper does not call for testing any hypothesis. Perhaps, next move along this line will be to investigate financial health of supply chain partners based on supplier relationship management practices.

This paper proposes health-care supply chain as an alternative solution to achieve the following twin purposes: controlling the cost while improving quality of care through supply chain finance. As far as we know, this study is the first attempt to achieve the goals.

Competition among seaports is rapidly increasing due to various factors such as the global recession, resurgence of COVID-19, tight environmental regulations of IMO, sharp rise in ocean freight charges, increasing global uncertainties and growth in ship sizes. It is essential to have precise knowledge of shipping companies' port selection factors to secure the competitive advantage of seaports. This study aims to empirically analyze recent changes in the importance of port selection factors.

By employing a longitudinal study, this study conducted the t-test analysis. The first survey was conducted from January 2005 to April 2005. Then, the second survey was conducted in May 2021.

First, the importance of port facilities (berth length and the number of berths, shed and terminal areas, possession of adequate equipment and maximum berth size) increased significantly. Second, while ship and cargo safety were the critical port service factors in previous studies, speed, flexibility and reliability for handling cargo and berthing schedule were found to be crucial in this study. Third, the importance of ship arrival/departure frequency, route diversity and ship arrival/departure information systems increased when shipping companies selected the port.

This study has academic significance in that it reveals the changing importance of port selection factors in the 2020s and has taken the form of a longitudinal study on the importance of port selection factors from 2005 to 2021, moving beyond the cross-sectional approach. This study can provide valuable insights into and implications for port policymakers and managers when developing and formulating port policies and strategies.

This paper, in face of the increasing interconnectivity between local and global, has attempted to retrospect the critical moment of Korean society under Tae‐woo Rho (1988–93) regime, in which Korea struggled for fundamental reforms of the earlier centrally controlled state system through economic rationalization and labor flexibilization. During that juncture of Korean history, neo‐liberalization under the influence of Fordian decline was a governing theme behind the Korean economy's policy formation as well as labor agenda. This reliance of government on the neo‐liberal pillar has made an impact on the subsequent leaderships under Young Sam Kim (1993–1998) and Dae Jung Kim (1998‐present). After briefly reviewing the major aspect of Korean economy and labor problems surrounding the financial crisis of East Asia around 1998, the international influence of Fordian decline and neo‐liberalization as a Korean alternative has been discussed.

Despite the evident and dramatic increase in smartphone usage worldwide, some consumers continue to use traditional mobile phones. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavioral intentions of these laggard and non-smartphone users.

This current study examines the effects of consumer demographics, psychographics, and smartphone characteristics on the intentions of non-smartphone consumers to switch or resist the use of smartphones. Data were collected using a convenience sample of non-smartphone users in Taiwan. The proposed model is tested using the consistent partial least squares (PLSc) path modeling technique.

PLSc results indicate that consumer psychographics and smartphone characteristics play more important roles than consumer demographics. Specifically, price consciousness, nostalgia, and perceived ease of use are good predictors of intention to switch, whereas perceived usefulness and ease of use are strong predictors of the intention to resist smartphone adoption.

The results of this study have implications for mobile phone vendors and mobile manufacturers who target non-smartphone users or laggard adopters.

This study is among the few that focus on non-smartphone users’ perceptions of smartphones. Hence, this empirical study could contribute to the development and testing of theories related to the smartphone adoption process.