This study examines the impact of knowledge, experience, goal orientation, ethical orientation, and personality traits on managers' and accountants' abilities to recognize misappropriation of assets. Participants included students and professionals. The student group included upper-level accounting majors and upper-level management majors. The professional group included students enrolled in an introductory accounting course for their MBA program and internal auditors from a variety of organizations. Findings in the study show that accounting students assessed the possibility that fraud was in progress at a higher level than the management students, suggesting that the accounting students acquire basic knowledge about fraud from the accounting curriculum, which improves performance. The effect of reading articles was marginally significant for assessing the possibility of fraud, showing that students who have read or who are required to read articles better identify the clues associated with employee theft. For the professional group, the effects of academic major and fraud specific training led to identifying the possibility of employee theft at a higher level. It appears that training sessions help professionals in identifying the risk factors associated with fraudulent activity, producing benefits to organizations that far outweigh the costs. Full-time work experience was marginally significant (p Several findings of the additional analysis using structural equation modeling extend the audit decision making literature by showing certain factors that enhance knowledge and improve decision making as experience increases. Higher learning goal orientation scores, mediated by experience and ethical position, should lead to more accurate identification of risk factors that are commonly associated with fraudulent activity. These findings should encourage firms to draw upon the knowledge of experts as they develop expert decision aids and training sessions for internal audit departments. Organizations should also integrate actual instances of misappropriation of assets into training sessions on fraud prevention and detection while developing and improving models of training sessions and expert decision aids for unstructured, complex tasks.

M.Com. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (International Accounting) / The definition of control and the non-consolidation of special purpose entities in group annual financial statements became a topic of concern and focus to investors, securities exchange regulators and accounting professionals after the global financial crisis. The global financial crisis began in 2007 and was caused in part, by investors not being able to access reliable information about the risk levels of entities in which they had invested. Organisations from around the world began to focus on financial reporting and auditing standards in order to determine how the crisis had occurred and how it could be prevented in the future. The focus has highlighted the definition of control, which would determine whether an entity would be consolidated into a group of companies or not, and the disclosure of the decisions, judgements and assumptions made by management when determining whether to consolidate an entity. Stakeholders have pushed for a framework for consolidation to ensure that entities would not be able to hide poorly performing investments and be able to easily determine the risks that the group is exposed to as a result of management’s investment policies. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has responded to the requirements of stakeholders and the critiques of the previous definitions of control by releasing International Financial Reporting Standard 10: Consolidated Financial Statements (IFRS 10) in 2011, which prescribes the latest definition thereof. The research study will establish the historical international development of the definition of control in various accounting contexts as prescribed by the IASB and its predecessors. The definition of control as prescribed by other financial reporting standards will be analysed, but as IFRS 10 is the first financial reporting standard to be released with a significantly different definition, it will form the main focus of the study. Definitions and opinions as stated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will be assessed for comparability and context. The study will assess whether the latest definition of control is considered to be complete and sufficient to apply to all situations where the question of control has to be evaluated. A qualitative research design in a critical framework has been adopted for this research. The research traces the origins of the definition of control and makes a critical assessment of each definition prescribed by the IASB and its predecessors. The research is structured in chapters dedicated to specific decades, which detail the definition prescribed at the time, the reasons for any changes to definitions prescribed in previous periods and an assessment thereof. This research has found that the IASB’s definition of control has changed significantly over the past 60 years, the most significant change being the way in which control relating to investments in other entities has been defined. The IASB has moved away from the concept of control being based on majority share ownership, to a definition based on risk and reward exposure and the decision making capabilities of the investor. IFRS 10 is effective for companies with a financial year beginning on or after 01 January 2013 and the effects of the new definition of control have yet to be analysed. The definition of an asset has followed suit, and is no longer based on the property rights to an asset, but is rather based on flows of economic benefits to an entity with the latest working definition being ii based on control. The new definition of an asset is in line with the objective of the IASB to create a principles-based financial reporting framework, rather than a rules-based framework which prescribes the required accounting methods for assets and investments. The new definition of an asset is currently a working definition contained in an exposure draft, the purpose being to allow users of IFRS to comment until the cut off date in 2014. Once formal feedback has been considered, the IASB will determine whether the new definition of assets should be adopted or not. The Conceptual Framework within which the new definition is to be contained forms the base on which all other financial reporting standards are structured and other exposure drafts have been released. All the new definitions of control that have been released in new financial reporting standards, exposure drafts and discussion papers are more in line with a decision making framework for control rather than a rules-based or risks and rewards framework. These are however limited to the financial reporting standard in which they have been released, and are not interchangeable or applicable to other types of transactions. The IASB has not released any statements which indicate that the development of a universally applicable definition of control is a priority or an objective at this time.

Over the last twenty years, there has been a rapid expansion of Islamic financial institutions that do not deal in interest-based transactions. The financial information of Islamic financial institutions issued in their annual reports is different in certain features from the annual reports offered by conventional financial institutions. This study attempts to investigate the usefulness of annual reports produced by these institutions to investors. In particular, the study is concerned with the perceptions of both institutional investors and customers in Kuwait about the annual reports of Islamic financial institutions. In addition, the study investigates the opinions of the preparers of annual reports of Islamic financial institutions in GCC countries regarding various aspects of the annual reports that could help investors make their investment decisions. To achieve the above objective, two types of questionnaires and interview were designed. The first type of questionnaire was carried out to solicit the investors' perceptions of annual reports, the importance they attached to them and the uses of these reports in their investment activities. The second type of questionnaire was specifically used to investigate the opinions of the preparers of annual reports regarding various aspects of annual reports that could help investors make their investment decisions. The interview method was mainly used to identify the customers' perceptions of Islamic financial institutions in Kuwait about the usefulness of these annual reports. The results of the questionnaire and the interviews indicated that the annual reports are considered by customers and investors to be the main source of information for investment decisions. The results also revealed that the timeliness and credibility of information were perceived by respondents as the most important qualitative characteristics that might affect the usefulness of information sources about the performance of Islamic financial institutions. Regarding the accounting regulation of financial information of Islamic financial institutions, the results indicated that there is a need for accounting information to be regulated in order to enhance the credibility of financial statements produced by these institutions and increase their comparability and transparency to the users.

Over the years, there has been a lot of discussion about the audit expectations gap. Research on the expectations gap has focused exclusively on the audit aspect, with limited attention being given to the possibility of the existence of other elements that may in fact contribute to an even wider expectations gap. This study has focused on the financial statements expectations gap. Financial statements are the public face of an organisation. It is therefore crucial that users understand their objective, message, scope and limitations. This study explores and evaluates the existence of a financial statements expectations gap in a small state economy, namely Malta. The data for this study was collected from shareholders and auditors in Malta using a mixed methods approach with a sequential explanatory design through the use of a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings have shown that the financial statements expectations gap exists in various areas, some of which are fundamental to the understanding of financial statements. There is a clear lack of clarity, or confusion, about the objective of financial statements. This appears to be the result of the over-emphasis on decision-usefulness as an objective of financial statements, the imprecision of the word stewardship and the failure to communicate clearly the scope and limitations of financial statements. The study has shown that the attempts by standard setters to satisfy various user needs with the same set of financial statements were unsuccessful in Malta. Communicating financial information has been identified as the primary purpose of financial statements. However, the understandability of financial statements was negatively impacted primarily by the complexity of information, the frequent changes to standards, information overload and the use of technical jargon. The study has accordingly identified those factors that are considered to be conducive to the understandability of financial statements in Malta. Based on the research findings, the study has provided recommendations to the accountancy profession and policy makers on how to address the financial statements expectations gap. Potential areas for future research were also identified.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-183).

Thesis ( Ph.D. ) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-69).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 108 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: René M. Stultz, Dept.of Business Administration. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-70).