The effectiveness of management accounting techniques within Libyan Peoples Committees of Municipalities [LPCMs] was investigated focusing on the current application of management accounting techniques and the factors that affect current practice of these techniques. The study investigated the role of budget preparation, budgetary control and performance evaluation within Libya and aimed to gather a current contextual overview of practices since the final lifting on United Nation [UN] sanctions and the move to the open market economic structure. As part the study the effectiveness of current practice was evaluated to help identify opportunities for further development. The study used a combined methodology approach which enabled triangulation between the various agencies involved in management accounting within LPCMs. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire survey was undertaken along with content analysis of the semi-structured interview responses to build an overview of current practice and the rationale behind the application of management accounting techniques. LPCMs are still utilising traditional methods of management accounting due to the legislative requirements and this is main motivation for the application of management accounting techniques. An overview of the role of Central Government departments and LPCMs' intradepartmental activities in budget preparation and budgetary control has been described along with the formalised parliamentary approval process. Due to the current compliance focus it has been found that effectiveness and efficiency are not considerations in performance evaluation of LPCMs. The lack of recording of non-financial information is currently hindering organisations in the development of performance evaluation indicators and minimum standards. The study found that following factors have affected the application of accounting generally and the application of management accounting techniques in LPCMs particularly: top management support, management accounting training programmes, motivations systems, adequate financial resources for accounting development, using computer systems for management accounting purposes, accounting research in Libya, Professional accounting bodies in Libya, accounting education in Libya, co-operation between universities and LPCMs, economic changes, policy of government. A number of key recommendations have been developed but all hinge on the primary recommendation that Libya parliamentarians update Financial Law (1967) to meet the new global economic demands that Libya faces.

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Most prior works focus on the effect of IFRS adoption itself on earnings quality using one dimension of earnings quality, and cover the early years of adoption. The present thesis seeks to investigate how country-specific factors shape accounting quality under IFRS across 23 countries between 2007 and 2010, the global financial crisis period. This is the first study to examine the effect of country-specific factors, using recent indicators, on both accruals and real earnings management under IFRS. It is also the first to explore the impact of country-specific factors on conditional conservatism and value relevance together, which highlights earnings quality from contracting perspective and equity valuation perspective at the same time. The results of the first empirical study indicate that overstating earnings via accruals is less pronounced in countries with strong investor protection, strict enforcement, and large capital markets, and that managing earnings upward utilizing real actions is greater in such countries. Further, the results show that firms engage in both types of earnings management at the same time. The results of the second empirical study show that earnings are more conservative in countries having strong investor protection and rigorous enforcement of accounting standards, and that the value relevance of book values is greater in those countries. Further, the strength of capital markets has no impact on the extent of conservatism, whereas the value relevance of earnings is greater in large capital markets. Overall, the main findings of this thesis suggest that country-specific factors still govern accounting quality under IFRS and that they drive different ‘quality’ earnings. The IASB should emphasise the enforcement mechanisms, not only the mere adoption of IFRS. Auditors and regulators should also consider the possible negative effects of real activities to which managers switch in a bid to escape coming under scrutiny in countries with strong institutions. Additionally, researchers should be cautious when drawing conclusions on earnings quality as quality under contracting perspective may differ from that under equity valuation perspective.

This study seeks to examine the institutional logics and processual dynamics behind the emergence of sustainability reporting (hereafter SR) in Pakistan. It investigates both the emergence of the SR field, as well as logics and processes of the initiation and implementation of SR in eight organisations. This study utilises the institutional logics perspective (Thornton, Ocasio and Lounsbury, 2012) as an analytical framework for institutional and organisational analysis. Using this framework, Pakistani society is conceptualised and analysed as an interinstitutional system which provides the basis for understanding the field as well as organisational-level dynamics. The Pakistani SR field is conceptualised as a socially constructed space in which a variety of social actors, embedded in different institutional orders, are involved in the social construction of SR through constellations of subjective meanings and material practices (known as institutional logics). The theoretical perspective argues for the presence of multiple logics in a given field that both constrain and enable organisational and individual rationality for action. In order to explore these dynamics, this study uses an embedded case study design informed by semi-structured interviews and extensive documentary analysis. This study identifies the presence of multiple logics in the Pakistani SR field which are linked with the evolution of institutional orders. This study finds that the dominant orders of family and religion act as social constraints for the emergence of SR in Pakistan which is mainly driven by the combination of market, corporate and professional logics. These logics, which collectively make a business case, are propagated mainly by the leading corporates, professional accounting bodies, non-governmental organisations and consultants. These actors through different events (e.g. award ceremonies, conferences, seminars and workshops) are involved in the institutional work for shaping SR. Organisational analysis finds that the decision to initiate SR and the implementation process is mainly driven by institutional forces that are mediated by organisational dynamics and situational contingencies. A combination of rationales is used by corporate managers of the eight organisations for justifying their reporting decision.

This thesis examines the effect of IFRS and SOX-like regulations on earnings management in Asian countries. Firstly, the study finds no strong evidence that IFRS convergence leads to a decline in discretionary accruals in Thailand. Institutional factors including debt and equity financing exhibit a positive relationship with discretionary accruals. Boards of directors and block shareholders appear to play a role in mitigating discretionary accruals, while big-4 auditors do not. Secondly, in the post-IFRS period, listed firms in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore experience a decline in income smoothing, especially those with a high level of income smoothing in the pre-IFRS period. These firms seem to switch from accruals to real activity manipulation, especially overproduction. In the post-IFRS period, however, their income smoothing level is still relatively high compared to those with a low level of income smoothing. Finally, JSOX contributes to a decline in loss avoidance of Japanese firms, especially large firms, but it has no effect on manipulating methods. Japanese firms with a propensity for avoiding losses, used both specific accruals and investment adjusting in both the pre- and post-JSOX periods. The study also finds that firms switch from one specific accrual to another to achieve loss avoidance and are likely to alter capital expenditure rather than research and development expenses. In short, changes in accounting standards and regulations contribute to some decline in earnings management in Asian countries. The institutional factors still negatively affect accounting quality in this region after many years of the changes.

Corporate governance (CG) has attracted much interest in research and policy reforms worldwide following recent financial crisis and subsequent bailouts of banks and other financial institutions. Despite this surge in CG research, the extant CG literature is reportedly weak in terms of empirical illustrations of CG practices at the organizational level. It tends to be concerned more with ‘compliance’ than ‘practice’. Against such a backdrop, this research empirically provides an insight into the CG practices of public limited companies (PLCs) following the recent CG reforms in a developing country. Theoretically, it aims to explain CG practices using a critical realist lens: internal conversation theory (ICT). To achieve the research objectives, a theoretically informed analysis of in-depth interview findings triangulated with a documentary survey and direct observation is undertaken. The research documents show evidence of ceremonial boards, stage-managed AGMs, and client-friendly audit practices in the post-reform regime. These practices, together with the relatively informal internal audit and financial reporting practices, substantially reflect the dominance of family institutions within PLCs. Such dominance of family institutions would seem to subvert the genuine spirit of the reforms. From the perspective of ICT, CG practices are shaped by the actions of reflexive agents whose life projects bring them into contact with pre-existing structures that create dispositions to act in a particular way. It is through the internal conversation (exercising the reflexive power of deliberation) that agents decide their ultimate course of action; however, this does not always necessarily conform to their confronted structural dispositions. To have an explanatory leverage on agential actions, therefore, it is important to capture both the nature of agency and the structural context. Overall, my analysis reveals the theoretical rigour of ICT in explaining empirically manifested CG practices. This research has some practical policy implications.

This research has investigated and analysed why and how Management Accounting (MA) has contributed, at the institutional level, to improving Health Care Quality (HCQ) within the Saudi Arabian Public Health Sector (SAPHS). Analysing these developments as a form of change consistent with the dynamics found in the emergence of New Public Management (NPM), this study draws on Neo-Institutional Sociology (NIS). The research studies how MA change operated across institutional contexts within an NPM-based approach to improving health care and public health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It focuses on how, in this context, the roles and practices of MA have been defined, designed and implemented to promote ‘quality outcomes’ in health care. Methodologically this has involved two extensive case studies of MA change in two carefully selected hospitals, including semi-structured interviews with accountants, management, consultants and clinicians along with the collection and analysis of key documentary information used in managing the human and financial resources within the hospitals. The findings show how and how far new management accounting practices (MAPs) have promoted the ability and ‘right’ of management to coordinate control and monitor the human and financial resources, but in a way that specifies HCQ outcomes for patients, thus meeting both economic and social/political objectives. It is argued that MAPs had significant success because the allocation of budgetary resources by the Ministry of Health (MOH) was based on hitting non-financial quality and productivity targets. In both hospitals MAPs came to operate within a ‘non-accounting budgetary style’ (Hopwood, 1973) de-emphasising cost control, and managers and staff focussed just on effectiveness and efficiency measures. However, this initiative can also be seen as a response to significant institutional pressures and concerns at both government and professional levels, responding to ‘public voice’ concerns over HCQ. The response drew on world-leading medical research and practitioners to introduce best-practice HCQ solutions allied to internationally accredited quality standards into the KSA hospital sector. The study found that coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism all contributed to the successful implementation of the HCQ agenda, and the new MAPs here contributed to strengthening the internal and external legitimacy of certain key KSA institutions. There was some institutionally significant resistance from clinicians who saw these MAPs as compromising their professionally-defined focus on quality outcomes for patients. But over time, the mix of ‘soft’ quality and ‘hard’ MA derived targets was increasingly accepted and internalised as integral to delivering HCQ.

Factors that determine the level and variation in disclosure have been a matter of considerable interest and importance to policy makers and the financial reporting community. Existing studies have not well established the impact of institutions on corporate disclosure because of their macro-level analysis. This thesis investigates the association between firm-level institutional factors and the level of mandatory disclosure in annual reports of Nigerian listed companies. It argues that accounting standards provide the definition of legitimate methods for use in presenting financial statements, and the level of mandatory disclosure reveals organisational commitment to these standards. The thesis uses the Oliver (1991) and Greenwood et al. (2011) institutional framework to identify factors that determine the level and variation in mandatory disclosure. The thesis sampled 100 firm-years across eight industries over three regulatory regimes. The self-constructed measure of mandatory disclosure is based on the Nigerian national accounting standards, which provide guidance for presenting financial statements prior to 2012, and on the IFRS, for first time adopters of IFRS with a financial year-end of 2012/2013. Based on Oliver’s framework, the result indicate that the level of mandatory disclosure is significantly and positively influenced by legitimacy, legal coercion, and voluntary diffusion, however, it is significantly and negatively influenced by economic efficiency, uncertainty, interconnectedness and dependence. These results suggest that Nigerian listed companies confront greater number of factors that encouraged resistance to disclosure in annual reports. Based on the Greenwood et al.’s framework the result indicate that strong regulatory regimes significantly and negatively influenced variation in the level of mandatory disclosure while organisational field, organisation structure, ownership and identities significantly and positively influenced variation. These results suggest strong regulatory regimes reduced variation in disclosure while organisation structure, ownership and identities increased variation in mandatory disclosure. The results provide alternative explanation on determinants of mandatory disclosure.

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The transition in Libya from a planned economy to a market economy, which commenced in the late 1980s, has resulted in fundamental changes such as the restructuring of state-owed enterprises, a noticeable growth in foreign direct investment, and an emerging private sector. These changes put immediate pressure on accounting practice to change to meet the demands of the new business environment. Based on the findings of a questionnaire-based survey, supplemented by interview data, this study explores the state of „traditional‟ and „advanced‟ management accounting practices (MAPs) of a mix of 81 large and medium size Libyan manufacturing companies from different industrial sectors. In addition, drawing off the existing literature on new institutional sociology and innovation diffusion theories, a model is developed and forms the basis for investigating and evaluating the factors that influence the development and change of MAPs in Libyan companies. This investigation is underlined with thorough statistical inference resulting from applying factor analysis and simple and multiple regression to the survey data as appropriate. The data collected from 10 interviews are quantified and analysed to provide more insight into MAPs in the responding companies. Although the responding companies have reported using most of the MAPs surveyed, the adoption rates of theses practices are noticeably lower than the adoption rates of MAPs usually found in the management accounting literature. The findings also seem to confirm those of recent studies in other countries about the popularity of „traditional‟ practices over the much acclaimed „advanced‟ ones. However, respondents not only claim to derive higher benefits from „traditional‟ MAPs than from „advanced‟ MAPs, but they also express their intention to place greater emphasis on the former in the future. Thus, this study questions the exaggeration in the criticism of traditional MAPs that characterised the obsolescence campaign initially led by Kaplan (1986) and Johnson and Kaplan (1987) and the acclaimed superiority of the so-called „advanced‟ MAPs. While it is surprising to find that none of the environmental factors examined in this study (e.g. uncertainty and market competition) seems to have an important impact on MAPs diffusion, factors related to attributes of innovation (e.g. the availability of resources, the availability of training, top management support and company size) do however have a significant positive impact on the diffusion of MAPs in these Libyan manufacturing companies. Institutional factors, especially those related to the fashion perspective (e.g. use of consultants) and the fad perspective (e.g. being in a joint venture with a foreign partner) appear to also be essential in facilitating diffusion. This research concludes that the demand side perspective, which dominates the literature on innovation diffusion, is not adequate on its own and, therefore, the supply side and the institutional environment are also important factors in explaining the diffusion of MAPs. Finally the main limitations of this study are outlined and opportunities for future research are discussed, particularly in relation to this study‟s findings about the need to reconsider the usefulness of traditional MAPs and also the need for a multiple perspective approach for studying the diffusion of MAPs.