The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the financial health of the town. Financial analysis methods which are traditionally used for the evaluation of the financial situation of the entrepreneurial entities are convenient to use for this purpose. There was designed a system of financial ratios/indicators suitable for the evaluation of the financial health of municipalities. It involves 10 indicators. Four financial ratios were adopted from the system of informative and monitoring indicators (SIMU) which is being watched by the Ministry of Finance of CR in the framework of the municipality management monitoring and they contain apart from the other things also representatives of the classic financial ratios of indebtedness and liquidity. Further indicators which are involved are particularly special ones focussed on municipality budgetary management. Next, there was selected a group of 10 comparable towns. For this selected sample including the investigated town the system of ratios was calculated. There were used all data which are accessible by means of the application of ARISweb and ÚFIS /kinds of servers ? translator´s remark/, i.e. reports for the period of 2001 ? 2012. The indicators were calculated for each year and aggregated by means of the weighted average. In order to evaluate the aggregated results there was used a point method, i.e. one of the mathematical and statistical methods used for indicators system analysis. Using this method the average values of the system indicators for the particular towns were transformed and synthesized into one indicator, while importance of the particulars indicators was expressed again by scales. This way there was possible to find out the level of each town in the selected set.

abstract: The city of Shanghai is set to become an international financial center (IFC) by 2020. To achieve this goal, it is imperative to clearly define the key characteristics of an IFC. In this study I draw from recent research on the ranking of IFCs to develop an index of these key characteristics that can be used to assess a city’s standings as an IFC. Based on a review of prior research, I first put together a comprehensive list of the indicators that have been used to evaluate IFCs, which includes six first-level indicators and 34 second-level indicators. I then collect information on all these indicators from public sources for the following eight cities each year from 2011 to 2013: London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. Next, I conduct a principal component analysis (PCA) on my data, and obtain four primary factors that contain most information of the original 34 indicators. The first factor covers 18 of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of development in general business environment. The second factor covers 10 of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of development in financial markets. The third factor covers three of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of economic vitality. The fourth factor covers three of the original indicators and reflects a city’s level of the costs of living. I further calculate the composite scores for the above eight cities along these four factors, and find that these eight cities can be classified into three tiers on the basis of their scores. The first tier consists of New York and London; the second tier consists of Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo; and the third tier consists of Shanghai and Beijing. I also find that Shanghai has been making progress in its scores along these four factors over the last three years, especially regarding financial market development, economic vitality, and cost of living. What Shanghai needs to focus on next is to improve its business environment so that it can move up to the second tier in IFC status. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2015

Orientador: Ricardo César Gonçalves Sant'Ana / Resumo: A divulgação de informações financeiras na internet tem se tornado uma prática cada vez mais comum em empresas e órgãos públicos, uma vez que a internet possibilita a ampla disseminação e divulgação de informações a diversos públicos. Nesse contexto, visando a agilidade e praticidade para a elaboração de relatórios financeiros emerge a linguagem Extensible Business Reporting Language – XBRL. Assim, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como as empresas, que atuam no Brasil e aderiram ao XBRL disponibilizam suas informações financeiras na internet. Para tanto, adotou-se uma amostra de cem empresas nacionais e estrangeiras que atuam no Brasil, e a partir da amostra, realizou-se buscas na internet, por meio da ferramenta de busca Google, utilizando-se site:<domínio da empresa> xbrl, para a identificação de documentos no formato XBRL disponibilizados por essas empresas. A partir da busca, constatou-se que apenas uma pequena parcela das empresas utiliza o XBRL, e que os formatos de documento predominantes ainda são HTML, XLS, PDF e Microsoft Word, e estes formatos pouco contribuem para que haja um maior aproveitamento e análise dos dados disponibilizados, uma vez que alguns desses formatos não permitem selecionar e organizar os dados de forma que o usuário possa reaproveita-los. E por fim, constatou-se que a linguagem XBRL ainda não é utilizada pelas empresas para divulgar informações financeiras no Brasil e que uma das causas da não adesão ao XBRL seja a falta de conheci... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Mestre

Submitted by Cristina Toyoko Hashimoto Nagai (cris.t.hashimoto@gmail.com) on 2017-04-11T20:16:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Versão_final_1.pdf: 2818161 bytes, checksum: eb4b87be1af75595294f74e4d7125b37 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-04-12T16:32:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 nagai_cth_me_mar.pdf: 2818161 bytes, checksum: eb4b87be1af75595294f74e4d7125b37 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-12T16:32:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 nagai_cth_me_mar.pdf: 2818161 bytes, checksum: eb4b87be1af75595294f74e4d7125b37 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A divulgação de informações financeiras na internet tem se tornado uma prática cada vez mais comum em empresas e órgãos públicos, uma vez que a internet possibilita a ampla disseminação e divulgação de informações a diversos públicos. Nesse contexto, visando a agilidade e praticidade para a elaboração de relatórios financeiros emerge a linguagem Extensible Business Reporting Language – XBRL. Assim, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como as empresas, que atuam no Brasil e aderiram ao XBRL disponibilizam suas informações financeiras na internet. Para tanto, adotou-se uma amostra de cem empresas nacionais e estrangeiras que atuam no Brasil, e a partir da amostra, realizou-se buscas na internet, por meio da ferramenta de busca Google, utilizando-se site:<domínio da empresa> xbrl, para a identificação de documentos no formato XBRL disponibilizados por essas empresas. A partir da busca, constatou-se que apenas uma pequena parcela das empresas utiliza o XBRL, e que os formatos de documento predominantes ainda são HTML, XLS, PDF e Microsoft Word, e estes formatos pouco contribuem para que haja um maior aproveitamento e análise dos dados disponibilizados, uma vez que alguns desses formatos não permitem selecionar e organizar os dados de forma que o usuário possa reaproveita-los. E por fim, constatou-se que a linguagem XBRL ainda não é utilizada pelas empresas para divulgar informações financeiras no Brasil e que uma das causas da não adesão ao XBRL seja a falta de conhecimento por parte das empresas e de profissionais da área financeira no Brasil. / The dissemination of financial information on the Internet has become an increasingly common practice in companies and public agencies, since the Internet makes it possible to disseminate and disclosure information to different audiences. In this context, the language Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) emerges in order to be agile and practical for the preparation of financial reports. Thus, the present work aims to analyze how companies, which operate in Brazil and have joined XBRL, make available their financial information on the Internet. To do so, we adopted a sample of one hundred national and foreign companies operating in Brazil, and from the sample, we searched the internet through the Google search tool, using site: <company domain> Xbrl, for identification of documents in XBRL format made available by these companies. From the search, it was verified that only a small part of the companies use XBRL, and that the predominant document formats are still HTML, XLS, PDF and Microsoft Word, and these formats contribute little to a greater use and analysis of the data available, since some of these formats do not allow to select and organize the data in a way that the user can reuse them. And finally, it was verified that the XBRL language is not yet used by companies to disclose financial information in Brazil and that one of the causes of non-adherence to the XBRL is the lack of knowledge on the part of companies and financial professionals in Brazil.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Human Ecology-Personal Financial Planning / Maurice M. MacDonald / Crimes are committed for a vast and varying number of reasons. Many of those who commit crime are found guilty and serve their sentences. In most situations, the offenders will complete their sentences and subsequently be released back into society. The question then arises, is the offender prepared to return to society? There are numerous factors associated with successful reentry, but one that has not yet been addressed is financial behavior after release. This dissertation takes a first step toward understanding potential post-release financial behavior. The purpose of this primary data study was to use the theory of planned behavior as a context to examine how aspects of incarceration history—the type of crime committed (financial and non-financial), total years incarcerated, and total number of convictions—may influence financial attitude, financial subjective norms, perceptions of behavioral control, and post-release financial intentions. Use of the theory of planned behavior in this special, vulnerable population is needed to assist educators and professionals to determine what training offenders may need to succeed once back in society. This study focuses on Georgia Transitional Center participants’ post-release financial intentions. There is not much research regarding men and women who have experienced incarceration and their relationships with financial resources. Understanding the nature of Americans’ financial resources is challenging. Adding incarceration to the equation further complicates the investigation, but it is a worthwhile for a more comprehensive understanding of factors that may later affect success in society. This dissertation is the first study to investigate post-release financial intentions of men and women in a work release program.

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Melinda S. Markham / Interpersonal aspects of a relationship (i.e., equality, trust, disclosure, etc.) as they relate to finances have important implications for marital satisfaction; however, emphasis on financial transparency, “the open and honest disclosure of one’s finances,” has yet to be researched. To increase our capacity to study the role of finances in the marital relationship, the purpose of this study was to develop the Financial Transparency Scale (FTS) to assess financial transparency between married partners. A sample of 183 married individuals in their first 5 years of their first marriage completed an online survey, consisting of the FTS and four related scales. Principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted to determine the FTS is comprised of three components: financial partnership, financial secrecy, and financial trust and disclosure of the individual partner. The first component, financial partnership (eigenvalue = 10.909), consisted of 18 items and accounted for 41.96% of the variance and had a high internal reliability of (α = .95). Component 2, financial secrecy (eigenvalue = 2.845), consisted of three items and accounted for 10.94% of variance with an internal reliability of (α = .93). Component 3, financial trust and disclosure of the individual partner (eigenvalue = 1.76), consisted of five items and accounted for 6.77% of total variance with an internal reliability (α = .83). The FTS was positively correlated with four related scales: the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, the Shared Goals and Values Scale, the Frequency of Financial Management Scale, and the Communication Patterns Questionnaire – Short Form, each of which are key behaviors of financial and marital satisfaction. The FTS will benefit financial practitioners as they can use the scale to determine the level of financial transparency between married individuals, drawing attention to areas of concern such as financial secrecy between partners. For researchers, this scale provides a measurement for a sophisticated perspective on the interpersonal factors that mediate financial transparency between married individuals.

M.Comm. (International Accounting) / Globalisation is causing a convergence of economic, trading, political and social processes. As a result, geographical boundaries are becoming less significant in the world of business and accounting as most countries around the world have chosen to adopt a common language: International Financial Reporting Standards (hereafter IFRS). The problem is that most of the countries on the African continent have yet to become part of this global conversation as there are serious challenges hindering the adoption of IFRS. The primary objective of this study was to discuss the challenges that continue to hinder the effective adoption of IFRS in the majority of African countries. The objective of the study was explored through the review of: i) current international accounting structures and how Africa fits in; ii) the benefits of adopting IFRS; iii) the current status of IFRS in Africa; and iv) challenges faced by countries in Africa that have already adopted IFRS. An empirical study consisting of a questionnaire (distributed to 35 registered accounting bodies in Africa) and interviews with significant individuals in the international accounting profession were also utilised to meet the objective of the study and the results were analysed and discussed in detail. It was concluded that there are many challenges that continue to hinder the adoption of IFRS in the majority of countries on the African continent and structures are currently being put into place in order that these challenges may be addressed.

M.Com. (Accounting) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The future existence of municipalities is determined by their ability to remain financially sustainable. This study is significant as municipalities need to ensure that they are financially sustainable for the continued provision and maintenance of quality and affordable services to all the residents within their jurisdiction. The primary objective of the study was to assess the financial performance of the Cape Agulhas Municipality over a period of ten years. A secondary objective was to identify factors that constrain or facilitate improved financial management in municipalities and that may have an influence on their sustainability. The focus of the study was limited to financial management aspects of the Cape Agulhas Municipality from 2003 to 2014 and was conducted at a macro or strategic level. The research is a longitudinal qualitative study as this methodology was deemed as the best to undertake in a study of this nature. The data collection process comprised of open ended semi- structured interviews with senior politicians and officials in the municipality. Financial data from the annual financial statements and the Auditor General of South Africa over the period of study were evaluated and analysed so as to produce financial ratios and establish trends. The financial data was assessed against the financial health measures as identified by the National Treasury to determine the financial status of the municipality. Analysing the financial performance of the municipality produced information that can be used as an early warning system to mitigate further deterioration of the financial situation and inform future decisions in terms thereof. This study was useful as the findings may contribute towards effective municipal financial management and the financial sustainability of municipalities. The study makes the following findings and recommendations: The municipality experienced liquidity tensions from 2006. Although the payment ratio had been increasing over the last two years of the study, consumer debtors had been increasing and limited amounts were budgeted for the writing off of bad debt. Electricity tariff increases were significantly above the inflation rate, and salaries, wages and allowances were the largest expenditure item over the whole period of the study. In terms of provision for maintenance and repairs, these were less than half of the norm for most of the study period, and lastly the cash reserves were severely depleted from 2006 as they were used to fund long term capital projects. It is recommended that the municipality stabilises the decline in current assets and continues with the diligent implementation of its credit control policy, not only to maintain the positive collection rate but also to curb the increase in consumer debtors. In order to enhance the affordability of rates and tariffs the municipality must perform a cost analysis of all rates and tariffs to ensure that they are cost reflective. The organisational structure must be reviewed annually to verify that only critical and legislatively required posts are approved and budgeted for, as this is the largest expenditure item in the municipal budget. Furthermore, a comprehensive infrastructure maintenance plan must be developed to guide decisions when the budget for maintenance and repairs is considered, not only to ensure that this budget item is closer to the national norm but that it is spent on and tracked to infrastructure with the highest priority. The municipality needs to develop and approve a long term financial plan with its related policies to curb the further decline of its cash reserves and which includes a capital funding mix that is aligned to the useful life of the infrastructure to be financed.

Historically budgets have been seen as an indispensible control mechanism for businesses. Both the business and academic press continue to report on problems related to budgeting. This research report investigated whether or not local managers and finance practitioners believe that budgets add value to South African manufacturing companies A gap in previous research was that investigations were limited to finance practitioners. This study investigated the experiences and views of non-financial managers in addition to those of finance professionals. In order to understand the views of both sets of managers, Qualitative research, in the form of semi-structured expert interviews was undertaken. The findings reflect managers believe budget and planning processes add value, their reasons for what drives value in the process differs from the international literature on the subject. The processes and procedures followed locally align with global practices to a large extent. It was surprising to find that local managers do not report the same levels of problems experienced with budgets as their international counterparts. Participative budgetary practices were found to be a problem, leading to problems with budgetary alignment, efficiency and buy-in. The most surprising finding was that non-financial managers are positive about budgeting and planning processes. The key finding being that the process is used to gain information that drives their understanding of their business and this enables them to more meaningfully review and update their strategies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted