Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-222).

It has been more than 50 years since the declaration and commencement of the local arbitration system. The frequency of usage did not decrease with development of the society. Arbitration system is an efficient dispute resolution. The purpose of this research probes into the situation of local arbitration, and the perception and the difference between arbitration committee members and democracy to provide viable suggestions. Methods used in this research include 1.document analysis ¡Vto know the history of arbitration system, 2.individual case study interviews ¡Vfocus on individual case, 3.in-depth interview ¡Vfocus on the situation of arbitration executed. The results as follow as: 1. Cognitive consistency (1) Execution: it took more than 60 min. by each case. The types of cases tend to car accidents and two committee members attend mostly. (2) Case conditions: both sides filed alternative resolution less than twice and the other side is rational. (3) Cognitive of success factors: it is ineffective that arbitration through different way and people cannot know it immediately. The success factor is a compromise of both sides; and the failure factor is the individual insistence. The success arbitration is the suggestion of baseline from both sides. The negative effect is the external factor. (4) Cognitive of arbitration system: Agree with the limit of minimum female members. Councilors cannot be part-time committee members. The arbitration is related with experience but educational background. 2. Cognitive inconsistency (1) The case details: committee members consider they are sufficient understanding the case details, but people do not agree with them. (2) Numbers appropriateness of committee member: committee members consider it is a just number, but people consider it is an excess number. (3) The key factor of committee members: committee members consider the key factors are professionalism and passion; people consider the key factors are objective and fair. (4) Arbitration system is being substitute for justice: committee members agree with it, but people disagree with it.

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, Graduate School, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61).

[Abstract]:This research investigated whether the formation of audit committees and their characteristics are associated with improved financial reporting quality. Modified versions of the models developed by Jones (1991) and Dechow and Dichev (2002) provided three measures of earnings quality, which were used to proxy for financial reporting quality. The audit committee characteristics investigated were: independence, expertise, activity, size and tenure.Several contributions to knowledge are made by this research. First, this research examined the association between audit committee formation and financial reporting quality. This could not be done in many of the prior studies that used data on companies in the United States (Klein 2002a; Xie, Davidson and DaDalt 2003a; Bedard, Chtourou and Courteau 2004; Vafeas 2005; Yang and Krishnan 2005; Dhaliwal, Naiker and Navissi 2006), where audit committees have been mandatory for companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1978. A large number of public and private sector groups have recommended mandatory audit committee establishment for all Australian listed companies. However, there has been a lack of empirical support for these recommendations and this research provides evidence regarding this association.Second, audit committees are more heavily regulated in the United States than Australia. Given the relative lack of audit committee regulation for Australian companies, Australia represented a richer empirical setting for the examination of the association between audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality. The use of Australian company data for the selected time period, avoided the confounding effect of regulation on this association.Third, this research used both a modified version of the traditional Jones (1991) discretionary accruals model and the more recently developed accrual estimation error model from Dechow and Dichev (2002) to estimate proxies for financial reporting quality. Most of the prior studies predominantly used the Jones (1991) model, which has been subject to criticism in the literature. Therefore, the use of multiple models provides more powerful tests of the association between audit committees and financial reporting quality. Finally, this research included changes tests in addition to cross-sectional tests to reduce the likelihood of problems with omitted variables.Several conclusions can be drawn from the results. First, there was some evidence that earnings quality measured using the modified Jones (1991) model significantly reduced in the year following audit committee formation, thus providing some support for the notion that the formation of audit committees improves financial reporting quality. However, a comparison of these results with those of tests using earnings quality measures based on Dechow and Dichev (2002) indicates that audit committees appear more effective at reducing opportunistic earnings management, rather than total accrual estimation errors. Second, there was little evidence of a significant association between the characteristics of audit committees and improved financial reporting quality. Consequently, it can be suggested that, once audit committees are established, variations in their characteristics do not significantly affect financial reporting quality.These conclusions provide support for the mandatory audit committee requirement under the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listing rules, which became effective from 1 January 2003. However, there are doubts over the usefulness of several aspects of the ASX Corporate Governance Council's recommendations concerning the composition and size of audit committees.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-69).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-222).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Lancaster Bible College, Graduate School, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 300-302).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1953. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [261]-270).