pt. 1. The mandatory adopton of IFRS and Big4 audits on earnings quality -- pt. 2. The cross-border spillover effect of financial reporting on investment efficiency: evidence from mandatory IFRS adoption -- pt. 3. Discretionary fair value earnings and CEO cash compensation: evidence from continental Europe. / Chen, Chen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-157). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

The lack of studies relating to the ethical needs and values of public relations professionals in the European Union indicated the need for a research study to ascertain: 1. the experience of European Union public relations professionals in confronting and resolving ethical issues, 2. what the needs are in charting an ethical course for individual professional conduct, 3.what the needs are to guide organizations in the ethical performance of public relations, and 4. the social responsibility of public relations.Nearly all of the quantitative studies have been devoted to an examination of the views of members of American public relations associations. Numerous authors have pointed out the value of ethical standards and of a means of enforcement of the standards for professions. In spite of an ongoing professional dialogue as to the need, little progress has been made in defining sanctions against those who violate ethical principles while defining themselves as public relations counselors.This study was based on a mail survey created and distributed by Sharpe in the Fall of 1993. Three questions from the 1972 Newsom's research study were added. Threehundred and fifty-five public relations practitioner members of the International Public Relations Association within the European Union in 1995 were identified as the population for this study. A 35.2% response rate was attained after two mailings.The typical respondent was male, had been in the profession from 10 to 30 years, held an accreditation, was a specialist and identified himself as a counselor. He related that he confronted ethical issues with frequency particularly in relation to relationships with clients, the news media, and customers. The majority of the ethical issues, which would have or had transgressed the organizational policies and personal/religious principles, consisted of: misleading information, promising more than could and was delivered, supporting a program with which he disagreed in principle, withholding information, and failure to accept responsibilities. He said that he resolved the last ethical issue encountered, which involved their organization's management performance, by pointing out the ethical issue and influencing an ethical action. He placed some value on both IPRA Codes. He saw all ethical issues as ethically wrong, especially those relating to sexual harassment, the sale of unsafe products and services, discrimination, establishing different pay scales for men and women doing the same work, withholding information for gain at expense of others, and promotion and sale of products in other countries that are unacceptable in the EU that place people at risk. He viewed the public relations profession as having a leading role in improving relationships between peoples of different races within a country and between countries. He saw public opinion as an effective control over public relations performance. Finally, he would recommend the establishment and communication of the organization's ethics code and performance policies so organizational management would be recognized for public relations performance. The employment of public relations officials with professional memberships obligating them to uphold a code of ethical conduct was viewed as a criteria that organizations should establish as evidence of the organization's commitment to ethical public relations. / Department of Journalism

This thesis develops a range of prediction models for the purpose of predicting the acquisition of commercial banks in the European Union using publicly available data. Over the last thirty years, there have been approximately 30 studies that have attempted to identify potential acquisition targets, all of them focusing on non-bank sectors. We consider that prediction models developed specifically for the banking industry are essential due to the unusual structure of banks' financial statements, differences in the environment in which banks operate and other specific characteristics of banks that in general distinguish them from non-financial firms. We focus specifically on the EU banking sector, where M&As activity has been considerable in recent years, yet academic research relating to the EU has been rather limited compared to the case of the US. The methodology for developing prediction models involved identifying past cases of acquired banks and combining these with non-acquired banks in order to evaluate the prediction accuracy of various quantitative classification techniques. In this study, we construct a base sample of commercial banks covering 15 EU countries, and financial variables measuring capital strength, profit and cost efficiency, liquidity, growth, size and market power, with data in both raw and country-adjusted (i.e. raw variables divided by the average of the banking sector for the corresponding country) form. In order to allow for a proper comparative evaluation of classification methods, we select common subsets of the base sample and variables with high discriminatory power, dividing the sample period (1998-2002) into training sub-sample for model development (1998-2000), and holdout sub-sample for model evaluation (2001-2002). Although the results tend to support the findings of studies on non-financial firms, highlighting the difficulties in predicting acquisition targets, the prediction models we develop show classification accuracies generally higher than chance assignment based on prior probabilities. We also consider the use of equal and unequal matched holdout samples for evaluation, and find that overall classification accuracy tends to increase in the unequal matched samples, implying that equal matched samples do not necessarily overstate the prediction ability of models. The main goal of this study has been to compare and evaluate a variety of classification methods including statistical, econometric, machine learning and operational research techniques, as well as integrated techniques combining the predictions of individual classification methods. We found that some methods achieved very high accuracies in classifying non-acquired banks, but at the cost of relatively poor accuracy performance in classifying acquired banks. This suggests a trade-off in achieving high classification accuracy, although some methods (e.g. Discriminant) performed reasonably well in terms of achieving balanced overall classification accuracies of above chance predictions. Integrated prediction models offer the advantage of counterbalancing relatively poor performance of some classification methods with good performance of others, but in doing so could not out-perform all individual classification methods considered. In general, we found that the outcome of which method performed best depended largely on the group classification accuracy considered, as well as to some extent on the choice of the discriminatory variables. Concerning the use of raw or country-adjusted data, we found no clear effect on the prediction ability of the classification methods.

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: European-South African trade relations concerrnng wine and spirits are characterized by various opportunities and, at the same time, a range of conflicts. The latter notably relates to the dispute over geographical indications and designations of origin. Considering this confusing amalgamation of discord and harmony, it is the purpose of this study, entitled "International Trade in Wine and Geographical Indications - Common Interests between the EU and South Africa", to understand the rationale for trade in wine from both sides of the coin. Moreover, this research assesses possible multilateral and bilateral solutions for dealing with trade frictions between the EU and South Africa and identifies common interests with a view to establish a lasting foundation for blossoming trade in wine and sustained growth. The underlying methodology is a qualitative interpretative approach and bases on insights into modern marketing and international management theory. On this basis the "objective" interests of the EU and South Africa in trade in wine are analysed in order to assess the coming into existence of the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement as well as the Wine and Spirits Agreement. Pivot of these trade negotiations is the dispute on geographical indications, which is scrutinized by looking into relevant chapters of the WTO and its TR.IPS Agreement. With regards to the Wine and Spirits Agreement it is salient to ask whether it is economically and politically reasonable for South Africa to accept a financial package from the EU to secure the 'voluntary' phasing out of a number of trademarks and geographical indications. The study concludes with an outlook regarding the globalisation of the world's wine market, potential future investment flows between the EU and South Africa and the need for an effective marketing strategy in order to become or remain global player in an increasing competitiveness caused by globalisation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Europese en Suid-Afrikaanse handelsverhoudinge in wyn en spiritualieë word gekenmerk deur verskeie geleenthede en terselfdertyd 'n reeks konflikte. Laasgenoemde hou merkbaar verband met die twis oor geografiese indikatore en aanwysings van oorsprong. Gegewe hierdie verwarrende tweedrag en harmonie, is die doel van hierdie studie, getiteld "Internasionale Handel in Wyn en Geografiese Aanwysings - Gemeenskaplike belange tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika", om die 'rationale' agter die wynhandel van twee kante te beskou. Verder ondersoek hierdie navorsing moontlike multi- en bilaterale oplossings vir die handelswrywing tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika en identifiseer gemeenskaplike belange met die doelom 'n fondament te bou vir volhoubare groei in die wynhandel. Die onderliggende metodologie is 'n kwalitatiewe verklarende benadering, gebaseer op insigte uit moderne bemarkings- en bestuursteorie. Op hierdie vlak word die 'objektiewe' belange van die EU en Suid-Afrika in die wynhandel ontleed om gevolgtrekkings oor die Handels-, Ontwikkelings- en Samewerkingsooreenkoms en die Wyn- en Spiritualieë- Ooreenkoms te maak. Onderliggend aan hierdie onderhandelinge is die twis oor geografiese aanwysings, wat noukeurig ondersoek is deur relevante hoofstukke van die WHO Ooreenkoms en sy TRIPS-komponent te raadpleeg. Met verwysing na die Wyn- en Spiritualieë- Ooreenkoms is dit voor die hand liggend om te vra of dit ekonomies en polities verstandig vir Suid-Afrika is om 'n finansiële pakket van die EU te aanvaar in ruil vir die vrywillige uitfasering van 'n aantal handelsmerke en geografiese aanwysings. Die studie sluit af met '11" blik op globalisering van die wêreld se wynmarkte, die potensiële toekomstige vloei van beleggings tussen die EU en Suid-Afrika, en die behoefte aan 'n effektiewe bemarkingsstrategie om 'n globale speler te word.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the negotiating stages of the TOCA, the EU and South Africa could not reach an agreement on the use of certain EU geographical indications related to wine products. The geographical indication issue threatened the signing of the entire TOCA. At the request of the EU, South Africa agreed to negotiate a separate Wine and Spirits Agreement, in order to finalise the TOCA. The EU-SA Wine and Spirits Agreement was eventually negotiated and came into effect on 1 January 2002. The initial issue relating to the geographical indications remained controversial throughout the negotiations and matters were made worst when the initial contentious denominations of Port and Sherry were expanded by the EU to include Grappa, Ouzo, Korn, Kornbrand, Jagertee, Jaqertee, Jagatee and Pacharan. South Africa eventually agreed to phase out the use of these denominations over specified time periods. The current wording of the agreement will also result in South Africa having to yield a variety of well known trade marks such as Nederburg and Roodeberg. Article 7(8) of the Wine Agreement implies that in the case of conflict between a South African wine trade mark and an EU geographical indication for wine, the South African trade mark will always have to yield to the EU geographical indication. The entire geographical indication matter is being contested by South Africa and is still under negotiation. South Africa and the EU agreed to allocate reciprocal duty free tariff quotas to wine products. These tariff quotas will remain effective until the FTA has been established, following the transitional periods as agreed upon in the TOGA. The duty free funds will however not have such a direct impact on the wine industry as have been envisaged initially, because the funds are in the hands of the EU importers. Various business plans are being implemented to allow the South African wine industry to benefit from these and any future funds. The EU offered financial assistance to the value of €15 million for the restructuring of the South African wine industry as well as for the marketing of the South African wine and spirits products. To date none of these funds have been allocated and various proposals have been made to the South African government in order to obtain these funds from the EU. The EU-SA Wine and Spirits Agreement is a continuous evolving agreement, where both parties are allowed to modify the existing agreement with the consent of the other party. Such modifications are allowed with the premise that it would contribute to the facilitation and promotion of trade in wine and spirits products between South Africa and the EU. South Africa must take cognisance of the implications of the EU-SA Wine and Spirits Agreement and ensure that they do not end up losing more than what they are gaining. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sien volteks vir opsomming

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the potential of centralised, top-down procedural rules (also known as budget-process rules) and independent fiscal councils to complement numerical fiscal rules as devices for preventing fiscal profligacy. To this end, it studies the connections between fiscal policymaking frameworks and fiscal outcomes in fourteen European Union countries in the years from 1998 to 2004. The fiscal policymaking frameworks of these countries contained various configurations of numerical rules, procedural rules and fiscal councils, and the study uses differences in the degrees to which the countries complied with the supranational rules of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) as a measure of the efficacy of these configurations at preventing fiscal profligacy. The analysis itself consists of two parts. The first part – a cross-sectional analysis of all fourteen countries – uses a set-theoretic technique known as fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify connections between various configurations of the elements of fiscal policymaking frameworks and the degrees to which the countries complied with the SGP rules. These connections are interpreted in terms of sufficiency and necessity and used to identify pathways to consistent compliance with the SGP rules. The second part of the analysis consists of case studies of three of the fourteen countries (Finland, France and Ireland). The case studies are used to verify aspects of the set-theoretic analysis, namely the specification of the set-theoretic model (especially the influence of the preferences of policymakers on compliance with the SGP rules), the accuracy of the quantitative measures of the efficacy of elements of fiscal policymaking frameworks, the explanatory value of the solution pathways and the country-level relevance of two hypotheses derived from the results of the analysis. The set-theoretic analysis finds some evidence of the efficacy of fiscal policymaking frameworks consisting of combinations of numerical rules, procedural rules and fiscal councils, but establishes that such multifaceted frameworks were neither necessary nor sufficient for preventing fiscal profligacy. The study also shows, in tentative fashion in the set-theoretic analysis and more forcefully in the case studies, that the preferences of policymakers were critical determinants of the effectiveness of all types of fiscal policymaking frameworks. Hence, it concludes that the potential of multifaceted fiscal policymaking frameworks should not be exaggerated. In addition, it argues that an unwavering commitment to fiscal prudence complemented by policymaking framework elements chosen to overcome specific incentive distortions is a more promising approach for preventing fiscal profligacy than such multifaceted frameworks per se. More generally, the findings of the study confirm the scope for using fsQCA and other case-oriented methods to complement regression-based analyses of the effectiveness of fiscal policymaking frameworks. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif ondersoek die potensiaal van gesentraliseerde, bo-na-onder begrotingsprosesreëls en onafhanklike fiskale rade om numeriese reëls aan te vul as meganismes om fiskale spandabelrigheid te verhinder. Met hierdie doel voor oë bestudeer dit die verbande tussen fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke en fiskale uitkomste in veertien lidlande van die Europese Unie in die jare van 1998 tot 2004. Die fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke van hierdie lande het verskeie konfigurasies van numeriese reëls, begrotingsprosesreëls en fiskale rade bevat, en die studie gebruik verskille in die mate waartoe die lande die bonasionale reëls van die Stabiliteits- en Groeiverdrag (“Stability and Growth Pact”, oftewel SGP) nagekom het as ‘n maatstaf van hierdie konfigurasies se doelmatigheid met betrekking tot die verhindering van fiskale spandabelrigheid. Die ontleding self bestaan uit twee dele. Die eerste deel – ‘n kruissnitontleding van al veertien lande – gebruik ‘n versamelingsteoretiese tegniek was as “fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis” (fsQCA) bekend staan om verbande te identifiseer tussen verskillende konfigurasies van die elemente van fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke en die mate waartoe die lande die SGP-reëls nagekom het. Hierdie verbande word aan die hand van genoegsaamheid en noodsaaklikheid geïnterpreteer en gebruik om roetes na nakoming van die SGP-reëls te identifiseer. Die tweede deel van die ontleding bestaan uit gevallestudies van drie van die veertien lande (Finland, Frankryk en Ierland). Die gevallestudies word gebruik om aspekte van die versamelingsteoretiese ontleding te toets, naamlik die spesifikasie van die versamelingsteoretiese model (veral die invloed van die voorkeure van beleidmakers op nakoming van die SGP-reëls), die akkuraatheid van die kwantitatiewe maatstawwe van die doelmatigheid van elemente van fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke, die verklarende waarde van die oplossingsroetes asook die tersaaklikheid vir individuele lande van twee hipoteses wat uit die resultate van die ontleding voortvloei. Die versamelingsteoretiese ontleding vind aanduidings van die doelmatigheid van fiskale beleidsraamwerke wat kombinasies van numeriese reëls, begrotingsprosesreëls en fiskale rade bevat, maar stel vas dat sulke saamgestelde raamwerke nóg noodsaaklik nóg genoegsaam vir die verhindering van fiskale spandabelrigheid was. Die studie toon ook, op tentatiewe wyse in die versamelingsteoretiese ontleding en meer oortuigend in die gevallestudies, dat die voorkeure van beleidmakers deurslaggewende bepalers van die doelmatigheid van alle tipes beleidmakingsraamwerke was. Dit kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die potensiaal van saamgestelde fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke nie oordryf moet word nie. Voorts voer dit aan dat ‘n onwrikbare verbintenis tot fiskale dissipline, aangevul deur elemente van beleidsmakingsraamwerke wat gekies is om spesifieke verwringings van aansporings te bowe te kom, groter belofte inhou as ‘n benadering om fiskale spandabelrigheid te verhinder as sulke saamgestelde raamwerke per se. Op ‘n breër vlak bevestig die studie dat daar heelwat ruimte bestaan om fsQCA en ander metodes wat op gevalle konsentreer, te gebruik om regressie-ontledings van die doelmatigheid van fiskale beleidmakingsraamwerke aan te vul.