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This thesis examines the accounting choices related to goodwill impairment exercised by Malaysian listed companies in the first three years of the implementation of FRS 3 Business Combinations (i.e. 2006/7 to 2008/9). Three aspects of these accounting choices are examined, i.e. disclosure, measurement, and recognition of goodwill impairment. This thesis makes four main contributions. Firstly, it shows how the opportunistic behaviour perspective, previously developed and tested by prior studies using data from listed companies in developed economies (reported to have dispersed ownership), helps explain managerial decisions on the measurement of goodwill impairment in the developing economy of Malaysia (documented to have concentrated ownership). Managerial opportunism is normally discussed in prior studies in the context of agency conflict between managers and shareholders in companies with disperse ownership. Because of the high outside ownership concentration found in the Malaysian listed companies, the empirical result of this thesis suggests that most probably the opportunistic behaviour occurs due to an agency conflict between the controlling shareholders (shareholders outside of the companies) and the minority shareholders. Within this conflict, managers would possibly act on behalf of the controlling shareholders at the expense of the minority shareholders. Secondly, this thesis contributes to research design by developing a disclosure framework. Future researchers could make use of the disclosure framework to identify accounting choices related to goodwill impairment, or to interpret their statistical findings, which this thesis has attempted to do. Thirdly, this thesis presents new results from the empirical evidence related to factors influencing managerial decisions on the measurement of goodwill impairment by Malaysian listed companies. These factors are: managerial ownership, and two different measures of pre-write-off earnings. These results highlight the need for future studies to incorporate these variables, in order to iii provide a more comprehensive model of accounting choices related to goodwill impairment. Finally, this thesis constructs a research setting which aims to capture evidence of a recognition choice related to reporting zero goodwill impairment exercised by Malaysian listed companies. Testing this setting allows the recognition study to make a contribution, by identifying the motives of companies for recognising zero goodwill impairment, which has received limited attention in prior studies. Information concerning these motives is useful to the relevant regulatory bodies overseeing financial reporting standards on goodwill.

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Recognising the importance of audit committees as a major tool to increase confidence in financial statements, the Minister of Commerce in Saudi Arabia issued a resolution in January 1994 requiring all public companies to mandate the establishment of audit committees. This research seeks to explore the role of audit committees in Saudi Arabia and investigate whether the actual practice among these corporations is consistent with the best practice that was advocated from the recommendations of both academic and professional literatures. The intention was to survey audit committee members, internal auditors and external auditors about the effectiveness of audit committees. The questionnaire was adopted as the main instrument (followed by some interviews) to collect data in Saudi Arabia. There was a concern between the respondents that audit committees have little benefit in achieving what they were expected to do. The resolution of the Ministry of Commerce (1994) did not clearly explain the relationship between audit committees with the external and internal auditors, scope of work to be undertaken, independence, expertise, transparency, and the required qualifications and knowledge for audit committee members. There is an obvious problem with this resolution because it is too brief and there are no explanatory/guidance notes to accompany it. Therefore, a number of steps should be taken to transform the concept from a good idea on paper to a reality in practice. Ministry of Commerce should follow up its concern by issuing further clarification of what corporations must do exactly to implement the resolution.

This thesis explores how symbolic ideas embedded in an accounting instrument come to be enacted in practice: detailing the processes through which they are realised by actors. It draws on theories of governmentality and the institutional logics perspective to develop a holistic theorisation of how programmes, ideas or ‘logics’ come to be enacted in practice as individuals interact with a performance appraisal process. It seeks to develop a theorised narrative that unpicks the various realities which actors construct in a particular assemblage. The story is informed by an abductive case study of one branch of John Lewis Department Stores. It develops a model which details the factors which influence the effective performativity of the accounting instrument. As such it explores how governance occurs as non-local ideas are prescribed to, and then enacted in, a local domain. The model describes how actors interact with a ‘mediating instrument’ and thereby constitute multiple realities based on three moderating factors: underlying ties to existing logics, self-interest and others’ influence. In outlining these moderating factors the thesis also highlights that multiple logics are more likely to be enacted when they are added or merged to existing sense making, in comparison to when they are framed or reframed according to those existing framings. As such it contributes to governmentality by detailing the process of governing and unpacking the factors which influence whether a mediating instrument is effectively performative. Additionally it contributes to institutional theory by providing a more nuanced understanding of how the symbolic elements of logics come to be enacted in practice through interactions with such material artefacts and how actors come to recognise the legitimacy of alternatives.