Azira Abdul Adzis, David W.L. Tripe and Paul Dunmore
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of International Accounting Standard 39 (IAS 39) on income-smoothing activities and pro-cyclical behavior through loan loss…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of International Accounting Standard 39 (IAS 39) on income-smoothing activities and pro-cyclical behavior through loan loss provisions using a sample of Hong Kong banks.
Design/methodology/approach
Fixed effects estimator is used, and the analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2009.
Findings
The results suggest that Hong Kong banks engage less in income-smoothing activity after they comply with the IAS 39. No evidence supports loan loss provisions of Hong Kong banks exhibiting more pro-cyclical behavior after IAS 39 adoption.
Research limitations/implications
Compliance with IAS 39 should improve the quality of bank financial reporting. The reduction in income-smoothing activities among Hong Kong banks after IAS 39 adoption fairly supports the effectiveness of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and countries that have yet to comply with IFRS may take action to apply the standards. Bank regulators should take pro-active action in addressing the issue of pro-cyclicality of loan loss provisions, as IAS 39 focuses more on improving the financial information quality, while pro-cyclicality is associated with the economic cycles.
Originality/value
Hong Kong banking industry is unique, as it was among the first IFRS adopters in the East Asia region and it has its own legal framework for developing accounting standards. The results of this study are expected to shed some light on the effects of IAS 39 adoption on income smoothing and pro-cyclicality of banks in the East Asia region, where the accounting cultural value dimensions and institutional structures are different than that of European countries.
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Paul Dunmore and Yingxin Sarah Shao
This study adds to the evidence concerning the link between the fees that auditors charge for audit and non‐audit services to the same client.We argue that audit fees will be…
Abstract
This study adds to the evidence concerning the link between the fees that auditors charge for audit and non‐audit services to the same client. We argue that audit fees will be cross‐subsidised in a particular way: they will be reduced dollar for dollar by the expected profi ts from nonaudit work that is ‘tied’ to the engagement in the sense that such work generally goes to the incumbent auditor. This argument is tested using New Zealand listed company data for 2002. A nonlinear model for audit fees is developed that respects the mathematical relationship between audit and non‐audit fees implied by the argument from tied profits, and which includes standard control variables in a mathematically consistent way. When linearized for estimation the model has a form that differs from the linear regressions commonly used. The coefficient which tests for cross‐subsidisation is not significant, and the confi dence interval for that coefficient excludes plausible numerical values. Changing the way in which non‐audit fees are scaled and using a conventional (but unjustified) control for subsidiaries leads to a significant but spurious positive association between audit and nonaudit fees. This indicates the importance of avoiding mathematically infeasible specifications in audit‐fee research.
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Jenny Condie, Paul V. Dunmore and Keitha Dunstan
The purpose of this paper is to propose that external reports may be assessed not only by their content but also by the affordances provided to assist the reader's understanding…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose that external reports may be assessed not only by their content but also by the affordances provided to assist the reader's understanding. To operationalise this idea, it is applied to statements of service performance issued by New Zealand universities in 2000.
Design/methodology/approach
Using concepts drawn from information systems design, the authors develop an index which is applied to archival reports.
Findings
The index is negatively correlated with existing disclosure indices applied to the same set of reports, implying that it captures a distinct dimension of performance reporting. A tradeoff is demonstrated between providing more disclosure and more cognitive affordances. The index is fairly robust to certain arbitrary choices in its construction.
Research limitations/implications
The concept of assessing the quality of external reports by their cognitive affordances is shown to be feasible by applying it to one kind of report in a particular setting. Further research will be needed to establish how it could be operationalised in other settings, such as social and environmental accounting.
Practical implications
With further development, the index may provide a way of assessing the presentation of external reports, and hence of improving accounting standards. It may also be helpful to preparers by providing a second dimension (besides content) on which they can evaluate and improve the quality of their reporting.
Originality/value
External reports have previously been assessed in terms of content and of the sentence structure employed. This paper suggests a way of assessing how the structure and presentation of reports affects their usability.
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Prior studies on accounting and its environment that included culture as an explanatory variable have limitations because of their failure to operationalize it properly. The…
Abstract
Prior studies on accounting and its environment that included culture as an explanatory variable have limitations because of their failure to operationalize it properly. The purpose of this study is to apply two of Hofstede's cultural value dimensions as alternative measures to represent national culture and to examine the impact of these two variables along with economic and equity market factors on accounting disclosure practices in different countries. A sample of thirty‐nine countries was chosen based on the availability of information on the explanatory variables. To empirically test the hypothesis, three regression models, with disclosure practices as the dependent variable and five economic and cultural factors as the explanatory variables, were developed. The Price Waterhouse survey (1979) and Gray, Campbell and Shaw's survey (1984) were used to construct three indexes to operationalize disclosure practices. The five explanatory variables are: (1) type of economy, (2) size of the equity market, (3) equity market activity, (4) uncertainty avoidance, and (5) individualism. The results showed that out of the five explanatory variables, only two, namely, uncertainty avoidance and size of the equity market, are significantly associated with disclosure practices. The results are consistent with prior theoretical and empirical studies.
Tanya Fitzgerald and Sally Knipe
In this chapter we have broadly sketched the educational history of Aotearoa New Zealand to show that this historical backdrop offers a fascinating insight into contemporary…
Abstract
In this chapter we have broadly sketched the educational history of Aotearoa New Zealand to show that this historical backdrop offers a fascinating insight into contemporary debates. In the following chapters we adopt a thematic approach to the history of teacher preparation in Aotearoa New Zealand. We do not offer an institutional or chronological historical narrative, but rather, the chapters are interconnected as they re-trace, recall and re-tell this educational history. Our core thesis is that across the long history of teacher preparation these themes permeate the shifts and changes in educational policy and practice and that ruptures at particular historical moments are not unique. We draw on a number of historical examples to underscore the oftentimes personal impact of the wider policy environment and the educational stories of aspiring teachers. Importantly, we have documented the methodological approaches employed and the archival research that has influenced our reading of the materials.
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This chapter examines changing attitudes towards exhibiting Chinese immigration in New Zealand. Drawing on archival research and qualitative interviews with subject experts and…
Abstract
This chapter examines changing attitudes towards exhibiting Chinese immigration in New Zealand. Drawing on archival research and qualitative interviews with subject experts and visitors, three museums are discussed: national narratives at the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland and The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington; and regional representations at the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin.
The exhibition analysis shows that multicultural narratives of tangata tiriti immigration including Chinese only became prevalent in the 1990s, when changing attitudes in society at large and progressive immigration legislation influenced strategies of display.
These modernised national narratives propagate a multicultural paradigm. However, exhibiting Chinese immigration history constitutes only a small part of the larger mission of national museums. Accordingly, narratives of Chinese immigration remain superficial, serving celebratory representations of ethnic communities, while racism and discrimination are an important, but not central aspect of these narratives.
At the regional level, Toitū re-invented itself into a social history museum with a more inclusive and reconciliatory agenda, with a redesign in 2013 subsuming Chinese immigration into an intercultural narrative, featuring alongside other minority groups with a focus on cultural contact and exchange.
Nevertheless, all three museums still rely on narratives based on minorities and majorities arranged around a stable hegemony. Consultation and cooperation with Māori also reveal the wish to be presented as first people, set apart from tangata tiriti. That way biculturalism seems to act as a dividing force spatially, but thematically both immigration histories are more and more intertwined.
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Judy McGregor, Leonie Still and Philip Dewe
The 1990's see the managerial woman in a transition phase in her quest for equality in employment. As Still (1993) suggests, a tension associated with this transition is that of…
Abstract
The 1990's see the managerial woman in a transition phase in her quest for equality in employment. As Still (1993) suggests, a tension associated with this transition is that of conquering traditional and enduring organisational and attitudinal barriers while responding to new employment opportunities as organisations re‐vision in response to global socio‐political and economic change.