This study makes a critical examination of the present accounting standard setting process and current issues and practices of corporate financial reporting (CFR) in an Indian…
Abstract
This study makes a critical examination of the present accounting standard setting process and current issues and practices of corporate financial reporting (CFR) in an Indian context by referring to 95 annual reports of large sized companies. It is found that Indian accounting standards have many alternative accounting choices which make financial statements of companies less comparable. The Accounting Standard Board (ASB) has issued 12 definite accounting standards, yet none of them has been reviewed. The membership of ASB lacks proper representation particularly from the users side. The standard setting process has deficiencies in the absence of public hearing and the machinery for enforcement of accounting standards is not apparent. While a review of CFR shows a strong tendency for companies to follow strict legal requirements in the disclosure and preparation of financial statements, there is much diversity in voluntary reporting practice particularly with respect to value added accounting, reporting by segments, inflation accounting, human resource accounting, and corporate social performance reporting, and there has been a tendency towards minimum disclosure. The study suggests that, to improve standards the Institute of Chartered Accountants in India should establish a Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to oversee ASB and to prepare a conceptual framework for financial reporting purposes.
The literature dealing with the firm's financing decisions in developing capital markets is limited. This paper aims to contribute to the published research by documenting the…
Abstract
The literature dealing with the firm's financing decisions in developing capital markets is limited. This paper aims to contribute to the published research by documenting the perceptions of managers of Omani firms listed on the Muscat Securities Market with regards to the capital structure of their firms. Survey responses show that financial decision‐making behavior of Omani firms can be explained by the “pecking order” view of capital structure. The effect of tax and bankruptcy on capital structure is not clear. Firms' relationships with banks and government shareholdings minimize the effect of financial distress. Further, managers tend not to release information to the suppliers of funds even though this might reduce the cost of funds required. Most firms seem to maintain spare borrowing policy. The conclusion is that executives of Omani firms are not less sophisticated than their American, Australian, British, Korean, Hong Kong, or Singapore counterparts in terms of their decision‐making process related to financial leverage.
Pem Lal Joshi and Jasim Abdulla
This study examines some aspects of budgetary control and performance valuation systems by utilising data based on a questionnaire survey of 42 medium and large size companies…
Abstract
This study examines some aspects of budgetary control and performance valuation systems by utilising data based on a questionnaire survey of 42 medium and large size companies located in the State of Bahrain. The study finds that the onventional form of budget controllability principle is practised to a great extent; managers end to create slack to meet future uncertainty; the focus is on short‐term performance evaluation; a mixed type of performance evaluation style is followed; budget variances are used to evaluate managers' ability, and for cost control purposes. Bonus is affected by budget performance along with new assignments, but not salary.
Abdul Raheem Jasim Mohammed, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah and Abdul Rais Abdul Rahman
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between travel satisfaction, commitment and revisits intention among the UAE international tourists as well as the moderating…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between travel satisfaction, commitment and revisits intention among the UAE international tourists as well as the moderating effect of environmental turbulence.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the quantitative approach, the experience of individual foreign tourists who travelled to three UAE major cities, namely, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, were probed. Through a drop-off and collect approach survey, 413 usable questionnaires were successfully collected and analysed.
Findings
The results of multiple regression path analysis confirm tourist satisfaction towards UAE tourism product and services influences their travel commitment and boosts tourist revisit intention behaviour. This paper also demonstrates how the Arab environmental turbulence moderates tourist satisfaction’s effect on revisit intention adversely.
Originality/value
This study offers valuable input to the UAE’s tourism governing bodies and industry practitioners. While continuously boosting the quality of tourism products and services, they also need to curb the effect of environmental turbulence as it would discourage tourists from revisiting UAE in the future.
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The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an investigation into individual investors' perceptions of the factors affecting buying, holding and selling of stock on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an investigation into individual investors' perceptions of the factors affecting buying, holding and selling of stock on the Bahrain stock exchange (BSE). Additionally, the paper investigates the perceptions of individual investors about corporate financial statements as a source of information for individual investors' investment decisions and what specific information such investors would like firms to disclose in these reports.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method involved a mail questionnaire sent to 800 individual investors. The response rate was 42.6 percent. This research method was complemented by a series of field interviews conducted with 20 investors and six stockbrokers for the purpose of gaining additional insights into the topic.
Findings
The study found that individual investors perceived corporate financial statements as the most important source of information for their investment decisions. The results also show a relatively high degree of agreement within the groups (both large and small) as to the ranking in terms of the importance of the topics. Overall, the study found relatively high levels of consensus between the two user‐groups with regards to the majority of questions investigated. The greatest difference between the user‐groups regards the perception of the relative importance of the cash‐flow statement, the income statement and which information items are needed for investors' decision making.
Originality/value
The paper offers rich data on the perceptions and uses of financial and non‐financial information by individual investors. This is the first time this type of research has been conducted in Bahrain.
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The Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) maintain better control over their transactions than conventional financial institutions (CFIs) through the existence of Shari'a…
Abstract
Purpose
The Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) maintain better control over their transactions than conventional financial institutions (CFIs) through the existence of Shari'a Supervisory Board (SSB) and Shari'a Control Department (SCD). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the superiority of Shari'a supervision over external audit and Shari'a audit over internal audit. The study identifies five independent variables that affect the SSB control: ex‐ante Shari'a audit; ex‐post Shari'a audit; SCD reporting to the SSB; corrective actions of SSB towards the management violations; and the number of SSB members.
Design/methodology/approach
The variables are articulated in five hypotheses, which are tested by ordinary least square regression. The data are collected via a questionnaire which was sent to the SSB members of 219 IFIs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Findings
The results indicate that ex‐ante Shari'a audit, ex‐post Shari'a audit, and reporting of SCD are significantly related to the SSB control, whereas corrective actions and the number of SSB members have insignificant relation.
Research limitations/implications
The research is focused on internal factors only, without considering other external factors such as stakeholders and regulators. Also, the research covered the GCC region alone.
Practical implications
The research recommends testing the hypotheses in other geographies to generalize the results, and including external factors as well as shareholders and board of directors.
Social implications
The research provides practical implications for the SCD role and calls for merging the SCD with the traditional internal audit department to reduce the excessive work of controlling.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature gap about the SSB. It is believed to be one of few studies that provide empirical evidence about the SSB control in the IFIs of the GCC region.
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This study aims to propose an architecture and presents the implementation of a unified chatbot that faces the challenges of heterogeneous communication channels. This approach…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose an architecture and presents the implementation of a unified chatbot that faces the challenges of heterogeneous communication channels. This approach enables the interaction with the chatbot to be carried out over multiple communication media on a single platform.
Design/methodology/approach
The chatbot was embedded in a unified communications framework. Furthermore, it has been developed and tested using the information and communications technology (ICT)Core platform. Three test scenarios have been considered in the context of a digital marketing company, which include the use of multiple channels such as text, audio and e-mail. Usability and empirical tests were performed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.
Findings
The results indicate that the proposed model improves the completion rate and enables the chatbot to interact with the customer by capturing information over multiple channels. The findings also reveal that digital marketing organizations can use a unified chatbot in their marketing campaigns, which contributes to improving the quality of customer interaction, message personalization and continuous learning throughout the process.
Originality/value
While the use of a chatbot is a relatively common practice among companies, its integration into unified communications networks is an emerging topic. Proposals for integration into a unified communication channel have mainly focused on access to the same account and conversations from multiple devices or access platforms. This approach, while useful, does not allow for the integration of information from multiple sources. Alternatively, an integrated architecture is suggested in which a chatbot obtains knowledge from multiple sources and uses it to increase the quality of communication with the customer.
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Augustino Mwogosi and Stephen Kibusi
This study aims to evaluate healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of electronic health record (EHR) systems and their effectiveness in supporting clinical decision-making in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of electronic health record (EHR) systems and their effectiveness in supporting clinical decision-making in Tanzanian Primary Healthcare (PHC) facilities.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative data from structured questionnaires and qualitative insights from open-ended responses. The study was conducted in the Dodoma region of Tanzania, focusing on a diverse representation of PHC facilities, including district hospitals, health centres and dispensaries. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression for quantitative data, and thematic analysis was applied to qualitative responses.
Findings
The results revealed that while EHR systems are widely used in Tanzanian PHC facilities, their impact on clinical decision-making remains limited. Only a moderate portion of practitioners perceived EHR systems as effective in decision support, and frequent system use was negatively correlated with user satisfaction. Challenges such as inadequate training and support, system crashes, slow performance and poor usability and integration into clinical workflows were significant barriers to effectively utilising EHR systems.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the limited literature on EHR system implementation in low-resource settings, specifically Tanzania, by focusing on decision-support features within EHR systems. The findings offer valuable insights for healthcare policymakers, system designers and practitioners to optimise EHR implementation and improve healthcare outcomes in resource-constrained environments.
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Zeinab Zaremohzzabieh, Seyedali Ahrari, Haslinda Abdullah, Rusli Abdullah and Mahboobeh Moosivand
This study aims to meta-analytically investigate the impact of educational technology interventions on the development of creative thinking in educational settings. In recent…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to meta-analytically investigate the impact of educational technology interventions on the development of creative thinking in educational settings. In recent years, the debate among researchers has persisted regarding the impact of various educational technologies, including interactive learning environments, digital instruction and platforms, and educational games and robotics, on students' creative thinking in diverse educational settings due to inconsistent findings.
Design/methodology/approach
This study, conducting a meta-analysis by synthesizing 35 relevant empirical studies with 2,776 participants, aims to investigate the association between educational technology interventions and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and its subscales (fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration).
Findings
No evident publication bias was found. From a general perspective, the results demonstrate a moderate level of influence of educational technology on the overall TTCT scale, with high heterogeneity attributed to the adopted instruments, mixed methods and target outcomes. Additionally, the results indicate that only three of the TTCT subscales (fluency, flexibility and originality) are influenced by educational technologies. Among the interventions, interactive learning environments yielded medium to the largest mean effect size. Furthermore, moderator analyses suggest that the effects of interventions on two subscales of TTCT (flexibility and originality) are moderated by school types, research design and the duration of intervention. The conclusion drawn is that interventions promoting students' creative thinking in different educational settings are efficacious.
Originality/value
Despite the low homogeneity of the results, which might have influenced the findings, the large fail-safe N suggests that these findings are robust. The study examined potential causes of heterogeneity and emphasized the importance of further research in this area.
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Peter Organisciak, Michele Newman, David Eby, Selcuk Acar and Denis Dumas
Most educational assessments tend to be constructed in a close-ended format, which is easier to score consistently and more affordable. However, recent work has leveraged…
Abstract
Purpose
Most educational assessments tend to be constructed in a close-ended format, which is easier to score consistently and more affordable. However, recent work has leveraged computation text methods from the information sciences to make open-ended measurement more effective and reliable for older students. The purpose of this study is to determine whether models used by computational text mining applications need to be adapted when used with samples of elementary-aged children.
Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces domain-adapted semantic models for child-specific text analysis, to allow better elementary-aged educational assessment. A corpus compiled from a multimodal mix of spoken and written child-directed sources is presented, used to train a children’s language model and evaluated against standard non-age-specific semantic models.
Findings
Child-oriented language is found to differ in vocabulary and word sense use from general English, while exhibiting lower gender and race biases. The model is evaluated in an educational application of divergent thinking measurement and shown to improve on generalized English models.
Research limitations/implications
The findings demonstrate the need for age-specific language models in the growing domain of automated divergent thinking and strongly encourage the same for other educational uses of computation text analysis by showing a measurable difference in the language of children.
Social implications
Understanding children’s language more representatively in automated educational assessment allows for more fair and equitable testing. Furthermore, child-specific language models have fewer gender and race biases.
Originality/value
Research in computational measurement of open-ended responses has thus far used models of language trained on general English sources or domain-specific sources such as textbooks. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study age-specific language models for educational assessment. In addition, while there have been several targeted, high-quality corpora of child-created or child-directed speech, the corpus presented here is the first developed with the breadth and scale required for large-scale text modeling.