published_or_final_version / abstract / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Cette thèse propose une analyse socioéconomique de l'accompagnement associatif des Personnes vivant avec le VIH (PvVIH) vers l'emploi en France. Elle étudie la construction de l'accompagnement associatif d'une part et l'inscription des trajectoires d'accès à l'emploi dans l'espace associatif d'autre part. Complétant les approches statistique et biographique de l'accompagnement vers l'emploi en ouvrant la boîte noire de l'accompagnement, elle analyse la relation d'accompagnement construite par l'institution associative à travers deux monographies. S'appuyant sur la théorie institutionnaliste du couplage, l'analyse textuelle du langage des acteurs, réalisée à l'aide du logiciel Alceste, identifie la part institutionnelle dans la construction sociale des trajectoires d'accès à l'emploi et montre une tension entre délibération et accès à l'emploi dans la construction de l'accompagnement associatif. L'analyse biographique contextualisée repère les facteurs institutionnels d'échec et de réussite dans l'accès à l'emploi. La libération de la dicibilité et l'acquisition de compétence sur le modèle de l'expertise d'usage facilitent et consolident l'accès à l'emploi quand les difficultés sociales et le regard social sur le VIH/sida le freinent et le fragilisent. Ces analyses montrent que la valeur ajoutée de l'accompagnement associatif vers l'emploi est d'inscrire la relation d'accompagnement dans une dynamique collective en la désindividualisant, en mettant en place des espaces de délibération et en valorisant les savoirs d'expériences. La thèse montre finalement que les institutions associatives sont difficiles à modifier et que les pratiques résistent aux dynamiques de changements institutionnels tout en s'en nourrissant. / This thesis proposes a socio-economic analysis of the support provided in the associative sector to People living with HIV when looking for a job in France. On the one hand, it studies how the associative support is built and on the other hand how access-to-job paths integrates in the associative landscape. By opening the black box of the social accompanying, it completes the statistical and biographical approaches of support relationship that are built by the associative instituion through two monographs. Based on the coupling institutionalized theory, the stakeholders's text analysis - using the software Alceste - identifies the institutional part with regards to social construction in the access-to-job paths and shows a tension between deliberation and access-to-job within the associative support construction. The contextualized biographical analysis identifies the institutional factors of failure and access-to-job success. The speakability release and the skills that are acquired with the experience make easier and reinforce the access-to-job when social problems and attitude towards AIDS undermines it. Those analyses show that the associative support towards employment added-value includes the support relationship under collective dynamics by making it less individual, building deliberation arenas and by valuing the experiental knowledge.The thesis finally shows that associative instituions are difficult to modify and that the practises withstand to institutional changes dynamics while get nourished by it.

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A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies. Johannesburg, 2016 / This study examined the retail clothing industry of South Africa and the associated sustainability practices, with particular focus on supply chain management. This study was conducted in order to test the relationship between sustainable supply chains and profitability in the hope that it might provide incentives for managers to adopt sustainability into their supply chain operations. The study made use of a case study analysis through a collection of quantitative and qualitative data of the sample organisations’ integrated reports and financial results to determine if there was a correlation between sustainable business practices and long-term economic profitability. Interviews were also conducted with industry participants in order to gain further insight. The study found that organisations that showed the highest investment along all three pillars of sustainability also experienced the largest and most stable economic growth within the sample. Although this could not be validated due to the limited sample size, the results did infer a positive association between sustainable supply chain management and economic success. It was also found that investing into the social capital of an organisation did have the potential to improve the economic success of an organisation within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. This study identified sustainable supply chain management frameworks that could benefit organisations within this industry financially. Further research is required into this field but it can be inferred that the incorporation of sustainable supply chain management can lend itself towards economic success within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. / LG2017

Doctoral thesis submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of the Doctor in Philosophy, December 2016 / Healy and Wahlen (1999:368) define earnings management as an event that “occurs when managers use judgement in financial reporting and in structuring transactions to alter financial reports to either mislead some stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers.” Management’s intent to mislead users distinguishes accruals that signal managers’ inside information about future cash flows from earnings management which intends to misrepresent performance (Dechow and Skinner, 2000; Parfet, 2000). Earnings management is a very serious issue; if it is not detected it can result in large financial losses for investors and creditors. Earnings data is a fundamental input to valuing a firm’s shares and prospects. Erroneous assessments of future cash flows because of misleading information will result in invalid share valuations and incorrect lending decisions which can have negative consequences on capital markets. The severe negative consequences of earnings manipulation, if undetected, suggest that investors, auditors and regulatory bodies should be aware of the prevalence of earnings management in an economy, whether investors are able to detect and price suspected earnings management and the most efficient way to detect it. This thesis aims to answer two fundamental questions: Does earnings management exist in South Africa? Are investors in South Africa misled by earnings management? How to detect earnings manipulation is the predominant theme in earnings management literature. The majority of research has been conducted in advanced economies and has transformed from identifying discontinuities in earnings distributions and measuring discretionary accruals to sophisticated predictive models, such as the F-score (Dechow, Ge, Larson and Sloan, 2011). Yet, research into the subject is sparse in emerging markets and tends to replicate existing methodology. The objective of this thesis is to examine earnings management in the South African economy, with the specific aim of identifying a databank of suspected earnings management firms that can be used for further research. Because the number of firms that have been forced to restate earnings is small in this environment, this thesis resorts to identifying suspected earnings management firms using discontinuities in earnings distributions. South Africa is similar to other emerging economies in that it is characterised by concentrated ownership, weaker legal enforcement and a smaller stock exchange. The South African environment is dissimilar to emerging economies as the JSE is considered to be well regulated, accounting and auditing standards are world class and accounting transparency and disclosure are satisfactory (Leuz, Nanda, and Wysocki, 2003). The results of this thesis are relevant in an institutional and macroeconomic setting where incentives to manipulate earnings, enforcement, legal protection, rule of law and sample size may differ from those in developed economies. This thesis firstly, focuses on methodological issues that may be encountered by researchers in identifying discontinuities in earnings distributions in emerging economies and secondly, validates kernel density estimation, Lahr (2014), as a viable methodology to test for earnings management by comparing total accruals, discretionary accruals and working capital accruals between suspected earnings management and non-earnings management firms. Thirdly, deferred tax expense is considered as a predictor variable in place of discretionary accruals in detecting suspected earnings management firms. Finally, in order to investigate investors’ reaction to suspected earnings management this thesis investigates whether the market prices suspected earnings management firms differently from non-earnings management firms. Pre- selected researcher binwidths (Burgstahler and Dichev, 1997, Coulton, Taylor and Taylor, 2005, Glaum, Lichtblau, and Lindemann, 2004; Holland and Ramsay, 2003) prove to be unsuitable in this milieu. Consequently kernel density estimation Lahr (2014), which derives bandwidths from the empirical earnings distributions, is used to identify discontinuities and to concurrently investigate the effect of deflation on the location of discontinuities. Discontinuities are shown to exist in earnings levels and changes distributions and emerge around zero in earnings levels distributions where number of shares is the deflator. Two important results emerge from this analysis. Firstly, when kernel density estimation is used in levels distributions, there is evidence that deflating by market value of equity and total assets shifts the location of suspected earnings management firms to the second and third intervals to the right of zero. Scaling does not alter the location of suspected earnings management firms in earnings changes distributions. Secondly, in the earnings deflated by number of shares distribution there is evidence that the band of suspected earnings management firms contains the results of firms that have upwardly and downwardly manipulated earnings. The implication of these findings are that deflating by number of shares is probably the most efficient scalar and that if doubt exists, alternative deflators should, at least, be compared between profit and loss firms. In addition, in the presence of evidence of downwards earnings management, researchers should evaluate whether and how to identify firms that are suspected of having reduced earnings. Specifically in emerging market research, these results indicate that it is inappropriate to merely replicate distribution research based on researcher selected binwidths and that kernel density estimation is probably more efficient in identifying discontinuities as it gives researchers a much broader perspective on the location of discontinuities. Kernel density estimation is confirmed as a method to identify discontinuities in earnings levels and changes distributions by comparing total, discretionary and working capital accruals between suspected earnings management and non-earnings management firms. Evidence that discontinuities in earnings distributions may be attributable to earnings management activities is found where earnings levels and earnings changes are deflated by number of shares and market value of equity, both modified Jones and asymmetric BS discretionary accruals are significantly income increasing in suspected earnings management (EM) firms and income decreasing in non-EM firms. Scaling by total assets is not a suitable deflator in the South African context as it appears to affect the sign and statistical significance of the accruals metrics in the earnings levels before and after tax distributions. This result does not detract from the efficiency of kernel density estimation as it is attributable to the inefficiency of total accruals as a scalar in an emerging market environment. Furthermore, this research endorses Ball and Shivakumar’s (2006) (BS) finding that an asymmetric discretionary accruals model is more efficient in estimating discretionary accruals in all the distributions, irrespective of deflators. In addition, the results of this thesis show that, in an emerging economy, deferred tax is incrementally useful to modified- Jones and the asymmetric BS discretionary accruals in detecting earnings management. The implication of this result is useful to investors, auditors and regulators because deferred tax movements and its components are a visible and identifiable numbers in financial statements. Deferred tax expense can be used, instead of complicated discretionary accrual models, to identify evidence of earnings management. This means that the components of the deferred tax asset or liability accounts can be analysed to highlight unusual movements which may in turn, focus attention on unusual accruals. For researchers, this result has important implications. Kernel density estimation can be used to identify suspected earnings management firms which can be used to further research. The final chapter of this thesis explores whether investors price suspected earnings management and nonearnings management firms differently and finds that, in this South African sample, there is no difference in price levels or cumulative abnormal returns in suspected earnings management and non-earnings management firms. This result is in sharp contrast to Balsam, Bartov, and Marquardt (2002) and Baber, Shuping, and Sok-Hyong (2006) who report a negative association between unexpected discretionary accruals and cumulative abnormal returns and Keung, Lin, and Shih (2010) who find that investors react negatively to zero or small earnings surprises. To some extent the results of this section of the thesis supports the finding in Gavious (2007) that prices react to discretionary accruals only after the introduction of revised analysts’ forecasts.The finding in this thesis implies that investors in South Africa are unable to detect earnings management. This outcome should be viewed in the context of prior research that reports that the JSE may be inefficient (Bhana, 1995, 2005, 2010; Hoffman, 2012; Ward and Muller, 2012; Watson and Roussow, 2012) and may be attributed to the fact that there is no signal to investors that the quality of earnings may be questionable in the sample of suspected earnings management firms. All in all, the findings of this thesis indicate the existence of earnings management in listed companies in South Africa. / XL2018

Mission statement is important to companies, especially as a strategic communication tool with stakeholders. Innovation is also important to companies and has its implications on performance. This study examines the relationship between financial performance and explicitly communicating innovation in mission statement. The study uses a quantitative approach with logistic regression to test empirical hypotheses related to revenues, profits, change in assets and market value, and their relationship with explicitly communicating innovation in mission statements. The conclusion is that among all the financial performance indicators considered, only market value represents a strong and significant result, indicating a positive relationship with explicitly communicating innovation.

Este estudo teve como objetivo principal verificar se há consonância entre as medidas de mensuração das perdas por lucros cessantes expressas nos acórdãos emitidos pelo Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de São Paulo (TJSP) e aquelas referenciadas na literatura de Contabilidade aplicável ao tema. Além disso, buscou identificar o entendimento recorrente do TJSP a respeito das medidas de mensuração aplicáveis a essas apurações. O estudo trata de maneira específica da interrupção de atividades ou negócios, quando o prejudicado é uma entidade jurídica. Foi analisado o conteúdo de 104 acórdãos emitidos pelo TJSP, no período de junho de 2012 a setembro de 2012. As decisões foram analisadas à luz da técnica de análise de conteúdo e por meio de recursos da estatística descritiva, basicamente frequências relativas e acumuladas. A análise dos dados revelou que: (i) existe relação entre as medidas de mensuração expressas nos acórdãos emitidos pelo TJSP e a literatura aplicável ao tema, e (ii) a extensão dessa relação, no que se refere a concordância com a literatura aplicável, é parcial, correspondendo a 52,2% das locuções identificadas na amostra analisada. Verificou-se, também, que 80,4% das locuções utilizadas pelo TJSP para se referir a medidas de mensuração dos lucros perdidos são representadas por cinco (5) diferentes expressões. Essas expressões não possuem o mesmo significado contábil. Outro aspecto constatado foi o uso do termo \'faturamento\' como referência de medida de lucro aplicável às apurações. Além do fato de que esse termo não é referenciado pela literatura como uma medida válida, identificou-se decisão do STJ que descredencia o seu uso em pleitos de indenização por danos dessa natureza. Observou-se, também, como parte dos outros achados, que os acórdãos do TJSP utilizam expressões que representam diferentes critérios para a mensuração dos lucros perdidos. A principal expressão corresponde ao termo \'razoável\', cuja interpretação para fins de operacionalização da apuração, é subjetiva. A conclusão é de que o uso de uma terminologia contábil que não tenha consonância com a literatura aplicável ao tema pode comprometer a apuração do valor do dano e a eficácia da decisão judicial. Nesse contexto, não há segurança de que o valor apurado atenda ao que era a intenção do relator do acórdão nem de que corresponda ao dano sofrido pelo prejudicado. / This study aims at verifying whether there is consonance between the measures used for the measurement of the damages for lost profits issued by the Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de São Paulo (TJSP) and those referenced in the Accounting literature applicable to the subject. Furthermore, we sought to identify TJSP\'s understanding of the measures applicable to such measurement calculations applicable to these findings. The study treats the interruption of the activities or of the business itself in a very specific manner, when the injured party is a legal entity. The content of 104 judgments issued by TJSP was analyzed from June 2012 to September 2012. The decisions were analyzed in light of the technique for content analysis and by means of descriptive statistics, basically relative and cumulative frequency analyses. Data analysis revealed that: (i) there is a connection between measures informed in the judgments issued by TJSP and the literature applicable to the subject, and (ii) the extent of this connection, regarding the concordance with the applicable literature, is partial, corresponding to 52.2% of the phrases identified in the analyzed sample. It was also found that 80.4% of the phrases used by TJSP to refer to the measures of the lost profits are represented by five (5) different idioms, which in turn, do not have the same meaning in accounting. Another aspect observed was the use of the term \'turnover\' as a reference to measure of profits applicable to the findings. Besides the fact that this term is not referenced in the literature as a valid measure, we identified STJ\'s decision to invalidate its use in claims for such damages. It could also be seen that, as part of other findings, TJSP\'s judgments use idioms that represent different criteria to measure lost profits. The main idiom corresponds to the term \'reasonable\', whose interpretation in order to operationalize the findings is subjective. The conclusion is that the use of accounting terms which do not have consonance with the literature to the subject may compromise the findings of the value of the damage and the effectiveness of the legal decision. In this context, there is not guarantee as to whether the value found faithfully describes the judge\'s intent in the judgment or that it matches the damage suffered by the injured party.

Tian Vane Ing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-74). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Overview --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Shareholder Value and Corporate Governance --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Measures of Value --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Data and Methodology --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- Data --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2 --- Economic Value Added (EVA) --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT) --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Invested Capital (INCAP) --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Cost of Capital --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2 --- Hypothesis of Interest --- p.18 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Empirical Results --- p.23 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Cost of Capital --- p.23 / Chapter 4.2 --- Economic Value Added (EVA) in China and Hong Kong --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Analysis of the EVA: Overall --- p.25 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Analysis of the EVA: Industry --- p.28 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Discussions --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3 --- Testing of the Hypothesis --- p.36 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- EBEI and CFO in China and Hong Kong --- p.37 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Regression on Market Value --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Discussions --- p.43 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Summary and Concluding Remarks --- p.68 / Bibliography --- p.71

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:21:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberto Perez Fragoso.pdf: 2156005 bytes, checksum: 0987d043591de9da3e963c63be6aa653 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-15 / The present work has as objective the taxation exam upon the profits from investment abroad earned by Brazilian companies. In such a way, we will analyze the conformation of the constitutional principles that determines the Brazilian legal system, the principles which hold the income. We will analyze the new writing of article 43 of the National Tax Code, which was modified to allow to the taxation of the profits generated in the exterior by ordinary law, as well as will cover the concept of economic and legal availability in order to try to validate if this sign determined by the legislator possess coherence with the superior norm that granted validity to it / A presente dissertação tem como objetivo a análise dos os lucros auferidos no exterior por empresas brasileiras, eleito pelo legislador positivo como signo de riqueza para a tributação do Imposto de Renda da Pessoa Jurídica e da Contribuição Social sobre o Lucro. Para tanto, analisaremos a conformação dos princípios constitucionais que delimitam o sistema jurídico brasileiro e os princípios tributários atinentes a renda. Analisaremos a nova redação do artigo 43 do CÓDIGO TRIBUTÁRIO NACIONAL, que foi alterada para permitir a tributação dos lucros gerados no exterior com base em lei ordinária. Percorreremos o conceito de disponibilidade econômica e jurídica de forma a tentarmos validar se esse signo determinado pelo legislador ordinário possui coerência com a norma superior que lhe concedeu validade

There are two main principles under which jurisdictions tax income – source and residence. The point of these two principles is to establish a ‘nexus’ or link between a taxable transaction, operation or activity and a taxing state. It is this nexus which is used to justify the imposition of taxation by the jurisdiction on a particular taxpayer. Where a taxpayer is a ‘resident’ of a jurisdiction, then that person often becomes liable to pay tax on income derived from all sources. Where a taxpayer is a ‘nonresident’ of a jurisdiction, then that person often becomes liable to pay tax on income derived from sources within a particular, relevant jurisdiction. The concept of source of income is fundamentally important to both Australia and Hong Kong. Australia adopts a worldwide tax system that taxes its residents on Australian and foreign income and non-residents on Australian income, whilst Hong Kong adopts a territorial tax system that forgoes taxing foreign income irrespective of who has derived it. The fundamental basis for taxation under a territorial tax system is the source of income; while the fundamental basis for taxation under a worldwide tax system is the concept of residence. In both jurisdictions, the decisions of the courts on the meaning of source have been crucial in defining the concept of ‘source of income’ for tax purposes. The foundations of source-based taxation are less stable today. There is no universal set of source rules that can readily be applied to every circumstance to determine the source or locality of profits. The growth in international trade, supported by the development of electronic commerce, has substantially increased source-related revenue risks. Entities are increasingly able to structure their finances and conduct their affairs without being constrained by geography or national boundaries. Anticipated profits may be shifted to a related party and from one jurisdiction to another to arrive at a reduced overall tax burden. It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine from what and where income originates. The thesis examines the nature of the current source rules in Australia and Hong Kong and analyses the fundamental adequacy of the source principle generally when confronted, especially, with the challenge of rapidly growing Internet-based commercial activities. Australia and Hong Kong have been chosen for comparative study for the following reasons: the two jurisdictions are good examples of small-medium advanced economies; they are similar in the sense that they are, primarily, knowledge capital-importing jurisdictions; their approaches to ‘source’ differ markedly; and these approaches tend towards each end of the ‘source spectrum’. The thesis identifies certain principal research questions. The basic responses to these questions are: The concept of source of income is, essentially, less clear today in the domestic tax law of Australia and Hong Kong than before. Determining the source of income in Australia and Hong Kong can be a very complex issue. The difficulty related to making such determinations is growing. Searching for the real source of income has become still more problematic with the increase in globalisation and the rapid growth of Internet-based commerce. The traditional concept of source of income has ‘lost traction’ as a fundamental basis for effectively imposing income taxation, especially, in today’s globalised economy. Existing source rules do not deal adequately with certain ‘revenue-leakage’ issues confronting us today and, even more, the likely issues of tomorrow. We need to reconsider how we can better address these issues. The thesis establishes that this is so for Australia and Hong Kong. It also reasons that this proposition generally holds true for most developed tax jurisdictions. The thesis concludes with a detailed review of three of the most prominent optional approaches for addressing the source challenge: (A) a move to a new refundable withholding-tax-based method of taxing cross-border electronic commerce; (B) a shift to far greater reliance on the use of the residence principle of taxation; and (C) a shift to notably greater reliance on (indirect) consumption taxation. Option C, it is argued, offers the best prospects for dealing in the least bad way with the identified issues.