In a developing country such as Saudi Arabia where alternative sources of company information tend to be more limited in a quantity and quality, the role of corporate annual reports for investment activities assumes a much more dominant and prominent role than in the more advanced and economically developed countries. This study was undertaken to examine empirically the usefulness of corporate annual reports to investment analysts in Saudi Arabia and their role in the investment activities. Before undertaking the empirical investigation it was essential to provide a background of the economic and accounting environment under which the Saudi companies operate and investment activities being carried out. Three chapters are designed to fulfil this objective, these are Chapter 2,3 and 4. Chapter 5 is focused in reviewing the literature related to usefulness of financial information. This review is believed to be an important step in providing a framework for the empirical investigation. To achieve the main objective of this research which is to evaluate the importance of corporate annual reports to the investment analysts in Saudi Arabia, a questionnaire survey was carried out to obtain the investment analysts views of the annual reports, the importance they attached to them and the uses of these reports in their investment activities. The results of the survey are presented and discussed in chapters seven and eight. The statistical tests results show that Saudi Arabian investment analysts, despite the differences in their background characteristics, still regard corporate annual reports as the most important source of information for their investment activities. A summary of the main conclusions of the study, as well as a number of recommendations, are reported in the final chapter.

Cette thèse étudie l’impact de la gouvernance sur le niveau de divulgation d’information des grandes sociétés cotées françaises. Trois types de mécanismes sont considérés : les conseils, les assemblées générales d’actionnaires et les rémunérations incitatives des dirigeants. En plus de contribuer à l’avancement des recherches sur la gouvernance, cette thèse apporte une méthodologie empirique originale, fondée à la fois sur une approche descriptive et explicative. / This PdD dissertation examines the impact of governance on the level ofdisclosure of large French listed companies. Three types of mechanisms are considered:boards, shareholder meetings and incentive compensation of managers. In addition tocontributing to the advancement of research on governance, this thesis provides anoriginal empirical methodology, based on both a descriptive and explanatory approach.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 conduta_lf_me_mar.pdf: 2154091 bytes, checksum: 902b6caf5f0402ca54d8a91f1fc1a7db (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-11 / As Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) do Terceiro Setor estão ganhando, cada vez mais, espaço no atual cenário econômico, empresarial e social e, em paralelo a isso, seu montante de recursos vem aumentando - recursos esses caracterizados pela entrada e saída de numerários nessas instituições -, e tal fato demanda um maior controle sobre suas contas, remetendo, assim, à gestão da informação e, em consequência, a aplicação dos fluxos informacionais. No caso desta pesquisa, foram tratados os fluxos das informações contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária, sendo essa uma das formas de desdobramento da informação contábil-financeira. Posto isso, pode-se formular a seguinte questão: De que maneira se originam os fluxos informacionais e como os mesmos contribuem como subsídios ao processo decisório, sob o âmbito da informação contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária, tendo como universo de estudo uma IES do Terceiro Setor? Em um contexto geral, a presente pesquisa analisou os fluxos informacionais das informações contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária presentes em uma IES do Terceiro Setor, no que tange à relevância para o processo decisório. Esta pesquisa faz uso do método indutivo e, possui finalidade descritiva. Já em relação à abordagem do problema, a presente pesquisa classifica-se como sendo qualiquantitativa. Quanto as técnicas de coleta de dados, optou-se pelo uso de duas estratégias de pesquisa: a bibliográfica e o estudo de caso. E como instrumentos de coleta de dados tem-se os questionários, entrevistas e análise documental. No processo de coleta de dados aplicou-se um corte transversal, em que os dados foram coletados em um período específico, período esse compreendido entre novembro de 2015 e janeiro de 2016. Os dados coletados foram, posteriormente, tabulados e analisados, proporcionando, assim, a elaboração do mapeamento dos respectivos fluxos informacionais e a posterior análise dos mesmos; salienta-se que os respectivos fluxos estão representados e descritos na seção 7 (sete) desta pesquisa. Observou-se, desde as análises dos respectivos fluxos, que o fluxo informacional é interrompido no nível estratégico da instituição: ou seja, as informações contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária de cada departamento são elaboradas (pelos respectivos departamentos) e encaminhadas para análise da Pró-Reitoria Administrativa e Reitoria. Porém, o retorno a respeito da aprovação (ou não) dessas informações não é retornada aos departamentos. Com isso, os gestores ficam desprovidos de informações contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária para tomar decisões pertinentes aos seus departamentos. Os mesmos gestores apontam outros elementos a respeito desse tipo de informação, tal como o restrito acesso às mesmas informações e a sua má disseminação. Por fim, foi proposto um modelo conceitual de fluxo informacional. Sendo que tal modelo proposto de fluxo permite aplicação a toda IES do Terceiro Setor, inclusive à entidade universo desse estudo; contudo, para que a respectiva proposta possa ocorrer de forma cíclica, é necessário que haja um efetivo retorno das informações contábil-financeira de natureza orçamentária aos departamentos. Salienta-se, por fim, que é imperioso disseminar a valorização da informação no ambiente organizacional, para assim implantar uma política informacional mais efetiva na organização, para que os sujeitos participantes deste processo consigam ter mais acesso a esse tipo de informação e, em consequência, consigam angariar maiores subsídios aos seus processos decisórios, fazendo com que a organização se desenvolva com maior efetividade, eficácia e eficiência. / Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from the third sector are gaining more and more space in the current economic, business and social scene and in parallel to this, amount of resources is increasing - resources that characterized the input and output numerary these institutions - and this fact demand greater control over their accounts, referring thus to the management of information and, consequently, the application of information flows. In the case of this study, the flow of accounting and financial information of budgetary nature were treated, which is one of the ways to split the accounting and financial information. That said, you can ask the following question: How originate the information flows and how they contribute as inputs to decisionmaking under the scope of the accounting and financial reporting of budgetary nature, with the universe of study HEI's Third sector? In a general context, this research analyzed the information flows of the accounting and financial information of budgetary nature present in a third of the HEI sector, regarding the relevance to the decisionmaking process. This research makes use of the inductive method, and has descriptive purpose. Regarding the problem of approach, this research is classified as qualitative. The data collection techniques, we opted for the use of two research strategies: the literature and the case study. And as data collection tools has been the questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. In the data collection process was applied to a crosssection, in which data were collected in a specific period, a period between November 2015 and January 2016. The data were subsequently tabulated and analyzed, thus providing , the preparation of the mapping of respective information flows and subsequent analysis thereof; It stresses that these flows are shown and described in section 7 (seven) of this research. It was observed from the analysis of these flows, the information flow is interrupted at the strategic level of the institution: that is, the accounting and financial information of budgetary nature of each department are prepared (by the respective departments) and forwarded to Pro analysis Administrative and Rectory -Reitoria. However, the return concerning the approval (or not) of such information is not returned to the departments. Thus, managers are devoid of accounting and financial information of budgetary nature to take relevant decisions for their departments. The same managers point to other elements on this type of information, such as restricted access to the same information and its poor dissemination. Finally, it proposed a conceptual model of information flow. And such proposed flow model allows application to all Third Sector HEI, including the universe entity of this study; however, that its proposal may occur cyclically, there needs to be an effective return of the accounting and financial information of budgetary nature to departments. It should be noted, finally, that it is imperative to disseminate the value of information in the organizational environment, so as to implement more effective informational policy in the organization, so that participants subject of this process are able to have more access to such information and, as a result , able to raise larger subsidies to their decision-making processes, causing the organization to develop with greater effectiveness, efficiency and effectiveness.