Risk disclosure has received considerable interest and attention in recent times. The aim of this research is to examine risk information disclosure in annual reports with the aim of establishing trends. Further, this research empirically examines the influence of four firm factors on the level of risk disclosure in the annual reports. These factors are firm size, leverage, industry and US-dual listing. In addition, the research examines the association between risk disclosure and the company's cost of equity capital (and information asymmetry) after controlling for firm size and market beta. The annual reports of a sample comprising 52 UK non-financial companies, drawn from the FTSE-100 index, for three different periods (1998,2001, and 2004) were sought, collected, and analysed. Content analysis was applied and risk disclosure in the annual report was measured according to the number of sentences disclosed and trends were analysed over the six-year period. Risk disclosure sentences were classified according to four main quality dimensions: type of risk, the nature of the evidence, the type of news disclosed, and news time-frame. A four-stage dividend growth model was used to measure the company's cost of equity capital. Bid-ask spread and stock volatility were also used as proxies for information asymmetry. Only when investors perceive that the information is relevant, risk information disclosed in the annual report can lead to a reduction in the cost of equity capital. The study found, in aggregate, a trend of increasing amounts of risk disclosure in the annual report. Risk disclosure was found primarily qualitative; good and neutral; and non-time. There is minimal disclosure of quantified risk information and bad news information. These results suggest that accounting rules and regulations, in addition to recommendations from accounting institutions, have influenced the increase in the level of risk information disclosed, though without ensuring the quality of the disclosed risk information. US-dual listing and industry are found to be significantly related to risk disclosure, but firm size and leverage are found to have insignificant association with the level of risk disclosure. These findings suggest that the extent of annual report risk disclosure is driven more by regulation than by the market. The findings reveal that for the largest UK companies with high analyst following, no relation was found between risk disclosure level and cost of equity capital. However, the study found that both quantitative and bad news risk information are significantly and negatively related to stock volatility. Moreover, a significant and negative association was found between bad news risk disclosure and bid-ask spread. This suggests that firms with greater bad news and quantitative disclosure enjoy a reduction in information asymmetry as measured by proxies for information asymmetry. Overall, the analysis suggests that UK companies make substantial risk disclosure but the usefulness of this disclosure is limited.

Since 2010, XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) has been widely adopted throughout the world. In 2013, both the HMRC (Inland Revenue) and Companies House in the UK accepted XBRL in the iXBRL (inline XBRL) format. Investors have had to face various issues related to XBRL-reported financial information, such as accuracy and interpretability, as well as potential risks with respect to this new format of financial reporting. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of XBRL on the quality of financial reports and the accounting profession. For this study, a quality index evaluation model was built to examine the quality of financial reports. Over a thousand XBRL and non-XBRL formatted financial reports from three typical XBRL-adopting regions were then evaluated. This study finds that some of the contextual and accessibility qualities of financial reports have been greatly improved after using the XBRL format. However, the issue of accuracy has become more visible in current XBRL filings, due to the smaller and less comprehensive quantity of data stored in such filing systems. Using quality index scoring system, the trained professionals participating in this study confirm that XBRL-formatted financial reports demonstrate a greatly improved searching efficiency. Moreover, these reports generally display a quality superior to non-XBRL formatted financial reports under the designed quality index. More importantly, the quality of XBRL-formatted financial reports uploaded in the same database has been improving year by year. XBRL has not directly affected the accounting profession, being that most companies have outsourced the preparation of XBRL reports. However, it should additionally be noted that the questionnaires and interviews conducted with accountants in XBRL-adopting companies also reveal that these professionals feel increasing pressure both to prepare and to utilise XBRL-formatted financial information internally.

This thesis consists of three essays focusing on three different issues. The first revisits the question whether analysts anticipate the persistence of accruals in future earnings. We find that if total accruals are used (covering also non-current operating and financing accruals, unlike previous research that uses mainly working capital accruals), analysts’ forecast errors are uncorrelated with accruals. Our findings overall do not warrant the lack of sophistication argument. The second chapter examines whether multi segmentation affects the probability of meeting analysts’ forecasts, and whether the ‘diversification’ discount that multi segment firms seem to suffer from is alleviated/exacerbated when multi segment firms meet/miss analysts’ forecasts. We find for multi segment firms, no (less) earnings/forecast management to meet forecasts, more complex information environment, lower probability of meeting analysts’ forecasts, and weaker investor reaction to meeting/missing forecasts, while significant discount if they meet forecasts by engaging in earnings/forecast management. The third chapter examines whether unconditional accounting conservatism provides a rational explanation to book to price (B/P) effect in stock returns (higher B/P yielding higher returns) coined as anomaly. We test an argument following Penman and Reggiani (2013) linking conservative accounting to future returns and subsequent earnings growth, and we find strong support to the conservative accounting explanation to B/P effect.

This study is concerned with sustainability and stakeholder engagement practices in the palm oil and mining sectors in Malaysia after they received accumulated pressure from dominant stakeholders, such as NGOs and the local community. It considers how the companies in the two sectors strategically adopt and follow stakeholder engagement practices through alliance and collaboration with the state so as to secure their legitimacy. The study also highlights the role of power differentials among the companies, the state and civil society in enforcing the companies’ sustainability behaviour change. As such, it provides an in-depth analysis of the organisational practice of stakeholder engagement by looking at the political economy and social context. This study takes an in-depth case study approach using 45 interviews with companies, the state and the civil society, supported by analysis of publicly available information. Through a Bourdieusian theoretical lens, this study explores the sustainability field in Malaysia to understand the stakeholder engagement from multiple viewpoints in addressing the stakeholders’ conflict and power dynamics. The sustainability field in this research is an arena of social practice wherein key actor such as the company, the state and civil society are positioned with certain interests. All forms of social engagement in this field are analysed in terms of their particular logic of practice. The study found that the stakeholder engagement made by the companies with the support of the state sought to naturalise the view that the companies’ operation is not harmful to the environment and the society. The companies collaborate and ally with the state to promote their economic interests. The companies gain power and domination conferred by the state through these partnerships in achieving economic benefits, which then, create symbolic violence. As a result, stakeholder engagement does not seem to solve the sustainability controversy.

This study investigates the experiences of women accountants working in the Big Four accounting firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to extend our knowledge of issues related to gender and accounting. Within the Saudi social context, gender experience is a shifting set of multiple experiences, where gender and religious and cultural aspects are interrelated and influence how accounting or auditing is practiced. Studying the dominant social context and its origins helps in understanding issues related to gender and accountancy, and identifying processes that reproduce gender domination and hinder women’s ability to access and progress at work. This study adopts a qualitative exploratory research design. In-depth semi-structured interviews with 42 female and male accountants working in the Big Four firms in the KSA are carried out, supported by documentary analysis and observations (observing women’s dress, the physical environment they work in, and their interaction with other staff). The data are analysed using thematic analysis and this study draws on feminist critical theory to understand the process of change taking place in the accounting profession in the KSA. The analysis of the data reveals that, despite the growing interest in women’s integration into KSA society, they continue to face various difficulties in joining the profession and gaining access to professional practice. Women’s recent access to the accounting profession has brought changes to accounting practices, with formal and informal gendered organisational practices (such as segregated space, and limited audit assignments) contributing to sustaining male dominance in the profession. These practices are strongly rooted in local socio-cultural traditions that overlap with selective interpretations of religion, and thus shape women accountants’ experiences in how they perceive change. Most of the barriers and exclusionary practices (such as gendered norms of working hours and socialising with clients and peers) are informal in the KSA; yet they are very visible and inform/direct how the formal practices (such as appraisal and mentoring practices) are reproduced within accounting firms. The study offers an understanding of how professions evolve differently in different countries, how accounting firms operate today, and how the globalisation of practice in accounting firms has its limits. The study presents new ways of thinking about change, and argues that women’s desire for change is a key aspect in the process of change taking part in the Big Four in the KSA. Change’ relates to, and is constructed by, one’s perceptions of the cultural, political, economic and social fabric of a society. Consequently, Saudi women accountants are experiencing accountancy and changes thereof in terms of phases, and whereby they see themselves as being part of the process of change within the profession. They are willing to be patient in order to open the way for others and achieve their desired change.

This research investigates accounting practices in four Tanzanian Local Government Authorities (LGAs). It seeks to understand how accounting is practiced and the situations which sustain its undertaking. The peculiar role of local governments in the delivery of public services and the influence of accounting on the same has motivated this study (Lapsley & Mussari, 2008). It has also been driven by the inadequacy of interpretive theoretically based informed studies into public sector entities, and the limited accounting research in the emerging economies (Goddard, 2010). The study applies an interpretive approach to investigate accounting in the organisations in which it operates (Ahrens & Mollona, 2007), and executes a grounded theory method to develop a theory systematically from the raw data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In order to ensure the general application of the emergent theory beyond the case studies, the development of a formal grounded theory was sought. This research revealed that the operations of the Tanzanian LGAs were constrained by factors such as deficient regulatory systems, political interference, donors’ influences, and funding uncertainties. These conditions forced the technocrats to use important accounting practices, such as budgeting, auditing, financial reporting, and performance measurement to manipulate the organisational legitimacy. The process of legitimacy manipulation ensured the availability of resources for the LGAs and the attainment of the individual interests of the Councils’ officials. This study contributes to the interpretive approach in emerging economies. Also, meta-coding, intra-relationships of categories, and development of formal grounded theory, add new insights to the grounded theory analysis. It is also worth noting that the study integrates the emergent theory within the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) framework. It was not intended to test NIS, but rather, to adopt it as a theoretical lens that assisted interpretation of the research findings. In the NIS framework, the study establishes the simultaneous achievement of legitimacy and efficiency, recognises multiple sources of loose coupling, and the influence of performance management on shaping accounting practices in the public sector organisations. It also offers the micro reactions of the Councils’ officials, and recognises the different patterns of the officials’ responses across Councils and service deliveries. The study argues that in emerging economies considerations of a country’s local contexts has the potential to minimise any counter-productivity of reform programs. Moreover, this research appeals for a holistic approach to the reform programs, harmonization of laws and regulations, the institution of efficient financial management and reporting mechanisms, and the improvement of employee welfare in the Tanzanian Councils.

This research investigates the change in the management accounting systems and practices in the context of Saudi Arabia as a developing country. It seeks to understand how change occurs in management accounting systems and practices in an organisational setting, particularly in the context of developing countries, which has not been paid enough attention by scholars. This research is a thorough study that investigates the factors that influence change of management accounting systems or practices, that explores how the change processes take place by identifying the main factors that drive change, and that illustrates the influence of change on perceived organisational performance. The research is based on a single case as a longitudinal study to allow for in-depth investigation. Hence, this research applies an interpretive approach to gain a deep understanding and clear explanation of the accounting systems and practices in the organisation setting. Grounded theory was employed in this research to allow new interesting issues to emerge and develop a theory systematically from raw data. The data were collected using triangulated methods - semi-structured interviews, documents and observation. As this research follows Strauss and Corbin’s style, the three coding processes – open, axial and selective coding – were utilised to analyse the data. The result of the analysis identified the central phenomenon of this research as ‘transforming a company’s culture to facilitate revolutionary changes in management accounting’. It explains the role of changing the organisational culture, which can be achieved through renovation and rehabilitation, by facilitating and accelerating the change of management accounting systems and practices in the company. In order to reach this result, this research utilised more than one theory: contingency theory, new institutional sociology and old institutional economic. Whereas old institutional economic is considered the dominant theory in this research, the other theories were essential to understand the phenomenon and to identify the information revealed by the old institutional economic. The formal theory of this research was drawn from old institutional economic, and the framework of Burns and Scapens, which explained the role of renovation and rehabilitation in changing the organisational culture and ways of thinking through rules and routines. Renovation and rehabilitation played a main role in reducing and eliminating resistance to change to the rules and routines within the company, which, in turn, changes the culture. Moreover, the new culture with renovation and rehabilitation played a main role in changing the rules and routines, which resulted in the successful change of the management accounting systems and practices in a short period of time. Finally, this research refined the Burns and Scapens framework, where the timeline in the institutional realm was condensed, which represents the process of institutionalising the new rules and routines.

This thesis investigates whether using agricultural biodiversity, smallholder farmers are closer to having a sustainable livelihood as compared to when they depend on promises made by Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs) such as Fairtrade. The framework within accounting for biodiversity has not considered the loss in biodiversity and the potential role played by agricultural biodiversity in providing sustainable livelihoods. Further, studies about Fairtrade’s accountability have focused on the household when there is a need to investigate the accountability of Fairtrade at the co-operative level since the Fairtrade system mostly works with co-operatives of farmers. The main research questions of this thesis are: What does a sustainable livelihood in the coffee supply chain entail at the level of a co-operative? Does Fairtrade deliver on its promise of providing a sustainable livelihood at the level of a coffee producer co-operative? Whether and how agricultural biodiversity would affect the livelihoods of a co-operative of coffee farmers? A dialectic/historical materialist methodology is used in combination with multiple methods for a case study of a coffee co-operative in India. A theoretical framework was developed that incorporates the labour theory of value along with the science of agroecology to detail the challenges to the achievement of sustainable livelihoods. Fairtrade fails to deliver sustainable livelihoods at the level of the coffee co-operative. Agricultural biodiversity using an agroecological approach supports sustainable livelihoods to the extent of reducing the dependence on external inputs but challenges remain due to a continued dependence on corporate value chains. This thesis contributes to the literature in accounting by introducing the concept of sustainable livelihoods as a means to check the accountability of NGOs such as Fairtrade. The focus on agricultural biodiversity extends the field of accounting for biodiversity to incorporate the social and environmental impacts on agriculture.

The thesis empirically investigates and compares some of the main aspects of Islamic and conventional banks during four periods: the pre-financial crisis, financial crisis, post-financial crisis and entire sample periods (2002-2015). Specifically, it investigates and compares the information asymmetry, credit risk and profitability in Islamic and conventional banks. For the information asymmetry investigation, a total sample of 211 Islamic and conventional publicly listed banks from Asia, Europe and Africa is used over the period 2002-2015. Quarterly data is retrieved from Datastream for the sample. However, for credit risk and profitability investigations, annual data for 225 Islamic and conventional banks are extracted from Datastream for the periods from 2002 to 2015 from Asia, Europe and Africa. The study aims to: (i) investigate and compare the degree of information asymmetry in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods; (ii) investigate and compare the degree of credit risk in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods; and (iii) investigate and compare the degree of profitability in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods. The empirical investigations provide important results in the three areas. First, the results show a significant difference in the information asymmetry level between Islamic and conventional banks for the crisis, post-crisis, and full sample periods. In fact, Islamic banks showed significantly lower information asymmetry levels than their counterparts in all information asymmetry proxy measures (i.e. Bid-Ask Spread, Share Turnover ratio and Stock Price Synchronicity SYNCH). These findings are robust with the intangibility ratio as a proxy of information asymmetry for all four periods (including the pre-crisis period). To the best of the author’s knowledge, such results are presented for the first time, and will add to the Islamic banking literature. Second, mixed results were found for the credit risk levels in Islamic and conventional banking credit risk for the four periods when Z-score and non-performing loans are used as credit risk proxy measures. However, the robustness check shows that there are no significant differences between Islamic and conventional banks in their credit risk for all of the different periods used in the study. This suggests that despite the different nature of both banks, their credit risk for the study periods do not statistically differ. These results contradict some prior studies conducted in the same area. Nevertheless, using only publicly listed banks, this thesis covers a longer period than other studies and investigates credit risk in four periods while using a combination of different control variables. Third, the results show that the profitability of Islamic banks is lower than conventional banks for the crisis, post-crisis and full sample period when using return-on-asset and return-on-equity as profitability measures. However, there are no significant differences between Islamic and conventional banks’ profitability during the pre-crisis period. These results are robust. Nevertheless, they affirm some prior studies’ findings and contradict others. This thesis uses up-to-date data for a longer period and investigates the profitability of publicly listed Islamic and conventional banks four different periods. Its findings add to the Islamic banking literature.

This thesis concerns the introduction of a Western idea of risk management to a peripheral control system as it examines the unintended consequences of re-embedding Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in an Egyptian insurance company. It traces how ERM was introduced, constructed, modified, and re-defined over time, causing institutional complexity, heterogenic practices, and identity crisis. It ultimately seeks to understand how a new form of management control was made operable amidst local resistance. The research involved intensive fieldwork with in-depth interviews, direct observations, and documentation reviews. Drawing on institutional logics and Egypt’s geopolitical ramifications, it illustrates how Risk Based Management Control (RBMC) was introduced by Western agencies, how this new control system caused logics competition, and how some ambiguities in identities consequently developed. It was the emergence of the Arab Spring that negatively reacted to those pressures, resulting in great resistance that was amplified through a clash of civilizations as a proper communal understanding and action after the country’s revolutions, which this work calls a “geopolitical shield”. This analysis makes three contributions to RBMC and logics. First, it extends the institutional logics debate by illustrating that logics get re-institutionalized by the “place” through its cultural and communal identities that filter logic complexities to different ends. Secondly, it extends the cultural political economy of management accounting by illustrating that management accounting in less developed countries (LDCs) is also an operational manifestation of the geopolitics of locale, location, and place. Finally, it provides an illustrative critique for implementing RBMC systems, which in the West were previously cascaded to operational arenas successfully, as other researchers reported, but in the current case this cascading is disrupted by the geopolitical shield activation. Shield activation at the micro level not only successfully hindered RBMC and its apparatuses but also protected monologic controls from becoming heterogenic.