published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The economic reforms in Jordan during the last two decades have highlighted and promoted the role that non-financial firms play within the Jordanian economy. The ability of firms to play this role is in major part determined by the structure of the financial system in which they operate, and in particular whether this financial system is able to make capital available efficiently to those firms that need it. Whether this is the case can be investigated by analysing the impact of firm characteristics on some of the most important financial decisions taken by these firms, and how these decisions are influenced by the presence of market imperfections. The thesis examines the relation between the financing and investment decisions, where the effect of financial constraints on the firm’s investment decision is investigated. In particular, this thesis focuses on how financial constraints affect different firms by investigating the extent to which the reliance on internal cash flow is affected by firm characteristics such as size, age, dividend payout ratio, and market listing. We find that Jordanian firms are financially constrained, but that these constraints do not appear to be related to firm characteristics. Further, results show that Jordanian firms use debt rather than equity to finance their investment. The second empirical chapter focuses on the main determinants of firms’ capital structure. Here the results show that Jordanian firms follow the pecking order theory, where profitability and liquidity have a negative impact on the level of debt. Size and market to book value have a positive impact, supporting the view that there are significant constraints on debt financing since indicators of the financial health of the firms affect their capital structure ratio. There is also evidence that ownership structure affects the firm’s access to debt. The final empirical chapter examines the impact of firm characteristics on dividend policy, and shows that profitability and market to book value have a positive impact on dividend policy, implying that firms with better access to capital or credit pay dividends. This implies that firms retain earnings in order to ensure that they have sufficient capital to invest, confirming the initial result that Jordanian firms are financially constrained. There is also evidence of the impact of ownership structure, consistent with the predictions of agency cost theory, while institutional investors appear to follow the prudent-man restrictions, being positively associated with firms that pay dividends. This thesis confirms the presence of market imperfections that have a significant influence on the financial decisions taken by Jordanian firms. The consistent evidence of the importance of retained earnings shows that these firms face substantial constraints in terms of their access to external funds, despite the reforms to the Jordanian financial system over the last two decades.

M.Comm. / The Financial Sector Charter is a transformation charter in terms of the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act (Act 53 of 2003). The Charter is a voluntary initiative by the financial sector to address racially based income and social inequalities in South Africa. It aims to encourage black economic participation through its six pillars. The Charter came into effect in January 2004 as a result of the Financial Sector Summit hosted by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), the multilateral social dialogue forum on social, economic and labour policy. The Nedlac partners – government, business, labour and community constituencies – negotiated the Financial Sector Summit Agreements on transforming the financial sector and signed the Summit declaration on 20 August 2002. The Charter commits its participants to 'actively promoting a transformed, vibrant, and globally competitive financial sector that reflects the demographics of South Africa, and contributes to the establishment of an equitable society by effectively providing accessible financial services to black people and by directing investment into targeted sectors of the economy. Financial institutions affected by the Charter include banks, long-term insurers, shortterm insurers, re-insurers, collective investment schemes, investment managers, retirement funds, and licensed exchanges. Any other institution in the financial sector may opt to participate in the Charter. The objectives of the Charter are to: • constitute a framework and establish the principles upon which BEE will be implemented in the financial sector; • provide the basis for the sector’s engagement with other stakeholders; • establish targets and unquantified responsibilities in respect of each principle; • outline processes for implementing the charter and mechanisms to monitor and report on progress. Progress on the Financial Sector Charter Scorecard in the South African Banking Sector In pursuit of these objectives, the Charter commits financial institutions in the sector to transforming in the areas of: • Human resource development; • Procurement of goods and services; • Access to financial services; • Empowerment financing; • Ownership and control; • Corporate social investment. The study provides an overview on the above objectives of the Charter and seeks to measure and assesses in detail the progress of the banking sector regarding the six key areas of the FSC as outlined in the FSC Scorecard against the set targets of 2008. The scorecards analysed would be those that have been submitted to the Council as at the 31 December 2006. • Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa Group); • FirstRand Group (including First National Bank); • Nedbank Group; • Standard Bank Group. The study will assess the performance of each bank, highlighting the positives and providing recommendations where there are shortfalls. The results will be consolidated to give an overall performance overview of the banking sector in South Africa in meeting transformational challenges faced by the country. According to the South African Reserve Bank (2008:106) the financial services sector including insurance, real estate and business services added 22% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2007 making it the biggest contributor. It is therefore imperative for this study to be undertaken to assess and ensure that the sector commits to the process of transformation in addressing the past imbalances with regard to inclusive participation by all in the South African economy.

Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2013. / This paper assesses the level of financial intermediation in the South African financial industry and the reasons for these levels of intermediation. Different banking intermediation measures are considered and mostly reflect disintermediation during the 1993 to 2009 period. Panel regressions are run to assess which economic factors had the biggest impact on intermediation by SA’s four largest banks (Absa Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa, Firstrand Bank and Nedbank). It is found that bank intermediation was impacted by bank size, profitability, as well as the level of competition and client relationships. The level of financial intermediation in SA has been low, negatively impacting on banks intermediation ability, and possibly impeding government and corporate sectors’ investment and economic activity.

The relationship between finance and the real economy which has been the subject of centuries old debates, gained renewed prominence with the relative and unprecedented growth of the financial sector over the last few decades. Finance has changed not only in terms of its size compared to other sectors, but also in terms of the nature of its products, and how it affects outcomes in the real economy. This has become known as financialisation. Research in other places has shown that the financial sector has grown at the expense of the real economy, as it has negatively impacted real investment. This occurred against the backdrop of non-financial corporations (NFCs) diverting more of their surpluses to the financial sector in the form of financial payout and financial investment. This research project studies the relationship between financialisation and the real economy in South Africa. Using aggregated data of all listed firms (with the exception of financial companies) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between 1971 and 2012 the impact of financialisation on real investment is empirically tested. Two channels in the form of financial payout (dividend and interest payments) and financial income (dividend and interest income) through which funds flow between the real economy and finance are analysed. We find that increased financial activity by NFCs may have a negative impact on real capital investment. Financial income presents more robust results than financial payout which may be an indication that the crowding out effect is a serious problem in South Africa.

I investigate the association between rent extraction and qualitative/quantitative characteristics of 10-K filings (i.e. readability, financial statement comparability and earnings transparency), subject to existing monitoring constraints. This study focuses on one type of such rent extraction – investment inefficiency (i.e. overinvestment or underinvestment), as extant research provides evidence that it provides personal benefits to managers, often at the expense of shareholders. Managers have incentives to invest inefficiently but such behavior may be undesirable and result in negative consequences to the manager, such as turnover. Therefore, I expect that managers are likely to obfuscate information in order to make it difficult for investors to detect investment inefficiency, although monitoring over financial reporting may limit their ability to do so. I test whether monitoring over financial reporting reduces information obfuscation. Last, I study the joint effects of investment inefficiency and information obfuscation on CEO turnover and compensation. I expect that investment inefficiency is positively associated with information obfuscation but this relation is weaker for firms with effective monitoring mechanisms over financial reporting. Further, I examine how these factors affect CEO disciplining. Managers get disciplined for inefficient investment decisions. Obfuscating information makes it difficult for investors to evaluate managers’ investment decisions. Therefore, I examine whether information obfuscation prevents managers from being disciplined as a result of inefficient investment behavior. I find that investment inefficiency is positively associated with information obfuscation. Managers are more likely to obfuscate information for overinvestment type of inefficiency as opposed to underinvestment. Further, the results suggest that, while internal monitoring does not reduce information obfuscation, external monitoring constrains information obfuscation. I find that external monitoring (i.e. auditors) provide more stringent monitoring by reducing information obfuscation. I do not find support for my last prediction that information obfuscation prevents disciplining of CEOs. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Reflecting on the growing interest from scholars and practitioners and their awareness of the necessity to appreciate the involvement of the client in an audit process (Canning, Malsch & O’Dwyer, 2017), the aim of this study is to explore the importance of audit client commitment to comprehensive audit preparation, to improve the quality of a UK financial statements audit. This research is based on a qualitative approach employing semi structured interviews as a research method. Accordingly, interviews were undertaken with audit engagement leaders from a range of auditing firms as well as with finance directors from a range of audited clients. The perspectives as to the levels of preparedness for the first day of the financial statements audit commencing from each participant group were examined and were shown to reveal interesting results. The study unveiled the differences between what auditors and their clients perceived to be ‘ready’ for the financial statements audit. The availability of a completed set of financial statements when the auditors commence their audit has been identified as an issue that causes a significant amount of time pressures on the auditors. Additionally, the thematic analysis of data revealed that as a result of such pressures auditors were adopting practices whereby insufficient/substandard work was completed, which could potentially not only have an adverse effect on the overall quality of the audit, but also contribute to an inappropriate audit opinion being signed. Amendments to current auditing practices and the periods between a reporting period end and the audit work commencing to enhance audit quality was found to underpin the pressures on auditors when forming a time pressured audit opinion. This study of the challenges faced by auditors to plan and complete their audit with conflicting targets and time scales as well as the pressures felt by audit clients, provides audit preparedness specific, evidence based implications on which these may be surmounted to enable a quality, fully documented audit and supported audit opinion to be completed. This study addresses the pressing need to overcome the lack of theoretical discussions on the auditees’ perspectives on auditing practices, and their views on the specific factors enhancing audit quality. Based on the existing literature to date, no study has explored the “auditee” as a research object in scholarly discussions on the quality of a UK financial statements audit. The findings of this study, along with subsequent recommendations have relevance for the key stakeholders of audit engagements and regulators concerned with the enhancement of the quality of a UK financial statements audit, and for scholars interested in broadening their understanding of the audit process as a two-sided relationship.

In recent year, there has been virtually no research into the strategic management practices of the Thai financial services sector. The aims of this research is to explore the strategic management practices of the Thai financial services sector (both banking companies and non-banking companies), and also seeks to identify whether there are differences in the strategic management practices on the basis of size, business type, and ownership respectively. The findings from this research will provide a benchmark against which further research into strategic management in Thailand can be undertaken. The Thai economic crisis (approximately 1997 to 1999) has impacted very strongly on the Thai financial services sector, as evidenced by the reduction in the number of companies and the dramatic increase in non-performing loans. It is against this background, that this research investigates the strategic management practices (including the general environments, the immediate environments, the internal environments, the corporate strategies, and the planning and planning system) of the Thai financial services companies to gain an understanding of their strategic management practices (year 2000) and the changes to their strategic management practices. This research also examined the impact of both internal environmental factors and external environmental factors on the strategic management practices of the Thai financial services companies. The process for this research was based on a through literature review, an analysis of the industry, the development of a conceptual framework (building on prion research overseas), and the development of a survey approach based on personal interviews with carefully selected respondents. This research has selected all the companies in the Thai financial services sector (13 domestic banks, 5 major government banks, 33 foreign bank�s branches, 33 finance and securities companies, and 10 credit foncier companies) who survived the economic crisis in Thailand. In total of the 99 approached to participate companies, 71 (72%) Thai financial services companies participated in the survey, consisting of 26 finance and securities companies, 18 foreign bank�s branches, 13 domestic banks, 9 credit foncier companies, and 5 major government banks. In respect to the data analysis, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilised in this study, using both univariate and multivariate techniques. Of the 71 companies who participated in this research, 80% (N=57) had a formalised strategic planning (FSP) system, which presented 94% of large companies, 100% of medium sized companies, which was 97% of banking companies and 63% of non-banking companies. Whereas, 72% of the small companies has no formalised strategic planning (NFSP) system which was 100% of credit foncier companies and 15% of finance and securities companies. This research also shows that only 6% of foreign majority ownership companies and 32% of Thai majority ownership companies in the Thai financial services sector did not have FSP system. Of the NFSP companies, 50% would implement a FSP system over the next five years. These findings show that the Thai financial services companies have adopted a fairly traditional approach to strategic management and rely heavily on formalised strategic planning system. For these reasons, the major focus of the analysis of this research is on the FSP companies. Of the FSP companies, define their strategic management as the process of sharing the organisational structure, the company�s resources, the company�s culture and managerial style, the company�s long-term goals, the company�s mission statement, the company�s strategies, the company�s planning, and the external environmental factors to build a market position strong enough and an organisational capable enough to achieve successful performance despite unforeseeable events, potent competition, and internal problems. This research shows that there are significant differences in the organisational structure, process, and system either for size, business type, and ownership aspects. Overall, the large companies that comprised most of the domestic banking companies with Thai majority ownership and the foreign bank�s branches believe they were more likely to be strategically managed through their structures, processes and systems than the other groups of FSP companies. The findings in this thesis shows that these banking companies identified a much clearer managing of planning and planning system which including corporate plans, second level long-term plans, planning�s objectives, planning�s roles, planning�s processes, planning�s coordination issues, planning�s structures than the other group of FSP companies. In contrast, of the NFSP companies, the strategic issues and strategies emerged from the vision of the CEO, whereas did not appear to have roles, objectives, etc. for their strategic issues identification and strategy development process, anywhere as clearly as the FSP companies identified for their planning. The evidence from this research shows that the FSP companies were more likely to consider they were strategically managed than the NFSP companies. This research has identified a schematic representation of the strategic management practices of the companies with a FSP system and a NFSP system. The results of this research enables a better understanding of the strategic management practices of the Thai financial services sector. Also, prospective researchers can use data and the conceptual model generated from this research to further develop the theories of strategic management and to explore whether meaningful differences occur between strategic management practices of other Thai industries and the Thai financial services sector. This research as the first significant study of strategic management practices for the Thai financial services sector, provides an important benchmark for future research e.g. strategic management practices of the Thai financial services companies in the next five years, how the Thai financial services companies seek to recover from the major economic crisis etc. Both further research and replication of this research would enhance a meaningful understanding of strategic management practices.

.Taiwan is the island country, the exportation value occupies GDP 70%. Taiwan exports many products to the mainland , then these products exports to each place in the world, in which mostly is the European,American and other advanced countries. US is especially important nation to the product demand .Its demand degree is affecting the Taiwan economy deeply. Therefore, when these countries's demand weaken, it will affect Taiwan's exportation situation.And this means global environment and Taiwan's economical growth will be closely linked.However, while the overall environment changes, the enterprises does not just let their companies to go out of business or to rally. Under better mangerment, many enterprises still might passed the crisis safely.This paper discusses if the overall environmental factor changes , under certain governing condition, the occurance of financial crisis will be affected or not. This paper uses Logit and the Probit model.Moreover, we know many traditional papers researched the relationship between financial variables and the financial crisis , and this paper also want to discuss if the financial factor changes , under certain governing condition, the occurance of financial crisis will be affected or not.The related result is as follows: 1. American overall variables, the financial variables and the company govern variables separately affect the occurance of finance crisis . 2.Regarding the research about ¡§If the overall environmental factor changes , under certain governing condition, the occurance of financial crisis will be affected ,¡¨the result shows interactive effects between overall variables and company govern variables do not very remarkable.And Regarding the research about ¡§If the financial factor changes , under certain governing condition, the occurance of financial crisis will be affected ,¡¨the result shows interactive effects between financial variables and company govern variables are more remarkable. 3.Under better corporate governance , besides the financial fluidity, the financial condition is also better.

Abstract While the relationship between the economy and trade between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China are quite close, the financial industries are enlarging their development rapidly, which influence the banking industry as well. The main topic of this article is, after the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Taiwan and mainland China, whether or not, we can build an efficient financial supervisory mechanism, which is necessary to ensure both safety and development in the financial sector. There were cases of serious financial malpractice, which resulted from the lack of a thorough financial governance system. Because the financial environment is changing very quickly, we expect some faults at first but eventually it should ultimately be a cleansing process. We anticipate minor problems with the new regulation, however, some fixes should be found as soon as possible. Also, only when problems emerge, can we reasonably evaluate whether the governance system is working properly. Thus we understand the importance of well-performing supervisory systems. Effectively, the MOU will serve as a benchmarked reference guide for directors of financial institutions when revising financial governance systems. This article first discusses current financial governance systems between R.O.C and P.R.C and takes the existing agreement as a base to discuss how corporate financial governance systems are handled now. Then the article will analyze the influence and impact of the document, and point out what consequence it entails when we sign the MOU. This is to offer the related strategies as a reference for the internal banking industry. This article, therefore; tries to issue proposals of the integration of the financial governance systems of both sides, in order to provoke the normal development on the economy and trade of R.O.C and P.R.C. To sum up, because R.O.C and P.R.C have signed the MOU during 2009 and 2010 and ECFA, we both have to open domestic markets to each other. In this case, both banking industries will be able to access internal operations of one another. In the meantime, Taiwan's finance industry will face a massive and quick change in the economic environment. How to process globalized layout and control risks becomes the principal question of the financial development in the future. Finally, with regards to the industry's long-term development strategy, we should continue to analyze it and address a countermeasure, in order to offer the financial industry an adjustment into the right way; furthermore, we can connect to the global trend and raise the international competition in the financial industry.