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While concentration measures are a good indicator of market structure, the link with competitiveness is more complex than often assumed. In particular, the modern theory of industrial organisation makes no clear statement regarding the impact of concentration on competition ‐ the focus of this paper is concentration and no inferences are made about competitive aspects of the market. The extent and nature of concentration within the UK listed company audit market as at April, 2002 and, pro forma, after the collapse of Andersen is documented and analysed in detail (by firm, market segment and industry sector). The largest four firms held 90 per cent of the market (based on audit fees) in 2002, rising to 96 per cent with the demise of Andersen. A single firm, Pricewaterhouse‐Coopers, held 70 per cent or more of the share of six out of 38 industry sectors, with a share of 50 per cent up to 70 per cent in a further seven sectors. The provision of non‐audit services (NAS) by incumbent auditors is also considered. As at April 2002, the average ratio of non‐audit fees (paid to auditor) to audit fees was 208 per cent, and exceeded 300 per cent in seven sectors. It is likely, however, that disposals by firms of their management consultancy and outsource firms, combined with the impact of the Smith Report on audit committees will serve to reduce these ratios. Another finding is that audit firms with expertise in a particular sector appeared to earn significantly higher nonaudit fees from their audit clients in that sector. The paper thus provides a solid empirical basis for debate. The subsequent discussion considers the implications for companies and audit firms of the high level of concentration in the current regulatory climate, where no direct regulatory intervention is planned.

Guidance Note 1 of the Red Book states that the valuation of an operational entity includes four components: the land and buildings; the trade fixtures and fittings; the trading potential, excluding personal goodwill; and the benefit of any transferable licenses and consents. Accounting changes in recent years have increasingly recognised the importance of intangible assets such as intellectual capital and goodwill. Similarly, recent tax changes demonstrate the government's acceptance of the importance of such items in achieving and maintaining business competitiveness. This paper has two key objectives: first, to analyse the application of the Red Book to trade‐related valuations, paying particular attention to the treatment of goodwill and second, to critically evaluate the accounting treatment of goodwill and in particular the application of Financial Reporting Standard 10. In order to understand the workings of the market, the corporate hotel sector was used as a case study. The key findings of the research are that valuers expressed considerable unease with the apportioning of market value between tangible assets and goodwill, there was no consensus on how (or if) goodwill could be measured reliably. Second, that the valuation methods adopted are, to a degree, naïve. While explicit changes are made to the cash‐flow projections, there is insufficient appreciation of the changing risk profile that might lead to an adjustment to the earnings multiplier. The accounting difficulties and inconsistencies concerning goodwill arise largely because of inadequate valuation methods. Recent tax changes also point to the need for a robust and defendable valuation methodology. Application of one such theoretically sound approach to valuing goodwill (the bridge model) is illustrated in this paper. While the research focused on the corporate hotel sector, the findings have wider implications for other sectors of the market where operational entities are valued with regard to their trading potential.

The paper investigates the information sought by UK investors about Japanese companies, and the extent to which this involves the use of company financial statements. Such a study is important because it is only recently that Japanese financial markets have been relatively accessible to foreign investors, and that the volume of investment trade has grown rapidly. This paper describes the principal features of the accounting and capital market situation in Japan and reports the results of a series of interviews on these features. Participants interviewed had contradictory views on the application of CAPM to the Japanese market. If the market model is not appropriate for the Japanese market, this will have implications for future research in that market.

The purpose of this paper is to address recent calls for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (cf. Hassan et al., 2009; Leuz and Wysocki, 2008; Schipper, 2007).

The paper measures compliance with all International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements for a sample of firms. The paper subsequently explores whether the compliance scores (i.e. the mandatory disclosure levels) are value relevant and whether the value relevance of accounting numbers differs across high- and low-compliance/disclosure companies.

The paper finds that the levels of mandatory disclosures are value relevant. Additionally, not only the relative value relevance (i.e. R2) but also the valuation coefficient of net income of high-compliance companies is significantly higher than that of low-compliance companies.

This paper is an indicative single country case study that focuses on the IFRS adoption year (2005) in the EU. It forms a new avenue for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements. It remains to future research to examine whether the findings also hold in other countries and periods.

These findings are expected to be particularly relevant to standard setters and regulatory bodies that are concerned about the implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (Schipper, 2007).

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the value relevance implications of IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements, focusing on European country after 2005. The authors indicate that IFRS mandatory disclosures do lead to more transparent financial statements (cf. Pownall and Schipper, 1999), mitigating concerns about companies’ fundamentals (cf. Anctil et al., 2004).

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of governance structure and composition and other institution-specific attributes in disclosure practices of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in an emerging market contest. Bangladesh is a country which is considered to be a pioneer in providing micro-finance to the underprivileged people to improve their entrepreneurial capacity.

The paper utilises a survey of three groups of users to elicit their opinions and the recommendation of the donor and regulatory agencies to construct a disclosure index. Further ordinary least squares regressions, both parametric and non-parametric, are used to analyse the association between disclosure levels and governance mechanisms and other MFI characteristics.

Using a large sample of 564 MFI firm-year reports in Bangladesh, the results show that the overall disclosure levels were around 70 per cent in 2010 and have not improved since 2004. The results also show that the frequency of board meetings, qualifications of MFIs’ board members and MFI size are positively associated with MFIs disclosures. However, board size, board independence, audit firm and other control variables have no such effect on disclosure. This implies that MFIs should focus in board effectiveness rather than its composition.

Using a general purpose financial reporting framework, the paper examines how effective boards can improve financial reporting standards of MFIs for better monitoring by international donor agencies, regulatory bodies and depositors.

This is the first substantive study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that uses data based on a questionnaire survey and the annual financial statements of a large sample of MFIs from Bangladesh that has been at the forefront of microfinance in emerging countries. Prior studies only used Web-based information, namely, Mix-Market, which ranks country on the basis of its disclosure criteria supplied voluntarily by MFIs, and thus suffer from selection bias. In this study, an attempt has been made to develop an empirical model to explain the role of governance quality in disclosure practices of MFIs.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

This study examines possible influences on the level of collaboration in published research by the most productive authors of accounting literature. Understanding the collaboration tendencies of these authors should benefit early-career-stage accounting faculty. Seven factors are examined for the publications of 93 of the most productive accounting authors. These productive authors are found to include fewer coauthors on their publications early in their careers. The number of coauthors increases through their first 16 to 17 years and then decreases through the remainder of their careers. The results also indicate that productive accounting researchers include a greater number of coauthors on more recently published articles and on longer articles. Fewer coauthors are included when a productive author is affiliated with a “top-10” university or on articles published in highly ranked accounting journals. Lastly, the results show that prolific authors seek out coauthorship throughout their careers and usually include one or more coauthors on their publications. Implications from these results and specific suggestions for accounting faculty are discussed.

The growing proportion of older people in the United Kingdom requires policies that are cost‐effective and responsive to their needs. Both these factors have led to growing emphasis on policies which enable older people to remain in homes of their own. Older people are becoming more vociferous in expressing their views and are being encouraged to do this. This article reports on three pieces of research funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) which have attempted to draw on the views of older people about assistive technology and its role in staying at home policies.

The research reported here focuses on how far, and at what cost, the housing stock can be modified to accommodate the assistive technology (AT) to enable older people to remain in their own homes. The conclusion is that the adaptability of the housing depends on a range of factors and costs. Older people welcome AT when it addresses a felt need. This article answers some of the frequently asked questions about the project.

SOCIAL scientists have not yet been able to formulate any general laws about behaviour in industry that are capable of broad application. In recent years, however, they have made many useful case studies of which the one just published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is typical. It is an approach to the problem which can do much to increase the understanding of the way in which people react to common industrial situations.