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This paper employs a qualitative approach to assess the impact which the “liberalisation” of the Greek auditing profession in 1992 may have had on auditor behaviour. The “liberalisation” was introduced by legislation and was the result of a long and intense intra‐professional conflict between a group of indigenous auditors and international accounting firms. Overall, the paper illuminates the deeply political and self‐interested nature of the Greek auditing profession and its socially constructed and contextually dependent character. The results also indicate that following the “liberalisation”, auditors gave significantly less emphasis to functions relating to: being independent; publicly communicating audit findings; protecting the interests of external stakeholders, and presenting “true and fair” financial statements. In contrast, auditors placed significantly more emphasis on providing management advisory services to audit clients. The significant changes in auditor behaviour are linked to the economic dependence of auditors on audited companies which resulted from the audit reform. These findings appear to question the received wisdom underpinning the internationally prevalent move towards privatisation and deregulation of statutory audit services. Finally, the paper has important methodological implications as it demonstrates the limitations of quantitative techniques vis‐à‐vis qualitative approaches to accounting research in politically charged contexts.

The objective of this paper is to test the extent to which combinations of financial information with non‐financial variables, such as audit fees and type of audit firm, can be used in predicting qualified and unqualified audit reports.

The data were taken from a sample of 185 Greek companies listed at the Athens stock exchange and were analysed using logistic and OLS regression models.

It is found that audit fees and the type of audit firm (Big five vs non‐Big five) do not affect auditors' propensity to qualify their opinions. Instead, the occurrence of audit qualifications is associated with financial metrics such as operating margin to total assets and the current ratio. The model developed was successful in classifying 90 per cent of the total sample.

This study has implications for external auditors, regulators and investors. Also contributes to auditing and accounting research by examining the suggested variables to identify those that can best discriminate cases of audit opinion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine auditor‐ and auditee‐related factors that determine audit time, as a proxy of audit quality. The issue of audit quality is of particular significance, while companies in Europe move towards adoption of international accounting standards.

The paper compares the actual audit hours for corporate audits of listed companies with a minimum prescribed by the Supervisory Council of the Hellenic Institute of Certified Auditors (known in Greek with the acronym SOEL). The data used are from the period immediately preceding the implementation of SOEL's minimum audit time criteria.

An “audit effort” ratio calculated as actual hours to minimum hours prescribed is found to bear a positive correlation with company size and gearing, and is also significantly higher for companies audited by large multinational audit firms and for companies that seek equity finance. A proportion of audits is found to have been conducted at less than the prescribed minimum.

A number of theoretical and measurement limitations are acknowledged that could further increase the explanatory power of the model. A discussion is also included of the potential effectiveness of regulation as a mechanism for strengthening the agency relationship between management and shareholders.

The study should be of assistance to auditors, auditees and regulatory authorities.

This paper fills a widely acknowledged gap in the literature regarding the determinants of audit time and the concept of audit quality, particularly in a newly developed capital markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the market reaction to the accounting treatment of the marking‐to‐market of equity investments of Greek firms during the period 2002‐2004.

Using data for firms listed in the ASE, a treatment effects model of returns on control variables, the valuation adjustment and a dummy for the accounting treatment which is modeled as conditional to profitability, size and leverage.

It is found that firms chose to take valuation losses through equity but the market considered this treatment as a negative signal. The paper concludes that although market behavior is consistent with the efficient markets hypothesis, managerial behavior is more consistent with the mechanistic hypothesis.

This study contributes to understanding the factors that influence the accounting policy decisions of firms listed in the Athens Stock Exchange. In addition, this study contributes to evaluating the IASB's decision to give issuers of reclassify financial the ability to reclassify them.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting has been theorized as a key communication device and an integral part of a broader stakeholder integration management strategy. This paper aims to examine the relationship between CSR disclosures and organized labor, an important internal stakeholder, whose institutional role in dynamically advancing employee interests creates opportunities and challenges for strategic management and firm sustainability.

By using a sample of 2,526 US firm-year observations for the period 2002–2015, the authors demonstrate that managers in unionized contexts are more likely to issue CSR reports than managers in firms, where labor is not organized.

The authors demonstrate that managers in unionized contexts are more likely to issue CSR reports than managers in firms where labor is not organized. Considering stakeholder theory, they argue that, in unionized contexts, managers more intensively resort to CSR disclosures to form an alignment of interests, develop collaborative bonds with unions and smoothen relationships with external financial stakeholders. This effect is more prominent in areas where corporate spatial clustering and the prevailing political ideology facilitate the role of unions.

First, the data refer to USA, which may limit the generalization of the results. Hence, researchers could use cross-country datasets to overcome this limitation. Second, it would be important to know what benefits are enjoyed by the unionized companies that issue CSR reports. Third, they acknowledge that there is useful qualitative information they do not analyze. This analysis could potentially relate specific CSR information to unions’ needs and demands. Further, there are alternative channels through which companies disclose relevant information such as 10-K filings, annual reports, firm websites, media, public announcements, etc. These are not captured by the data.

Managers could benefit from the empirical analysis, which suggests that through the initiation of CSR reports a dialogue with unions is greatly facilitated. Managers should consider that CSR reports reduce information asymmetries and may attract the interest of investors. Unionists should be aware that CSR reports constitute an opportunity to identify mutual interests and align goals. Business analysts, investors and shareholders should be aware that standalone CSR reports are used by managers to reduce information asymmetries and disparities with unions and to communicate an investment-friendly context. So, market participants should factor such policies by unionized firms into their investment analyses.

The authors offer implications for managers, labor unionists and market participants.

This paper examines the relationship between CSR disclosures and organized labor, an important internal stakeholder, whose institutional role in dynamically advancing employee interests creates opportunities and challenges for strategic management and firm sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firm-level asset investment effects in returns found for US firms occur within the Greek stock market.

The paper utilizes portfolio-level tests and cross-sectional regressions.

The authors find that growth in total assets is strongly negatively related to future stock returns of Greek firms. In fact, the relation remains statistically significant, even when the authors control for other strong predictors of future returns (i.e. market capitalization and book-to-market ratio). Furthermore, the authors find that a hedge trading strategy on asset growth rate consisting of a long (short) position in firms with low (high) balance sheet growth generates positive returns, confirming that investment growth has significant predictive power for future returns of Greek listed firms.

The paper adds to the literature on the generalization of asset pricing regularities attributable to accounting figures in an emerging market.