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Previous research demonstrates that non-public policy variables (wage rate, raw material, GDP, GDP/capita, inverse of tax rate, and population) have significant influence in determining the flow of U.S. investment. Research has not, however, demonstrated that government accounting variables significantly affect Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) flow into either Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) or non-OPEC countries. In light of this omission, the focus of this inquiry is on the examination of the potential influence of both government accounting and non-public variables in influencing the flow of the stock of U.S. foreign direct investment in the OPEC nations. To accomplish the objective, government accounting and non-public policy variables are employed to investigate whether they matter in determining investment flows into these countries. The results of the study suggest a direct linkage between the flow of FDI and accounting variables.

This paper reports the results of the effects of the release, in the United Kingdom, annual reports and accounts (ARA), on security prices and trading volume of the U.K. firms. If the information reported in the annual reports and accounts (ARA) is relevant, the U.S. security market will respond to the release news through return and volume variances. Both signals are indicators of the relevance of the annual reports and accounts. The results of the analysis suggest the existence of unexpected returns to the annual reports and accounts and no corresponding U.S. trading volume response. The price results are in marked contrast to the findings of previous research that examined the information content of U.S. domestic annual reports, but do not detect a stock price response (e.g., Foster et al. 1986; Bernard and Stober 1989; Cready and Mynatt 1991). Our stock price analyses indicate that non‐U.S. GAAP accounting measures do not impede U.S investors' ability to use U.K. firms' ARA in valuing the sample firms. Indeed, U.S. investors use information from the ARA in their valuation of U.K. firms. Since trading responses to a disclosure are generally more easily detected than price responses (Cready and Hurtt 1999), these findings jointly suggest the provincial nature of the ARA release.

An increasing number of earnings restatements along with many allegations of financial statement fraud committed by high profile companies (e.g. Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia) has eroded the public confidence in corporate governance, the financial reporting process, and audit functions. The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 was an attempt to regain confidence and trust in corporate America and the accounting profession. The Act addresses corporate scandals and the perceived crisis in the auditing profession. Some of its provisions relate to the audit committee oversight function over corporate governance, financial reporting, internal control structure, internal audit functions, and external audit services. This study examines three types of audit committee disclosures: the annual report of the audit committee; reporting of the audit committee charter in the proxy statement at least once every three years; and disclosure in the proxy statement of whether the audit committee had fulfilled its responsibilities as specified in the charter. This study conducts a content analysis on audit committee disclosures of Fortune 100 companies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the cross‐sectional relation between the value of cross‐border intrafirm transfers (CITs) and three dependent variables: return on investment (ROI), the US effective tax rate (ETRUS), and the global effective tax rate (ETRGL) to assess the existence or nonexistence of cross‐jurisdictional income shifting.

Regression analysis is used to test the relationship between CIT and accounting performance and effective tax rates.

The results indicate that ROI and ETRUS increase whereas ETRGL decreases with the extent of CITs after we control for variables that impact earnings and taxes (e.g. size, industry classification, internationalization, tax shelter, and growth). This suggests that firms earn income, on average, in jurisdictions with tax rates greater than the USA, such that diverting income from overseas to the USA is a tax‐saving action. The tax results are consistent with Jacob and Mills and Newberry's findings that firms shifted income into the USA. The results also reveal that companies that engage in CITs are those that are large, relatively more profitable, and pay more US taxes.

This study does not differentiate between transfer pricing schemes for tax minimization reasons from those done for earnings management purposes, which should be addressed by future research.

Results have public policy implications as an understanding of how CITs affect accounting performance and taxes is important for the craft of tax policy and transfer price regulation.

This study furthers our understanding of the impact of CITs on earnings and taxes, an important component of accounting research which has not been properly addressed by prior studies.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for inclusion of evasive foreign direct investment (FDI) into search-based motivation typologies in international business.

Critically reassessing academic literature and using anecdotal evidence, the authors augment the theory of FDI motivation with the concept of evasion.

Evasive FDI is a firm-level response to denial-of-privilege by a state. Divergence of policy environments between home and host prompts relocation or international expansion of productive assets and often the affectation of ‘foreignness’ by the multinational enterprise (MNE). The role of responsibility evasion via FDI is understood in the research literature, mainly because of an emphasis on search-based motives and a failure to distinguish between escape and evasion. International business research is vulnerable to mis-identification of FDI motive which consequently distorts its strategic and policy implications.

The argument for inclusion of evasive FDI serves to augment the established, yet asymmetrically focussed typology of search FDI, demonstrating that evasion is conceptually and analytically distinguishable from search. Further, an augmented typology lends accuracy and insight to research into the reconfiguration strategies of MNEs and legitimation of the international business discipline itself, providing researchers with a more comprehensive account of FDI causation and offering new research paths.