No description available.

Most of the literature on management control systems (MCSs) shows that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) lack autonomy, do not have clearly defined objectives, and therefore have inadequate accounting systems, accountability, and control systems. Whilst some researchers claim that privatisation per se should improve this aspect of enterprise performance and accountability, others argue that change cannot be brought about without accompanying structural, cultural and external environment changes. As a result of its economic reform policy, governmental development plans, the need to join the WTO, and the need to overcome the poor performance and ineffectiveness of certain industries, the Saudi Arabian Government privatised some of its SOEs. This study is an exploratory investigation into the effect of such policy on two selected organisations and their MCSs in Saudi Arabia. Its main objective is to describe the nature of control systems before privatisation and determine the impact it has subsequently had on the companies in question. In addition, it investigates whether privatisation was the only reason for change or whether there were other influencing factors. The case study was conducted within two Saudi companies that have been privatised recently, viz., the Saudi Telecom Company and the Saudi Electricity Company. For triangulation purposes, the case study employed three modes of data collection: semi-structured interviews, examination of classified official corporate documents, and semi-structured interviews with an external related party (the Saudi Investment Authority). The main finding of the study is that privatisation alone cannot change MCSs: without changes in organisational structure, culture and the external environment, the privatisation process cannot effectively achieve its objectives. The study found out that although both companies were privatised, changes in their respective control systems were different for three main reasons. (1) The degree of competition: the telecommunication sector becomes more competitive and therefore the Telecom Company had to develop very efficient control systems so it could compete in the market. However the Saudi Electricity Company continued to dominate the market and as result there was no strong motive to apply stringent MCS. (2) Managerial power within the two organisations: Whereas in Saudi Electricity engineering managers were dominant and therefore highly influential on the kind of changes the company was seeking, in the Saudi Telecom Company accounting managers dominated and were very different in their attitude towards changing control systems. (3) Government involvement: Saudi Electricity had very limited autonomy since the Government was still the main decision maker on factors such as pricing and policy, whereas Saudi Telecom had a considerable level of autonomy in its policy making.

This thesis comprehensively examInes the relationship between corporate debt issuance and market timing. The focus is on the different issues of debt market timing across the different stages of corporate debt issuance from pre-issue considerations, to implementation and post-issue influences. It also covers different aspects of debt issue decisions including maturity, yield type and issue volume. The thesis starts with an investigation of what motivates debt issue decisions based on the framework of risk management, and finds that timing the debt market rather than hedging the interest rate exposure is the primary motivation for firms choosing yield types and maturities for their newly issued debt. The thesis then explores the information and mechanism behind debt market timing implementation, and finds that managerial market timings of debt issuances are simply responses to fluctuations in market conditions, while their predictions of future market variations are generally unsuccessful. Finally, the thesis examines the influences of debt market timing on capital structure of firms. It was found that, although debt market timing of issue volume results in the abnormal deviation of the debt ratio and impacts on firms' capital structures in both the short and long-term, managers appear to make no effort to reverse the deviations of capital structure. Rather, they continue to time the market afterwards. Therefore, as regards the implications for capital structure, market timing has a long-term influence.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis develops and tests a number of hypotheses examining the relationship between ‘shareholder dividend taxation’ and market value of a sample of UK firms’ equity. Specifically, this thesis tests for evidence of ‘shareholder dividend taxation’ impounded into share prices. This issue has many corporate financial implications. Understanding what affects corporate distributions is central to the understanding of the firm as there are potential implications regarding the allocation of resources and investment decisions. If share prices incorporate dividend taxation, this affects firms’ cost of equity capital. An ongoing ‘shareholder dividend tax’ capitalisation debate in the US has produced conflicting results as to existence or degree of capitalisation. This lack of consensus in the US raises the issue of the position with respect to UK companies, particularly with the clear differences between the two countries tax systems. The common element linking the majority of the US models is that they are derived from the Ohlson (1995) valuation model. Ohlson (1995) demonstrates that given certain restrictive assumptions equity value can be modelled by the book value of equity (BV) and the level of net earnings (NI). The model predicts that BV and NI are positively related to equity value; however issues of ‘shareholder dividend tax’ capitalisation may affect the relative importance of the relationship between equity value and the components of BV (ISC and RE). To relax some of the restrictive assumptions of the Ohlson (1995) model, the valuation models used in this thesis include a number of control factors. In addition, the sensitivity of the results has been assessed by using a range of deflators to control for scale factors and models were estimated over RE/BV quintiles and dividend payout ratio based quintiles. The sample comprises all non-financials from the Financial Times All Share Index for the period 1994 - 2000. This period was chosen to include the Finance Act (1997) abolition of repayment of dividend tax credits to tax exempt shareholders. Imposing a survivorship requirement is designed to overcome criticisms of prior research. Similarly, estimating over a balanced sample maintained a constant industry composition, which in turn controls for earnings persistence. The results are mixed; there is some evidence in support of ‘shareholder dividend tax’ capitalisation in UK equities but this is sensitive to the year examined, the specific model used and the hypothesis tested. Two sub-hypotheses were developed to test the main hypothesis of this study; one provides considerable evidence in support of ‘shareholder dividend tax’ capitalisation, the second very little. The supporting evidence relates to the hypothesised relative changes in the RE coefficients pre and post 1997, but little support is evident for the absolute magnitude hypothesised i.e. comparison of the RE and ISC coefficients pre and post 1997. Although unequivocal the evidence in this thesis adds to the understanding of the effect of shareholder level taxes on share price.

This thesis investigates corporate Ireland's attitude to dividend payments and examines how the Irish stock market reacts to company announcements about dividends. Prior to this study, the attitude of company executives and investors to dividend policy in Ireland was not reported in the academic literature in a systematic fashion. A number of small studies on the topic had been undertaken but the findings of those studies are relatively old and the perspective adopted limited.In the mid-1980s, company managers in the US and the UK aggressively altered dividend policy because the disadvantageous income tax rates to which dividends were subject meant that paying dividends was not an efficient way to return money to shareholders(Campbell, 2003). The double taxation of cash dividends was the primary motivation behind the decision of corporations to repurchase their own shares rather than implementing or increasing dividend payouts (Wood, 2002). In addition, for much of the 1990s dividends seemed unimportant to company executives and investors, as much of the share valuation analysis undertaken by financial commentators, appeared to focus on top line and bottom line growth rather than expectations about periodic dividend distributions (Goodbody, 2003).However, dividends have recently become more important as growth rates in earnings have declined (Jones, 2004).The Irish economy has changed dramatically over the last decade with greater wealth,increased numbers at work and an ageing population (E. S. R. I., 2003). In this new environment, Irish dividend distributions, and more specifically the taxation treatment of those distributions, is an increasingly important issue for Irish economic policy makers as they seek to encourage companies to re-invest their profits for the long-term and to provide incentives to individuals to increase savings and provide for retirement. In this new environment, Irish dividend distributions, and more specifically the taxation treatment of those distributions, is an increasingly important issue for Irish economic policy makers as they seek to encourage companies to re-invest their profits for the long-term and to provide incentives to individuals to increase savings and provide for retirement.The current research finds that dividend policy matters to Irish investors.Specifically,Irish investors appear to react to a dividend announcement as if that announcement conveys important news about the future prospects for the firm. This reaction was very pronounced on the dividend announcement date. Irish firms support the suggestion that dividend policy affects share valuations. In particular, quoted firms believe they know the nature of their shareholder base, and perceive that Irish investors discriminate, according to their tax status, between those companies which pay dividends and those which do not, when selecting securities for their portfolios. In addition, Irish quoted companies follow a policy in which dividend reductions are anathema and an increased dividend will only be declared if management are convinced that the new dividend level can be maintained.Finally, for unquoted firms, dividend policy is strongly driven by the taxation status of their owner shareholders. Tax advisors play a key role in determining dividend policy for such companies and a case can be made for re-examining the inflexibility of Irish tax rules on dividends, particularly for those relating to small and medium-sized companies. The findings represent a contribution to understanding as to why Irish firms pay dividends. In particular, the findings relate to a recent period for Ireland where little evidence exists. In addition, the findings emerge from a comprehensive investigation of the topic using a large-scale sample questionnaire, an event study and a sizable number of interviews. The focus of the investigation is also novel in that the views of unquoted company executives are sought in addition to the perspectives of managers from listed companies. What emerges is a comprehensive investigation of the dividend decisions of Irish companies.

The main aim of this study is to assess both: (i) perceptions regarding: and (ii) the nature financial disclosure practices in Libyan banks' reports. As regards the former. the focus was placed on both preparers and users of the documents. In terms of the latter. the level of disclosure is examined and its relationship with certain firm-characteristics (such as: bank size; age of bank; profitability; and ownership structure) and the overall level of Libyan banks' financial disclosure analysed. A decision-usefulness framework underpinned the research which was carried out via a questionnaire survey and a disclosure index analysis. The findings suggest that preparers considered management and the board of directors to be the most important users, of Libyan banks' annual reports and the most influential in terms of disclosure practices and accounting policies choice. The evidence also illustrates that, from the users' perspective, the annual reports of Libyan banks are frequently employed, and are the most important source of information for decision-making process. The main purpose of these documents is perceived by both preparer and user groups as being the provision of information to assist the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) in its monitoring and supervision activities. The perceptions of preparers were consistent with those of users regarding the quality of financial disclosures in Libyan banks' annual reports, but views differed in terms of the quantity of the information and the degree of compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements; in the latter cases, preparer groups were more satisfied than users. However, both groups are pinning strong hopes on the newly-formed Libyan Stock Market's role and on-going economic reforms -to play a key role in improving disclosure practices. Finally. Libyan banks failed to comply fully with mandatory disclosure requirements in any of the sample years (2000-2006); on average the level of compliance was 89% (with a range of 74~ 0 to 97%). In terms of overall levels (i.e. mandatory plus voluntary) of financial disclosure in Libyan banks' annual reports, the figures were low; only 54% of information items were disclosed on average by sample banks (with a range of 39% to 670/0). Multivariate panel regression analysis showed that both profit and age appear to have a positive impact on the overall financial disclosure level whereas size has a negative influence. However, the first of these effects proved to be significant. The findings are shown to be of interest to regulators, users and providers of financial information in the Libyan banking sector

From 1 January 2005, all EU-listed firms are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) (EU, 2002). This requirement represents one of the most fundamental changes to affect financial reporting in recent times. This dissertation is an examination of the introduction and impact of IFRS on the annual report and accounts of UK companies in an attempt to investigate the decision-usefulness of the new IFRS disclosures. This examination is facilitated in three ways: (i) a content analysis is undertaken to investigate the magnitude and nature of the changes in IFRS-related disclosure presented in annual report and accounts produced prior to and following the introduction of IFRS; (ii) an analysis of the Reconciliation Statements produced upon first-time adoption of IFRS included in corporate annual reports to examine the impact on both profit and equity as a result of the transition from previous national GAAP to reporting in accordance with IFRS; and, (iii) an assessment of the new IFRS disclosures against the qualitative characteristics outlined in the IASB Decision-Usefulnessfr amework. In other words, it is an investigation of whether the claims of the IASI3 about the usefulness of the mandated IFRS disclosures for decision-makers are supported in practice with the contents of corporate annual reports and accounts in the UK.The results of the content analysis indicate that the implementation of IFRS had a significant impact on the content of the annual report and accounts of UK companies.The amount of disclosure in company annual reports increased significantly following the introduction of the new reporting regime. Furthermore, there was a large increase in the physical size of the annual reports for the vast majority of the firms surveyed. The scale of the impact varied from standard to standard, however, the nature and magnitude of the information presented in UK-published annual reports has been fundamentally impacted by the introduction of IFRS. The Reconciliation Statement analysis results reveal that profit disclosed under UK GAAP increased by 105.85 per cent following the implementation of IFRS. In addition, the results show that the introduction of IFRS had a significant impact on reported equity; however, there was an almost even split between those which experienced a favourable impact following the transition and those disclosing a negative effect on the balance sheet post-IFRS adoption. The main IFRS standards which impacted reported results under previous national GAAP were IAS 10, IAS 12, IAS 19, IAS 40 and the IFRS 3/1AS 36/IAS 38 group of standards.The assessmenot f the decision-usefulness of the new IFRS information reveals that the widespread variation in impact on reported results, the complexity of the supplementary narrative disclosures, absence of company-specific and forward-looking information, uncertainty about the long-term impact of the changeover and the lack of comparability between the Reconciliation Statements will likely have constrained the usefulness of the new disclosures for users and therefore their investment decisions. Thus, one of the aims of the standard setters does not seem to have been achieved as users of UK corporate annual reports were not supplied with more useful information about these companies compared to what was previously disclosed under UK GAAP.

For many years, there have been vigorous arguments between supporters of the shareholder and stakeholder models as to which system is more effective in enhancing corporate values and disciplining managements. What view one takes of course very much depends on political viewpoint and national background. For example. economists or lawyers in the US or UK may argue that the Anglo-American shareholder model is more appropriate. This is because there is at least a criterion (i. e. share price) by which you could measure and compare corporate performance. Supporters of the shareholder model may argue that the concept of stakeholder is anticapitalism and that it is too broad and abstract, providing no clear boundary as to who may or may not fall into that category. Yet in contrast, their Japanese or German (and other Continental European) counterparts may argue that the Anglo-American approach of primarily focusing on share value and wealth maximization is too narrow and an over-simplistic view of the role played by corporations. Supporters of the stakeholder theory would argue that it is necessary to take into consideration interests beyond those of shareholders. This is because businesses ought to demonstrate certain responsibilities towards the society in which they operate. This thesis neither supports nor challenges the validity of either the shareholder or stakeholder approach. Instead it attempts to search for a "middle approach". The aim is to bring the concept of both values together to form a corporate governance model based on convergence and co-existence. The main proposal of this thesis is as follows. Living in the twenty-first century, we must understand that our world is neither being Americanized nor Europeanized or Orientalised. We are instead being globalized. National identities in terms of corporations will become less and less important as multinational corporations extend their activities throughout the globe. With the advance in technology and increase in cross-border business transactions amongst countries, it is no longer justified to argue that "one business model fits all". As academics and practitioners we must therefore explore ways in which we could bring the best out of different models so that they can be converged to form a more coherent approach towards the balancing of different conflicting interests.