Search results

This study seeks to present observations on the impact of Chinese culture traits on knowledge management practices in Chinese corporations.

The paper presents an analysis of the authors' own experience as senior managers in implementing a globalization strategy for a leading Chinese domestic IT services company. It specifically focuses on key culture traits that have been proven to directly impact knowledge management practices.

There are deeply rooted culture traits that work counter to the objectives of a knowledge management program within a Chinese corporation. Information sharing is essential counter culture. The authors' experience is that incremental changes that rely on institutionalized systems of information transfer offer hope for the gradual transformation of corporate cultures that foster effective knowledge management practices and increase corporate competitiveness.

This study is by no means exhaustive, but is intended as a starting‐point to explore alternatives for overcoming culture traits that inhibit knowledge transfer.

The study provides a basis for companies including Chinese companies, joint ventures or multi‐national companies operating in China to assess obstacles to effective knowledge management and to consider various alternatives in adopting a knowledge management plan.

The aim of this paper is to investigate stakeholder power changes and their impact on firms' disclosure decisions in the Chinese stock market. Using legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory, the paper identifies newly emerged stakeholder groups for listed Chinese firms during three distinguished periods of the development of the Chinese stock market.

Panel data analysis was undertaken over a period from 1995‐2006 with an aim to examine the influence of stakeholder power changes on voluntary disclosures made by 297 listed firms in their 12 years of annual reports. A voluntary disclosure checklist has been used for hand‐collecting data from annual reports.

The finding shows that different stakeholder groups exert different degrees of influence on firms' decision‐making in respect of information disclosure during different stages of the development of the Chinese stock market.

The impact of a stakeholder power changes on corporate disclosure has not been well addressed and how listed Chinese firms respond to these changes is still a significant gap in the Chinese corporate disclosure literature. In this study, the paper uses proxies to represent each stakeholder group, discuss power changes of each group and predict the impact of power changes on firms' voluntary disclosure.

The paper identifies the new content of the “social contract” between listed firms and Chinese society and identifies various stakeholder groups of listed Chinese firms in the context of a new “social contract”. The paper predicts that voluntary corporate disclosure is the result of stakeholder pressures and firms use voluntary disclosure as one of their strategies to manage the firm‐stakeholder relationship.

Outlines the history of accounting in China and reviews the literature published in English on the full range of Chinese accounting issues. Summarizes the contents of three books, refers to sections in other books and analyses journal articles by period, journal, research topic and research method. Argues that this accounting research has historical, academic and practical value,believes it will continue to improve and calls for greater use of more rigid research methodologies in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between corporate governance mechanisms and quality of forward-looking information in the Chinese stock market which presents a mandatory disclosure environment for forward-looking information.

Using sales forecasts to proxy forward-looking information and using precision and accuracy to measure the quality of information disclosure, the authors investigate the impact of corporate governance attributes on the precision and accuracy of sales forecasts made by listed Chinese firms in their 2010 annual reports, using logistics and ordinary least squares regressions.

The authors find good corporate governance has a positive and significant impact on the precision choice of sales forecasts disclosure. Firms with good corporate governance are more likely to disclose more precise sales forecasts than providing qualitative discussions on firms’ sales trend. In addition, good corporate governed firms are found more likely to provide precise non-financial information. The authors also find that good corporate governance is positively associated with making more conservative sales forecasts disclosure. However, the authors find no significant relationship between good corporate governance and smaller forecast error.

The study makes significant contributions to corporate disclosure literature. The authors investigate the determinants of the quality of forward-looking information in a mandatory disclosure regime while most forward-looking information disclosure literature have been conducted in a voluntary-based disclosure environment. The authors examine whether in a mandatory disclosure regime, corporate governance mechanisms can play a positive role in precision choices and accuracy of forward-looking information. Further, the study is the first to examine corporate governance and the quality of non-financial forward-looking information (sales target and production goal). The research findings therefore extend forward-looking information disclosure research from financial information to non-financial information.

The empirical findings will provide regulators with evidence on the quality of forward-looking information in a mandatory disclosure regime and the influence of corporate governance on forward-looking disclosure. The properties of forward-looking information disclosure in China should be of interest to policy makers, investors and financial analysts in other international jurisdictions.

The study investigates forward-looking information in a mandatory disclosure regime while most extant forward-looking information studies have been conducted in a voluntary disclosure environment. The study is the first to examine the quality of non-financial forward-looking information such as operational goals and plans, and to investigate the association between the quality of non-financial forward-looking information and corporate governance mechanisms. The research findings extend forward-looking information disclosure research from quantitative financial information to quantitative non-financial information.

Compares China‘s financial reporting systems before and after the reforms of 1993, which is seen as a dramatic turning point. Analyses the economic factors driving accounting reforms and examines in more detail the influence of the developing capital market and increasing foreign investment. Tabulates the differences between the format, contents and types of financial statements and disclosures and financial ratios, before and after reform. Gives examples of some remaining problems, summarizes the key features of the new system and urges Chinese accountants and policy makers to adjust Western principles and systems to the unique environment of China.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Chinese firms voluntarily extend the standard XBRL taxonomy to disclose more detailed financial information; and second, to identify and test corporate governance factors that may be associated with voluntary taxonomy extensions in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)‐based reporting.

Using a sample of 114 firms that are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchanges, the authors compared their XBRL‐based financial reports of 2008 and 2009 with the standard XBRL taxonomy. Multiple regression tests were performed to examine the effects of corporate governance factors and firm characteristics on XBRL taxonomy extensions.

The results indicate a high level of voluntary taxonomy extension in Chinese firms' XBRL reports. The extent of such extension is associated with the percentage of independent directors, combined CEO/chair of the board position, and firm size. It is also associated with audit firm size, in that companies audited by Big Four firms tend to have lower level of taxonomy extension. However, the direction of the result is opposite to what the authors expected.

This paper highlights the effects of corporate governance factors on Chinese firms' decisions to extend XBRL standard taxonomy and, in doing so, to disclose more financial information. Future research may consider using longitudinal data and alternative corporate governance factors to validate and extend the results.

It is an unanswered question as to whether and why firms extend standard XBRL taxonomies and disclose additional voluntary information. This paper fills the gap by investigating this issue in the context of the Chinese capital market.

This paper aims to provide an understanding of how accounting systems have changed across four distinct periods of hegemonic leadership in China.

Using Gramsci's concept of hegemony, periods of leadership and accounting change throughout Chinese history are examined, including the Confucian tradition, the rise of the socialist system followed by the Cultural Revolution in the Maoist era, and the move towards the socialist‐market system in the Dengist era.

This paper shows how political leaders in these different time periods effectively achieved leadership by destroying an existing hegemony, creating a new ideology, and implanting this into people's daily lives in order to successfully mobilise their ideological systems. Consistent with changes in leadership, Chinese accounting systems are shown to have responded to hegemonic shifts across these periods.

This paper contributes to understandings of Gramsci's concept of hegemony, explanations of, and motivations for, accounting change, and provides an insight into the evolution of accounting systems throughout time in the context of China.

Initial development of microstructurally accurate finite element models of the soldered joints of electronic surface mount components is described. These models allow for the presence of lead and tin‐rich phases and copper‐tin intermetallic layers within the joints. The effect of these features on the strain distributions within the joints is shown. These strain distributions can be used to predict fatigue lives. This is demonstrated for homogeneous solder joints for which excellent correlation was shown between predicted lives and those measured experimentally by thermal cycling of actual components.

From 2000 to 2007, 14 Chinese accounting firms had their audit licenses terminated or suspended for different reasons, forcing clients of these accounting firms to select new auditors within a short period of time. The purpose of this paper is to examine the auditor switching patterns and audit partner following decision of these clients and the effect of both client and (terminated or suspended) auditor characteristics on the auditor change decisions.

By using 245 (191) clients of terminated or suspended audit firms, the authors apply logistic regressions to investigate clients’ switching decision (following decision).

The empirical results indicate that state-owned enterprises tend not to switch to Big 4 audit firms; clients with dual shares tend to choose from the Big 4 for their succeeding audit firms. Moreover, companies whose preceding auditors received severe regulatory sanctions are less likely to switch to auditors of higher quality; companies who hired local auditors are more likely to follow their preceding audit partners as a result of forced auditor change.

This study enriches forced auditor change literature by discussing both clients’ and preceding auditor’s attributes on clients’ switching and following decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into recent financial analysis practice in the Chinese context. The paper aims to examine the approaches pursued and information used by Chinese financial analysts in investment appraisal of ordinary shares. The research seeks to explore influences upon analysts' decision making and how analysts perceived the Chinese investment environment.

A questionnaire based survey approach was used, conducted in 2003 with 65 Chinese financial analysts.

The findings indicate that fundamental analysis was the predominant technique adopted in appraising equities in line with the development of institutional investors and improved market efficiency. Regarding information used to analyse companies, annual reports constituted the most influential source. The Chinese analysts favoured usage of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and International Accounting Standards (IASs) by A‐share companies. The findings indicate changes within the financial analyst community, suggesting pressure for higher quality analysis and increased use of more sophisticated techniques despite ongoing market shortcomings. Opinions vary as to how important financial analysis is in influencing stock valuation or, crucially, socio‐economic welfare. However, studies putting the analysts' role in perspective vis‐à‐vis other forces contribute to broadening understanding of this significantly under researched area. This current study contributes to filling this gap.

This paper provides insights into how specific country contexts influence financial analysts' investment appraisal practice in interims of incentives, information sources and techniques adopted.