Despite increasing attention paid to intangibles research since the end of the 20th century, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the interactions among different intangible elements and their performance implications due to the lack of appropriate intangible measurements and the low level of intangible disclosure in the public domain. From a resource-based view (RBV), this thesis seeks to investigate the role of intangibles in the European banking sector using mixed methods. A quantitative approach is adopted to test the relationships among different intangible elements and between them and bank performance for a sample of 63 banks from 2005 to 2007. The empirical results show that top management human capital (HC) has a positive impact on either customer relationships or bank financial performance, and the combination of different intangible elements tends to better explain the variation in banks’ return on assets than they do individually. Meanwhile, a qualitative approach is employed to assess intangible measurement, disclosure, and modelling by conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 bank managers and 12 bank analysts. A grounded theory model of intangibles is developed, which reveals how intangibles and tangible/financial resources interact in the bank value creation process. In addition, it explores the communication gaps between bank managers and bank analysts regarding the concept of intangibles, intangible measurement and intangible disclosure. More importantly, the adoption of mixed methods research allows this thesis to achieve evidence triangulation and complementarity. Both approaches produce evidence in support of the resource integration of the RBV theory and the importance of top management HC. Besides, the qualitative study provides the means to explore the way of improving the specified models and intangible proxies used in the quantitative study. This thesis makes a contribution to the development of mixed methods research in the fields of finance, accounting and management by providing an example of how quantitative and qualitative approaches can be integrated to investigate a research question. It also contributes to the intangible literature and banking literature in terms of improving our understanding of the role of intangibles in the bank business model.

The disclosure of Corporate Governance (CG) information by firms has been found in prior studies to have an impact on the market value of firms. This thesis extends the research by studying the impact of voluntary CG disclosure by firms in Hong Kong, a market which provides a strong legal investor protection but characterized by a high insider ownership, on company valuation, as proxied by Tobin’s q. This thesis also examines the role of dividend payout on the CG of Hong Kong firms. Based on hand-collected data for a sample of 258 firm-years over the 2003-2005 period, the empirical results show that, firstly, voluntary CG disclosure is positively and significantly related to market valuation for small firms, but the relationship is not significant for large or medium firms. Combining large firms and small firms in a pooled sample, as done in most previous studies, thus misses the differential value relevance of voluntary CG disclosure for small versus large firms. Secondly, firms with higher CG disclosure are associated with lower dividend payout ratios, ceteris paribus. The evidence appears to suggest that CG disclosure can substitute for dividend payout. Thirdly, those small firms with medium levels of insider ownership are found to pay lower dividends than small firms with either low or very high levels of insider ownership, suggesting that investors would expect higher dividends from small firms that are prone to, or have either agency problems or entrenchment problems. Furthermore, controlling for the level of insider ownership, a small firm with high CG disclosure is always associated with a higher market valuation. The empirical evidence suggests that voluntary CG disclosure has a much stronger impact on the reduction of information asymmetry between investors (i.e., the outsiders) and managers (i.e., the insiders) for small firms than for large firms. Hence, by voluntarily disclosing more CG information, a small firm can be expected to enjoy the double benefits of receiving a higher market valuation and a lower demand for dividend payout from investors. This study contributes to the research of value relevance of CG disclosure in several ways. It provides clear evidence that voluntary CG disclosure enhances the valuation of small firms, which previous research may have overlooked. It also shows that voluntary CG disclosure and the level of insider ownership jointly affect a firm’s valuation and dividend payout. Voluntary disclosure of corporate governance information, even under a strong legal regime for investor protection, seems to be a company attribute very much appreciated by outside investors.

This thesis aims to trace the development of management accounting systems (MAS) in a Portuguese bank, where an activity-based costing system (ABC) was trialled for implementation, as a means to improving the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of employee activity. The culture of banking in Portugal has changed significantly over the last 25 years, but at the same time there are older traditions which remain strong. The purpose of this research was to study how an imported MAS like ABC is developed and disseminated within a Portuguese banking context. The research can be classified as a longitudinal study of organisational change using a single case study. Although based in the interpretive tradition since it is concerned with actors' perceptions, interpretations and beliefs, it also draws on a Foucault-inspired critical framework of the kind developed in the work of Hoskin and Macve (e.g. 1986, 1988, 1994, 2000), and in the research into the financial sector undertaken by Morgan and Sturdy (2000). The particular model developed here is designed to enable the exploration of the effect of accounting practices on change from three perspectives - changing structures, changing discourses and the effect of both of these processes on power relations. It also draws on Fligstein's (1991) institutional framework to understand change in terms of the interplay across three relevant institutional contexts - the organisational field, the state, and the existing strategy and structure of the bank. The research draws on the literature and on primary data, including 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and documentary and archive data. The main contributions of the research are related to the increase of visibility and perceived importance of accounting in the banking sector, and how accounting is significant beyond its technical roles. The study provides new insights into how management accounting practices, along with other organisational systems, play an important role in questioning, visualising, analysing, and measuring implemented strategies.

Korea adopted Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) in November 2002. Regulation FD, designed with a goal of levelling the playing field among market participants, has created considerable debate among practitioners and academics. This thesis examines the effect of Regulation FD on the Korean securities market, using a large sample of 161,343 forecast-year observations and 2,311 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2007. We uncover four main sets of findings. First, we find that analysts' forecast accuracy has increased after the adoption of Regulation FD. We attribute this finding to the improved quality of public information and reduced importance of private access to managers in the post-FD period. Second, we provide evidence of significant change in firms' disclosure policy in the post-FD period. We report that private earning guidance and private information in analysts' forecasts have decreased as a consequence of curtailing selective disclosure in the post-FD period. Our findings are consistent with the intentions of Regulation FD to increase management disclosure to the general public. Third, we find no evidence of an increase in herding behaviour in the post-FD period. Our results contradict Regulation FD's opponents' claims that elimination of private channels may lead to increasing herding behaviour due to the chilling effect. We find no evidence that Regulation FD makes firms withhold their disclosure. To the contrary, our evidence suggests that Regulation FD has led to an increase in the quality and quantity of public information. Finally, we provide strong evidence for a reduction in informed trading and information leakage prior to unscheduled earnings announcement and release of analysts' recommendations. Overall, our results suggest that Regulation FD has been successful in eliminating selective disclosure and levelling the playing field for investors.

This thesis aims to add empirical evidence to the corporate finance literature by looking at two main financing issues, namely firms’ payout policies and capital structure decisions, in the context of emerging markets. The thesis consists of seven chapters, including five main standalone research papers. After an introductory chapter, the first research paper reviews the existing literature on the dividend policy controversy with an emphasis on recent empirical work. The following two chapters consist of two research papers which look separately at the dividend and capital structure decisions of firms in India and in Mauritius. In the second research paper an agency model of dividend policy is estimated and tested on a sample of Indian firms using Weighted Least Squares methodology. The third research paper applies panel data procedures to estimate and test a model of the determinants of leverage, using the entire population of non-financial quoted firms in Mauritius. The last two empirical papers investigate how affiliation with an Indian Business House impacts on the dividend and capital structure decisions of firms. The impact of group-affiliation on the payout decision is tested by Maximum Likelihood qualitative and limited dependent variable techniques. The analysis of the impact of group-affiliation on the capital structure decision is conducted using Ordinary Least Squares methods and incorporates group-level characteristics as explanatory variables. While the main findings of these papers are on the whole consistent with the theory, there are new major insights that represent the special case of emerging markets. These main insights, as well as the main conclusions of the study, are summarised in Chapter 7, including some promising ideas for future research.

The purpose of the thesis is to explore the empirical relevance of the theory of financial liberalisation in the Mauritian context. After confronting the conflicting views in the literature, the changes that have taken place in the financial sector in terms of monetary policy and the institutional developments are examined. The study shows that government has played a role in boosting financial intermediation before liberalisation and that it has still a role to play after liberalisation. It also explains the measuresta ken to improve financial stability. The high concentration in both the banking and insurance sectors are also discussed. The thesis finds no evidence of an increase in real interest rate after liberalisation or any consequential improvement in domestic savings as suggested by the liberalisation theories. Further external liberalisation has not led to a drop in real interest rate and increased savings. Some minor episodes of banking and stock market crises have been identified. The research also examines the links between interest spread after liberalisation, fund cost and market share and the results tend to support the proposition that there is unidirectional causality from market share to interest spread. No significant change in share market size, liquidity and activity has been observed after liberalisation and the collective investment schemes have not yet indicated signs of ability to considerably mobilize savings and hence to boost the security market. There is evidence of a slow down of the financial deepening process as the liquidity ratio M2 Y exceeds 65%. Financial deepening is not found to be positively i related to real interest rate. This applies not only to Mauritius but equally to some other countries of the region. Although the evidence does not support the McKinnon and Shaw predictions concerning interest rate and mobilization of savings, yet there has been freer access to credit after liberalisation and the study has shown that private sector credit as a share of GDP is positively related to economic growth and that there is bidirectional causality between them. With respect to corporate financing the study shows that the behaviour of listed firins is consistent with the pecking order theory of finance and that the listed companies are now more sensitive to external financing for the acquisition of physical investment, in relation to their internal growth strategy.