Credit risk is treated as a major risk in banks and has become more important with the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent regulatory controls, mainly in the form of new changes in Basel II and the proposed Basel III requirements. The use of credit risk models grew in the 2000s due to both the use of internal models in Basel II as well as bank use for economic capital calculations. These models have a large and growing influence on how credit risks are managed, yet there is a gap in the current literature on how these models are used in practice. This research explores their use in banks to help provide academic and management insight into the actual use of credit risk models. An interpretative approach using qualitative case study was undertaken in three banks using face-to-face interviews with the key credit risk managers that worked in the methodology, decision making, monitoring, control and reporting areas. While interviews were the main source of data for the research, it was supported by observation and a review of documentation that related to the use of credit risk models in the bank. The research findings show the merits in examining the social, organisational and cultural constructions as well as the role of individuals in this process. This evidences the usefulness of interpretive research, which thrives on diversity of meanings as opposed to comparing just the technical aspects of the models as found in more traditional studies. This research provides a contribution to the academic understanding of the use of credit risk models not found in any of the studies to date. This includes new insights into the use of qualitative information, the use of expert judgement (including an element of gut feel), how model complexity can detract from model use and the importance of aligning models to the risk appetite of the bank. These findings are significant both from an academic and practitioner aspect as they open up commonly-hidden processes on how these models are used in practice.

The mere presence of the audit committee does not necessarily translate into an effective monitoring body. As a result, the search for mechanisms to enhance corporate governance and increase the quality of financial reports has mostly focused on the structure of audit committees. This thesis empirically investigates whether there is an association between audit committee effectiveness (ACE) and the selection of a high quality auditor for both Australian and Saudi listed companies using their local guidelines to enhance ACE as benchmarks. In addition, the association between ACE and non-audit services (NAS) purchases is examined only for Australian listed company as providing such services by the incumbent auditors is not allowed for Saudi listed companies. Moreover, this thesis also empirically examine the relationships between six audit committee characteristics, namely, independence, size, activity, charter, expertise and literacy and the selection of a high quality auditor for both Australian and Saudi listed companies. Also the relationships between the six audit committee characteristics and NAS purchases are empirically tested only for Australian listed companies. While there was a positive (negative) association between ACE and the selection of a specialist auditor (the magnitude of NAS purchases) for the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed companies, there was no association between ACE and the selection of a specialist auditor for the Saudi Stock Market listed companies. Because both countries have very similar recommendations regarding enhancing audit committee effectiveness, the findings of this thesis indicate that there are other factors such as different audit committee framework, different market development and cultural factors that might affect ACE. In addition, the findings indicate that audit committee independence is the most important determinant of both audit quality and NAS purchases for the ASX listed companies. Because complying with audit committee recommendations is costly especially for small companies, which have limited resources, audit committee independence should have the priority when locating the limited resources.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the various elements of financial reporting frameworks and practice in the context of the Internet. The Internet has emerged as a recent medium of presentation of corporate information. Currently, the levels of disclosure vary widely between companies within countries and on an international level, in relation to financial reporting disclosure on websites. It was intended in this research to identify the national and international regulatory frameworks that shed light on the minimum level of disclosure required of companies. Actual disclosure by companies was then investigated in order to compare de jure and de facto financial reporting disclosure. The financial reporting elements investigated were broadly classified as basic financial reporting elements such as financial reports, corporate social responsibility reporting elements, corporate governance elements and audit reports. A sample of 177 companies was selected from four sub-groups: hotels, diversified companies, multinational companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and multinational companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. The companies’ websites were then investigated in relation to financial reporting disclosure on the Internet. For companies that did not have their own (primary) websites, further investigation was carried out as to whether financial reporting information was provided on secondary websites. The nature of this information was also analyzed. It was found that 82 companies had annual reports on their websites and 7 companies had interim results only. The financial reports of these companies were then studied in order to determine the nature and level of disclosure in relation to the financial reporting elements and disclosure scores were formulated. In relation to the adoption of the Internet for financial reporting purposes, it was found that 33 companies had no financial information on their websites and that 55 companies did not have annual reports online because they did not have websites. The findings indicated that only 67 percent of the companies with websites had some kind of financial information on their websites. In relation to companies with financial reports on their websites, it was found that all sample companies diverted from what was required by the regulation by not disclosing financial reporting elements in one aspect or another. In relation to audit reports, it was found that only half of the relevant sample companies had audit reports accompanying their financial reports. Other observations were also made, indicating a spectrum picture of financial reporting disclosure on the Internet, in the context of basic, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance financial reporting. The findings made in this study were supported by literature, in that there is a lack of a uniform approach to financial reporting disclosure on the Internet. Financial reporting disclosure on the Internet ranges from none to extreme detail (including voluntary reporting disclosures) for corporations on the Internet. In the context of the qualitative characteristics identified by the International Accounting Standards Board framework, adopted by national jurisdictions, this would compromise quality, relevance, usefulness and timeliness of financial reporting information on the Internet. In return this would pose a dilemma for the user in the context of comparability, due to the lack of uniformity. In this study one reporting language, called the XBRL was also investigated. This was done due to the immense benefits and potential offered in the literature in support of XBRL, enhancing the qualitative characteristics of understandability, timeliness and more extensive coverage of auditing and verification of information. It was found that this reporting language is at this point in time, in its experimental stage and that a more extensive time frame may be required for its wider adoption and usage. In this study recommendations were made to improve financial reporting disclosure by companies on the Internet and to make the Internet a more reliable source for presentation of financial reporting information.

The aim in this study is to discover the nature and extent of corporate governance structures and practices in listed companies in Thailand. This includes a consideration of theoretical underpinning for amendments made to the western models of corporate governance that have been implemented by Thai listed companies, and of the effect of corporate governance principles on financial information, including financial reports, used by stakeholders in Thai listed companies. This study also involves the investigation of the variables for performance measurement related to corporate governance, and recommendation of measures for strengthening corporate governance in Thailand. A mail questionnaire survey was considered an appropriate method for this study. The sample was selected from firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand that operate in the Bangkok region (453 companies). Questionnaires were mailed to the Chief Executive Officer for distribution to outside/independent directors and executive directors. 101 companies returned responses, generating a 22% response rate. Furthermore, structured interviews with a self-selecting sub-sample were conducted to supplement the questionnaire survey data. Out of 160 individual questionnaire respondents from the 101 companies, 13 agreed to be interviewed. The data collected from the Stock Exchange of Thailand Information Products (SETINFO) to support the analysis of the effect of corporate governance on corporate performance include return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) measures. The quantitative data were processed using a computer program (SPSS) and the qualitative data gathered from the interviews were analysed using content analysis. The results in this study show that after the Asian financial crisis corporate governance in Thailand is improving, and outside/independent directors and professional organisations are playing leading roles. Better corporate governance has resulted from improved internal corporate governance mechanisms and enhanced accounting standards, information disclosure, and auditing standards. In addition, it was found that the implementation of corporate governance was improved, especially in enforcement and disclosure. New and up-dated rules, new and revised laws, and increased regulation are in the forefront of improved corporate governance. Processrelated activities like monitoring, supervising, enforcing, and higher awareness have increased. Moreover, corporate governance practices are now in the spotlight throughout the financial and investment markets. Last, the findings suggest that an expansion of coverage of surveys and an extension of study to the government sector and non-listed companies would be beneficial to generalisability of the results of this study. Future researchers can also extend the investigation to examine the effective monitoring of management by the independent directors, and the characteristics of independent directors to determine whether they are truly independent as this has been shown to improve corporate governance in Thailand.

The aim in this study was to explore a different approach to examine the influence of culture on accounting practice by adapting Schwartz’s (1992) universal structure of individual-level human motivational values to the domain of accounting. A mail survey was conducted on accountants in Malaysia to obtain their attitudes, beliefs and opinions about their motivational goals, and their interpretations and judgments in financial reporting. The results reveal a set of individual-level accounting motivational values that is a more comprehensive and theoretically valid representation of the accounting sub-culture compared to the Hofstede-Gray framework. Significant relationships were found linking the accountants’ motivational values with their interpretations and judgments in financial reporting. Empirical evidence of cultural diversity within the accounting sub-culture was also found. Although the low response rate was a problem, the consistency of the respondents’ demographic profile with the population and the insignificant non-response bias suggest that the results are generalisable. The discovery of the accounting motivational values has contributed to the understanding of the depth, richness and complexity of the accounting sub-culture and its effects on accounting practice. As an individual-level construct, the motivational values can be applied to explain the influence of culture on judgments and decisions in accounting. The existence of cultural diversity within the accounting sub-culture provides evidence of the importance of intra-country cultural variations. The knowledge of the accounting motivational values and its effects on judgments and decisions have important implications to the global drive for convergence in accounting and auditing practices, as well as the formulation of accounting education and professional development strategies.

For over a century the role of the internal auditor has been recognized as a special role within organizations that provided important support to the organization. The importance of this support has been growing over the century. In particular internal audit is considered to encompass the audit of both operational activities as well as purely financial activities. During the last few years there has been a growing interest in organizational culture. The purpose of this study is to look at the organizational culture of organizations and their internal audit operations from the perspective of operational audit. The study will use an organizational cultural model to see if operational internal audit has identical cultural to the organization, and if not what differences exist, and how these differences might be seen to mean that the operational internal audit with a particular cultural profile better achieves its goals, and assists the organization as a result. In conducting this study, because of the need for richer in depth data than could be achieved with a survey analysis, a multiple case approach has been taken. Three organizations within the same economic sector were examined to see how culture affected their use of operational internal audit, and how the operational internal audit responded. The results suggest that the operational internal audit of organizations generally have their own cultural orientation, and these orientations are independent of the organizations’ own cultural orientations. Further the results suggest that operational internal auditors with a strong cultural orientation towards rules and procedures will better serve their organizations.

The nature of the client-auditor relationship is a critical issue for stakeholders and other users of the audited financial statements. This type of relationship is predicated on trust; however, it is susceptible to differing motives, conflict of interest, and information asymmetries. An external auditor’s independence is crucial to users of audited financial statements. A number of factors may impact the independence of the external auditor. This study investigates stakeholders’ perceptions of NAS on auditor independence in Saudi Arabia, where NAS is banned except tax and zakat service. This study adopted the framework developed by the Independence Standard Board (ISB) Statement of Independence Concepts: A Conceptual Framework for Auditor Independence, which identified five types of threats, four of which occurs when auditors provides NAS for their audit clients. A mail questionnaire method was used to collect the data. Participants were divided into six groups: major audit firms; minor audit firms; loan officers; financial analysts; financial directors; and academics. Non-parametric statistical tests were used in this study, including the Kruskal-Wallis Test and the Mann-Whitney Test, to draw inferential conclusions regarding the data collected. Findings show that participant categories differ in their views on legalising NAS for Saudi auditor clients. While minor audit firms, financial directors, and academics supported the joint provision of audit and NAS, the other three categories did not. This result was supported by the second hypothesis, where the minor audit firms viewed that auditor independence with NAS can be maintained. In addition, all participant categories agreed that the joint provision enhances audit quality. Furthermore, participant categories were divided about the effectiveness of the total ban of NAS. However, all groups agreed that certain procedures can be undertaken to enhance auditor independence. These procedures are: separation of personnel; disclosure of fees; and limiting recruiting services. The familiarity threat was selected by the academic group as the greatest risk to auditor independence while the self-interest threat was selected by the other five categories. Conclusions of this study are that NAS could be extended in Saudi Arabia, with the exception of NAS with proven risk to auditor independence. The nature of the NAS relationship should be clear and pre-approved by the client, and NAS fees published. Further, audit firm personnel undertaking NAS must be separated from the firm’s auditors at all times during the procedures.

Prior studies have identified problems with traditional management control and performance measurement systems to evaluate managerial and business unit performance (Kaplan and Norton, 1996; Olve, Roy, and Wetter, 1999). One response has been the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) to provide a more causal-linked comprehensive set of financial and non-financial measures of performance. However, recent research suggests the use of the BSC has its own difficulties including one referred to as common-measure bias (Lipe and Salterio, 2000); accordingly the benefits of the BSC cannot be fully exploited. Drawing on organisational justice theories, this study proposes a fairness model to help overcome the problem of common-measure bias found by Lipe and Salterio (2000) in the BSC environment. Using the concepts of fairness perception, divisional/unit manager participation and interpersonal trust between the parties involved in the performance evaluation process, the model investigates issues associated with common-measure bias in the context of a BSC environment. This fairness model provides a review of the relationship between the drivers of fairness perception, which include participation, procedural justice, and distributive justice on the performance measurement in a BSC environment, and the interpersonal trust between parties involved in the performance evaluation process. The effects of those variables on managerial performance also are considered.

Thesis (MBus) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (iv, 78 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 657.02181767 AHM)

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.