The thesis uses NIE and NIS perspectives to analyse the post-Enron response of the UK companies and auditors with regards to joint provision of audit and non-audit services (NAS). Three potential behaviours are investigated: NAS purchase behaviour of the UK companies; NAS disclosure behaviour of the UK companies; and responses of the auditors to draft APB ethical standards (2004a). Using the NIE-NIS framework, it is acknowledged that such responses could be driven by varying degrees of legitimacy, and economic dependence. The thesis uses multi-strategy research methods to investigate the behaviours of UK companies and auditors. Using a sample of 147 FTSE 250 companies, the thesis provides evidence of changes in NAS purchase behaviour post-Enron. Also, it is found that NAS purchase behaviour varies with varying threats of legitimacy. OLS and 2SLS regression results identify audit fees, company size, and legitimacy threat as important determinants of NAS fees in the UK. With regards to NAS disclosure behaviour, the results indicate that UK companies significantly increased NAS related disclosures in their annual reports, irrespective of varying levels of institutional pressures. Use of a disclosure index facilitates this thesis in identifying the determinants of NAS disclosures of the UK companies. Company size, governance, and registration with the SEC are found to be important determinants of disclosure levels. A qualitative analysis of the auditors' response letters to the draft APB ethical standards reveals that the responses of different groups of auditors varied with the varying threats of legitimacy. Also, it is found that the auditors' responses were driven by economic reasons. Overall, the findings of this thesis suggest that behaviour in the UK was significantly affected by the events in the US and that UK companies followed strategies both of voluntarily reducing NAS purchase and providing greater NAS disclosure to help maintain confidence in UK financial reporting and auditing. Also, the strategies adopted by auditors varied in accordance with their legitimacy threat exposure, and economic dependence. 6

Privatisation has recently become an important policy ingredient in developing countries to promote industrialisation (Cook & Kirkpatrick, 1988; Adam et al., 1992). Accounting is integral to these changes, but researchers in development studies have not, to date, regarded accounting as an important part of this policy option. Although some researchers in accounting have been concerned with the role of accounting in economic development policy (e.g. Enhoven, 1973), they inadvertently neglected broader socioeconomic factors underlying accounting practices in Third World countries, assuming that the transfer of Western accounting technologies is unproblematic and automatically beneficial to the host country adopting them. This study is concerned with the dynamics of accounting controls in the social and organisational context of Sri Lanka which focuses on recent privatisation issues. The study also links these issues to control systems under colonialisation and nationalisation. The theory, methodology, epistemology and ontological assumptions in this study are taken from political economy research within development economics and sociology. In particular, the study articulates accounting controls in capitalist and non-capitalist modes of production, based on Articulation of Mode of Production Theory (Taylor, 1979). This theory is used to typify accounting controls as private and public modes, both under capitalist and non-capitalist contexts. The qualitative data collected form two organisations, a public sector and a privatised firm, link the country's history of industrial development to privatisation issues, including associated transformations in accounting control systems. In particular, these data are used to understand how changes in accounting controls vary upon changes in ownership and management. Through a series of comparative interpretations, the study finds that the political influences over management control and ineffective bureaucratic relations are essentially common in the public mode of accounting control while these characteristics are always connected to traditional "king-concept". The powerful segments such as politicians and bureaucrats maintain their power relations as the relations between king and his people. Politicians maintained their maintained power over bureaucrats and, sometimes, organisational managers, bureaucrats maintained their power over managers, and managers maintained their power over employees. In the public mode of accounting, both under colonialisation and nationalisation, as control is seen in this traditional king-people relationship, it can be argued that "economic rationalities" (e.g. Jensen & Meckling, 1976; Vickers & Yarrow, 1988) are insufficient to explain how and why people in Third World countries such as Sri Lanka control over their subordinates and are controlled by their superiors. Given that traditional relationships are unconcerned by policy makers, organisational performances cannot be achieved through "conventional management techniques" such as incentives and motivation (ibid.). In the private mode of accounting, the political influences and ineffective bureaucratic controls are inconsiderable, except time to time trade unions' agitations. Although this institutional change is predominant in this mode of accounting, the articulation of cultural beliefs and the dominance of production controls over the accounting controls are common to both modes of accounting in both firms. In one firm, engineering rationalities have become the main element in the control process and this results in negligence of those cultural and behavioural aspects. In the other firm is also tending to enhance engineering aspects of production controls, considering that it is the main remedy for the problem of poor performance. The new management under private ownership assume that people's expectations are "economic based" and they have to be motivated by providing more incentives. Both policy-makers and accounting researchers in Third World countries, however, are unconcerned with " \V the central problem of articulation of traditional beliefs and cultural-based behaviour of workers. Having addressed these issue, this thesis provides a research space in the domain of development accounting, by articulating accounting within a development paradigm.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature on audit quality in the small firm segment from the context of one emerging market - Thailand. The study extends existing audit quality literature by concentrating on an emerging market rather than developed countries. Currently, there is scant evidence on how differences in countryspecific factors and cultural values affect audit quality and the economic role of an audit. The predominance of small firms in emerging markets makes a study of audit quality in this segment increasingly difficult to ignore. In Thailand, the country providing the empirical basis for this study, financial and legal systems are relatively less efficient than in developed countries. From one perspective, an independent audit may playa crucial role by serving as a substitute for weak country-level institutions. However, the payoff of the audit may be intrinsically low due to the inefficiency of these institutions. Given this dilemma, this study aims to contribute to an understanding of audit quality and the economic role of the audit in the small firm segment in an emerging market. Thailand provides an excellent setting in which to study the issue due to its two-tier system of auditors as well as its particular country-specific characteristics and cultural values. The mixed methods approach is adopted in this thesis to examine three dimensions of audit quality - (1) auditor quality choices, (2) audit pricing and (3) the value and relevance of financial reports. The first two dimensions are addressed through a five-year panel data set on financial and auditing information for 700 small Thai private firms. The auditor choice, auditor change and audit fee models are constructed in accordance with market-specific factors. For the third dimension, the analysis is based on 35 interviews with owner-managers, accountants, regulators and main users of accounts - lenders and tax authorities. The results of this study reveal a number of differences from findings of previous studies in developed markets. First, the investigation on auditor quality choice shows that agency factors neither motivate auditor change nor affect the choice of an auditor. This finding suggests that for small Thai private firms, auditors are not employed as monitoring or bonding mechanisms to alleviate agency problems. The loyalty to an incumbent auditor is highly associated with the auditor selection, consistent with characteristics of the market with collectivist cultures and a traditional society. Second, the audit fee analysis shows that small firms perceive first-tier auditors as superior in audit quality and pay a fee premium. As ~ypothesised for a country with bank-oriented financial systems, the agency cost resultmg from the firm-debtholder relationship is found to be one of the significant determinants of audit fees. Finally, evidence from interviews show that perceived audit quality (auditor reputation) does not align with actual audit quality (auditor monitoring strength). In this market, the accountant-client relationship is very prominent. Auditors tend to lack independence because accountants usually provide one-stop-services by preparing accounts and finding auditors for their clients. Due to low auditor competence and independence, the value and relevance of financial reports and of the external audit are diminished. Overall, this study highlights the influence of country-specific factors and cultural values on audit quality. The evidence obtained may be very instructive for other emerging markets in the South East Asia region and beyond.

In this thesis we investigate the relation between UK closed-end country fund pricing and measures of illiquidity, sentiment and segmentation. First, we examine whether the UK closed-end country fund premium is related to the illiquidity of the UK fund or the illiquidity of the country in which the fund invests. We also consider whether emerging market country funds behave differently in terms of their premium and illiquidity to developed market country funds, and in particular whether they offer more stability during the period of the recent financial crisis. Overall, we find country illiquidity plays a significant role in the premium of emerging market funds. However, in developed market funds country illiquidity is not significant. Fund illiquidity, in contrast, is significant for developed market funds but not for emerging market funds. Second, we analyse the effect of sentiment on the pricing of UK closed-end country funds between 1992 and 2009. We find that country consumer sentiment is significantly negatively related to the share price and NAV (net asset value) return over different time horizons. We also find that UK consumer sentiment is significantly negatively related to the closed-end fund premium. The results suggest that both institutional investors and so called 'discount traders' influence country fund pricing. Third, we examine the effect of time-varying direct investment barriers on the pricing of UK closed-end country funds in emerging markets. We focus on the post-liberalisation period (1993-2009) and analyse the relation between time varying measures of direct and indirect market segmentation. We find that the direct measures of capital market segmentation are significantly negatively related to both the share price return and the return on the NAV of UK closed-end country funds in emerging markets. We also find, however, that direct investment barriers have an insignificant effect on the premium.

The role currently being played by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in ensuring the accuracy, timeliness and integrity of audit reports cannot be stressed too strongly. This thesis, relates to a study on assessing the current and potential impact of ICT on auditing in providing useful information for a wide range of users. Using a triangulation of interview and questionnaire techniques, the study covers the activities of auditors working in the 'big4' accounting firms, some small and medium sized accounting firms, one of the UK's 'big?' banks and some government agencies. This exploratory study is privileged to be one of the first to shed more light on the current state of affairs regarding the extent of use of ICT tools and techniques by both internal and external auditors. Also, the study has been able to assess the impact these tools and techniques are currently having on auditors and the organisations they work for by identifying the main benefits and drawbacks ICT has brought to the profession. As a result of its findings, this research is able to identify and discuss potential areas of the audit profession that could benefit from further utilisation of ICT. This study is the first to empirically assess the current and potential use of Continuous Online Auditing within the UK auditing profession comprising both public and commercial establishments. Similarly, the study is able to break new ground in accounting research by exploring the impact audit automation is having on auditor independence and the audit expectations-performance gap. Above all, the production uf C::l ih..~~-i8y~r~d iTiodei (an integration of contingency, socia-technical systems and structuration theories) for a comprehensive understanding of ICT impact on audit remains a major highlight of the study. The model advocates that the use of leT in audits is a function of certain contingent factors that determine an optimal mix of human skills and technological capabilities, which would lead to changes in the nature of auditors' roles and outputs and audit organisations' structures. Indeed, this road has been rough and turbulent in every way but at the end of it, I have the cause to say all praise is due to ALLAH. I do acknowledge that His bounties on me are certainly immeasurable. My thanks go to my supeNisors, Mr. Ashok Patel and Dr. Peter Scott for their guidance and support right from the start of the programme till its end. The remarkable memory of my dealings with them will remain with me throughout my academic life. I also appreciate the support of my Head of Department, Professor Elaine Harris, Professor Martyn Denscombe and members of the Accounting & Finance Department and the Business school as a whole particularly my research student colleagues. I do also acknowledge the invaluable assistance rendered to me by Messrs C. Peters, E. Clarke, S. Jones, A. Salami, L. Cooke, S. Durojaiye and K. Handscombe for facilitating my access to their organisations while I say a big thank you to all my respondents to the questionnaire and inteNiewees for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend to my requests. My father, Alhajj Zakariyya Omoteso, my late mother, Alhajja Hamdatullah Omoteso, my siblings Hasanah, Mulkah, Madinah, A1Fattah, Fatimah, Taofeeq, Mika'i1, Mahmudah and my brother-in-law, T.K. Sarumi have all played important roles in giving me the basic foundations I need in life to succeed. Their unflinching support in all respects has been a unique source of inspiration for me. I also show my heartfelt appreciation to my darling wife, Ni'matullah for her constant support, sacrifice· and understanding especially when the going got tough. The same goes for her parents, Alhajj &Alhajja Sodique as well as her siblings, Sumayyah, Nurayn, Khadijah, Maryam, Rizqah and Lateefah. To my little ones, Aminah and 'Abdullah, I pray they grow to realise what their presence during this period meant to me. Two special people have been central to the success of this programme, Dr. Isma'il Ibrahim and Dr. Gbolahan Gbadamosi. I pray they reap the rewards of their efforts on the day when good deeds will be scarce. The same prayer goes for my buddies, M. Kadri, S. Olagunju, T. Olakunle I. Badmus, A. A1Salaam, D. Shafi, H. Mobolaji, T.Yusuf, I. Adelopo, S. Elegbede, U. Adeyemi, M. Obalola, M. Adeyoola, A. Solate, M. Bello, S. Ogunmuyiwa, N. Olaleye, A. Husain, S. Osunleke, Z. Adeniyi, I. Ogunwale, A. Adedeji, H. Onabanjo, A. Zubair, K. Akosile, M. Adesokan, W. Busari, S. Junaid and all my numerous friends here and abroad. Finally, I say a big thank you to my former high school teacher, Mr. 8.0. Agunbiade, for arousing my interest in accounting.

Despite the diversity of issues it addresses, the accounting and finance literature has yet to turn its attention to the accounting practices of large numbers of women in the Global South - subaltern women. Indeed few attempts have been made to theorise the diverse forms of accounting and finance practiced outside Europe. This study seeks to recover the sociocultural aspects of accounting and finance practiced among Sinhalese women in Sri Lanka to encounter their community organizations. The term 'Ethnofinance' is used to describe a way to recover the sociocultural composition of subaltern women's community practices of accounting and finance. To achieve this recovery, the study draws on the work of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Luce Irigaray and considers what Naila Kabeer calls 'the multiple realities' of subaltern women. It lets the subaltern women speak for themselves in order to value their accounting and financing practices, while at the same time acknowledging the possibility and necessity of different ways of being and thinking across cultures. Methodologically, the study - through feminist ethnography - attempts to adhere to the feminist ethos of valuing daily experiences of life. The thesis asks how the knowledge of subaltern women about accounting and finance has revolved around sociocultural dynamics of community organization. The research reveals that subaltern women's knowledge of accounting and finance attests to feminine practices and operates through friendships, kin relationships and social relations. These community organizations develop social wealth through their thrifts, based on traditional practices of saving. The organisations and their thrifts protect women from intrusive practices of the state and non-governmental organisations. The contribution of the thesis overall is to create a new platform within the accounting and finance discourse where Ethnofinance can receive serious consideration.

Firms’ spending on their employees is written off as expense to the annual financial statements under the current accounting treatment. This accounting treatment has been debated over decades, since employees are arguably claimed as the true value creators of firms’ intellectual capital. Value creation potential of employees, identified theoretically as human capital has been researched for valuation and measurement for accounting recognition of human capital investment and decision usefulness of financial reporting recognition through mandatory and mostly voluntary disclosure. Research evidence are found under different phenomenon namely; social capital, intellectual capital, human capital, etc. considering, investment, accounting and reporting practices, though on an ad-hoc basis, highlighting the need for a study covering a holistic picture of the accounting and financial reporting recognition of human capital investment. Hence, the research is conducted, addressing the current practice of accounting and financial reporting recognition of firms’ human capital investment, considering both determinants and consequences of the practice utilising a stakeholder approach. The research is undertaken with data collected from annual reports of firms of FTSE 100 listing of London Stock Exchange for five accounting years, (2004-2009) chosen subjected to data availability, analysed using panel data analysis techniques with fixed and random effect estimators coupled with pooled linear regression as an alternative approach. The results of the study indicated a significant variance in the practice implying positive influences on promoting the practice accounting and financial reporting recognition of human capital investment. The results further indicated the requirement of a framework governed by standards and guidelines in promoting the practice accounting and financial reporting recognition of firms’ human capital investment.

Controversies drawn from the main thesis research question – asking what is the relationship between financial accounting calculation and nature – lead to the specification of research sub-questions. Firstly, how does financial accounting calculation communicate and/or construct the reality of humanity’s economic relationship with nature? Secondly, what is the role of financial accounting calculation in building markets for the purpose of addressing specific environmental problems? Thirdly, what kind of ontological relationship exists between financial accounting calculation and nature? These controversies are examined via two empirical case studies, utilising the principles of actor-network theory, and a conceptual discussion that draws from these cases and from literature on financial markets. The first empirical case study seeks to examine how the biodiversity comprising a tropical forest ecosystem in the Kasigau Corridor in Keyna is protected as a result of having its conservation brought into financial accounting calculations by constructing, via processes of objectification and singularisation, a greenhouse gas emissions offset product to sell on the voluntary over-the-counter carbon markets. The second empirical case study seeks to examine the performativity of financial accounting in the construction of markets in tropical forest carbon. The analysis describes and explains the conflicts surrounding the translation of carbon market calculative devices by networks of organisational actors to extract a tradable accounting inscription from the world of tropical forests. A conceptual discussion then places economic markets on a flat ontological landscape with natural systems. This theoretical conception allows for a direct comparison between the roles of financial accounting calculations in markets and that of other forms of calculation and emergent computation in natural systems, finding that they are ontologically equivalent. This then provides a new theoretical frame for considering issues such as pluralism of accountings and accounting for sustainability.

Intangible flow theory explains that flows of economic material elements, such as cash or physical goods, are consummated by embedded human related intangible flows, such as services flows, work flows, information flows, knowledge flows or communicational flows, which have properties precluding them to be considered assets or capital. Therefore, mathematical/quantitative research methods are necessary but insufficient to study economy and society. The theory uses the precision approach to capture tangibility (and its opposite), which enables defining cash flows occurred in an identifiable period as tangible flows. To demonstrate intangible flow dynamics, the thesis suggests that corporations may partially organize themselves according to operating needs associated with the tangibility of product (output) flows used to generate material cash flows through sales to customers. For example, firms producing cars or planes might be required to have distinct economic characteristics to fi rms selling pure services or software. The thesis reviews interdisciplinary literature about products and their characteristics, and introduces the concept of operating intangibility based upon intangible flow theory. This concept assists the problem of classifying corporations according to their product flows' intangibility. For approximately identifying a firm's level of operating intangibility, the methodological framework looks into the absence of its opposite, which can be identified with a certain degree of precision through the accounting proportion that costs of physical goods sold and depreciations of tangible property, equipment and facilities have in total operating expenses. The empirical findings exhibit that a firm's operating intangibility tends to be reflected in several other economic characteristics: size, investment profile, profitability, market valuation, or capital structure. Furthermore, the results show that the level of operating intangibility framework exempts us from the need of assuming that firms registered in the same industry are either homogeneous or sell homogeneous products, because it can be used to classify firms within an industry, or industries themselves. The empirical analysis was conducted on a very large international sample of listed firms containing 15 country sub-samples from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, USA, and UK.

Research on accounting and the accountancy profession in transitional countries typically adopts theoretical and methodological frameworks, which correlate the development of the accounting and accountancy profession with social, political and historical aspects of transition. As the theoretical context of existing studies links the appearance and development of the accountancy profession in these countries with the impacts of the transition process, in many instances it appears that they adopt the perspective of assuming transitional countries as a unified whole or alternatively categorising them on the principle of geographical criteria or historical zones of influence (Enthoven, 1977; \981) or by making use of the dependency theory (WaJIace, 1990). The increased evidence of disparities in accounting system development in transitional countries resulted in the recognition of distinctive variables of a specific country environment having an impact on the growth and development of its very own accounting system (Cannony, 1987), which includes cultural variables, foreign influence, education and training, legal and regulatory environments, and internal and external professional conditions (Parker, 1984). Due to these facts, there is certainly still a need for even more investigative research on account of the number of rationales. First, there is certainly a significant diversity related to the social, political and historical background of transitional countries. Second, the presence of an organised profession, commonly reflected through the existence of a professional accounting association or, alternatively, the absence of one, can strongly influence the development of the accounting and accountancy profession in transitional countries. Hence, the process of an accounting system and accounting profession development would probably be best understood by combining a thorough analysis of the socio, political, economic and historical specificity of the individual country. In this regard, the sociopolitical and historical context of Serbia could quite possibly provide a case for just how the interactions between the specificity of a country background, coupled with the actions of existing structures, may shape the growth and development of the accountancy profession. The importance of further research is augmented by the fact that there is celtainly a lack of previous research on the development of the Serbian accountancy profession and that existing studies have frequently concentrated on individual aspects, whilst overlooking the interdependence and mutual influence of all existing factors. The primary purpose of this study is thus to explore exactly how the accountancy profession has emerged and then developed in Serbia during the last six decades. The focus x of this thesis is the development of the Serbian accountancy profession over the course of the five most significant periods in its history, characterised by the distinct alterations in relation to politics and economic conditions, which in turn, have actually been heavily contingent on the distinctive political ideology of 'socialist' Yugoslavia. Additionally, this study presents an in-depth assessment of interdependence of the above mentioned factors and the creation and actions of the accounting association in Serbia. Examination of external influences, in the form of global expansion of capitalism, in addition to free market ideology, impact of international financial organisations and their projects, international accounting regulations and the spread of western-style accountancy profession practices, particularly in the field of professional education and ethics of accountants, supplement the comprehensive insight in the growth and development of the accounting profession and accounting association in Serbia. Keywords: Accounting, Accounting Profession, Transition, Serbia