Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2005.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität St. Gallen, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-110).

Zugl.: Trier, Univ., Diss., 2005

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)

M.Comm. / The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the role and responsibility of the auditor in assessing the going concern status of South African companies implementing buybacks. The provisions of current legislation in this regard, including the Companies Act and the JSE Listing Requirements will be discussed and the question of whether the current status of the auditor's involvement in the buyback process is sufficient will be explored. Furthermore, since no specific requirement regarding the going concern assessment with regard to buybacks is placed on the auditor in terms of the Companies Act or the JSE Listing Requirements, the responsibility of the auditor with regard to the going concern concept within the scope of a normal statutory audit will be explored. A workable guideline will be developed to assist the auditor in assessing the impact of a buyback on the company's ability to continue as a going concern and consideration will be given to the process that the auditor should follow in reaching a conclusion on whether a buyback raises a material uncertainty surrounding the company's ability to continue as a going concern. However, before the issue of the auditor's responsibility with regard to the going concern concept in relation to share buybacks can be addressed, it is necessary to obtain an understanding of the legislation, financial, accounting and taxation implications of buybacks. These factors will be addressed in this study before the auditor's involvement in the buyback process is evaluated.

No description available.

The financial statements represent a comprehensive and standardized document including financial information about the company. The companies need to publish this document in the Collection of Deeds, and since the documents are submitted to the Collection of Deeds in electronic form and are subsequently freely available, any financial statements are generally available to a wide range of potential users. Users of the financial statements can be divided based on their relation to the financial statements and based on level of their knowledge of accounting. The confidence of users in information disclosed in the financial statements is higher, in case the financial statements were subject to audit. The user of the financial statements does not have a possibility of detailed verification of the information presented in it (he cannot inquire the management of the company, inspect the original accounting documents, etc.). In this case, the audit represents ensuring correctness of the information presented in the financial statements and also assurance that the financial statements were subject to the independent verification. These facts enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements and this is also the purpose of an audit as defined by the International Standards on Auditing. In accordance with the International Standards on Auditing the auditor expects that the user of the financial statements has reasonable knowledge of accounting and is willing to study the financial statements with reasonable effort. Auditor performs his testing based on certain materiality level that does not have to agree to the materiality level of the user. The risk represents in this case the situation, when the materiality level of the user is lower than the materiality level determined by the auditor. The user of the financial statements has limited possibilities to verify the information in it, however, he is able to verify the link among information presented in different parts of the financial statements and confront the financial statements with other relevant information available. My dissertation consists from theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part, there are possible verifications described that can be performed by the user of the financial statements and in the practical part, there are the mentioned procedures applied to financial statements of four domestic companies. The subject of my research was financial statements for the years 2006 to 2009. The aim was not only the identification of the risks in the financial statements from the users' point of view, but also monitoring of the development of financial statements in time. The subject of the dissertation was also the verification of the formal correctness of audit reports issued to the selected financial statements (I am registered as Czech statutory auditor by the Chamber of Auditors of the Czech Republic and therefore I am able to perform this verification). The subject of the dissertation was not the verification of the factual correctness of the audit report, this verification is in principle not possible without possibility to look into the audit file. During analysis of selected financial statements I have identified several areas that represent risk of misstatement in the financial statements from the users' point of view. It related mainly to going concern issues, issues relating to completeness of reserves and provisions and risk of possible overvaluation of finance investments and related receivables to subsidiaries. The user of the financial statements should for his better understanding therefore look for other information relating to the company from freely available resources and perform comparison with financial statements of other companies in the same industry. The risks mentioned above were not sufficiently commented in the notes to the financial statements and that subsequently gives a rise to questions on financial statements users' side and lowers his confidence in information presented in the financial statements. I think that there is a change in the audit approach necessary, it should not be enough just that the financial statements are free from material misstatement; the financial statements should not give a rise to additional questions from their users.

Early college high school (ECHS) is a dual enrollment program that allows high school students to earn college credits while in high school. ECHS was developed with the intention of attracting students to pursue a 4-year college degree, especially students who might not attend college without intervention. The program targets students from low-income families, students who have low academic achievement, and students from minority groups including Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and opinions of Hispanic students about their experiences in an ECHS, and to better understand how their ECHS experiences affected motivation to engage in academics. The expectancy theory and college-going culture provided the theoretical framework for this case study. Semi-structured interviews captured the experiences of the participants. The study focused on 10 Hispanic students, 5 seniors and 5 juniors, enrolled at an ECHS located on a community college campus in Texas. The study found that students with higher motivation to work at high school and college courses had several reasons for choosing to attend ECHS. The reasons included a chance to earn a high school diploma and associate’s degree simultaneously, free college tuition, and an accelerated program to get through college. The students also identified rewarding outcomes for completing college. Those outcomes included satisfying career, personal satisfaction, ability to provide for their family and making their family proud as the first high school graduate and college attendee. One student had a lower motivation to work at high school and college work. He chose to attend ECHS to seek more freedom than a traditional high school. He was not certain about graduating from high school and doubtful about college graduation. This study contributes to the ECHS literature by providing details on students’ experiences at an ECHS. Using the qualitative method of an interview allowed the researcher to discover the richer picture of students' experiences.