Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No / While many universities have implemented various initiatives and teaching and learning methods to embed the most indemand skills into their degree programmes, there is little evidence in the literature of students’ opinions and awareness of these skills. The purpose of this article is to assess, through an empirical study, students’ perceptions of the skills commonly identified in the literature as important for the field of accounting and finance. A total of 462 surveys were collected and analysed using the SAS statistical analysis tool. According to the findings, the most important graduate skills are communication skills, followed by analytical skills and self-management. The findings also reveal that the language of instruction is statistically significant for a few graduate skills, including interpersonal, planning and organization, communication, self-management and analytical skills. Age is statistically significant for critical thinking skills and gender is statistically significant for leadership, technological and communication skills. / NPRP under grant 7-1534-5-231 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation)

This thesis is concerned with measurements used in economic activity and investigates how historical markets managed transactional problems due to unreliable measurements. Existing literature has generally associated the problems of measurements in historical markets with the lack of uniformity in weights and measures. This thesis shows that metrological standardization was not sufficient to ensure reliability of measurements. Markets developed mensuration practices that enabled markets to address specific transactional issues in micro-contexts. This involved, in addition to the use of standardized metrology, improved governance of transactions, third party monitoring and guaranteeing, and other institutional solutions. Historical institutional arrangements were altered or replaced as a result of changing or standardizing mensuration practices. The thesis also makes a conceptual contribution in terms of understanding the process of standardization. It shows how, while standards can be inflexible and rationalized (i.e. limited in number), standardized practices can incorporate a number of such standards and be flexible in terms which standard to be used in a given context. Analytically, standardized practices are institutional objects that are determined endogenously and are formed in 'packages' that create interlinks between standards, other artefacts, rules and people. These arguments are developed by studying three detailed cases of mensuration practices in the British economy during the nineteenth-century. The case of the London Coal Trade examines how altered mensuration practices gave buyers greater assurance that the amount of coal they received was actually the amount they purchased. The case of the wire industry illustrates the struggles to define a uniform set of wire sizes that could overcome the disputes arising from incompatible and multiple ways of measuring wire sizes. The case of the wheat markets illustrates the complexity involved in developing standards of measurements such that quality could be reliably measured ex-ante. Through these case studies, the thesis shows how markets developed different mensuration practices to manage measurements in a given context.

Leasing provides a significant source of finance across UK firms. Historically, its use has been attributed to favourable tax treatment and 'off-balance sheet' accounting, both of which have been eroded over time. The present day determinants of leasing have received limited investigation, and prior research has focused on the use of finance leases in isolation from overall corporate financing decisions. This seems inappropriate given the predominant and prolific use of operating leases (Beattie, Edwards and Goodacre, 1998), and evidence to suggest that lease and debt finance appear to be at least partial substitutes (Beattie, Goodacre and Thomson, 2000). Further, proposals issued by the Accounting Standards Board in late 1999 look set to essentially remove the current 'off-balance sheet' accounting treatment of operating leases. If accounting treatment is in any way responsible for the current use of operating leases, these proposals are likely to have a significant impact on the future role of leasing. In response, the present study. investigated both the current role of leasing in the wider context of corporate financing decisions, and its future role in light of the new proposals for lease accounting. Two separate surveys of UK quoted industrial companies were undertaken to investigate corporate financing and leasing decisions and views and opinions on lease accounting reform. Findings are based on a response of 23% (198 completed questionnaires) and 19% (91 completed questionnaires) respectively. OLS regression analysis was also employed for a sample of 159 UK quoted industrial companies, to establish the existence of an 'offbalance sheet' advantage to operating leases from a market perspective. Findings suggest that UK firms appear more likely to follow Myers' (1984) suggestion of a modified pecking order of capital structure when determining their debt, including leasing, levels. Investment nd dividend payout dictate the need for external finance, and debt including leasing is internally rather than externally constrained. On average, internal reserves followed by straight debt appear preferable to leasing. However, the benefits and costs associated with all sources of finance are likely to be considered when additional finance is required. Although tax and 'off-balance sheet' advantages to leasing remain, they do not appear to dominate the leasing decision in the current climate. Avoiding large capital outlay and cash flow considerations appear of paramount importance in the decision to lease all asset types. Findings suggest that the preference for leasing over other forms of debt is not anticipated to change in response to the new proposals for lease accounting. However, the new approach may not be without consequence. Where possible, financial statement preparers are likely to take reactionary steps to minimise balance sheet obligations. At the very least, this could involve exercising any opportunity to manipulate the new accounting treatment. It may extend to reduced investment and a decline in levels of debt financing, including leasing. Although operating lease obligations appear to be currently taken into account in the UK market's assessment of equity risk, the accuracy with which they are taken into account remains unclear. Therefore, the revaluation of securities in the wake of the new proposals becoming mandatory is not beyond the realms of possibility. The present study provides a holistic analysis of corporate financing and leasing decisions in UK firms. It provides a valuable contribution to the capital structure debate. It would seem inappropriate for future capital structure research to focus on proving alternative static trade-off and pecking order theories. Future research would benefit from a reconciliation of the two. The present study highlights the difficulties in analysing corporate financing and leasing decisions, by establishing that they are complex, multidimensional and essentially situation-specific. The present study also has important implications for policy makers. In addition to the potential economic consequences, findings appear to suggest that certain features of the new proposals fall short of developing into a high quality lease accounting standard. Further consideration by policy makers from alternative perspectives appears necessary.

What does this thesis do? This thesis uses Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to examine how a UK retailer’s organization and strategy, and, in turn, its form of management accounting was shaped by its supply chain. The thesis does this by reporting on four related themes in the form of four inter-connected essays. The first essay undertakes a state-of-the-art review of the literature. It examines how accounting issues within supply chains permeate ‘matters of concern’. In accordance with this idea of ANT, the essay illustrates how issues emerged, controversies developed, and matters evolved through an actor-network of accounting researchers within the supply chain domain. This leads on to the second essay, which exemplifies the nature of the UK’s retailing industry within which the supply chain case organization emerged and developed. The purposes of the essay are twofold: to introduce the contextual ramifications of the case organization; and to illustrate the emergence of a new market logic, which led to the creation of a global supply chain and a new form of management accounting therein. The third essay reports on a qualitative case study. It analyses the dualistic relation between ostensive and performative aspects of supply chain strategy, reveals how accounting numbers act as an obligatory passage point within this dualism, and makes a contribution to the ANT debate around the issue of whether and how a dualism between ostensive and performative aspects exists. The final essay reports on another case analysis of institutionalizing a heterarchical form of management accounting: a distributed form of intelligence that penetrates through lateral accountable relations. The analysis reveals a new form of management accounting characterised by ambiguity; it emphasizes the possibilities of compromises and negotiations, and it thus contributes to knowledge by combining an aspect of ANT with heterarchical tendencies in the world of contemporary organizations. Finally, the thesis concludes that it is the supply chain that organises today’s neoliberal capitalism; and it is management accounting that unites both human and non-human actors within such supply chains, despite that form of management accounting being ambiguous. The thesis comprises the introduction, these four essays, and the conclusion.

The master‘s thesis is focused on defining the differences between Czech Accounting Legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards. The theoretical part defines IAS/IFRS, its development and significance at the international level. It deals with rules and requirements that are set out in the financial reporting framework and also in IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements. The differences concerning the reporting of a paricular field of accounting are also described in the theoretical part. The practical part follows up the analysis of the selected company and application requirements of IAS/IFRS on selected items of business corporations. Thanks to the application of the requirements, a statement of financial position and a statement of comprehensive income are proposed in accordance with the rules of IAS/IFRS. Procedural steps which are necessary for the first adoption of IAS/IFRS are covered in the last chapter of the master thesis.

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