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This paper aims to assess the factors that may explain the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) convergence, considering Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as the theoretical reference for the cultural approach proposed. Additional factors include countries’ contextual and macroeconomic characteristics.

Logistic and probit regression models were used to identify the factors that may explain the IPSAS (fully or adapted) use by countries, including 166 countries in this assessment (59 for those whose cultural dimensions are available).

The findings consistently indicate collectivism and indebtedness levels as explanatory factors, providing insights into cultural dimensions along with macroeconomic characteristics as a relevant factor of countries’ convergence to IPSAS.

There are different levels of IPSAS convergence by countries that were not considered. This aspect may hide different countries’ characteristics that may explain those options, which could not be distinguished in this paper.

As a result of this paper, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board may gain insights that can be applied within the IPSAS due process to overcome the main challenges when collaborating with national authorities to achieve a high level of convergence. This analysis may include how to accommodate countries’ cultural differences as well as their contextual and macroeconomic characteristics.

There is a trend of moving toward accrual-based accounting standards by countries. Because the public sector embraces a new culture following the IPSAS path, it is relevant to assess if there are cultural factors, besides contextual and macroeconomic characteristics, that may explain the countries’ convergence to those standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first cross-country analysis on the likely influence of cultural dimensions on IPSAS convergence as far as the authors’ knowledge.

The present paper aims to experimentally investigate the effect of external horizontal vibration on friction property of an aluminium disc sliding against stainless steel pin.

To do so, a pin‐on‐disc apparatus having facility of vibrating the test samples at horizontal direction was designed and fabricated. In the study, a dimensional analysis is done to correlate the friction coefficient of aluminium with sliding velocity, frequency and amplitude of vibration.

At 100 Hz frequency of vibration, it is seen that during the starting, value of friction coefficient is 0.39 which remains constant for few seconds then increases almost linearly up to 0.45 over a duration of 15 s of rubbing and after that it remains constant for the rest of the experimental time. Similar trends of behavior are observed for transverse vibration. These findings are in agreement with the findings of Chowdhury and Helali.

It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the improvement of different concerned mechanical systems.

Several studies, especially in Asian economies, have investigated the antecedents, implications and consequences of related-party transactions (RPTs). This paper aims to review this literature to collate, gauge and critically discuss understandings of the relationship between RPTs and risk, with a particular focus on audit risk.

The paper discusses RPTs and how they have been associated with corporate scandals and the expropriation of shareholders’ wealth. RPTs are defined as per accounting standards and the main types of RPTs are described based on the extant literature. Two key research design issues are discussed: measures used to operationalize RPTs and observable variations in sample size across RPT studies. Evidence is presented on the negative effects of RPTs and the role of regulation, corporate governance and auditing in reducing risks.

Prior studies have associated RPTs with the expropriation of shareholders’ wealth, declining firm valuations, lower-quality financial reporting, increased risk of material misstatements and decreases in long-term firm performance. Further, the evidence suggests that regulation, corporate governance and auditing can mitigate the negative effects of RPTs.

This paper provides insights for regulators on the effects of enforcement, corporate governance and external audits on reducing the negative effects of RPTs, and highlights the increased risk of material misstatements in financial statements when RPTs are conducted. Moreover, it reveals how RPTs affect risk assessments for auditors.

This paper represents the first comprehensive review of the empirical RPT literature. It provides a starting point for future investigations of RPTs, not least because it reveals important limitations with the extant body of research in this domain. It also offers salient insights and implications for practitioners and policy makers.

The frictional behavior of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) under natural frequency of the experimental set‐up is yet to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the frictional behavior of GFRP under natural frequency of the experimental set‐up.

Experimental vibration is generated artificially in such a way that direction, amplitude, and frequency of vibration can be controlled.

The presence of natural frequency of vibration indeed affects the friction force considerably. The natural frequency of vibration decreases with the increase of added dead loads to the experimental set‐up. The values of friction coefficient increase with the increase of natural frequency of vibration of the experimental set‐up. As the friction coefficient increases with increasing natural frequency of vibration, therefore maintaining appropriate level of natural frequency vibration friction may be kept to some lower value to improve mechanical processes.

It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the improvement of different concerned mechanical systems.

The research is carried out experimentally and it can be expected the experimental results can be used for designing mechanical machine and systems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of family control on the association between related party transactions (RPTs) and different forms of accrual-based earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM), analyzing the effect of board characteristics on the possible association.

This paper studies a sample of Italian non-financial listed firms over the 2014–2019 period, by GLS regression models, controlling for the fixed effects of the company's sector of operation and the year.

Results indicate a different association between RPTs and earnings management (EM) in family and non-family firms. They point out that family firms use RPTs in association with downward AEM and REM perpetrated by abnormal discretionary expenses as well as a substitute of REM via abnormal production costs. For non-family firms, findings indicate only a substitution effect between RPTs and AEM. Furthermore, CEO duality, board gender diversity and the presence of the family on the board positively moderate the association between RPTs and, respectively, REM implemented through sales manipulations, downward AEM and upward AEM.

This study suggests that the socioemotional wealth (SEW) differently affects the relationship between RPTs and EM, according to the form of the latter. It also points out family firms' heterogeneity in earnings manipulations, by providing evidence of the moderating role of board characteristics on the association between RPTs and the various forms of EM.

Rubber gaskets find wide applications in steel structures. Gaskets are usually used on the edges or on the nail hole positions. These are the weakest positions, where corrosion starts, whether the structure is protected by paint or by other methods. In this work, anticorrosive pigments were incorporated in rubber formulations. They are tested by corrosion protection when used as gaskets with steel panels. Results showed that the presence of anticorrosive pigments in rubber gaskets prevents early rusting under it in comparison with the blank. Zinc‐tetroxy chromate pigment exhibited the highest rust inhibiting power when chloroprene rubber formulations were used. The change of the pigment percent barely affect the quality of protection when syrenebutadiene rubber formulation were used. Zinc tetroxy chromate pigment improved the physico‐mechanical properties of chloroprene rubber under investigation. The used formulations can tolerate thermal oxidative aging at 90°C up to 8 days. The rate of vulcanization was not affected by increasing the concentration of the inhibitive pitments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate experimentally the effect of external vertical vibration on wear property of mild steel.

A pin‐on‐disc apparatus capable of vibrating the test samples in a vertical direction is designed and fabricated. The experimental setup has the ability to vary the amplitudes and frequencies of vibration while velocity of vibration is kept constant. During the experiment, the frequency and amplitude of vibration are varied from 0 to 500 Hz and 0 to 200 μm, respectively.

Results show that the wear rate decreases with the increase of amplitude and frequency of vibration for mild steel. These results are analyzed by dimensional analysis to correlate the wear rate with sliding velocity, normal load, frequency and amplitude of vibration. The experimental results are also compared with those available in literature and simple physical explanations are provided. Considering the lack of correlation between wear rate and other vibration‐related operating parameters, the present research is started to find out suitable correlation and a way of reducing wear rate by applying known frequency and amplitude of vibration at a particular direction.

It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the improvement of different concerned mechanical systems.

The paper can be used for design‐related purposes.

This paper aims to examine whether female representation on boards is significantly associated with audit fees paid by top Egyptian listed companies.

The authors collect data on audit fees, board of directors' characteristics and financial data for the top 100 companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX100) for a period of six years. The authors employ an ordinary least squares regression model to capture the relationship between board diversity (i.e. the proportion of female board directors) and the natural logarithm of audit fees while controlling for firm and industry fixed effects as well as other known firm characteristics.

The authors find that audit fees are significantly associated with the proportion of females serving on firms' boards of directors. The findings suggest a complementary relationship between females on boards, as a quality-enhancing board attribute; and audit fees, as a proxy for audit effort and audit quality.

Limitations of this study arise first from the relatively small sample size, and second from the fact that inferences may be specific to the Egyptian context and similar markets.

The results have important implications for Egyptian policy makers and regulators in terms of board composition.

This study provides empirical evidence that further enforces the business case for women's empowerment and the impact of this on the effectiveness of corporate governance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first archival study to examine the association between female board representation and audit fees in Egypt.

This study aims to analyse the effect of related party transactions (RPTs) on earnings quality in a sample of Spanish listed firms, as well as the moderating role played by female directors in the relationship between RPTs and earnings quality.

The sample includes non-financial Spanish listed firms from 2005 to 2019. The authors use panel data analysis based on the firm fixed-effect estimator. Additionally, the authors use the two-step system generalized method of moments estimator to test the robustness of the results.

The results show a negative effect of RPTs on earnings quality. Further analysis reveals that the negative effect is mainly driven by transactions between the firm and its directors and major shareholders, as well as by RPTs that are more likely to reflect insiders’ self-interest. Moreover, the authors show that the presence of female directors reduces the negative impact of RPTs on earnings quality.

The study provides practical implications for investors, auditors and policymakers, who should be aware that RPTs might harm earnings quality and adversely affect the flow of financial capital to promising investment opportunities. Additionally, the study evidences the key governance role played by female directors regarding financial reporting policies as RPTs increase.

The findings promote the need for a higher representation of women in leadership positions since the authors reveal the key governance role played by female directors regarding financial reporting policies as RPTs increase.

The results to emerge from the study complement available evidence concerning the effect of RPTs on earnings quality in a continental European country. The authors also provide novel evidence vis-à-vis the role of female directors in the relationship between RPTs and earnings quality.

The purpose of this paper is to present the frictional behaviour of composite materials under external horizontal vibration. Variation of friction coefficient is investigated experimentally when mild steel pin slides on composite materials such as glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) and cloth reinforced ebonite (commercially known as gear fiber).

A pin‐on‐disc apparatus having the facility of vibrating the test samples in a horizontal direction is designed and fabricated. Horizontal vibration is created along (longitudinal direction), and perpendicular (transverse direction) to, the sliding direction. The experimental set‐up has the facility to vary the amplitudes and frequencies of vibration while velocity of vibration is kept constant.

The relative frictional behaviour of these materials and their dimensional analysis are yet to be investigated. Therefore an attempt is made to investigate the relative frictional property of the GFRP and cloth reinforced ebonite (commercially known as gear fiber) and the results of these composite materials are analyzed by dimensional analysis under horizontal vibration.

It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the improvement of different concerned mechanical systems.

It can also be noted that there are no clear correlations between friction‐ and other vibration‐related operating parameters. Considering the above conclusion and lack of correlation, the paper meant to find out a suitable correlation and a way of observing the response of friction force by applying known frequency and amplitude of vibration in a particular direction. It is expected that the application of these results will contribute to the improvement of different concerned mechanical systems.