Sweeping financial management reforms occurred in New Zealand during the late 1980s and early 1990s which radically changed the face of the New Zealand public sector. These reforms sought to significantly restructure and reorganise local government thereby improving their effectiveness and efficiency and improving their accountability to their stakeholders. The principal vehicle for the discharge of this accountability is the annual report, which must be prepared according to Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and commercial principles. Organisations in the private sector are beginning to recognise the value of accounting for intellectual capital (IC) (see for example Quinn, 1992; Brooking, 1996; Sveiby, 1997; Edvinsson Malone, 1997; Bontis, Dragonetti, Jacobsen Roos, 1999; Guthrie, Petty Johanson, 2001; Bounfour, 2003). Studies on the measurement, management and reporting of IC have been undertaken internationally in Asia (Abeysekera Guthrie, 2005; Goh Lim, 2004; Ordenez de Pablos, 2002), Australia (Guthrie Petty, 2000), Europe (Bozzolan, Favotto and Ricceri, 2003; Olsson, 2001; Ordenez de Pablos, 2004), United Kingdom (Collier, 2001; Williams, 2001) and Ireland (Brennan, 2001). Despite the significant research interest in the field of intellectual capital internationally, scant attention has been paid to intellectual capital reporting by commercial organisations in New Zealand. An extensive review of the IC literature yielded only two New Zealand based studies (Miller Whiting, 2005; Wong Gardner, 2005). Further, no studies to date have addressed intellectual capital reporting by local governments in either New Zealand or internationally. This study aims to fill this gap through the development of an intellectual capital disclosure model that could be applied to local authorities. The research describes and explains the development of a disclosure index used to measure the extent and quality of current intellectual capital disclosure by local authorities in New Zealand. The index was developed through a consultative process with a panel of local government stakeholders which was used to establish the weightings for each item. The final index comprised 26 items divided into three categories: internal capital, external capital and human capital. The 2004/2005 annual reports of 82 New Zealand local authorities were scored for extent and quality of disclosure against the index. The results indicate that intellectual capital reporting by local authorities is varied. Manukau City Council scored the achieved the highest overall score (76%) out of the 82 reports analysed while Whakatane District Council scored the lowest with 33%. The most reported items were joint ventures/business collaborations and management processes. The least reported items were intellectual property and licensing agreements. The most reported category of intellectual capital was internal capital, followed by external capital. The least reported category was human capital. The findings indicate a number of areas of reporting that could be improved in order to meet with stakeholder disclosure expectations. In the internal capital category, intellectual property disclosures could be improved. In the external capital category disclosure concerning ratepayer demographics and licensing agreements could be improved. In the human capital category, disclosure of most items could be improved, in particular, entrepreneurial innovativeness and vocational qualifications. The study provided an insight into the current level and quality of intellectual capital disclosure by the NZ local government sector. The results indicated that local authorities are disclosing some aspects of intellectual capital in their annual report, however there is no consistent reporting framework, and many areas of IC disclosures are not meeting stakeholder expectations. More research is needed in the area of intellectual capital reporting in the public sector. This study provides a preliminary framework which can be used by local authorities to enhance intellectual capital disclosures in their annual reports.

ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the legal and theoretical basis of continuous disclosure regulation in Australia as it applies to listed companies. An empirical study is undertaken to further investigate the operation of the legislation. As part of the Enhanced Disclosure regime, the continuous disclosure provision was effective from 5 September 1994 as s1001A of the Corporations Law, now the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This statutory provision is replaced by s674, inserted by Schedule 2 to the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth), and effective from 11 March 2002. The provision reinforces Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listing rule 3.1. The rule requires a listed disclosing entity to notify ASX immediately of information that would be expected to have a �material effect� on the share price of the company. However, the disclosure requirement is weakened by a number of specific exemptions or �carve-outs� to listing rule 3.1. If a reasonable person would not expect the information to be disclosed, and if the confidentiality of the information is maintained, then disclosure is not mandatory in special circumstances. This study analyses 427 query notices, issued by ASX to listed companies from July 1995 to April 1996. The queries request information concerning unexplained movements in a company�s share price or a failure to comply with the listing rules. An analysis of the companies� replies to these notices provides a profile of the type of company that is likely to be queried. The study also attempts to evaluate the extent to which these companies have relied on the �carve-outs� as an exemption to the regulation.

This thesis examines the strategic and potentially legitimising nature of voluntary environmental reporting. First, the thesis examines the relationship between emission levels on the National Pollutant Inventory and the quantity of total voluntary environmental disclosures, voluntary emission disclosures and positive voluntary environmental disclosures in annual reports. Second, an examination of changes in the quantity of disclosures discussing compliance with the National Pollutant Inventory and/or disclosures concerning pollution emissions is undertaken. Taking into consideration the findings relating to the strategic nature of voluntary disclosures, the thesis then examines the potential of such disclosures to impact upon the usefulness of mandatory annual report disclosure requirements. This is undertaken by investigating whether significant differences exist between environmental disclosure practices in the voluntary sections of annual reports for corporations reporting non-compliance, and those not reporting non-compliance, in the directors' report pursuant with the requirements of s. 299(1)(f) of the Corporations Law. The findings suggest that, for the sample corporations, a change in environmental regulation may have been an impetus for changes in voluntary environmental disclosure practices in annual reports. Disclosures are identified as being discretionary, and potentially reactive to changes in environmental regulation, with a significant increase in the quantity of voluntary disclosures relating to the National Pollutant Inventory and in the number of corporations making voluntary emission disclosures during the period. Hence, voluntary disclosures, although discretionary, may provide some indication of the corporation's actual environmental activities and provides some support for industry arguments to maintain a voluntary environmental disclosure system. A comparison of the quantity and nature of voluntary disclosures for corporations required to report non-compliance with, and those reporting no non-compliance with, environmental regulations in the directors' report found no significant differences in disclosure practices between the two groups; that is, in contrast to the findings of previous research, those reporting non-compliance had no higher propensity for either greater quantities of voluntary environmental disclosures or positive voluntary environmental disclosures. The findings suggest that the limitations faced by s. 299(1)(f) in its early years may have resulted in it not being perceived as a legitimacy threat by the sample corporations or as a lesser threat than others such as the NPI. Therefore, questions remain as to whether the section is able to produce the outcomes proposed at its inception. Overall, taking into consideration the discretionary nature of voluntary environmental disclosures, and the limitations of s. 299(1)(f), concern remains as to the quality of the Australian annual report environmental reporting system and the potential for the existence of voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual report to reduce the usefulness of a mandatory disclosure system to users. These findings suggest a need for further research into the effect of both mandatory and voluntary environmental disclosures on users' perceptions of corporate environmental performance.

Using a broad sample of the largest European companies, I examine whether the two governance mechanisms, namely (i) independent monitoring by a board of directors and (ii) grants and disclosures of incentive-based executive pay, are substitutes for one another. I find that companies with proportionately more executives on their boards of directors grant greater incentive-based pay to their executives, and improve the transparency of their pay disclosure. The findings are consistent with the efficient contracting argument, which predicts that greater incentive-based pay and pay disclosure transparency mitigate agency problems generated by boards dependent upon management

Despite the need for accurate oil and gas reserves estimates which honor disclosure requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a number of exploration and production companies have allegedly overstated and subsequently written down their reserves during the last 20 years. Reserves write-downs are of great interest to numerous groups involved in the reserves estimation process and outcome, including estimators, managers, investors, creditors, and regulators. Considering the magnitude and nature of some alleged overstatement cases, it appears that some of these parties may benefit from a better understanding of reserves reporting, the relative risk of overstatements, the regulatory environment and enforcement procedures, and identifying questionable reserves data. After discussing the context and importance of reserves and write-downs, there is a detailed examination of the SEC, including the agency's reserves reporting requirements, and their enforcement methods. A number of alleged overstatement and write-down "case studies" are presented, with details on the specific Federal Laws alleged to have been violated by corporations or individuals and then cited by the SEC and shareholder lawsuits. We also conclude that there may be greater write-down potential due to the updated SEC reserves reporting guidelines. A comprehensive series of systematic questions have been compiled and quick-look graphical techniques have been developed that may be used to gain insight into -and potentially raise questions about- an operator's reserves data.

The Enron collapse in 2001 has resulted in an increasing attention to corporate governance. Even in Sweden, some scandals have occurred, for example Skandia, ABB, Trustor; a parallel could be drawn, implying that these scandals have resulted in increased attention to corporate governance. Corporate governance concerns the relationship between a corporation’s management, board of directors, shareholders and other stakeholders. The problems with the relationship between managers and share-holders are referred to as the principle-agent problem. The increase in corporate governance disclosure can be seen as a way by the corporations to regain the trust from the shareholders. Can agency theory be used to explain why some corporation disclose more corporate governance information than others? The purpose with this master thesis is, with starting point in agency theory, to contribute to the understanding of which factors that influence corporations to disclose corporate governance information in the annual reports. For this thesis, a quantitative research has been performed. Annual reports from corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange have been examined, to be able to develop a corporate governance disclosure index and to measure 15 characteristics, derived from the agency theory and two control variables. The data was analysed in SPSS , using both linear and multiple regressions. The analysis showed that role duality actually measured if a corporation had a foreign parent company and corporations listed on the O-list other on Stockholm Stock Exchange served as proxies for smaller corporations. Therefore, it was possible to con-clude that corporations were influenced by the origin of the parent company and the size of the corporation to disclose corporate governance information. Another conclusion was that corporate governance characteristics derived from agency theory is not appropriate when trying to find factors that influence corporations to disclose corporate governance information. Nevertheless, this does not mean that it is inappropriate to take the starting point in the agency theory.

<p><font size="4" face="TrebuchetMS,BoldItalic"><font size="4" face="TrebuchetMS,BoldItalic"> <p>The study used a qualitative approach. Fourteen (14) in-depth interviews were conducted with English and Luganda speaking adult male and female clients on antiretroviral treatment (ART), in TASO Mulago. A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted with 8 purposively selected ART clients who were considered to be &lsquo / expert&rsquo / clients in TASO Mulago. These participants were expert clients/ peer educators, who were open about their HIV status and have been involved in HIV/AIDS education and advocacy. The individual interviews and the focus group discussion were transcribed verbatim, and subjected to thematic and content analysis. Male and female participants who were married (primary relationship) disclosed their sero-status to their sexual partners, while few of those cohabiting or in steady relationship (only one) disclosed to their partners. Enabling factors to disclose to current sexual partners included: desire for partner to get treatment, need for the partner&rsquo / s support, having prior knowledge of partner&rsquo / s HIV status, out of anger, and having anxiety about the future. Some of the barriers to disclosure included: fear of blame and disappointing the partner, fear of abandonment, fear of stigma and discrimination. Participants suggested that couple counselling and testing, economic independence, peer support and involvement of the TASO staff in disclosure should be considered to facilitate or promote disclosure to sexual partners.</p> </font></font></p>

This thesis provides new insight into the information environments of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and analysts’ equity reports. The thesis consists of four essays that address the issues of firm disclosure and the relevance of information for analysts and investors in the capital market. The research question concerns the role of accounting information on the capital market. The present thesis entails the following analyses: (i) An analysis of the content in IPO prospectuses (ii) Cross-sectional analyses on factors affecting prospectus disclosure (iii) An analysis of the short- and long-run returns of IPOs (iv) An analysis of the relevance of IPO disclosure on IPO valuation (v) An analysis of non-financial information content in analysts’ reports (vi) An analysis of the valuation relevance of non-financial information The first essay examines prospectus disclosure and looks at explanations as to the factors that drive the disclosure. The findings reveal that IPO firms provide more information in their prospectus in comparison with non-IPO firms. The second essay analyzes how prospectus disclosure affects IPO valuation in the secondary market. It is hypothesized that increased disclosure in the prospectus decreases valuation uncertainty, which implicates lower underpricing for the IPO firm. The essay shows that Swedish IPOs are underpriced. However, disclosure is not found to be related to underpricing. The third essay examines the extent and type of forecasts provided in the prospectuses and the value relevance of this information. The study reveals a reduction in profit and sales forecast disclosures while at the same time shows an increase in sales growth forecasts for the period 1996-2004. The essay finds that forecast information is particularly relevant to investors and analysts. Forecast disclosing firms demonstrate a significantly lower underpricing and lower long-run return compared with non-forecast disclosing firms. The fourth essay concerns the valuation relevance of non-financial information contained in analysts’ equity reports. The essay notes that valuation relevance of non-financial information is positively related to the size of the target firm. Moreover, analysts were observed to rely more heavily on forward-looking non-financial information than historical non-financial information in their valuation.

The implementation of IFRS/IAS accounting standards in Sweden had the intension to harmonize the accounting practices within the EU and increase transparency into the firms. However since the implementation there have been reports and studies showing the lack of compliance with the disclosure requirements regarding impairment tests of Goodwill. According to IFRS 3 Goodwill should no longer be amortized but should undergo an impairment test at least once a year to evaluate its true value. The impairment test is made by the firms themselves on very subjective assumptions. These assumptions should be disclosed according to IAS 36 paragraph 134 in the annual report to enable transparency. So far the full compliance with this rule has been questionable. This study aims to elucidate possible reasons for why firms leave out the required information in IAS 36 paragraph 134 and how authorized public accountants reason around the reasons given. To fulfill the aim of the study an inductive research method was used. The data was gathered through the use of qualitative interviews with authorized public accountants some of them with special expertise in the field. The empirical findings from the interviews contained a number of reasons for why companies do not disclose the information in IAS 36 paragraph 134. Among the most common were the risk of exposure, decreased flexibility, ignorance and non adequate internal reporting procedures. The study’s analysis use institutional theories to point out additional explanations for how disclosure requirements are handled. One finding is the tendency for firms to mimic each other, a behavior called isomorphism. The conclusion of the study is a discovery of an underlying unwillingness to write-down goodwill and thereby an unwillingness to give full disclosure in connection to the impairment test. Firms feel that the information is related to their competitive edge and thus exposes them too much. The authors also raise reasonable doubt to whether the IFRS/IAS standards have fulfilled their intension with increased transparency in the case of goodwill accounting.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.