Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Dec 7, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Diss., Univ. Münster, 2005.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2007.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Many scholars observed that the "China threat" narrative greatly influenced the contours of Chinese foreign policy beginning in the mid-1990s. While scholars initially devoted significant attention to this change, there is little systematic analysis of the actual policy shift, particularly over the past decade. This thesis explores current manifestations of China's "Goodwill Agenda," examining three strains of Chinese foreign policy in the 21st century: culture, institutions and aid. The paper also evaluates the success of this so-called campaign, using global surveys to determine if the new orientation correlates with changed global opinions about China. Despite extensive efforts, my findings indicate that the Goodwill Agenda has not been successful at improving China's reputation abroad.

The aim of this work is to introduce reader to the concept of goodwill. First focuses on understanding the meaning and content of the concept and then describes the development of reporting goodwill as an accounting item. The work also includes an outline of future development of goodwill in IFRS and U.S. GAAP. Some chapters are supplemented with examples that explain the theoretical knowledge and help reader better understand the issue.

Sustainability of businesses, if not more, is equally important as profitability. As a means of measuring sustainability, the ESG score has solidified its acceptance among firms as well as other stakeholders all over the world. In the world of business, the only permanent thing is evaluation. Like sustainability, the paradigm has also been shifted from tangible to intangible assets like goodwill, patents, trademark, etc. In recent years, ESG as a sustainability performance evaluation system has drawn the attention of many academics and students as a topic of research. There have been many studies highlighting the relationship of firms’ sustainability performance with their economic outcomes and risks. However, no study has been conducted on the impact of ESG scores on goodwill. Our study evaluates the relationship between ESG scores and firms’ goodwill.Sweden is chosen as the research area which is the highest-ranked country in terms of sustainability in the years 2017 and 2018. There is a high probability of getting a dependable result where ESG is given proper importance. Rifinitiv datastream is used as the source of data for this study. We have considered the listed companies of OMX Stockholm 30 (except 4 banks) as a sample from the year 2010 to 2019. We have considered shareholder theory, stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, goodwill, and merger and acquisition to analyze and interpret the underlying significance of our study. The result of our study shows that there is a significant negative impact of ESG score on gross goodwill/ total asset. Similar results have been found between the individual E, S, and G scores and gross goodwill/ total assets.

The diploma thesis is focused on the comparison of goodwill values of two construction companies. The theoretical part describes the basic knowledge and principles they are required to terminated the value of goodwill. Furthermore, terms such as marketing planning and questionnaire creation are explained. In the practical part, selected methods are used to terminate the value of goodwill. Subsequently, five questions are set and the questions are tested. Based on the analysis results is proposed marketing strategy at the end of the thesis.

In 2005, international accounting standards changed the treatment of goodwill, by replacingannual amortisation with impairment tests of goodwill. This has created a heated debate inaccounting research. Scholars are split whether the switch to impairment tests have increasedor decreased both accounting and audit quality. The subjective nature of impairment tests,deriving from being based on fair values and estimations have resulted in a rise of studiescovering its potential shortcomings.Main issues with impairment tests have been related to its possible impact on increase inearnings management (EM) engagement, dependence on estimations and discretionaryproblems. There are many surrounding questions regarding goodwill and EM, along with thecurrent goodwill rules being subject to criticism. This study aims to investigate further therelationship between goodwill and EM, as well as exploring the perception auditors haveregarding that topic and the related accounting standards. Moreover, we aim to get a betterunderstanding about the role the auditor possesses in both enabling and preventing EMactivities in private firms and public firms.Following a qualitative approach, this study explores previous literature within the field ofgoodwill and EM in addition to using 7 in-depth and semi-structured interviews withprofessionals in the audit industry based in Sweden and Luxembourg. Overall, we find auditorsto clearly be in favour of impairment tests compared to using amortisation of goodwill. Inregards to the risk of EM, the potential benefits of impairment tests outweigh the subjectiveissues according to the interviewed auditors. Furthermore, it seems like the verifiabilityproblem of impairment tests is more an issue in theory than in practice. The majority of theauditors believes the introduction of impairment tests of goodwill increased the accountingquality and did not significantly impact the audit quality, even if it gives auditors morechallenges in the audit tasks. In addition, the importance and prevalence of EM within goodwillbetween private and public firms had inconclusive results between the interviewees. Furtherresearch may investigate using a larger sample whether impairment tests are at the origin of anincrease of EM and comparing private and public firms.

Goodwill, for financial accounting purposes, is an intangible asset on the balance sheet that represents the excess of the amount paid for an acquired entity over the net fair value of the assets acquired. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has recently issued a new mandate. This new guideline eliminates annual amortization of goodwill and requires annual valuation for potential goodwill impairment and consequent writedown. Determining the amount of impairment requires management estimation, thus, allowing managerial discretion in developing the impairment amounts. Managerial discretion may then be used to manage earnings. Earnings management occurs when managers exercise their professional judgment in financial reporting to manipulate earnings. Prior literature documents that managers have strong motivations to manage earnings. Managers sometimes respond to these motivations by managing earnings to exceed key earnings thresholds. The new goodwill guideline might be used as an earnings management tool. Thus, this dissertation examines whether earnings management results from the judgmental latitude allowed in estimating goodwill when earnings will otherwise just miss key earnings benchmarks. Specifically, this study tests goodwill impairment writedowns in a cross-sectional distributional analysis for the year 2002, the first year following the effective date of the new goodwill standards. The sample is taken from the financial information of publicly-traded companies tracked in the Compustat and CRSP databases. To identify firms that are likely to have managed earnings to exceed key benchmarks, earnings per share, both before and after goodwill impairment writedowns, is compared with two thresholds established in prior research. The first, is a positive earnings per share; and the second is the prior year’s earnings per share. Results from applying both tobit and logistic regression models suggest that managers are exploiting their discretion in recognizing goodwill impairments to manage earnings. Thus, this project contributes to the earnings management literature in that it highlights the exploitation of increased judgmental latitude for earnings management purposes.