The overall purpose of this study is to establish whether auditors in South Africa also fail to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption underlying financial statements the reasons for auditors' failure to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption The hypotheses of this study are tested by examining professional auditing standards and secondary data on the going concern assumption conducting an empirical study of listed industrial compames whose listings were terminated because of financial failure This study provides evidence that auditors in South Africa fail to Issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption advances specific reasons for this failure / Auditing / M. Comm. (Auditing)

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In this dissertation, I develop and empirically test a comparison of the private versus public strategies presidents use to gain support and passage of their policy agendas. By focusing on presidential influence on policy outcomes in Congress, I can determine which form of presidential leadership - going public or using private bargaining or both - may prove most effective in shaping policies to suit the administration's political interests, given the context in Congress. This allows for an assessment of Neustadt's (1990) classic private bargaining presidency and Kernell's (1997) public presidency to show that both may be compatible and may even work in combination in order for presidents to pass their policy agendas under varying political circumstances in Congress.Original data is collected from Statements of Administration Policy to examine private presidential rhetoric, and additional data is collected from the yearly editions of Congressional Quarterly Almanac to assess the effects of public presidential rhetoric. I test my hypotheses with this new collection of data using logistic regressions, as well as complimentary case studies of No Child Left Behind, immigration reform, and the Andean Trade Preference Act. The broader implications of this study include: systematic assessments of presidential influence on Congress; indentifying a broader view of presidential leadership to better fit empirical observations; and incorporating inter-branch influences in Congressional behavior.

The main objective of this thesis is to determine market value of the company Pivovary Staropramen, a.s. before the merger. Master's thesis is divided into two parts - methodological and practical. Methodological part includes individual steps a procedures, that are used to total value determination of the company. Practical part of the thesis consists especially of strategic and financial analysis, financial planning and company valuation. There is used the model DCF in variant FCFF to determine the market value. For the comparison there is used the book value method. At the end of the thesis there is performed a sensitivity analysis on value growth.

This research considered the perspective of the auditor regarding going-concern reports in light of previous research questions and prior study categorizations. A deeper goal of the study was to find out if a qualitative method would produce a deeper understanding than the quantitative studies of previous research. Interviews were conducted on six Swedish auditors as respondents to learn about their perspectives on going-concern reports. To relate the auditors’ perspectives to previous research, the previous research inspired questions which the respondents answered in their interviews. The previous research inspired questions were then compared and contrasted with the current study’s responses from interviews. This demonstrated differences in obtained information from quantitative researches and a qualitative one. The previous research also offered categorization of the influential factors on auditors. Auditor responses were analyzed according to these categories to demonstrate differences between expected outcomes and the actual outcomes. Agent Theory was utilized in consideration of the auditor as an agent and used the situations and responses of respondent to its fullest without overstepping privacy boundaries.   The research query about auditor perspectives is answered in Results wherein their main concerns are given as raw as possible with rewording only as necessary. Commonalities amongst most respondents included perspectives related to the following: liquidity, cash, financial distress indicators, communications and trust of those communications, experience, changes to key staff or customer figures, auditing standards, regulations, litigations, and mitigating information. The auditors showed behaviors akin to an agent of Agency Theory by utilizing trust risk reduction such as behavioral analysis, corporate culture analysis, and redundancy to check accuracy of data.  The aim to study a qualitative method versus a quantitative method displayed a need for both of the same population to achieve a complete understanding of the perspectives an auditor has for a going-concern report.

The research questions investigated are: 1. Are the expected post-issue fractional holdings of the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions signals of firm value? 2. Are the expected post-issue fractional holdings of the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions signals of underpricing? and 3. Are the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions monitors of IPO investments? The signaling theory developed by Grinblatt and Hwang (1989) (GH) and the monitoring theory for IPO investments have been used to develop the hypotheses for this dissertation. Four factors make my methodology unique. These factors are: 1. I apply and test the GH IPO signaling model over a unique data set collected from the IPO prospectuses, proxy statements and annual reports; 2. I disaggregate the expected post-issue holdings of the different groups of pre-issue blockholders and insiders and hypothesizes that these individual groups represents signals of firm value and underpricing; 3. I hypothesize that these groups, in aggregate and separately, monitor IPO investments over the long term; And 4. I develop signaling and monitoring hypotheses to make predictions at the two stages of the IPO. The results show that firm value is positively related to the level of underpricing, at a given variance of the firms cash flows; the level of underpricing is positively related to the holdings of the directors and officers as a group and the aggregate of the directors and officers, VCs and institutions, at given variances of the firm's cash flows; the firm value is not related to the level of underpricing, at a given level of capital outlay and holdings of either the aggregate blockholders, directors and officers, VCs or institutions. For the monitoring hypotheses, the results show that the long-run buy-and-hold-returns are positively related to the investment bank reputation and the gross spread. Also, the results do not support the theories that the holdings of the VCs, institutions and the aggregate holdings of the different groups, represent the level of monitoring. Therefore, these groups do not increase the value of IPO investments over the long-run.

Abstract not available

<p><strong>Abstract </strong></p><p>The results of the supposed man-made climate change have lead to a concern for the environment that is affecting how businesses operate. Businesses are facing greater pressure from stakeholders and government regulations to take more responsibility and care for the environment. Thus companies are facing a wide spectrum of new problems, but also new opportunities. In facing these problems companies must react to how the world is changing and to integrate environmental concerns into the vision and company strategy to become a more environmentally friendly and thus greener company. An issue pressing is how to maintain sustainability for the environment as well as pursuing to be a sustainable company facing the threats of today and the future to come due to climate change. Important aspects a company must take into consideration in order to go green are: sustainability, company strategy, government regulations, internal processes and policies, corporate social responsibility and how to form a corporate culture as these are all parts of how a company changes into focusing on becoming greener and thus more environmentally friendly.</p><p> </p><p>This study brings forth the actions and reactions of three companies perceived as pioneers towards becoming greener in their respective industries. During the course of mapping out how a company goes green, an analytical model has been created with the help of already existing and accepted theoretical frameworks. The purpose of the model is to create structure and consistency to map out what important steps the company has taken to become greener. A qualitative method of research has been applied. Three respondents active in various fields, all with environmental connections, from Wilhelm Wilhelmsen (WW), Statkraft and Statoil has been interviewed with questions concerning their work towards sustainability and a green vision within the company. The analysis is based on relevant theories combined with the empirical data collected. What stands out in the conclusions is that the companies researched have taken different important steps when becoming greener and working to achieve sustainability. The differences can be illustrated in the own-developed model. The model is applied to crystallize what dimensions in the companies that are affected. Factors such as government regulations and how internal processes and policies are changed are standing out as examples of how a company’s dimensions are affected differently depending on the respective company’s strategy and business model. <strong> </strong></p><p> </p>

Abstract The results of the supposed man-made climate change have lead to a concern for the environment that is affecting how businesses operate. Businesses are facing greater pressure from stakeholders and government regulations to take more responsibility and care for the environment. Thus companies are facing a wide spectrum of new problems, but also new opportunities. In facing these problems companies must react to how the world is changing and to integrate environmental concerns into the vision and company strategy to become a more environmentally friendly and thus greener company. An issue pressing is how to maintain sustainability for the environment as well as pursuing to be a sustainable company facing the threats of today and the future to come due to climate change. Important aspects a company must take into consideration in order to go green are: sustainability, company strategy, government regulations, internal processes and policies, corporate social responsibility and how to form a corporate culture as these are all parts of how a company changes into focusing on becoming greener and thus more environmentally friendly.   This study brings forth the actions and reactions of three companies perceived as pioneers towards becoming greener in their respective industries. During the course of mapping out how a company goes green, an analytical model has been created with the help of already existing and accepted theoretical frameworks. The purpose of the model is to create structure and consistency to map out what important steps the company has taken to become greener. A qualitative method of research has been applied. Three respondents active in various fields, all with environmental connections, from Wilhelm Wilhelmsen (WW), Statkraft and Statoil has been interviewed with questions concerning their work towards sustainability and a green vision within the company. The analysis is based on relevant theories combined with the empirical data collected. What stands out in the conclusions is that the companies researched have taken different important steps when becoming greener and working to achieve sustainability. The differences can be illustrated in the own-developed model. The model is applied to crystallize what dimensions in the companies that are affected. Factors such as government regulations and how internal processes and policies are changed are standing out as examples of how a company’s dimensions are affected differently depending on the respective company’s strategy and business model.