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This paper seeks to investigate the relationships between organizational‐professional conflict (OPC), organizational commitment (OC), professional commitment (PC), job satisfaction (JS), and job resignation intention (JR) in the Jordanian and Kuwaiti auditing firms. In addition, the paper examines the impacts of demographic and nationality variables on the previous variables.

Data were collected through a survey questionnaire for a sample of 308 auditors from Jordan and Kuwait.

The study finds that there is a significant impact of OC and PC on OPC and negative correlation between OC and PC. Additionally, the results show a negative correlation between OPC and JS and positive correlation between JS and OC. The nationality variable that dichotomizes Jordan and Kuwait sub samples has a significant effect on OPC and JR.

The sample is limited to auditing firms that have five or more auditors. Thus, the results are not generalizable to all audit firms working in these two countries.

OPC in large audit firms is more than that in small audit firms and the OC in large audit firms is less than that in small audit firms. This finding suggests that large auditing firms would do well when managing these factors.

Prior research is not extensive in this area, specifically that which compares the attitudes of the auditors in Jordan and Kuwait.

This study investigates the consistency of Jordan's certified public accountant examination, and its agreement with professional viewpoints regarding the relative importance of examination topics. The study examines the grades of 15 consecutive examinations and surveyed 156 auditors and 31 examination committee (EC) members. The results indicate that the rankings of examination topics derived from the examination grades are different from the ranks of these topics in auditors and EC members' responses. The 15‐examination period was divided into four sub periods to test the consistency of the examinations. The rankings of the examination sub periods were also different. These results suggest that the Jordanian Board of Audit Profession (BAP) should maintain the consistency of the examinations. To achieve this target, the BAP should prepare and use a content specification outline to enable candidates to prepare better and to direct the efforts of the examination committees.

This study aims to examine the accuracy of the earnings forecasts (EFs) included in the prospectuses of newly established firms in Jordan.

Prospectuses of 41 newly formed public companies in Amman stock exchange during the period 1992‐1996 are tested to identify the accuracy of EF and the association between EF and certain firm characteristics. These include auditor's reputation (AUD), retained ownership, plant assets, DE, BVPSH, market value to book value (MV2BV), size and forecast period.

Findings show that forecasts are optimistic and retained ownership ratio, MV2BV, and the losses in SHPs are associated with forecast errors.

The sample is limited to companies that are required to provide earnings estimates in their prospectuses. Thus holding companies, insurance companies and private firms which went public are excluded from the sample.

Investors are advised to seek other information as the EF are biased.

The paper highlights that Jordanian regulators need to address the inaccuracy of earnings which can give negative signals to local and foreign investors.

This paper aims to examine the impact of disclosure regulation on the levels of bias and accuracy in management earnings forecasts disclosed in the prospectuses of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO). Specifically, the authors investigated the two environments of regulation (mandatory versus voluntary) to draw some conclusions regarding the benefits of regulating disclosure of management earnings forecasts.

A sample of 111 Malaysian IPOs listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia from January 1, 2004 to February 29, 2012 was used. The paper uses both univariate and multivariate statistical analyses on this sample of IPOs.

The empirical results of these multivariate regressions indicated that disclosure regulation has positive and significant impact on the bias and accuracy of management earnings forecasts disclosed in IPO prospectus. In general, the study results suggest that using disclosure regulation to improve the quality of IPO earnings forecasts can be, to some extent, an effective strategy.

The findings of this study have important implications for regulators and investors. The findings can provide them some relevant insights on the improvements to the earnings forecasts accuracy and trends of the forecast (optimistic or pessimistic) after the change from mandatory to voluntary disclosure. Thus, the authorities may learn whether this change is an effective policy or whether the regime of mandatory disclosure was better for IPO companies and should be reversed.

This study is regarded as the first attempt to investigate the impact of reforms in disclosure regulation on the quality of management earnings forecasts of IPO prospectuses in a developing nation such as Malaysia. In spite of this, the paper focuses on a single country, and it contributes significant insights to the debate about the credibility of IPO management earnings forecasts.