Studien har gjorts för att minska bristen på forskning om vilseledande information via figurer i årsredovisningar och på så vis bidra till diskussionen om hur figurer tillämpas i redovisningen. Syftet med uppsatsen är att förklara hur vilseledande av information via figurer i årsredovisningar påverkas av företagsspecifika egenskaper. Studien har tagit ett positivistiskt perspektiv och tillämpat en deduktiv ansats för att kunna uppfylla studiens syfte. Vidare antas det att företagsledningen agerar opportunistiskt och kommer vilseleda informationen i figurerna som presenteras i årsredovisningarna. Därför bygger den bakomliggande teorin på agentteorin, Positive Accounting Theory och Impression Management. För att skapa hypoteserna har tidigare forsking gällande frivillig redovisning och vilseledande av figurer använts. Den empiriska metod som användes var en dokumentstudie där syftet var att samla in kvantitativa data från årsredovisningar. Studien är gjord på totalt 152 företag som är listade på Stockholmsbörsen och hela 1149 figurer mättes för att upptäcka mängden vilseledande information. Studiens resultat visar att företag som anlitar en revisionsbyrå från Big 4 presenterar färre vilseledande figurer. Dessutom verkar det som att företag som betalar ut en hög ersättning till styrelsemedlemmar och VD redovisar en större andel vilseledande figurer. Studien kan också påvisa att i företag med en större ägarspridning förekommer det färre vilseledande figurer. Avslutningsvis bidrar studien med bevis som indikerar att högre agentkostnader påverkar hur företagsledningen agerar, eftersom en högre ägarspridning leder till mindre vilseledande information via figurer. Där finns även bevis för att företagsledningen använder sig av vilseledande av figurer för att förbättra intrycket av sig själva och på så vis rättfärdiga en hög ersättning. / To reduce the lack of research on graph distortion this study is made to contribute to the discussion about graph practice. The purpose of the thesis is to explain what firm characteristics affect graph distortion in annual reports. In order to fulfil this purpose, a positivistic perspective and a deductive approach was applied. With the assumptions that management act opportunistically and distorts the information disclosed in the graphs presented in the annual reports, Agency Theory, Positive Accounting Theory and Impression Management are used as underlying theories. Further, prior research regarding voluntary corporate disclosure and graph distortion are used in order to derive the hypotheses. The empirical method used has been a document study where the purpose was to collect quantitative data. In total 152 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange were included in the study and a comprehensive amount of 1149 graphs measured to detect their distortion. The findings of the study show that companies hiring an audit firm from the Big 4 disclose less distorted graphs. In addition, companies that pay a higher compensation to the board members and CEO seem to present more distorted graphs. The study also found that for companies with a more dispersed ownership less graph distortion occurs. However, the findings do not support the view that firm size and debt ratio affect the level of graph distortion within the annual report. Concluding, the study contributes with evidence indication that higher agency costs affect management’s actions regarding graph distortion because a more dispersed ownership leads to less graph distortion. Also there is evidence that managers try to justify high compensation by improving impression of themselves through graph distortion.

It is well established in the financial economics literature that potential gains from international diversification are generated from the imperfect correlation between national stock market returns. This empirical study explores the factors that impede perfect integration among national equity markets by examining emerging markets data. The first major topic of the dissertation is to re-visit the debate on the relative importance of country and industry effects in the cross-sectional variation of stock returns. By applying the standard Heston and Rouwenhorst (1994) dummy variable decomposition method to $U. S. nominal returns from 11 industry sectors of 13 emerging markets from 1984 to 2004, this work confirms that country effects do play a dominant role in determining the cross-sectional variation in stock returns in emerging markets but since late 1990s, the industry effects have become increasingly important. This conclusion is robust even after the removal of three potential biases: inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate effects, all of which may amplify the country effects. The second topic is to investigate the debate from the perspective of stock risk. Stock risk is modeled and calculated independently from a return model with ARCH type errors. By applying the standard dummy variable decomposition method to stock risks, the empirical evidence is found to support the conclusions drawn on stock return decompositions. Finally, in order to find the fundamental sources of the country and industry factors, pure country and industry effects are then regressed on fundamental characteristics of country and industry. The findings show that the change in the variables representing the exchange rate can explain a substantial amount of the country effect variations, while at the same time, banking and stock markets development also contribute to the variations. The regressions also find evidence that the legal origin of the market does matter to stock returns. Regressions on industry effects are not as promising as the results of the country effects regression. Only the geographical concentration of industries is found to explain a small amount of the industry effects.

In 2010 the new law change regarding voluntary auditing in Sweden was implemented. The law change implies small sized companies are exempted from mandatory auditing unless they fulfil certain criteria’s. Despite the fact auditing is voluntary for small sized companies some still choose to be audited. Therefore it is interesting to find out why some companies see benefits in voluntary auditing and of existing literature there is mainly focus on some characteristics for choosing auditing. It can be assumed companies that made the choice to abandon auditing evaluated costs higher than benefits but re-evaluated their decision and later returned back. Therefore it is of interest to have a closer look on these companies first abandoning auditing and later changed to voluntary auditing. To our knowledge, there is a research gap on the characteristics for choosing auditing among small sized companies in Sweden returning back to auditing when not obligated to. The aim of our study is therefore to examine the relationship between selected characteristics of the small firms in Sweden and the decision to voluntarily return to be audited again after abandoning it after the law changed. Based on existing literature, selected characteristics are firm size, ownership structure, leverage and profitability.  To achieve the purpose of this study a quantitative method with a deductive approach was applied. In order to answer our purpose, hypotheses were developed according to relevant theories and previous literature. Data regarding the companies first abandoning and then returning back to auditing were collected and downloaded from the database Retriever. Our hypotheses were tested using a logistic regression. The results indicate there is a positive relationship between firm size and the choice to return to voluntary auditing. The same was also discovered for ownership structure. Our findings cannot confirm any relationship between leverage and voluntary auditing or profitability and voluntary auditing even though our results indicate a positive relationship. / År 2010 verkställdes en lagförändring i Sverige gällande frivillig revision. Lagförändringen innebar att små företag blev undantagna från revisionsplikt förutsatt att de uppfyller vissa kriterier. Även fastän revision är frivilligt för små företag väljer fortfarande vissa av dem att bli reviderade. Därmed är det intressant att undersöka varför vissa företag ser fördelar i frivillig revision och i existerande litteratur ligger huvudfokus på företagsegenskaper relaterade till beslutet av revision. Det kan antas att företag som gjorde valet att överge revision bedömde att kostnaderna översteg fördelarna men senare omvärderade beslutet och återgick till revision. Därför är det av intresse att kolla närmare på dessa företag som först överger revision för att senare frivilligt återgå till revision. Enligt den kunskap vi innehar är det ett gap i forskningen när det gäller företagsegenskaper som ligger till grund för att små företag i Sverige återgår till revision även fast de inte är revisionspliktiga. Vår studie syftar därför till att granska sambandet mellan utvalda företagsegenskaper hos små företag i Sverige och beslutet att frivilligt återgå till att bli reviderade igen efter att ha övergett revision efter lagförändringen. Baserat på existerande litteratur är de utvalda egenskaperna företags storlek, ägarstruktur, skulder och vinst.  För att uppfylla syftet i den här studien har en kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats använts. Syftet har besvarats genom att hypoteser utvecklats utifrån relevanta teorier och tidigare litteratur. Information och data om företagen som först överger revision och sedan återvänder till revision hämtades från databasen Retriever. Hypoteserna testades sedan genom logistisk regression. Resultaten indikerar att det finns ett positivt samband mellan ett företags storlek och dess val att återgå till revision. Ett positivt samband påträffades också mellan ägarstruktur och frivillig revision. Enligt våra resultat finns det inget bekräftat samband mellan skulder och frivillig revision eller vinst och frivillig revision, även fast våra resultat visade ett positivt samband.

XBRL是以延伸性標記語言（eXtensible Markup Language, XML）為基礎，針對商業報告所發展之新標記語言。XBRL主要應用於財務資訊、報表與資料分析等領域，促進企業財務報導在資訊傳遞和分析比較上的及時性與易取得性，以提升其資訊透明度，並減少企業之資訊提供成本，以及資訊需求者之使用成本，並藉由國際標準之訂定，建構全球企業資訊供應鏈。 本研究探討我國上市(櫃)公司提早採用XBRL格式申報財務報告之決策是否會受到股權結構與公司特性等因素所影響。實證分析結果顯示，就股權結構變數而言，機構投資人持股比率與提早採用XBRL格式間呈現顯著正相關，顯示機構投資人持股比率高，會提高企業提早採用XBRL格式申報財務報告之可能性；但股權分散度對於企業是否提早採用之決策並不存在關聯性。 就公司特性變數而言，公司規模、市場別及是否發生虧損與提早採用XBRL格式間皆呈現顯著負向關係，表示公司資產規模小、上櫃公司，以及未發生虧損的企業，較可能提早採用XBRL格式申報財務報告。換言之，資產規模大、上市公司或發生虧損之公司均不傾向於提早採用XBRL格式申報財務報告。至於是否屬於高代理成本公司及是否須編製合併報表則與提早採用XBRL格式申報財務報告之決策，無顯著影響。 / XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a business reporting language based on the eXtensible Markup Language. One of the key attributes of XBRL is an explicit semantic and machine-readable format for varieties of information found in business reporting in general and in financial statements in particular. It is suggested that the use of XBRL helps reduce the costs associated with obtaining and analyzing information from businesses by addressing and eliminating incompatible reporting formats. The benefits also include the enhancement of information transparency and a more effective and efficient information value chain. Using a sample of companies listed in Taiwan Securities Exchange (TWSE) and Gretai Securities Market (GSM), this study investigates the determinants of an early adoption of XBRL in filing annual financial reports from aspects of ownership structure and firm characteristics. With respect to the ownership structure variables, the empirical results show that the higher percentage of shareholding by the institutional investor, the greater the probability for firms to adopt XBRL earlier. However, the study cannot find the evidence that the degree of diversification of ownership is significantly related to the early adoption of XBRL in filing annual reports. With respect to variables of firm characteristics, the research findings indicate that small companies, companies listed in GSM, and profitable companies tend to adopt XBRL for financial reporting earlier. The study cannot find significant association between variables proxied for agency costs and firm complexity and the early adoption of XBRL.

本研究以2009年至2012年企業之財務報表中關於所得稅項目探討企業特性與財稅所得額差異之關聯性。實證結果顯示，應計項目較多的企業，其財稅所得額差異為正向關係。企業特性方面，獲利能力與銷貨成長率較高的企業，其財稅所得額差異較小，符合假說預期。另外，在控制產業特性後發現，電子業暫時性財稅所得額差異顯著高於非電子業，但電子業之投資抵減利益顯著高於其他產業，因而有較低之應納稅額。營建業之免稅財稅所得額差異顯著高於其他產業，符合我國稅法土地所得免稅之規定。最後，企業規模在永久性財稅所得額差異與暫時性財稅所得額差異都有不同的關係，在永久性差異中為負向關係，顯示出企業規模較大，較有資源進行降低應納所得稅的租稅規劃;反之，在暫時性差異中為正向關係，符合政治成本假說。應計調整項目愈多之企業，其財稅所得額差異具有正向之關係。 / Using a sample of Taiwan listed and OTC company, this research examines the relationship between firm characteristics and the differences in book-taxable income from 2009 to 2012. Empirical results show that firms with more accruals tend to have greater book-tax differences. From the perspective of firm characteristics, firms with greater profitability and sales growth rate tend to have smaller book-tax difference. The results are consistent with the expectation of the research hypotheses. Further, after controlling for the industry effects, the results show that the electronics companies have higher amount of temporary book-tax difference; however, they have greater investment tax credit than non-electronics companies, resulting in lower tax payables. In contrast, construction companies have higher tax-exempt book-tax difference than other companies, consistent with the provision of Taiwan’s tax law exempting capital gains on land transaction. Finally, the relationships between firm size and permanent or temporary book-tax income difference are different. Large firms tend to have a negative permanent book-tax difference, consistent with the notion that large firms own more resources for tax planning to reduce the tax payables. On the contrary, large firms tend to a positive temporary book-tax income difference, which is in line with the political cost hypothesis.

Submitted by Kátia Sobrinho Favorito (katiafavorito@gmail.com) on 2018-09-13T11:20:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-favorito vposbanca.pdf: 744214 bytes, checksum: 2991e669e134f4c9a46d09f5a91a4435 (MD5) / Rejected by Mayara Costa de Sousa (mayara.sousa@fgv.br), reason: Katia, bom dia. 1. Verifiquei que o título está diferente do que consta na ATA. Quando você protocolou a dissertação o título era: "FATORES DE CAIXA DAS EMPRESAS BRASILEIRAS". No trabalho consta "FATORES QUE DETERMINAM A RETENÇÃO DE CAIXA DAS EMPRESAS NÃO FINANCEIRAS BRASILEIRAS DE CAPITAL ABERTO". A banca solicitou esta alteração? Caso tenha solicitado, é necessário que o orientador informe a alteração no verso da ATA ou informe por e-mail para a secretaria. 2. Na página 2, o trecho que apresenta o trabalho errado. 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No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-favorito vposbanca.pdf: 743623 bytes, checksum: d85d2c611431ceb48b54f79cd6fd0faa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-29 / É fato que, nos últimos 20 anos, pesquisas relacionadas às políticas de caixa vêm ganhando destaque na literatura acadêmica. Esse tema tornou-se mais acentuado a partir da crise de 2008 e 2009, pois, em cenários de crise, há restrição financeira, e as empresas começam a buscar uma melhor política de caixa a fim de equilibrar o tradeoff entre ter dinheiro disponível ou recorrer a financiamentos externos. Na literatura, caixa é denominado como os recursos disponíveis em caixa mais a aplicação financeira de curto prazo sobre o total de ativos. Podese observar que esse índice vem crescendo em todos os países estudados até então. Este estudo tem o objetivo de analisar quais fatores afetam o nível de retenção de caixa das empresas brasileiras, além dos efeitos em caixa após a adoção pelo Brasil das normas internacionais contábeis (IFRS) e o impacto da crise de 2008 e 2009 nos caixas das empresas. Foi realizada uma pesquisa com 191 empresas listadas na Bolsa no período de 1995 a 2016. O estudo foi realizado com uso de modelos econométricos de regressão linear múltipla. Foram encontradas evidências de que os fatores de fluxo de caixa, ativo circulante, dívida de longo prazo, oportunidade de crescimento e as dummies de crise e IFRS acumularam mais caixa. Por outro lado, os fatores passivo circulante e investimento em imobilizado contribuíram com menor nível de retenção de caixa. E, por último, o determinante dívida de curto prazo não apresentou significância estatística. / It is a fact that, in the last 20 years, research related to cash policies has been gaining prominence in the academic literature. This issue has become more pronounced since the crisis of 2008 and 2009, because in crisis scenarios, there is a financial constraint, and companies are starting to seek a better cash policy in order to balance the tradeoff between having available money or resorting external financing. In the literature, cash is denominated as cash available resources plus short-term financial investment over total assets. It can be observed that this index has been growing in all the countries studied until then. This study aims to analyze which factors affect the level of cash retention of Brazilian companies, in addition to the cash effects after the adoption of international accounting standards (IFRS) in Brazil and the impact of the crisis of 2008 and 2009 in the companies' . A survey was carried out with 191 listed companies from 1995 to 2016. The study was carried out using econometric models of multiple linear regression. Evidence was found that cash flow, current assets, long-term debt, growth opportunity and crisis dummies and IFRS accumulated more cash. On the other hand, the factors of current liabilities and investment in fixed assets contributed with lower level of cash retention. Finally, the determinant of short-term debt did not present statistical significance.

Although the development of small businesses is generally considered important for income generation and job creation, there has been relatively little research in developing countries such as Ghana on understanding why some small firms succeed and grow rapidly while others do not in. This thesis investigates the influences on small firm growth rates in Ghana using data from a random sample of 252 manufacturing and services firms from the database of the Association of Ghana Industries. The general hypothesis is that, growth is a function of the characteristics of the entrepreneur; characteristics of the firm; strategic factors; environmental factors; and cultural factors. Consequently, the research tests 36 hypotheses drawn from the five main categories of variables using the turnover and the employment growth measures. It also uses logistic regression analysis to isolate significant factors differentiating rapid-growth firms from slow-growth firms. Overall, the research finds strong evidence which suggests that, perception of a market opportunity; university education; multiple founders; entrepreneurs with marketing skills; workforce training; new product development; presence of a clear vision and mission statement; majority non-family members in management and membership of professional or business associations were associated with rapid-growth firms. iv Factors which were significant in discriminating between rapid-growth and slow-growth firms but were more likely to be associated with slow-growth firms included threat of unemployment or actual unemployment as a motivation for starting a business; production skills; legal form (limited liability companies); access to external equity (post-formation); exporting; access to public or external aid; unionization and frequent management meetings.

Staatliche Innovationsförderung erklärt Firmen, besonders kleinere Unternehmen, die Hindernissen zur Innovationstätigkeitgegenüberstehen, zu unterstützen. Frühere Studien haben gezeigt, dass staatliche Programme diese Ziele nicht erreichen. Aber in der Vergangenheit wurde hierbei selten die Differenzierung unterschiedlicher politischer Ebenen analysiert. Dieses Projekt analysiert deshalb die unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften von geförderten Firmen, die entweder von der regionalen, der nationalen oder der europäischen Ebene unterstützt wurden und verknüpft dies mit der theoretischen Literatur und Erkenntnissen zu Föderalismus. Die Evaluation nutzt dabei zuerst Daten des Mannheimer Innovation Panel für die Untersuchung in Deutschland und später Daten der Community Innovation Survey für die Untersuchung in Europa. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die drei verschiedenen Ebenen der Förderung Unternehmen mit unterschiedlichen Charakteristika erreichen. Die regionale Ebene in föderalen und semiföderalen Ländern erreicht dabei KMU als Unternehmen mit Problemen bei der Innovationstätigkeit signifikant besser als andere Ebenen dies tun. Aber die Effektivität der staatlichen Innovationsförderung ist nach der Analyse sehr zweifelhaft. Deshalb muss seitens der Politik ein Zielkonflikt zwischen einer größeren Vielfalt an geförderten Firmen und höherer Effektivität der Förderung berücksichtigt werden.

在2008年金融危機過後，除了短期獲利狀況外，投資人越來越重視企業對環境、社會風險的回應能力。為了回應投資人的期待與本身管理需求，越來越多企業開始主動編製社會責任報告書。透過揭露更多企業社會責任報告書裏非財務面的相關資訊，將促成各利害關係人共贏的局面。 綜上所述，企業社會責任的報導和揭露之重要性已不言而喻。過去的文獻指出，公司透過揭露企業社會責任的資訊能夠降低分析師盈餘預測差異、降低資金成本、提升公司價值，吸引更多具有社會責任觀的投資人投資。 本研究係以我國電子業與金融保險業之上市櫃公司為研究對象，透過內容分析法與統計分析法，發現之結果如下： 一、 「公司規模」、「產業別」、「獲利能力」會顯著影響公司的企業社會責任揭露程度。 二、 電子業於企業社會責任報告書中之「環境」衡量構面揭露資訊程度顯著大於金融保險業。

Årsredovisningar har gått från att vara ett sätt för företagen att rapportera sin ekonomiska ställning för aktieägare till att anpassas mer för alla intressenter. All information som intressenterna efterfrågar är dock inte företagen alltid tvungna att uppge enligt lag, vilket leder till att företag väljer att redovisa viss information frivilligt. Omfattningen av denna information skiljer sig mycket mellan företag. Tidigare studier har därav undersökt sambandet mellan olika företagsegenskaper och nivån av frivillig redovisning och kommit fram till varierande resultat. Syftet med studien är därför att få kunskap om vilka företagsspecifika egenskaper hos svenska börsnoterade företag som påverkar nivån av frivillig redovisning samt hur förändringar mellan åren påverkar detta. Tidigare forskning och företagsekonomiska teorier ligger till grund för utvecklade hypoteser kring egenskapernas påverkan. En longitudinell studie har genomförts på 21 företag som valdes ut genom ett stratifierat slumpmässigt urval. Datainsamling för studiens beroende variabel frivillig redovisning genomfördes med hjälp av ett index där företags årsredovisningar från år 2016-2020 granskades. Nivån på den frivilliga redovisningen analyserades sedan mot studiens oberoende variabler storlek, ålder, lönsamhet, skuldsättning och likviditet. En multipel regressionsanalys genomfördes och visade på de förväntade sambanden mellan nivån av frivillig redovisning och företagens storlek, ålder och lönsamhet. Resultatet visade på ett signifikant positivt samband för dessa egenskaper. Dock kunde inte något signifikant samband påvisas för egenskaperna skuldsättning och likviditet. En linjär regressionsanalys genomfördes även på förändringarna i lönsamhet mellan åren samt sambandet till frivillig redovisning. Även denna analys stämde överens med förväntningarna om att förändringar i lönsamhet inte påverkar nivån av frivillig redovisning. / Annual reports have gone from being a way for companies to report their financial position for stockholders, to being adapted for all stakeholders. All the information that stakeholders demand the companies are not obliged by law to publish, which leads companies to disclose some information voluntarily. The extent of this information differs between companies. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between different firm characteristics and the level of voluntary disclosure, which has resulted in varying results. The aim of the study is therefore to attain knowledge regarding which firm specific characteristics in Swedish listed companies that affect the level of voluntary disclosure and also how change between years affects this. Previous studies and business economics theories is the basis for the developed hypotheses regarding the impact of the characteristics. A longitudinal study was implemented on 21 companies that were chosen through a stratified random sampling. The data collection for the dependent variable of the study, voluntary disclosure, was done with the help of an index where the companies’ annual reports from 2016-2020 were examined. The level of the voluntary disclosure was then analyzed against the independent variables of the study, the companies’ size, age, profitability, debt ratio and liquidity. A multiple regression analysis was performed and resulted in the expected relationships between the level of voluntary disclosure and the companies’ size, age and profitability. The results showed a significant positive relationship for these characteristics. Any significant relationship could not be shown for the characteristics debt ratio and liquidity. A linear regression analysis was performed on the change in profitability between years and its relationships to the voluntary disclosure. This analysis was also in line with the expectations that changes in profitability does not affect the level of voluntary disclosure.