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The vast global unit trust/mutual fund industry was worth more than $16 trillion by the end of June 2005. Over time, investors’ interests seem to have shifted from individual shares to share funds. The unit trust industry in South Africa is no exception. Over the 40‐year period from its inception in 1965 to 2005, the industry has grown from only one fund to 567 different funds, worth more than R345 billion. This study highlights some of the most important changes that have occurred in the South African unit trust industry over the last 40 years. These shifts are compared to changes that the USA mutual fund industry has experienced in the 60 years of its existence. An attempt is then made to answer the question whether South African investors are better off with these changes or not.

The paper examines the possible existence of systematic performance differences between Broad based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) affiliated and non-B-BBEE affiliated mutual fund firms in South Africa and see whether the indigenisation laws affect firm performance directly through their effects on firm behaviour.

The authors’ baseline regression is a model features that varies between the observed groups in Fama-MacBeth regressions. To address the issue of how B-BBEE laws affect mutual funds' performance, the study follows Golec (1988, p. 77) in calculating mutual fund returns and follows Carhart's (1997) four-factor regression model.

The paper's results also cannot confirm with statistical significance the expectation motivated by theory that B-BBEE laws influence firm performance negatively, thus, predicting a block for foreign investment. The authors’ much longer sample period (from 2004 to 2016) does not lead to significant other results than a prior study published only shortly after the B-BBEE laws coming into force. However, this study’s results could not confirm that these laws have effects on firm performance.

The authors chose all the 3,320 B-BBEE-affiliated mutual fund firms and 3,329 non-B-BBEE-affiliated ones in the Morningstar database that had complete data for the period 2004– 2016.

The study's results cannot confirm with statistical significance the expectation motivated by theory that B-BBEE laws influence firm performance negatively, thus, predicting a block for foreign investment.

B-BBEE laws have been topical in the South African mutual fund industry. The unit trust industry in South Africa started with the establishment of the Sage Fund in 1965 in order to cater for the normal investors' needs for an easy product that starts with low investment amounts, but offers professional assets management and wide risk diversification across an extensive shares portfolio, that can be liquidated at short notice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the profile of accounting research in the two academic accounting research journals in South Africa (Meditari Accountancy Research and SA Journal of Accounting Research) during the ten‐year period from 2000 to 2009.

The archival research method is applied, which analyses existing data (in this case the articles published in the South African (SA) accounting research journals) to come to research conclusions. The research method used to analyse the related articles in the SA accounting research journals is based on various international studies. The following dimensions are assessed: authorship; research field; the nature of the research; and research methods. Authorship is classified by institution, and the top seven authors by relative contribution are also identified. Both empirical and theoretical work are classified separately in different research methods.

These different dimensions provide a broad‐based review of the current profile of accounting research in South Africa.

Other refereed academic articles in the field of accounting have been published in non‐accounting specific SAPSE‐approved journals. These articles are also excluded from the scope of this research since the journals in which they are published have not been established by accounting academics specifically.

The motivation for doing this research is to identify the current profile of accounting research in South Africa that could be used as a basis for future research‐related development.

Knowledge of the profile of accounting research in South Africa could provide opportunities for scholars to expand identified research areas and explore methods that are currently under‐developed in the South African accountancy research field. The paper also acknowledges the contributions by the most prolific authors in the identified journals.

The unit trust industry is one of the fastest growing areas in the financial sector. This dramatic growth has raised concern about the level of investors’ knowledge, or lack thereof, relating to the factors associated with investment decisions. This study investigates the factors and dynamics behind cash flows into and from General Equity unit trusts from September 1996 to September 2001, and the extent to which market factors and unit trust characteristics explain the variation in cash flows. The analysis shows a significant positive relationship between cash flows and contemporaneous returns of the General Equity unit trusts and the equity market, while being negatively related to one‐month lagged returns and cash flows. Several of the determinants, including interest rates, fee structures, risk and fund size, are found to be insignificant at a 5% level. The results indicate that investors exhibit an element of profit maximisation, driven by performances and irrationality, in that they give less consideration to fee structures, risk and fund size.