The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between CEO pay and firm's financial policies. According to agency theory, manager-shareholder conflicts of interest can be alleviated (and managerial compensation can be influenced) by debt. Debt lowers the level of free cash flow which managers are able to obtain because monitoring increases. This means that when the risk of bankruptcy appears, managers must consider the best financial interests of shareholders. Under agency theory, pay-performance sensitivity is smaller for high-debt companies when alternatives are available for high alignment incentives and high debt. The research objectives focus on three empirical chapters to explore the association between CEO pay and firm's financial policies for UK firms. The first study investigates the relationship between pay-performance sensitivity and debt as the explanatory variables. In the second study, the link between CEO compensation and corporate payout policy by segregating between total payouts, dividends and share repurchases are explored. Finally, the last objective examines the interaction between CEO pay packages and cash holdings of the firm. The research sample consists of 183 publicly traded companies listed on the FTSE 350 from 1999 to 2008. The estimates in the pay-performance study show mixed support for pay-performance and leverage because the negative coefficients for market debt have weak significance overall when median regressions are employed. Thus, it can be concluded that a firm's leverage has little effect on pay-performance sensitivity as a mechanism to align the interests of the firm's CEO and debt holders. However, there is strong support for the hypothesis that CEO pay-performance sensitivity increases with a firm's growth opportunities, which suggests that firms award higher equity compensation to attract managers with more talent. The second study in this research investigates how corporate payout policy is influenced by CEO share ownership, CEO stock options and CEO long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) in UK firms from 1999 to 2008 using Tobit regressions (for total payouts, dividends and share repurchases) and logistic regressions for the propensity of firms paying out to shareholders. The results show that CEO share ownership LTIPs have positive effects on corporate payout policy. In contrast, corporate governance characteristics do not show conclusive results which affect changes in payout policy. Dividend payout is significantly influenced by CEO share ownership compared to share repurchase payout. The findings support the notion that CEOs' share equity ownership is used to align managerial interest with shareholders in terms of cash payouts to shareholders. In the final empirical chapter, the study focuses on the effect of CEO pay and corporate governance on cash holdings. The study investigates the determinants of cash holdings based on free cash flow and the agency model using cash ratios (cash to sales , cash to assets, cash to market value and log of cash) as dependent variables. The analysis documents that CEO ownership and log LTIPs both have positive and strong relationships with cash ratios. The results support the hypothesis that equity compensation can be used to align managers' interests with those of shareholders.

In recent years the business world has become more complex and the role of the professional auditor has had to change in order to address this increasing complexity. What had been seen as a technical compliance role has now evolved to include higher level skills such as evaluating risk and director’s judgement. Critics have expressed concern that university auditing courses have not changed in line with the business world and that they largely deal with teaching a practical process and do not encourage students to question and challenge. This phenomenographic study explores how auditing is taught via an exploration of the experiences of fifteen teachers who teach auditing within higher education degree courses. However, this study does not attempt to provide an objective understanding of teaching auditing, or to tell teachers what they should teach. Rather, the aim is to stimulate teachers to reflect upon their own teaching by presenting them with accounts of the experiences of others. These experiences can then be used by the teacher to provide insights regarding how their own teaching and that of others might be improved. The research highlights the extent to which teacher perception of the subject matter of Auditing and expected student learning outcomes can have a profound impact upon the pedagogic approach taken. The variation in the way the subject matter is viewed highlighted that some teachers see only a practical professional subject whilst others also perceive an underlying theoretical basis that can be used to question and challenge audit, and these differences in perception appear to impact upon both how teachers interact with and are influenced by accounting professional bodies and how teachers conceive of and approach their own teaching. Dissonance is a key feature within this study. In this study, dissonance is experienced by teachers as a mis-match between their conceptions of how auditing should be taught and their reflections upon their own experiences of teaching aauditing. Dissonance is seen to be complex and it is noted that some teachers appear to be able to overcome perceived difficulties whereas others cannot. The use of a phenomenographic study in this thesis provides a contribution to knowledge by extending and developing what is currently known about teaching to the discipline of Auditing. Implications for future research are also explored.

Past research has traditionally argued that management control systems (MCS) may present a hindrance to corporate flexibility and creativity. The study’s overall research aim is to explore the contingency factors that influence the intensity of use of MCS in innovation companies. This thesis builds upon existing management control theory, mostly focused on R&D, product development and innovation settings, extended by field observations to identify factors that may influence the intensity of use of MCS categories in innovation companies. The objects of control paradigm, distinguishing between direct and indirect categories of control, is mobilized to test the consequent theoretical model of the impact of external, organisational and innovation related contingency factors on MCS. The model predicts mixed influences on two direct control categories, results control and action control, but stresses the importance of two indirect categories, personnel control and cultural control. Empirical evidence was then collected from a cross-sectional survey of 578 German enterprises in innovation clusters. Statistical analyses, applying partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS, identify several variables as influential factors for the use of MCS in innovation companies. The most important factors are environmental uncertainty and business strategy which were shown to have an impact on all of the control types. Additionally, decentralisation, ownership dispersion and firm size are responsible for a change in three of four MCS types. Other interesting findings are that an increase in innovation capability is not associated with a reduction in results and action control intensity, and is positively related to the application of personnel and cultural control. Furthermore, important sources of finance, venture capital and public funding, are both shown to be positively associated with the application of action control; whereas, contrary to expectation, venture capital is found to be negatively correlated with personnel control. Overall, the results indicate that direct control is as important as indirect control given specific contingency factors. This study synthesises the fragmented literature of MCS contingency research in innovative settings by developing an original contingency model. The thesis adds value by inferring particular forms of management control which may be appropriate in innovative company settings. Thereby, the study contributes to both contingency research and to the knowledge and understanding of management control in innovative settings. It can assist managers by identifying MCS categories that are typically associated with particular influential factors. Further, the study is valuable from a methodological perspective by developing and testing novel constructs for three MCS categories. Beyond the relevance of the results to management control researchers, innovation company managers and policy makers, they also imply avenues for further related investigation.

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This thesis explores the role of the statutory requirement for South African auditors to report certain irregularities to an independent regulatory body. Detailed interviews with some of the country’s leading minds in auditing and corporate governance illustrate how a whistle-blowing duty impacts the functioning of quality control systems. Although the reporting requirement does not result in a paradigm shift in audit practice, it is perceived by some stakeholders as contributing to the scope and relevance of audit reporting. Enacted to enhance corporate transparency, accountability and compliance with laws and regulations, it also becomes an important source of pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy for the audit profession. Motifs of disciplinary power reinforce claims to legitimacy by creating a valid expectation of active reporting by auditors in the spirit of promoting effective whistle-blowing. There is, however, no guarantee that every irregularity is reported. The opacity of the audit process allows the practical limitations of the reporting requirement to be decoupled from symbolic displays that reassure stakeholders that external regulation is reforming audit after confidence in its self-regulatory franchise has been eroded by prior scandals. This is not to say that the reportable irregularity provisions are irrelevant. What these findings highlight is that the plurality of external regulation gives rise to varied (and at times conflicting) views on arms-length control of the profession. In this way, the research adds to the auditing literature by avoiding the mainstream approach of using inferential testing to make an economic case for external regulation. Instead, an interpretive technique highlights the relevance of powerful social and institutional forces shaping regulatory practice. Critical analysis of an example of a recently amended reporting requirement also provides an interesting case study for exploring real-world issues when it comes to the application and effect of external regulation, simultaneously offering evidence in support of the social construction of audit practice, quality control and credibility theorised by leading institutional auditing researchers such as Humphrey and Power. The research is also the first to examine the role of a whistle-blowing duty for South African auditors, despite the statutory requirement dating to the 1950’s. This is not only useful for local practitioners and academics seeking better to understand the legal duty: by contributing to the scant body of critical auditing research in an African setting, this research highlights important conceptual issues which are relevant for informing the on-going debate on the role of external regulation in ensuring high quality audit practice, relevant and reliable audit reports and the continued credibility of the attest function.

This thesis explores the congruent relationship between a firm's value logic and its management control systems. The value logic typology was introduced in the Strategic Management Journal by Stabell and Fjeldstad (1988). The typology builds on the work of J.D. Thompson (1967) and Michael Porter (1980,1985) and proposes that organizations align to three value configurations: Value Chains, Value Shops and Value Networks. Value Chains are industrial organizations characterized by the generic Value Chain model developed by Michael Porter (e.g. standardized manufactures, mining). Value Shops are configured as problem solvers (e.g. physicians, lawyers, consultants) and Value Networks are designed to facilitate exchanges on a network (e.g. Banks, Teicos, Internet Auctions). Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) and other strategy researchers (Sheehan, Vaidyanathan and Kalagnanam 2005, Fjeldstad and Haanaes 2001) argue that the "new economy" is more aligned to the growth of Value Shops (e.g. McKinsey, Accenture) and Value Networks (e.g. Nokia, ebay) and justifies why the value logic typology is more relevant in today's world. The research in this thesis focuses on asking the basic question of whether management control systems differ in Value Chains, Value Shops and Value Networks. The research concludes that the value logic typology is useful and has potential to increase our knowledge in the strategy and management control systems contingent literature. The research in this thesis is exploratory in nature and uses both field interviews and a questionnaire survey as research methods. A breadth of management controls systems exist across all value logics. However, there appears to be differences in their use which are highlighted in the thesis. The thesis contributes by exploring the strategy and management control systems contingent research from a perspective (the value logics), previously not studied.

This dissertation explores the issue of structural choice in organisations, and the role of accounting control systems in this decision is empirically examined. In particular, the thesis addresses" vertical de-integration" process and the role that accounting plays, if any, in that process and in making de-integrated forms operational. To study the research objectives of this dissertation, a case study approach was selected as the most suitable, as it allowed a deeper examination of the case and of the wide variety of environmental influences. The focus of the dissertation was a single design chain, consisting of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group (BCAG) and the main suppliers to the group's 787 aircraft project. Documentation and interviews were chosen as the two primary methods of data collection. Interviewees were selected from Boeing, from the major suppliers to the 787 program and from aerospace industry experts. This dissertation argues that BCAG's motivations for choosing a de-integrated, collaborative structure and the configuration of accounting control practices used to operationalise this inter-firm network are best understood in an integrated transaction cost theory (TCT) and institutional framework, where economic factors prompt the search for change, while institutional factors influence the particular choice of production mode and the practices that support it. There are a number of findings revealed by the dissertation. From a TCT perspective, the case demonstrated that Boeing undertook a tacit comparison of production costs and transaction costs, but chose to vertically de-integrate in spite of the presence of specific assets. It is proposed that information systems reduced coordination transaction costs, while the network structure minimised the threat of opportunism, thus influencing the transaction/production cost comparison. While pressures for change were mainly economic, Boeing emulated "best practice" when attempting to realise this change, consistent with the institutional concepts of mimetic and normative isomorphism. However, in terms of explaining the design of the 787 accounting control systems, there was no evidence of isomorphism. The control system had evolved in a way that was specific to Boeing and its partners. Institutional theory is less useful, in this case, for explaining the adoption of control practices than it is in explaining the adoption of a particular organisational structure. Instead, the intersection of accounting, design and information technology practices on the project demonstrates a hybridisation of accounting practices with other disciplines, which emerged and was refined over a long period, primarily from technical need but also driven by Boeing's comparatively powerful status in the field. Implications for future research are presented in the concluding section.

This thesis heeds calls for social and environmental accounting researchers to intervene directly to develop new accountings and promote practical change, and to measure the type of change and reasons for non-change using theoretical frameworks. The thesis first selects and develops an appropriate meta theoretical framework from the social and environmental accounting literature for analysis purposes, drawing on dialogics, organisational change theory and institutional theory, as well as Soft Systems Methodology tools. Existing Full Cost Accounting (‘FCA’) applications are critiqued using this framework and a utopian vision for a new application is constructed. The thesis then undertakes a new, explicitly dialogic application of Full Cost Accounting (‘FCA’) in a new sector (Higher Education). It does so following calls in the literature to develop further FCA as a worthwhile technique to correct prices and redress the asymmetry of information found in (un)sustainability reporting, towards something that better demonstrates the (un)sustainability of an organisation’s practices. The new application is undertaken in a deliberately dialogic manner as the literature posits that social and environmental accounting engagements incorporating dialogic motifs are more likely to engender change. Methodologically, the thesis utilises a variant of Action Research, Soft Systems Methodology, to conduct dialogic model building and calculations via learning for action cycles. The new application is then critiqued using the theoretical framework constructed, in order to answer the objectives of the thesis, which are to: (a) further evaluate the difficulties inherent in the FCA process; (b) determine whether advances in scientific knowledge and sustainability awareness now make FCA calculations more feasible (as compared to previous FCA applications); and (c) ascertain whether FCA engagements conducted in an explicitly dialogic manner lead to organisational change.

This study is an empirical attempt to investigate the theoretical and empirical role of lagged and lead accounting variables in cross-sectional valuation models. We evaluate the association between accounting variables (including earnings, book value, RD expenditures, advertising expenditures, dividends and capital contributions) and firm market value. The models for this study are derived from systems of linear information dynamics. Three samples of the US, the UK, and Jordanian firms are utilised to test the hypotheses. Stark (1999) presents evidence in the UK that lagged and lead variables can contribute in a significant way to increasing the explanatory power in cross-sectional valuation models. In the US, some recent literature show that not only current accounting variables are valuation relevant, but also the past time series of accounting variables are generally relevant for valuing firms (e.g. Bar-Yosef, Callen and Livnat (1996), Dechow, Hutton and Sloan (1998), Stark (1999), and Morel (1999)). On the other hand, previous research (e.g. Hand and Landsman (1999), and Stark (1999» uses next period's actual earnings as a proxy for omitted variables 'other information'. They find that next year's (lead) earnings captures the impact of valuation relevant 'other information' in the system of linear information dynamics and that, indeed, the valuation relevance of 'other information' is potentially substantial. These arguments motivate the investigation of the valuation relevance of lagged and lead accounting variables in cross-sectional valuation models. We primarily add in lead accounting variables as an attempt to control for the effects of 'other information'. We develop and discuss five different specifications (models) to investigate the value relevance of lagged and lead accounting variables. The valuation models are estimated using four different deflators found in prior literature on empirical valuation models (closing book value, number of shares, opening market value and sales). In market-based accounting research, deflation is generally regarded as an effective tool for mitigating heteroscedasticity and cross-sectional scale differences. The Data are extracted for US firms from the COMPUST A T for the period 1985 to 1999; for UK firms from the Datastream for the period 1990 to 1999; and from the Shareholders Annual Guides and Monthly Statistical Bulletins for Jordanian firms for the period 1985 to 1999. The study utilises all non-financial com~anies over the study period for which appropriate data are available for the necessary tests. The R and the adjusted R2 are used in this study for the comparison of the regression results under alternative specifications of the independent variables in the models. F tests on the increase in R2 are constructed to test the significance of the incrementally explanatory power between different specifications of valuation models employed. We use White's (1980) consistent standard error and covariance estimates for mitigating heteroscedasticity in calculating t-statistics. The results provide evidence on the empirical role of lagged and lead accounting variables in valuation models. This result is unaffected when proxies for 'other information' are included in the model. As a consequence, current, lagged and lead accounting variables included in our valuation model appear to be capturing some, but not all, of 'other information' when that variable is omitted. And hence, the selection of current, lagged, and lead accounting variables employed in this study is not complete and the variable 'other information' still needs further investigation. The results also indicate that, on average, RD expenditures and advertising expenditures create intangible assets for US firms. Similar evidence exists in the UK market regarding RD expenditures. The evidence in this research concerning the value relevance of lagged and lead accounting variables should aid future researchers in this area. As another perspective, this study will be helpful in diminishing the gaps and the controversies existing in the literature of valuation models.

The purpose of this research is to examine how auditors decide whether a client company can remain in operational existence for the forseeable future and the various considerations that impinge on his judgement. Relating to this purpose, the main objectives established for this study are to identify and evaluate: (i) the indications auditors consider in identifying a company as having going concern difficulties (ii) the mitigating evidence they take into account in arriving at their going concern decision (iii) the environmental factors that exert an impact on the ultimate going concern qualification/non-qualification decision and (iv) the various macro issues surrounding the going concern concept. To achieve these aims, a multiplicity of research methods which include interviews, postal surveys, archival review and case studies were employed, in the context of the lens paradigm.