The primary focus of this study is to investigate the relation between Earnings Management (EM) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the UK. While there are few studies in the existing literature that examined the relationship between EM and CSR, there is a lack of studies examining this relation in the UK. Furthermore, the existing academic literature appears to provide inconsistent results. These considerations motivate this study to bridge this gap in the literature by providing evidence of whether or not EM and CSR are related in the UK. The present study carried out through three empirical stages based on the data obtained from the FTSE 350 Index between 2008 and 2010. The first stage examined the EM practice using three EM models to estimate discretionary accruals as proxy for EM. The models were the Jones (1991), modified Jones (Dechow et al. 1995) and performance - matched (Kothari et al. 2005) models. Firstly, these models were tested using multivariate analysis; the findings revealed that the performance - marched model has been identified as the model that could most accurately measure the presence of EM. Secondly, by applying univariate analysis, the study has found insignificant differences between the high and low EM practices in UK firms and that the highest and the lowest levels of EM were in 2008. Similar results were discovered when comparing the differences between income - increasing and income - decreasing EM. The second stage tested CSR by applying both content analysis and disclosure index approaches to identify the level of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSD) as proxy of CSR. The findings from the content analysis revealed that the employees (EMP) theme had the highest level of CSR information, followed by community (COM), environment (ENV), others (OTH), products and services (PRO), and customers (CUS). Similar results were obtained when the disclosure index approach was employed. The relationship between EM and CSR was tested in the final stage by using univariate and multivariate analyses. The findings revealed that firms with more CSR information reported lower EM. Further tests were performed to investigate the link between EM and CSR themes and the findings revealed that firms with more information of EMP, COM, EVE and PRO reported lower EM. However, no evidence suggested that CUS and OTH information affect EM. Overall, the findings suggest that the level of CSR improve financial reports’ quality. This study aspires to contribute to our understanding and knowledge on the issue related to the role of CSR regarding the quality of reported earnings.

Nepalese banks have witnessed a considerable shift in recent years towards its loans and advances by focussing on consumer credit. The traditional method of evaluating applicants that is based on the judgmental system is increasingly becoming inappropriate for the large volume of applicants. As a result of the shift in the lending market and the increased emphasis placed by the regulator on risk management, Nepalese banks have to rethinking on the way they assess their applicants for credit. Traditionally, the credit decision whether to accept/reject an applicant has been based on the subjective evaluation of the credit application forms and supporting documents. The literature advocates an objective approach on the lines of credit scoring which is fast, reliable, consistent and risk-based. On the strengths of this argument, this thesis presents the qualitative and quantitative considerations including issues relating to data capture, model development and implementation of a formal credit scoring model within the Nepalese Banking sector. The questionnaire was administered with the non-managerial level staff, the respondents in the expert interviews were managerial level staff and the database for model development were taken from a home loans customer database of a typical Nepalese bank. The findings of this work point to the fact that it is possible to develop such an objective model using six key characteristics and jointly produce a model that will predict the quality of loan with an acceptable degree of confidence.