In 2010, the obligation to audit was abolished in Sweden with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship and minimizing its costs. As a result, today the majority of small private limited companies choose not to have an audit. Furthermore, there is a negative trend in the audit industry as the number of qualified auditors has decreased significantly since the abolition of the audit obligation.   Considering the 2017 review report by Riksrevisionen, which concluded that the audit obligation should be reintroduced in Sweden, this thesis addresses the question of whether the audit obligation should be reintroduced in Sweden. Previous research in other geographical areas indicates that auditing has positive effects for companies by increasing the quality of their financial reports. Moreover, further research indicates that there are no compelling reasons to mandate auditing for small private companies and that the auditor could be replaced by an accounting consultant. This relatively understudied area is therefore worthy of investigation, partly because of the inconsistent results observed in previous research and partly because few studies are based on Swedish society. The objective of this thesis is to examine the various perspectives on the removal of the audit obligation and to contribute to the debate on whether a reintroduction should be considered. Additionally, the study aims to assess the impact of a potential reintroduction of the audit obligation on the quality of reporting for the companies concerned. The thesis addresses the roles of auditors and accounting consultants for small private limited companies in Sweden. Through the qualitative method of interviewing company managers, auditors, and accounting consultants, the positions of these stakeholders are elucidated.  The results of the study indicate that the majority of respondents do not believe that the audit obligation should be reintroduced in Sweden. This is because the results suggest that an authorized accounting consultant can effectively serve as a substitute for the auditor for small private limited companies, thereby compensating for the potential loss of quality that may arise in the absence of an auditor. Additionally, the results demonstrate that auditing provides a quality stamp, but that the benefits of this do not exceed the costs incurred by the companies. The primary rationale for opposing the reintroduction of auditing is that the current audit methodology is ill-suited to the needs of small private limited companies, resulting in excessive costs. Moreover, the results strongly suggest that some form of external control is necessary, rather than mandatory auditing. Potential solutions include increased controls from Skatteverket or requiring an authorized accounting consultant. In conclusion, the findings demonstrate that auditing is a valuable practice with beneficial effects for both businesses and society at large. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that there are currently insufficient compelling reasons to advocate for the reinstatement of mandatory audits in Sweden.

Due to the fact that corporate environmental reporting (CER) is largely voluntary and unregulated, practice has evolved in the absence of a meaningful conceptual framework. This lack of a normative theory stating what should be the content of CER as well as the methods for measuring reported information being largely volumetric or content based, is advanced as a major limitation in the existing literature. In this study, the wellestablished conceptual frameworks for financial reporting are adapted as the basis for a CER conceptual framework in which four characteristics of CER indicate its quality. Empirical methods for the measurement of such characteristics are also adapted from the financial reporting literature. The main aim of this research is to use the adapted framework to examine the extent of variation in the quality of CER and then to test its applicability to the key motivational theories. The empirical work involves a panel of US and UK firms over a two-year period. This allows cross-sectional comparison to be made between different financial accounting regimes (rules- vs. principles-based) as well as permits examination of the development of CER over time. Further, the empirical work is extended to investigate the interrelationship between the financial and environmental performance of a firm. Evidence in support of the legitimacy and institutional theory explanations for disclosure motivations is comprehensively found through the measures of the qualitative characteristics identified. That is, the use of a novel CER framework based on financial reporting quality here enables a more robust understanding of the reporting behaviours than previous work. Moreover, evidence for CER variation owing to the differences in financial reporting regimes is found and thus, it is reasonable to assert that the culture of financial reporting, to some extent, informs the nature of voluntary non-financial reporting. However, perhaps owing to the short time frame of the investigation, evidence of financial rewards from being environmentally effective or through providing CER is not found. The findings from this research will be of interest to preparers and users of corporate environmental reports as well as to policymakers, particularly in terms of enabling them to assess the quality of reporting and its level of fit with their expectations. Moreover, they also shed light on the link between environmental performance, as manifested in carbon emissions, and what is reported.

本研究以福島核災期間的新聞報導為分析對象，透過兩階段的新聞內容分析，比較福島核災發生當月以及週年前夕的新聞報導。研究發現越接近福島核災週年，媒體關注越高；福島核災後一個月內的新聞以因應框架為主，一年後的主要框架則轉為衝突及人情趣味框架；福島核災週年的報導戲劇化程度較一年以前為高，而兩階段共同的缺點則為消息來源過於單一化。本研究檢視福島核災報導的優點及未盡之處，以提供實務上諸多參考。 / This thesis attempts to analyze the news reports of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. By comparing the news coverage between March 11 and April 10 2011, and February 12 and March 11 2012, we found when the anniversary of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster approaching, the amount of news reports gradually increased. The dominant frame of the first stage of this study is the strategy frame, and the second stage are the conflict frame and the human interest frame. This study also found the amount of the dramatic style of coverage in the second stage is higher than that in the first stage. And the shortcoming of both the two stage is the lack of diversity of the sources.

Durant la décennie écoulée, une série de scandales financiers impliquant des firmes d’envergure internationale (Enron, Tyco, Parmalat, etc.) a secoué les places boursières en déclenchant une crise de la confiance chez les investisseurs. L’analyse des cas précités a révélé un recours massif à la fraude et aux manipulations comptables ce qui a relancé le débat autour de la question de la Qualité du Reporting Financier et de l’efficience des mécanismes de gouvernance.En effet, de récents constats révèlent que des problèmes d’agence générés par une structure de propriété complexe caractérisée par la concentration de la propriété familiale et le recours accru aux mécanismes de renforcement du contrôle vont favoriser l’extraction des bénéfices privés par les actionnaires de contrôle au détriment des minoritaires et par conséquent accroître leur l’incitation à la manipulation de l’information comptable et financière offerte et ce pour dissimuler leurs agissements opportunistes.Dans ce cadre, la présente thèse se propose d’étudier dans quelle mesure la structure de propriété complexe peut entrainer des conflits d’agence aggravant les problèmes d’incitation chez l’actionnaire contrôlant en favorisant l’extraction des bénéfices privés via les transactions avec les parties liées et d’analyser l’effet de cette expropriation sur la Qualité du Reporting Financier de l’entreprise.Nous poursuivons trois principaux objectifs. Le premier est de savoir comment les attributs de la structure de propriété complexe vont impacter la consommation des bénéfices privés faite via les transactions avec les parties liées. Le second est d’analyser comment la dissimulation de la consommation des bénéfices privés va impacter la qualité du reporting financier mesurée par la gestion des résultats comptable et réelle et le conservatisme conditionnel et inconditionnel tout en prenant en considération l’interaction entre la gestion des résultats et le conservatisme. Le troisième objectif est de tester, dans le cadre du conflit principal-principal, l’efficience du rôle du conseil d’administration dans la discipline des actionnaires contrôlants à travers la réduction des bénéfices privés ainsi que dans la garantie d’un reporting financier de qualité en s’opposant à la manipulation de l’information.C’est ainsi que sur un échantillon d’entreprises françaises cotées sur l’indice SBF 250 observées sur la période 2001 à 2009 notre étude a révélé que l’excès du contrôle de l’actionnaire ultime est associée à une plus grande consommation des bénéfices privés. Nous relevons également une relation en U inversé entre la concentration de la propriété de l’actionnaire ultime et les bénéfices privés. La présence de plusieurs détenteurs de blocs de contrôle entrainant une contestabilité du contrôle s’oppose à la consommation des bénéfices privés. Nous avons pu valider l’hypothèse de la dissimulation en confirmant l’effet médiateur des bénéfices privés du contrôle dans la relation entre la concentration de la propriété de l’actionnaire ultime et la concentration de la propriété institutionnelle d’une part et la gestion réelle des résultats de l’autre. Nos résultats empiriques confirment l’efficience de l’indépendance du conseil d’administration dans la réduction des bénéfices privés et la gestion des résultats.Mots clé : Bénéfices privés du contrôle, transactions avec les parties liées, structure de propriété complexe, conseil d’administration, gestion des résultats et conservatisme. / During the past decade, a series of financial scandals involving firms of international scope (Enron, Tyco, Parmalat, etc.) has shaken the stock exchanges in triggering a crisis of confidence among investors. The analysis of the aforementioned cases revealed a massive use of fraud and accounting manipulations which has relaunched the debate on the financial reporting quality and the efficiency of corporate governance mechanisms.Recent findings reveal that of agency problems generated by a structure of complex ownership structure characterized by the concentration of the family ownership and the increased use of control-enhancing mechanisms will promote the extraction of private profits by the controlling shareholders to the detriment of the minority and therefore increase their incentives to the manipulation of earnings in order to conceal their opportunistic behavior.In this framework, this thesis proposes to study to what extent the structure of complex ownership may cause conflicts of agency aggravating the problems of incitement in the controlling shareholder in favoring the extraction of private profits via the conclusion of related party transactions and to analyze the effect of this expropriation on the financial reporting quality of the firm.We are pursuing three main objectives. The first is to understand how the attributes of the complex ownership structure can affect the private benefits consumption via the conclusion of related party transactions. The second objective is to analyze how the concealment of the consumption of private benefits will impact the financial reporting quality as proxied by the accounting and real earnings management and the conditional and unconditional conservatism. while taking into account the interaction between earnings management and the conservatism. The third objective is to test, in the context of the principal-principal agency conflict, the efficiency of the role of the board of directors in the discipline of the controlling shareholders through the reduction of private profit as well as in the guarantee of the financial reporting of quality.Our study focuses on a sample of 81 French companies listed on the SBF 250 index observed on the period 2001 to 2009. Our results reveal that the excess of the control of the ultimate shareholder is associated with greater private benefits consumption. We also note an inverted U-shaped relationship between the ultimate ownership concentration and private benefits. The presence of multiple large shareholders causing a contestability of control reduces the private benefits extraction. We validate the private benefits dissimulation hypothesis by confirming the mediating effect of the private benefits of control in the relationship between the ultimate shareholder ownership and the institutional ownership the real earnings management. Our empirical results confirm the efficiency of the independence of the board of directors in the reduction of private benefits and the earnings management. Against all expectation, we note a week effect of the Audit Committee on of financial reporting qualityKey words: Private benefits of control, related party transactions, ownership structure, board of directors, earnings management, conservatism.

本研究主要探討借殼上市公司之財報品質是否與差異一般上市公司有明顯差異，分析中國借殼上市公司財務報表品質是否較其他公司差，並進一步驗證借殼上市規則修訂是否對公司之財報品質造成顯著影響。研究樣本以2005年至2015年在美國紐約證券交易所(NYSE)、全美證券交易所(AMEX)與那斯達克證券市場(NASDAQ) 159家借殼上市公司為研究對象，並以相同產業、相同公司規模配對159家一般上市公司。本研究以裁決性應計項目作為財報品質的代理變數，並將借殼上市公司拆分成中國借殼上市公司及非中國之借殼上市公司，再加入規範修訂因子，藉以衡量中國借殼上市公司於修訂借殼上市相關規範後財報品質提升幅度是否大於非中國之借殼上市公司。實證結果顯示借殼上市的財務報表品質明顯差於配對公司，且中國借殼上市公司的財務報表品質明顯劣於非中國之借殼上市公司。在加入借殼上市規則修訂因子後，借殼上市公司財報品質改善幅度明顯大於配對之一般上市公司；比較中國借殼上市公司、非中國之借殼上市公司及配對公司在借殼上市規則修訂前後本身財報品質變化，發現三類公司前後財務報表品質皆有顯著提升，然而在提升幅度上中國借殼上市公司與非中國之借殼上市公司並無顯著差異。 / Based on a study sample consisting of 159 reverse merger firms and their matching U.S. public companies (according to industry and firm size) listed in NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ from 2005 to 2015, we study the impacts of the 2011 listing-rule revision on the financial reporting quality of reverse merger firms in the US. More important, using discretionary accruals as the proxy of financial reporting quality, we ask if the financial reporting quality of Chinese reverse merger firms is worse than the non-Chinese reverse merger firms. Our empirical results show that the financial reporting quality of reverse merger firms is out-performed by their matching U.S. counterparts, and the financial reporting quality of Chinese reverse merger firms is, in general, inferior to the non-Chinese reverse merger firms. Post the 2011 listing-rule revision, we find that the financial reporting quality of reverse merger firms is better than their matching U.S. firms after controlling for the regulatory factor; in particular, we find that the China reverse merger firms, the non-Chinese reverse merger firms, and the matching U.S firms, all exhibit significant improvements in their financial reporting quality. However, this incremental gain in financial reporting quality seems indifferent between the China reverse merger firms and the non-Chinese reverse merger firms.

Dissertation interfaces two current accounting issues: International Financial Reporting Standards and financial reporting quality. Theoretical framework begins with historical development and contemporary position of IFRS. It is followed by financial accounting quality where overview of methods is used for assessment of accounting quality. The literature underpinning represents the final part of theoretical part. Dissertation examines publicly traded Czech companies on Prague stock exchange and together their financial statements are presented under Czech accounting standards and later on switched on International Financial Reporting Standards. Final sample consists of 15 companies (222 firm-year observations) during period 1993-2013. World accepted models were adjusted before its application to be more convenient for Czech environment. Research results show that there are only limited improvements in financial reporting quality in IFRS period, only some companies are models applicable and therefore law and professional environment play significant role within quantitative methods.

Non-audit services provided by audit firms have been a popular scientific topic within the fields of audit and accounting research over the past decades. Numerous researchers have attempted to provide a theoretical contribution by examining different ways of measuring the concepts of audit quality and financial reporting quality. The resulting consequences are mixed results and a lack of consensus among researchers from both research fields. The two, in other situations, rather distinctive research fields of audit quality and financial reporting quality, have, in several cases, been confounded without analytical reflection regarding their differences. In parallel to the scientific progress, regulatory bodies have noticed the increasing trend of non-audit services and how they constitute larger portions of the audit firm’s annual revenues. Their responses have been legal restrictions, both in the US and Europe, in order to cease the trend. The purpose of this thesis is to make a pronounced investigation regarding the relationship between non-audit services and financial reporting quality in Swedish private firms. Furthermore, it will also be of interest to examine if this proposed relationship is moderated by the presence of the four global market-leading audit firms or not. The study is based on a deductive approach and a quantitative research strategy, to collect and analyze data from annual reports. To fulfill the purpose of the study, the data is analyzed by conducting binary and multinomial logistic regression tests. The results suggest that there is an association between certain types of non-audit services and financial reporting quality. Specifically, services that are unrelated to tax have proven to be statistically significant positively correlated with financial reporting quality. No evidence was found supporting a moderating effect by the characteristics of audit firms, suggesting that the choice of an audit firm is irrelevant for attaining high financial reporting quality when purchasing non-audit services. The study’s theoretical contribution is the novelty arising from the combination of studying non-audit services’ impact on financial reporting quality within a Swedish setting on private firms. The study also provides empirical contribution by using a proxy for financial reporting quality rarely used in previous research. The findings are of practical importance since they suggest that firms potentially benefit in their financial reporting by purchasing these kinds of services, which contradicts past actions made by regulatory bodies.

L’Afrique sub-saharienne (SSA) se caractérise par une croissance démographique rapide et une pauvreté notoire. Cette région du monde fait face à une charge de morbidité causée à la fois par les maladies infectieuses traditionnelles et par l’émergence des maladies chroniques. Les essais contrôlés randomisés (ECR) prenant en compte le contexte local sont nécessaires pour renforcer les politiques de santé publique et améliorer l’état de santé des populations. Toutefois à cause des capacités limitées de recherche, les ECR conduits en ASS doivent répondre à des questions prioritaires, les biais (erreurs systématiques) doivent être évités dans les méthodes, et les interventions de santé évaluées doivent être décrites de manière pour faciliter leur implémentation dans la pratique clinique courante. Ces mesures permettent d’éviter le « gâchis de la recherche ». Nos objectifs étaient de décrire l’épidémiologie des ECR conduits en ASS, et d’évaluer la qualité méthodologique (risque de biais) ainsi que le « reporting » des interventions évaluées. Nos travaux ont montré d’une part qu’en ASS, les ECR portent fréquemment sur les maladies à forte morbi-mortalité dans cette région ; mais que les financements des recherches effectuées proviennent surtout des pays à haut revenu (Europe occidentale et Amérique du Nord), et que les auteurs correspondants sont majoritairement affiliés aux institutions des pays à haut revenu. D’autre part, nous avons montré que les méthodes à haut risque de biais peuvent être évitées au moyen d’ajustements méthodologiques simples au coût mineur. L’amélioration de la qualité méthodologique des ECR conduits en ASS implique une large diffusion des méthodes à faible risque de biais ainsi que celle des recommandations pour la description complète des interventions. En outre, une compréhension des barrières et des facilitateurs à l’adhérence à ces méthodes et à ces recommandations est également nécessaire. / Sub-saharan Africa (SSA) is characterized by a high population growth and a significant poverty. In addition, this area deals with a burden of disease due to both traditional infection diseases and the emerging chronic diseases. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) taking into account the local context are needed to strength health policy and to improve the population health. However, because of constraint research capacities, RCTs performed in SSA must investigate relevant research questions, biases must be avoided in methods, and health interventions evaluated must be reported completely for easing implementation in current clinical practice. Such efforts help to avoid waste of research. Our objectives were to describe the epidemiology of SSA RCTs, and then to evaluate the methodological quality as well as the reporting of evaluated interventions. On the one hand, our works highlighted that SSA RCTs mainly focused on diseases of the highest burden in that area, although they were frequently funded by high-income countries, and most of the corresponding authors were affiliated to those countries. In the other hand, we have shown that methods at high risk of bias can be avoided through simple methodological adjustments of minor cost. Improving the methodological quality of SSA RCTs implies a large dissemination of available methods at low risk of bias and guidelines on the complete reporting of interventions. Furthermore, understanding barriers and facilitators to the uptake of those methods and guidelines is equally required.

Problematiseringen i den här studien har visat att det redan har gjorts en omfattande forskning avseende hållbarhetsrapportering, SME:s och motivationen bakom hållbarhetsaktiviteter. Emellertid har ett forskningsgap identifierats angående varför små och medelstora aktiebolag som inte har lagstadgad skyldighet att hållbarhetsrapporterar ändå gör det. Därigenom är syftet med den här studien att undersöka varför svenska små och medelstora aktiebolag frivilligt upprättar en hållbarhetsrapport, samt vad rapporterna innehåller. För att besvara syftet har legitimitetsteorin, intressentteorin och tidigare forskning främst angående inre och yttre motivationsfaktorer använts för att skapa ett teoretiskt ramverk. Den här studien bygger på en abduktiv forskningsansats och främst med en interpretivistisk forskningsfilosofi. Studien genomförs med fem semistrukturerade intervjuer och en innehållsanalys av åtta svenska SME:s hållbarhetsrapporter. Resultatet antyder att främsta yttre motivationsfaktorer var att hållbarhetsrapporten användes som ett hållbarhetsbevis, marknadsföringsverktyg och för att vinna nya kunder. Resultatet antyder att den främsta inre motivationsfaktorn var stolthet. Dessutom identifierade följande tre tidigare okända inre motivationsfaktorer: “träning”, “helhetsöverblick” och “försvarande av bransch”. Studiens resultat antyder slutligen på att yttre motivationsfaktorer är mer drivande än inre, vilket framkommer ur empirin främst i form av att hållbarhetsrapporten användes som ett marknadsföringsverktyg och för att vinna upphandlingar. Studien visade även att hållbarhetsrapporterna innehåller brister i kvaliteten främst i avseendet jämförbarhet, tydlighet, aktualitet och granskningsbarhet. / The problematization in this study has shown that extensive research has already been done on sustainability reporting, SME’s, and the motivation behind sustainability activities. However, a research gap has been identified as to why SME:s voluntarily prepares a sustainability report, although they do not meet the legal requirements, as well as what the reports contain. To answer the purpose,  legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and previous research mainly regarding internal and external motivational factors have been used to create a theoretical framework. This study is based on an abductive research approach and primarily with an interpretivistic research philosophy. The study is conducted with five semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of eight Swedish SME sustainability reports. The results suggest that the main external motivational factors were that the sustainability report was used as a sustainability certificate, marketing tool and to win new customers. The result suggests that the main internal motivation factor was pride. In addition, the following three previously unknown internal motivational factors were identified as: "training", "holistic overview" and "defense of industry". Finally, the results of the study suggest that external motivational factors are more driving than internal, which emerges from empirical evidence mainly in the form of the sustainability report being used as a marketing tool and to win procurements. The study also showed that the sustainability reports contain deficiencies in quality mainly in lack of comparability, clarity, timeliness and reviewability.

No description available.