This research effort seeks to investigate the co-creation of customer value in distribution channels of financial services as perceived by customers. In financial services, an in-depth investigation of customer value is necessary because of its recognised strategic imperative for competitive advantage (Woodruff, 1997). The Service Dominant Logic further demonstrates the importance of customer value as the basis of customers’ evaluations of products or service offerings (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Customer value assessments are typically based on core services. However, core services are rapidly copied, diminishing prior competitive advantages. Hence, other sources of customer value and competitive advantage have to be considered. In light of this, distribution channels are considered resilient sources of value for the customer (Ballantyne and Varey, 2006). Specifically, this research seeks to empirically determine the type of value co-created through interactions in various distribution channels of financial services and the degree to which the various types of value vary, in distribution channel use. The conceptual model developed for this study synthesises two perspectives of customer value. The first perspective is the unidimensional perspective, which posits that customer value is a trade off between perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices. The alternative perspective is the multidimensional perspective where customer value is multidimensional. Various types of value, functional or utilitarian as well as emotional and aesthetic value are offered in the extant literature. In financial services, dominant studies focus on adoption and non-adoption of financial services channels particularly innovative technological channels such as the internet channel and mobile channel. A study of the customer value of various channels in the multichannel context of financial services is relatively absent. Therefore, a two-step research design was utilised. First, an exploratory study was conducted to determine the different benefits and sacrifices perceived by customers when using the distribution channels. The first stage of the study incorporated an exploratory study of semi-structured interviews conducted on a sample of 22 respondents. The hypotheses developed for the study were based on the exploratory study and the extant literature of customer value and distribution channels. The second stage of the study was a survey of 300 respondents using a questionnaire, within the Klang Valley area. The data were collected and analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis as appropriate. The findings of the study show that both co-created functional value and emotional value perceptions exist in the distribution channel of financial services. Co-created functional and emotional value furthermore contributes to overall customer value perceptions. The study also finds that different benefit and sacrifice perceptions give rise to co-created functional and emotional value perceptions respectively. A comparison of the customer value perceptions of channels revealed that customers perceived functional value and emotional value in all channels, except the ATM/CDM/Cheque deposit channel. The in-branch channel is perceived to co-create a greater magnitude of emotional value. Adding to the extant literature, the findings demonstrate that distribution channels are an important source of customer value assessments. Furthermore, the findings lend support to the conceptual model, which posits various benefits and sacrifice perceptions existing in distribution channels of financial services lead to co-created perceived functional and emotional value or both simultaneously. From a managerial point of view, the findings of this study enable accurate identification of specific benefits and sacrifice perceptions in the various distribution channels of financial services to inform the development of strategies and tactics to enhance customer value of individual channels. Furthermore, the importance of emotional value in the in-branch channel lends support to the role of face to face interactions, careful recruitment and training of personnel to enhance the in-branch experience. The study also raises the importance of the consideration of service failures in services customer value assessments.

The prohibition of insurance as specified in the conventional business model has led to Takaful being established for the Muslim community to fulfil their accountability/obligations towards Allah. The absent of a contract in Takaful, a replacement of the conventional sale contract in insurance has resulted in the emergence of Muamalah contracts as a basis for contractual structures and this bear the minimum acceptable requirement of Shariah. The attainability of such contractual structures to be used in Takaful had been unstable in the sense that it needs various reviews, and this has occurred precisely because it has been laden with both Shariah compliance and operational issues detaching the contracts from its original Shariah and economic substances. This research explores how the governance of Takaful in Brunei considered and adapted unstable contractual structure for Takaful operation inciting the divergence from the fundamental principles of Shariah. The main objective of the research is to explore the governance of Takaful in Brunei. The research seeks to identify and analyse the factors that influence the adaption of the Takaful contractual structure, examine the logics behind the current governance framework, and investigate the disclosure of information and financial reporting of Takaful. It utilizes the interpretive approach and this is supported by qualitative research methods in the form of interviews, participant observation and document review. The thesis also uncovers the causal factors of the necessity to adapt unstable contractual structure, and this in turn raises the concern of how Takaful is governed. In this work neo institutional theory of institutional isomorphism is used to identify these factors and the manner in which they influence the adaption process. In addition, the logical reference exhilarating the governance framework of Takaful is examined through the lens of institutional logic theory to understand why it has not been possible to alleviate concerns surrounding the adaption of the contractual structure. The analysis also extends to unravel the core logics of governance driving Takaful disclosure and financial reporting. Empirical findings show that the Brunei government has been the main driving factor in terms of adapting the current contractual structure during the initial creation of Takaful in Brunei. Ironically conventional insurance has been used to define the boundaries for structuring the contractual model for Takaful to replace conventional insurance model. Other factors at the macro (e.g. government influence), meso (e.g. the industry) and micro (e.g. between the companies and within each company) levels have also influenced the current contractual structure through the main three forces: coercive (e.g. government enforcement), normative (e.g. Legal Framework) and mimetic (e.g. following other Takaful operators). Decoupling the substance of the contract and actually implementing it is masked by the Shariah governance responsible for approving the individual contracts without evaluating the whole business structure from the Shariah perspective. The business and Shariah logics are the main dominance of Takaful governance frame of reference. Separation between these two logics served as sustainable force for its ability to reflect the compliance status desired by the industry. This creates trust in governance and an environment of adhering to Shariah in good faith. Disclosure and financial reporting decisions are driven by the regulatory, market and Shariah logics, where the regulatory logic dominates the mandatory disclosures. Finally, in evaluating these factors that influence the governance of Takaful in Brunei the thesis offers options of how to improve the contractual structure and addressing concerns thereof.

Academics and professionals have paid attention mainly to performance measurement systems that have implemented financial and non financial measures. However, the majority of previous studies were conducted in developed countries, but very little had been carried out in developing countries. Therefore, this study aims to investigate performance measurement systems in developing countries in twofold. Firstly, examine the existing uses of financial and non financial measures in Libyan banking industry and, secondly, analyze the contextual factors that may affect the use of these measures. In order to fulfill this study's aim managers from top and middle managerial levels have participated to the survey. Data were collected through a series of quantitative and qualitative approaches while obtained data were analyzed by employing numerous statistical methodologies. The study findings indicate that most of the Libyan banks use a mixture of performance measurement systems that include a combination of financial and nonfinancial measures. However, the Libyan banks are still relying on more financial measures than non financial measures as important information used for various purposes. In addition, several contextual factors represent the core of the study and they are of great importance for the use of performance measures according to banks' size within the banking industry in Libya. This study contributes to bridge the gap in the literature of performance measurement by providing theoretical and empirical evidences of how performance measures could be used more proficiently in developing countries. Furthermore, the study's findings offer an overview of the performance measures used currently in Libyan banking industry and suggest the implementation of the outcome of this study that will instigate important improvements to the current performance measurement systems.

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This study presents the results of an investigation into the methods of auditing Expert Systems. Such systems have already proved to be, and are increasingly becoming, a very powerful tool in many areas such as medicine, geology, finance and banking. They embody unique risks which are not treated by conventional audit methods of operating or developing software. The lack of awareness and information about Expert Systems in general and their auditability in particular are somewhat surprising. The author, in tackling this new area, has developed and proposed two models of auditing Expert Systems: a) the Audit of an Operating Expert System (AOES), b) the Audit of an Expert System under development (AESD). The first model incorporates the" control band" which aims at eliminating the exceptional risks and to allow the internal auditor to treat it as conventional software. The second proposed model is based on "NESDEM'; a normative evaluation model for Expert Systems. The test of the proposed AOES model was conducted in two different organisations: ARJO-WIGGINS APPLETON which developed and still uses an Expert System for its paper mill and the CITY UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF OPTOMETRY AND VISUAL SCIENCE which developed an Expert System for eye tests. Unfortunately the author was unable to test his proposed AESD model under a "live" development process due to lack of cooperation from organisations which the author contacted. Consequently he tested this model by mailing questionnaires to internal/external auditors within the U.K. Given the research performed in this study and subject to the limitations detailed, the proposed models appear reliable, flexible, practical and suitable to the internal auditor in assessing the effectiveness of the internal controls within Expert Systems.

This thesis conducts empirical studies on China's stock market using contemporary financial theories in order to explain the anomalies in China's stock market and then put forward some policy implications on the basis of the empirical research findings. The thesis consists of seven chapters. In addition to providing a brief introduction to the relationship between stock market development and economic growth. Chapter 1 describes several anomalies occurring in the international stock markets and sets up a research framework for the thesis to further study. Chapter 2 is a literature review. It reviews major contemporary theories or hypotheses related to initial public offerings (IPOs) underpricing, long-run underperformance and asset pricing characteristics. Chapter 3 is a general description of China's stock market development, which offers an institutional background such as IPOs system and stock market structure. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 conduct empirical studies using data from China's stock market. In Chapter 4, using cross sectional regression, I examine whether short run underpricing exists in China's stock market and the validity of a series of theories used in explaining this phenomenon. In Chapter 5, based on standard event study methodology, I investigate whether long-run underperformance of IPOs exists in China's stock market, and to what extent. In Chapter 6, according to Fama-MacBeth approach, I build a univariant model to examine whether Capital Asset pricing Model and Fama-French Three-Factor Model hold in China's stock market, and lo analyse empirically the asset pricing characteristics of China's stock market. Chapter 7, the last chapter, is the summary of the thesis. Some suggestions and policy implications are presented.

The mandatory adoption of IFRS2 and its equivalent FAS123R (Share-Based Payment) presented a radical change in financial reporting of Share-Option Based Compensation (SOBC). Both IASB and FASB adopted the view that disclosure is not an adequate substitute for recognition; consequently, all SOBC transactions ultimately lead to expense recognition, measured at the grant-date fair value of SOBC. This thesis identifies and evaluates the major financial reporting implications of alternative reporting methods of accounting for SOBC across a global context and over different time periods for pre and post adoption of IFRS2/FAS123R. It explores two key research questions using an international sample of US and EU banks over the period (2004-2011). The first research question aims to identify, analyse, compare and evaluate the total effect of the compulsory adoption of IFRS2/FAS123R, on selected banks’ performance measures. Underpinned by equity valuation and agency theories, the second question aims to assess the extent to which the mandatory recognition approach to expensing SOBC provides more value relevant information that better reflects the incentive properties of such rewards than the disclosure approach. The findings show that the expensing of SOBC has resulted in modest and statistically significant negative effects on both US and EU banks’ selected financial performance measures with the impact being more likely to be higher in the US banking sector. The reported modest impact does not reflect earlier research estimations indicating that concerns and criticism of the implementation of IFRS2/FAS123R are largely unsubstantiated. The results also indicate that the recognition regime to expense SOBC is significantly more value relevant and better reflects the intangible value attributable to such rewards, relative to the disclosure regime. The influence of the differences in the financial reporting contexts on the intangible value attributable to SOBC is less burdensome after the mandatory adoption of IFRS2/FAS123R.

This Ph.D. thesis contains 3 essays in international finance with a focus on foreign exchange market from the perspectives of empirical asset pricing (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3), forecasting and market microstructure (Chapter 4). In Chapter 2, I derive the position-unwinding likelihood indicator for currency carry trade portfolios in the option pricing model, and show that it represents the systematic crash risk associated with global liquidity imbalances and also is able to price the cross-section of global currency, sovereign bond, and equity portfolios; I also explore the currency option-implied sovereign default risk in Merton’s framework, and link the sovereign CDS-implied credit risk premia to currency excess returns that it prices the cross section of currency carry, momentum, and volatility risk premium portfolios. In Chapter 3, I investigate the factor structure in currency market and identify three important properties of global currencies – overvalued (undervalued) currencies with respect to equilibrium exchange rates tend to be crash sensitive (insensitive) measured by copula lower tail dependence, relatively cheap (expensive) to hedge in terms of volatility risk premium, and exposed to high (low) speculative propensity gauged by skew risk premium. I further reveal that these three characteristics have rich asset pricing and asset allocation implications, e.g. striking crash-neutral and diversification benefits for portfolio optimization and risk management purposes. In Chapter 4, I examine the term structure of exchange rate predictability by return decomposition, incorporate common latent factors across a range of investment horizons into the exchange rate dynamics with a broad set of predictors, and handle both parameter uncertainty and model uncertainty. I demonstrate the time-varying term-structural effect and model disagreement effect of exchange rate determinants and the projections of predictive information over the term structure, and utilize the time-variation in the probability weighting from dynamic model averaging to identify the scapegoat drivers of customer order flows. I further comprehensively evaluate both statistical and economic significance of the model allowing for a full spectrum of currency investment management, and find that the model generates substantial performance fees.

This thesis examines factors which may explain content variation in sell-side analysts’ reports. There are two main objectives: (i) to ascertain whether the extent of accounting information contained in these reports varies with firm and analysts’ characteristics; and (ii) to examine whether the tone and readability of the reports vary with analysts’ incentives to produce optimistic research. Based on a sample of 288 reports on 144 S&P 500 firms, the first objective was addressed using a manual content analysis to examine accounting themes, while the second objective was addressed using automated content analysis based on context-specific and user-defined wordlists. The empirical results indicate that the extent of use of accounting information in analysts’ reports varies across firm characteristics but such variation only partly reflects its relevance for valuation as suggested by the value relevance literature. Moreover, analysts’ incentives are influential as reports issued by analysts employed by investment banking firms or those in possession of the Chartered Financial Analysts qualification contain more references to forward-looking accounting information. Patterns of strategic reporting are also identified, as analysts employed by investment banking firms issue less readable reports compared to analysts employed by independent research firms following the same company. Further, readability is lower when the reports are less optimistic, indicating a tendency to obfuscate bad news through more complex reporting. Overall the findings are consistent with an impression management perspective as it reveals that content of analysts’ reports may not be entirely objective but influenced by analysts’ incentives to promote the companies covered. The thesis contributes to extant literatures on the relevance of accounting information, content of analysts’ reports, analysts’ bias and impression management. Moreover, the findings have policy implications as they speak to the concern about the relevance of accounting information and highlight the need to consider the subjective influences and the role of analysts’ incentives. Additionally, policy intervention on analysts’ bias should extend beyond recommendations and earnings’ forecast and consider the largely unregulated nature of the narrative content of the reports.

This research is concerned with international Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) by global banks targeting a Jordanian audience. The main research question addressed in this work is concerned with adaptation versus standardisation of international IMC by global banks. The aim of the research is to establish whether the standardised IMC approach is sufficiently effective when targeting Jordanian customers or whether adaptation of the IMC mix is necessary. A mixed methodological approach has been used consisting of qualitative in depth interviews and a more quantitatively based sample survey. Semistructured interviews were conducted with bank managers. Likewise, a survey instrument in the form of questionnaires were sent to the clients through bank management because of the confidentiality issues. The purpose of the research is to answer the standardisation versus adaptation question with the intention of deriving specific, operationally useful suggestions for IMC improvements for global banks operating in Jordan. The problems and weaknesses identified in current IMC policies used by global banks in Jordan are identified and suggestions for future marketing communications improvements made. These weaknesses and suggestions are integrated into a conceptual model. The managerial implications of adapting the suggestions made are examined and discussed. The weaknesses identified, suggestions made to overcome them and the managerial implications of implementation make an important and original contribution to the subject area from both a practical and conceptual point of view. The findings of the research strongly indicate that significant adaptation is required in order for the IMC approach by global banks to be effective. The findings should be specifically relevant to global banks operating in Jordan but may have relevance to other international companies from different sectors operating in or wishing to operate in Jordan.