The thesis explores the relationship between Audit Committees and External Auditors’ fees of a sample of FTSE 350 companies in the UK for the period of 2005-2006. This is achieved by providing answers to three main research questions. First, what are the determinants of Audit Committee activity? Second, what is the relationship between Audit Committee activity and external auditors’ fees? Third, what is the relationship between audit and non-audit fees and how does the Audit Committee affect these? Starting out with an Agency Theoretical background, the study found evidence consistent with the views that a higher proportion of Independent Non-Executive Directors on the board enhances Audit Committees’ activity, but the presence of financial expertise on the committee was not found to be statistically significant in explaining its activity. The thesis also documented evidence that shows that Audit Committee activity is inversely related to managerial ownership of shares in companies. In line with the economic theory of auditing, the researcher used fees paid to the external auditor to proxy for the level of economic bonding between auditors and their clients. Higher fees are interpreted to indicate compromised independence. Five alternative measures of economic bonding were used. The researcher found a stable and statistically significant positive relationship between measures of economic bonding and Audit Committee activity. This finding is consistent with the view that Audit Committees buy more services from the auditors in order to enhance auditing and reporting quality. Strong positive relationships between audit and non-audit services and vice versa were found using a single equation fees model but these relationships were not consistent when the researcher controlled for endogeneity between audit and non audit fees using Simultaneous Equation Models (SEM). Audit Committee activity was not statistically important in these relationships. This evidence taken together supports the proposition that economies of scope exist in the joint provision of both audit and non-auditing services to the same client. Finally the thesis also documents evidence that suggests that knowledge spill-over flows from non-audit services to auditing services and that auditor do not use audit as a loss leader.

The purpose of this research project is to examine the technical, political, social, organisational and cultural ‘practices’ of tax policy making in order to gain an in-depth understanding of certain tax rules in the Chilean context. Consistent with a qualitative interpretivist approach, this study is informed by documents and three phases of face-to-face interviews with a range of actors engaged in the process of (re)making tax regulation. Through the views of a wide spectrum of participants, including policy makers (broadly defined), tax administrators, academics, tax practitioners and taxpayers, theoretical concepts were inductively developed. These concepts were combined with related tax policy literature and Bourdieusian concepts to construct a theoretical/conceptual framework which was later applied in interpreting the findings. The findings reveal how an élite group of agents forms a social space connected with the field of power. In this space, these agents define tax policy, draft legislation and budget for economic effects. This thesis illustrates how these agents mobilise different forms of capital from their respective fields in order to reach and access this social space. Transfer pricing processes highlight the fluidity of these spaces, allowing the access and influence of external forces. The research also shows that other stages are more distant from the field of power. The findings suggest the importance of tax knowledge and information in the development of tax regulation. Tax knowledge and information become a capital at stake which agents struggle to acquire. Empirical data show that the amount of tax knowledge and information in the space relating to the field of power is connected with the content and robustness of the transfer pricing rules under analysis. This research also suggests a high concentration of transfer pricing tax knowledge in very few agents across the bureaucratic, professional services and corporate/business fields. This research also shows the influence of social capital in the tax policy-making field. The findings show that bureaucrats and politicians consult with those connected with them who are subjects of trust. In the particularities of transfer pricing, the findings illustrate the importance of social capital in defining the content of tax rules. Finally, the study also shows how domination and two forms of violence are present and exercised across the tax policy-making field. This is one of only a few studies that have examined the practice of tax policy making holistically, from the very early stages to the application of the rules in practice, broadly contributing in this respect to the tax policy strand of literature. In contrast to previous descriptive and partial studies, this study captures the views of actors responsible for making tax rules. It also contributes to theory development by translating Bourdieusian tools to analyse tax policy making.

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The thesis is an exploratory study of the gap between accounting research and financial reporting practices. The fundamental issue is that comprehensive accounting theories (CATs) have been largely disregarded in the formation of financial reporting practices. To understand why this should be so, the thesis studies continuously contemporary accounting (COCOA), the CAT associated with the Australian scholar Raymond John Chambers. The thesis adopts a hyperbolic reading of actor-network theory (ANT), which treats ANT on its own terms rather than diluting it by reference to other interpretive approaches. The thesis uses a single case-study approach that traces how Chambers developed what was to become COCOA throughout his life. Archival data and interviews, as well as primary and secondary literature, inform the empirical narrative. The narrative focuses on six distinct episodes: the publication of Chambers' first academic article in 1955, the debate and events that followed this article, attempts to influence financial reporting practices in the US in the 1960s, the publication of Chambers' most comprehensive statement on COCOA in 1966, further attempts to influence financial reporting practices in the US, UK, and Australia in the 1970s, and three instances where financial statements were prepared in accordance with COCOA in the 1970s. Through the empirical narrative, the thesis contributes to knowledge about the gap between accounting research and financial reporting practices by studying an actual CAT and the attempts of its proponent to change conventional thinking. What emerges is a nuanced narrative about COCOA filled with various actors, not normally associated with accounting research, that nonetheless turn out to be vital to the success of COCOA.

A defining feature of humanitarian crises is their unpredictable nature, making them interesting sites to analyse how accounting systems can facilitate engagement with the unexpected. This thesis explores the question of how evaluation systems can be designed and practiced to engage with the complexities of humanitarian crisis settings, in which the potential for disastrous errors is overwhelming. Informed by empirical research on the management practices in a large-scale refugee camp, the study investigates principles and tactics that allow humanitarian evaluation systems to make a resource of the inevitable ambiguity and incompleteness that define their contexts. In doing so, the thesis draws from and further develops the concept of heterarchy, defined as ‘governance through difference’, and shows how it provides promising insights for accounting research. To explain how evaluation systems can become performable in the dynamic humanitarian environments, the study theorizes four interlinked principles that emerge from the empirical findings. These principles are: (1) in-built tensions between evaluation dimensions; (2) open and participatory design; (3) relational value and incompleteness; and (4) enacting minimalist control through a community of practitioners. In doing so, the study makes three contributions. Firstly, the study contributes to the accounting literature on the enabling role of ambiguity by theorizing how evaluation systems can foster approaches and techniques that embrace ambiguity as a resource to engage with complex settings. Secondly, it further develops the notion of heterarchy by explicating how heterarchical tensions can become productive without leading to chaos and by theorizing additional principles that are necessary to sustain heterarchies in an organized fashion. Thirdly, departing from the emerging literature on humanitarian crises that primarily focuses on how accounting systems can be used to normalize and control disaster settings, the thesis advances understanding of how accounting technologies can serve as anomalizing devices for the adaptive management of crises.

This thesis examines the disclosure practices of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the impact of reform programmes in the SOE sector on such practices. The study stems from evidence of poor performance of SOEs attributed to the dearth of information disclosure, hence, the introduction of reform programmes to address these problems. Based on multiple case design with data gathered from three large SOEs and key policy makers in the SOE sector of Ghana, the findings show that the disclosure relationships, objectives, and media are generally the same across all SOEs. There are however some notable variations from the both within-case and cross-case analyses, with respect to the generic sections, volume and disclosure types in their respective annual reports. There are also differences in relation to the processes of producing their disclosure media. With regards to the impact of reform programmes, the study found both sector-wide and industry specific reform programmes, driven and underpinned by institutional forces and tenets of agency theory. These programmes have among other things, increased the numbers of disclosure media, stakeholders or principals that SOEs must disclose to, expanded the nature of disclosure (managerial, program, procedures, and financial) and types of disclosure relationships (diagonal).

Lüder's Financial Management Reform Process Model (2002) is used to analyse and explain the context of the accounting reform process at the central government of Malta, thus introducing Malta in the field of Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR). Organisational Theory that underlies this model is referred to when discussing its limitations. The qualitative research methodology required a set of interviews with actors involved in the reform process, supported by documentary research. The governmental accounting reform process in Malta is described in two phases: the environment of the first phase is assessed as conducive to change; in the second phase, stronger forces at macro level reduced this conduciveness. The long-winding reforms at central government level in Malta may only be illusory because once the statistical reporting requirements for Eurostat were achieved, the reform concept changed. The findings confirm the centrality of the budget in government accounting. The decision by the Maltese Government to adopt International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) does not appear to be well-informed and appears based on the quest for credibility. The objective of the European Union (EU)'s interest in IPSAS is also questioned since these financial reporting standards do not give budgeting particular importance, and reporting to the EU by member states is already harmonised through the ESA95.

This research examines the management control system (MCS) of a non-Big4 local Egyptian member firm (EMF) with the objectives of understanding and explaining how EMF's MCS is shaped by its idiosyncratic features as an accounting firm, as well as, its membership of a global network (NonA). The research situates accounting firms within the broader context of professional service firms, whose unique features, coupled with accounting firms' cost/quality conflict dilemma, require a control package approach. MCS is construed as a package of bureaucratic and clan controls. The research is theoretically informed by Ouchi's (1979, 1980) control typology, Malmi and Brown's (2008) notion of a package. A case study approach is used relying on interviews, documentation and observations in an interpretative qualitative research design.

This thesis investigates corporate social responsibility reporting in Mexico. It is built across three studies. First, we analysed the content and semantic properties of annual reports, sustainability reports and corporate websites of 73 Mexican and foreign companies operating in Mexico to describe the extent to which these companies disclose their corporate social responsibility. Second, with the data gathered in the first study, we built thirteen disclosure scores to explore whether corporate governance and corporate social responsibility reporting in annual reports can be seen as complementary mechanisms used by companies to enhance relations with stakeholders. Third, we conducted an in-depth case study of a Mexican company acquired by a multinational company; we analysed the sustainability reports and news items during the time prior to and after the purchase to investigate the changes in corporate social responsibility reporting as a result of the acquisition. Our study contributes to the scarce literature exploring corporate social responsibility reporting in Mexico and adds to the methodological research in the field by conducting a survey of corporate social responsibility reporting across industries and reporting media and by utilising a content analysis approach of considerable measurement detail. We provide empirical evidence to previous literature suggesting that foreign ownership may have a positive impact on themes of disclosure such as the environment, but have a negative impact on community. We also contribute to corporate social responsibility reporting research in the context of mergers and acquisitions, by providing empirical evidence which suggests that company responses in the form of corporate social responsibility disclosure to institutional pressures consider both stakeholders salience and business culture.

The advent of the internet has provided a new possibility for companies to communicate with their stakeholders and this thesis uses a new institutional sociology perspective to investigate the adoption of Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) in Arab MENA countries (Middle East and North Africa) to: i) evaluate the extent of IFR; and ii) identify the factors that influence Arab MENA listed companies to voluntarily adopt IFR. The study examines the extent of IFR in Arab MENA countries in 2010 using a sample of 1,456 listed companies from the 16 Arab MENA countries that have a stock exchange. To determine the factors that affect listed companies to adopt IFR, 961 listed companies were investigated from ten Arab MENA countries from two regions. Seven factors are investigated; five of which (company size; profitability; leverage; type of auditor; and industrial sector) have been investigated in prior studies; the other two factors, country and region, are also investigated as the effect of a country has been investigated in very few studies; the regional factor has not been investigated at all in prior studies; and hence contributes to our knowledge. The main findings of this thesis indicate that IFR in Arab MENA countries is growing; but listed companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have the most extensive practice of IFR; North African listed companies are next whereas listed companies located in the Middle East excluding GCC countries have a lower level of IFR than the other two groups. Moreover, the findings reveal that communities of practice have been formed by large profitable companies as well as those audited by the Big-4 audit firms. Further, financial sector companies and companies from the GCC region also appear to have similar practices with more extensive IFR than other listed companies. These communities of practice may be due to coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism. From a mimetic pressure, arguably, listed companies imitate each other, as for instance, managers of large profitable companies, or financial companies may network and meet together and discuss issues relating to their businesses. Companies within the same country may also be exhibit homogeneous IFR practice for the same reason. Furthermore, companies from one region may be similar to each other because they have similar country characteristics such as political and economic factors. From a normative isomorphic perspective, the Big-4 audit firms may influence companies to adopt IFR across the globe. Further, banks in many countries have separate requirements bringing a coercive influence to bear on their practices.