Public entities are faced with the problem of increasing the interest of stakeholders in their annual reports. The aim of this study was to identify the stakeholders of AISA who use the annual report, to investigate their perceptions of the AISA annual report and to determine whether it is used for decision making or accountability purposes. Data was collected by using questionnaires sent to a representative sample of the stakeholders and minutes of meetings and audio recordings of the interrogation of the annual report by the parliamentary accountability and oversight body over DST. The study found that the AISA stakeholders use the annual report for accountability purposes and not for decision making and it has a small readership as it is read mainly by internal stakeholders. The study recommends that public entities need to do much to inform the stakeholders of the availability of their annual reports. / Business Management / M. Com. (Accounting)

År 2005 infördes regeln om att samtliga noterade bolag inom Europeiska Unionen (EU) skulle uppföra sin koncernredovisning enligt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)med start räkenskapsåret 2005. Målet med IFRS är att världsekonomin ska bli mertransparent, ansvarsfull, jämförbar och effektiv. IFRS ska även bidra till att världsekonomin får förtroende, tillväxt och långsiktig finansiell stabilitet. Detta införande har setts som en revolution inom den finansiella ekonomin. Flera länder tog efter EU:s implementering men den nya regeln har dock inte implementerats lika smärtfritt i alla länder. Ryssland är ett land med ett redovisningsregelverk som skiljer sig väsentligt mot IFRS, men också från andranationella regelverk. Studiens problemdiskussion visar på att Ryssland har haft och har stora problem med implementeringen av IFRS till skillnad från EU-länderna vilket har lett fram tillstudiens syfte. Syftet med studien är att undersöka de skillnader som finns mellan IFRS och ryska redovisningsstandarder för att påvisa hur väl Ryssland framgångsrikt har lyckats implementera IFRS jämfört med ett av medlemsländerna i EU, i detta fall Sverige. Syftet medstudien är också att undersöka hur Rysslands kultur kan ha påverkat dess utveckling och implementering av nationella och internationella regelverk inom redovisningen. Studien har ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt och syftar till att göra en komparativ studie. En granskning sker av tidigare forskning samt av koncernredovisningar enligt både IFRS och RAS från de 25 största företagen i Ryssland, baserat på jämnviktiga mätningar av intäkter, vinster, tillgångar och marknadsvärde. Därefter görs analyser och jämförelse mellan de olika regelverken. Detta görs även ur ett kulturellt perspektiv. Slutsatsen av studien visar att rysk redovisningspraxis har många väsentliga brister vilka påverkar dess förmåga att implementera IFRS. Bristerna existerar dels i regelverkets grundstenar men även i landets kulturella värderingar, vilket gör landets förutsättningar att framgångsrikt implementera IFRS väldigt små. Studien visar på stora skillnader i innebörden av likartade standarder mellan Rysslands nationella regelverk RAS och det internationella regelverket IFRS vilket försvårar harmoniseringen. Två stora skillnader är att IFRS är principbaserat och RAS är regelbaserat men även att IFRS fokus i rapporterna är tillaktieägarna och andra intressenter medan RAS främst är till för skattehantering. De största anledningarna att harmoniseringen mellan IFRS och RAS försvåras är den okunskap och bristfälliga utbildningen som råder hos ryska revisorer och upprättare av finansiella rapporter. Företagen känner sig obekväma och omotiverade och väljer därför inte att frivilligt uppföra finansiella rapporter enligt IFRS. Ur ett kulturellt perspektiv visar studienäven att Rysslands bristande utveckling inom redovisningssystem kan hänvisas till landetsdimensioner inom kulturella värderingar vilka är: lagstadgad kontroll, enhetlighet, konservatism och sekretess. Detta i motsats till IFRS värderingar: professionalism, flexibilitet, optimism och transparens. Länder, såsom Ryssland, med kulturella värderingar inom redovisningspraxis vilka är avlägsna gentemot IFRS värderingar måste övervinna högre hinder för att framgångsrikt implementera och fortsatt kunna använda IFRS. / In 2005, a new rule was introduced. The rule demanded that all listed companies within the European Union (EU) were to maintain their consolidated financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), starting in the fiscal year of2005. The objective of the IFRS is to make the world economy more transparent, responsible, comparable, and effective. Additionally, the IFRS also was designed to bring confidence, growth, and long-term financial stability to the world economy. The introduction of IFRS has been seen as a revolution in the world of global economy. Many countries all over the world followed the EU and implemented their own new legislation, but many countries were not quite as successful with their implementations or had drastically different approaches to handling the economy. For instance, the Russian Federation is a state with an accounting framework that differs significantly from that of the IFRS and other national accounting frameworks. The discussion of this study shows that, unlike the countries within EU, the Russian Federation has major problems with the implementation of their own IFRS, which led to the purpose of this study. The purpose of this study is to examine the differences between IFRS and the Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), while also comparing how much the Russian Federation implemented IFRS into their economy practices compared to that of a country within EU. In this case, Sweden. Another purpose of this study is to examine how Russian culture can affect the progress and implementation of national and international rules in their reporting sectors. This study will increase the understanding of accounting within the Russian Federation and its development from a cultural perspective. This work is done to facilitate trade between different countries and to increase the comparability of the accounting reports. This study has an abductive approach and the goal is to make a comparative study. An examination of previous research and consolidated financial statements, according to both the IFRS and RAS, can be scrutinized. The examination is limited to the 25 largest companies in the Russian Federation, based on facts of consistent measurement of revenue, profits, assets and market value. When the selection of companies is done, there will be an analysis comparing between the different regulations. An additional cultural perspective will be added contrasting Sweden to Russia. The results of this study show that Russian accounting has a lot of shortcomings in different aspects, which affects the ability to implement IFRS. The issues do not solely exist in the fundamental part of RAS, but also in the cultural values of the country. This makes it difficult for the companies of the Russian Federation to fully implement IFRS. The study demonstrates the big differences between the meaning of similar standards in the RAS compared to IFRS, which complicates the harmonization. One major difference between IFRS and RAS, is that IVIFRS is based on principles and RAS is based on rules. Another important difference is that IFRS put the focus on the reports to the shareholders and other stakeholders, while the RAS primarily focuses on tax management and the government. The main reason why the harmonization between the IFRS and RAS is so complicated is due to the fact that the Russian accountants’ lack both the proper knowledge and education. The companies feel insecure and unjustified, and therefore choose not to voluntarily set up financial reports according to the IFRS. From a cultural point of view, this study also shows that the Russian Federation’s lack of progress in the accounting system can be referred to the cultural basic values of the country, which are: statutory control, uniformity, conservatism and confidentiality. Contrary to this, IFRS basic values are: professionalism, flexibility, optimism and transparency. Countries such as the Russian Federation, with cultural values that differ radically compared to IFRS values, must overcome bigger barriers to successfully implement and continue to use IFRS properly.

År 2005 blev det obligatoriskt för noterade bolag inom EU att upprätta sin koncernredovisning enligt IFRS. Dessa internationella redovisningsstandarder har som mål att skapa jämförbara, transparenta, relevanta, tillförlitliga och begripliga finansiella rapporter vilka behövs för att fatta ekonomiska beslut. Användandet av IFRS ökar inte bara inom EU utan också länder utanför EU, så som Kanada, Ryssland och Japan. Vid införandet av IFRS gick många bolag från att redovisa avskrivning av goodwill, till att göra nedskrivningstest enligt IAS 36 p. 134 och skriva ned goodwill vid behov. Användningen av nedskrivning av goodwill istället för avskrivning kan ge en klarare bild av företagen för intressenter. Det existerar dock kritik mot hur IAS 36 p. 134 och dess föreskrivningar för nedskrivningar tillämpas i redovisningspraxis. Tidigare studier i ämnet harmonisering, har visat att arbetet med att skapa jämförbarhet i praxis inte alltid lyckas. Samtidigt är differentieringen mellan anglosaxiska och kontinentala redovisningssystem inte lika tydliga idag som de varit i det förflutna. Detta gör det intressant att undersöka harmoniseringen och jämförbarheten i redovisningspraxis i företag, med länder som inte är medlemmar i EU. Genom en komparativ studie mellan länderna Kanada, Ryssland och Japan undersöks till vilken grad de tillämpar IFRS och vilken skillnad som existerar mellan de olika länderna.Studien använder sig av ett abduktivt förhållningssätt och syftar till att göra en komparativ studie över hur 85 företag redovisar nedskrivning av goodwill i länderna Kanada, Japan och Ryssland. En kvalitativ ansats, med en komparativ design används i första hand eftersom denna studie syftar till att undersöka harmoniseringsprocessen och dess kontinuerliga utveckling.Resultatet i studien visar att företagen i de tre länderna skiljer sig åt i vilken utsträckning som de redovisar enligt IAS 36 p. 134, som behandlar nedskrivning av goodwill. De kanadensiska företagen följer i genomsnitt paragraferna under IAS 36 p. 134 bättre än de andra länderna, medan resultatet för de företag som tillämpar nedskrivning av goodwill visar att de japanska företagen följer underparagraferna bäst.Slutsatsen som kan dras är att beroende på ett lands redovisningstradition samt vilka redovisningsprocesser som länderna använder, så kommer företagen följa internationella redovisningsprinciper i olika utsträckning. / In 2005, it became mandatory for listed companies within the EU to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS. These international accounting standards aim at creating comparable, transparent, relevant, reliable and comprehensible financial statements that are needed to make financial decisions. The use of IFRS increases not only within the EU but also in countries outside the EU, such as Canada, Russia and Japan. When introducing IFRS, many companies failed to write impairment tests under IAS 36, p. 134, and write down goodwill if necessary. The use of goodwill write-downs instead of depreciation can provide a clearer picture of the companies for stakeholders. However, there is criticism of how IAS 36, p. 134, and its provisions for impairment are applied in accounting practice.Earlier studies in the subject of harmonization have shown that the work of creating comparability in practice does not always succeed. At the same time, the differentiation between Anglo-Saxon and Continental accounting systems is not as clear today as they have been in the past. This makes it interesting to investigate the harmonization and comparability of accounting practices in companies, with non-EU countries. A comparative study between Canada, Russia and Japan examines the extent to which they apply IFRS and the difference that exists between the different countries.The study uses an abductive approach and aims to make a comparative study of how 85 companies report goodwill impairment in the countries of Canada, Japan and Russia. A qualitative approach, with a comparative design, is used primarily because this study aims at examining the harmonization process and its continuous development.The result of the study shows that companies in the three countries differ to what extent they report in accordance with IAS 36, p. 134, which deals with write-downs of goodwill. Canadian companies, on average, follow the paragraphs of IAS 36, paragraph 134, better than the other countries, while the results of the goodwill impairment show that the Japanese companies comply best with the under-paragraphs.The conclusion that can be drawn is that depending on the country's accounting tradition and the accounting processes used by the countries, companies will comply with international accounting principles to a varying degree.

(in English): The aim of this thesis is to provide an introduction into the topic of specialized texts in relation to Czech and German, or to be more precise, into the topic of translating business administrative texts into a foreign language. The theoretical part begins with an introduction of the research results hitherto achieved in the area of specialized texts and the translation thereof. After that, we deal with business administrative texts and their translation. Within these first two parts, we always first give an introduction into the particular topic giving an historical overview of research formulated in our three languages of main interest - English, German and Czech, with, Spanish being mentioned to a much lesser extent. We address the issue of translation into non-mother tongues and translation associated computer technologies in relation to the text we analyze in the analytical part of the thesis. There, we analyze a typical type of business-administrative text - annual reports. We compare the results with the theory knowledge. The analysis of the interview led in the company that provided the texts for the analysis serves as supplementary information. Finally we sum up the hitherto carried out research and correlate it with the results of our translatological analysis.

Financial analysis is very important in making decisions and also has some dificulties. The first part is about sources of information for financial analysis (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, annual reports etc.). The second part describes elementary methods of financial analysis. Mainly methods of calculation, interpretation and usage of ratios for the purpose of firm's financial health evaluation (profitability, liquidity, financial stability etc.). The third part is about history of brewing indurstry, history and present of Pivovar Holba, a. s. There are calculated indicators and are compared with branch average and median.

<p>Resilience is studied as a systemic property in several disciplines such as engineering, psychology, systems biology, and ecological sciences. Yet, the system view on resilience is not pervasive in management science. This dissertation is on Enterprise Resilience, which is an emerging topic within the fields of organization and management science. Corporate enterprises are viewed as type 1 complex adaptive systems (CAS) operating within an external business environment. Thus, perturbations occurring in the environment affect enterprises, whose resilience then depends on their adaptive response to them. Therefore, the focus is on system perturbances and on investigating drivers of the enterprises’ adaptive response. As a result, enterprise resilience is more granularly defined as an enterprise’s ability to continually remain valuable to stakeholders by simultaneously managing short-term shocks and long-term stressors. This re-definition brings forth an actionable pathway to enterprise resilience- the pursuit of improved management of the enterprise’s risk and growth management functions.</p><p>Two challenging issues plaguing the risk and growth functions are the lack of a comprehensive understanding of risks (especially of unknowns) and their inter-connections, and a weak link between risk management and the enterprise’s growth strategy intended to continually and increasingly generate value. This work addresses both issues via the development of an enterprise-agnostic comprehensive risk typology, and by building a conceptual link between risk and growth strategy through the business model construct and its use in the study of repeatable patterns of innovation. Therefore, this work develops one pathway toward enterprise resilience i.e., via improved risk management and systematic growth management. Furthermore, it advances knowledge by bridging the theoretical conceptualization of an enterprise as a CAS1 into actionable methods for practice in the form of risk management tools and systematic innovation frameworks that aid the enterprise’s adaptive response.</p><p>The interdisciplinary dissertation develops hypotheses and employs appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods to test them. Overall, a theory building process is undertaken using the constructionist school of thought and using methods based in inductive logic such as the scholarship of integration, thematic analysis, and case studies. Additionally, to achieve wide and comprehensive coverage, data-driven quantitative methods using advanced computing such as data mining, machine learning, and natural language processing are employed.</p>

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) came into force in August 2011 amidst concerns that the provisions protecting Canadian investment in Colombia could exacerbate the precarious human rights situation. The Agreement concerning Annual Reports on Human Rights and Free Trade between Canada and Colombia was negotiated to address such concerns by enshrining the first ever human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of a free trade and investment agreement (TIA) in an internationally binding instrument. This thesis builds on a growing body of international legal scholarship that has considered the duty of home states of private investors to regulate their activity in the host state so as to prevent them from causing or contributing to human rights and environmental harm. It examines state obligations found in human rights, environmental and general principles of international law to propose that while an obligation might exist for the home state to exercise unilateral regulation of its investors, in the presence of a TIA that could cause or enable private human rights or environmental harm, investor regulation through the TIA can be seen as duty for both the home and host states. In view of the absence of such regulation in the CCOFTA, this thesis will consider if the annual HRIA mechanism is an alternative for preventing human rights and environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA. It is submitted that while HRIAs of TIAs are a novel concept for which little international practice exists, this mechanism has the capacity to provide concrete evidence of human rights or environmental harm caused or enabled by the TIA, but only if based on a methodological model that uses existing state international human rights law obligations as indicators to measure a change in the human rights situation, draws unequivocal causal links between the investment protection provisions and human rights indicators, and allows for broad public participation, especially from the most marginalized and underrepresented groups in the host state to validate its methodology and findings. While under international law all investment-exporting states might have a duty to conduct HRIA on the effects of a proposed TIA as part of the due diligence to prevent transnational harm, the enshrinement of such assessments in an internationally binding instrument triggers a duty for the home state to, on one hand use the HRIA mechanism to prevent transnational human rights or environmental harm and, on the other hand, structure its annual assessments according to the described model in order to give effect to the duty to prevent. Broad and inclusive participation of the local affected communities from the host state in the HRIA becomes an integral component of the home state duty to prevent that can be expected to reveal any negative effects on the human rights situation from the TIA provisions, as well as the type of action required from both states parties to address them.

La divulgation d’informations sur les risques est une problématique centrale de la communication des entreprises cotées. De nombreuses dispositions réglementaires ont été mises en œuvre aux Etats-Unis et en Europe pour promouvoir la transparence sur les risques et les dispositifs de contrôle mis en place pour leur gestion. Les exigences de certification de l’efficacité de ces dispositifs conduit à la question de savoir si ou comment les entreprises non-financières françaises, ayant une double cotation aux Etats-Unis et en France, sont conformes à ces règlementations. Dans ce contexte, il est soutenu que la mise en évidence des différents niveaux de formalisation des dispositifs de contrôle des risques, à travers la communication des entreprises, permet de dégager des typologies originales de mise en conformité et de gouvernance des organisations. La démarche de recherche adoptée est basée sur l’étude de cas longitudinale qui permet de suivre les entreprises du lancement des projets de mise en conformité, à la stabilisation des processus de production de la certification des procédures de contrôle des risques. Les données recueillies (entretiens, rapports annuels) font l’objet d’une analyse de contenu à travers le COSO2. Une seconde étape est leur traitement statistique pour discriminer les réponses stratégiques dans le temps et entre entreprises. Les observations empiriques mettent en exergue différentes réponses stratégiques en fonction de deux périodes et des préoccupations économiques et stratégiques des entreprises. / Risk oriented disclosure is a central issue of listed companies communication. Many Risk-based regulations have been implemented in the US and Europe to promote transparency about risks and controls mechanisms. Under the requirements of the SOX, executives must certify the public company’s financial results (section 302) and have to issue a report on the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls over financial reporting (section 404). The increase of mandatory risk reporting leads to the question of whether or how the French non-financial companies cross-listed in the US and France are compliant with these regulations. In this context and across corporate communication, it is argued that different levels of risk control’s formalization can highlight original typology of compliance and corporate governance. This research uses a longitudinal case study in order to explore the implementation of risk control measures and the risk narrative disclosure strategies to enhance organizational legitimacy. The collected data (interviews, risk disclosures within annual reports) are subject to a content analysis through COSO2. A second step is a statistical analysis to discriminate strategic responses over the time and between companies. Empirical observations point to different strategic responses to institutional processes based on two periods as well as economic and strategic business concerns. The first phase shows that risk control process is structured in order to build the auditability of organization. While, in the second phase companies develop different strategic responses more consistent with their concerns.

The assessment of internal controls has significant influence on the audit outcomes of public institutions, especially local municipalities. An effectively designed and implemented internal control enhances the ability to mitigate risks, and ultimately enables public institutions to achieve their predetermined objectives, to present reliable financial reporting and to comply with legislation and regulations. Without the internal controls, public institutions may experience challenges that may hinder them from achieving their performance objectives. The complementary role of the drivers of internal controls (leaders, managers and governance structures) is even more critical to strengthening internal controls. The study area at which the research activities were carried out was Roodepoort City Theatre at which three categories of documents (the general reports of the audit outcomes of the Gauteng Province local government, RCT’s annual reports and internal audit reports) were targeted for analysis using three document analysis templates. From the results of this research on the main points that are expressed in the three documents, the Auditor-General has played a significant role of assisting managers in the RCT to strengthen internal controls, but RCT’s internal controls still need to be strengthened through appropriate corrective measures by the drivers of internal controls. Therefore, it is pertinent to note that the changes in the composition of the drivers of internal controls of RCT had significant negative implications over internal controls. / Public Administration / M.P.A. (Public Administration)