The main purpose of this study is to examine the need to modify the theory of accounting to ensure a standardised and comparable approach when accounting and reporting on intellectual capital. A literature review is used to describe intellectual capital categories and how to measure, recognise and report these assets in the financial statements on an entity. Financial reporting operates around strict requirements that are statement of financial position biased posing significant challenges in recognising and disclosing intellectual capital. The study also uses content analysis of corporate annual reports of the top 40 companies listed on the JSE Ltd in 2009 to determine the extent of intellectual capital reporting by these companies. Measuring and recognising intellectual capital in financial reporting is not limited by the requirements in respect of statutory disclosures, discretionary and contextual disclosures are recommended. Results of the content analysis show that companies use these discretionary and contextual disclosures to communicate information on intellectual capital. / Financial Accounting / M. Com. (Accounting)

In this dissertation the problems surrounding the sentencing stage and factors which influence the sentence are briefly considered. The emphasis is on the use and value of a pre-sentence report in determining suitable sentences other than imprisonment. Historical background in the use of pre-sentence reports in South Africa, England and America is briefly referred to. Relevant concepts, such as individualisation of punishment, are considered in relation to possible sentences such as compensation, fines, community service, and correctional supervision. It is concluded that the provisions of sections 274 and 276A of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1 977 are not enough to regulate the use of pre-sentence reports in South Africa. It is further concluded that legislation is needed in this area, but in the meantime, our courts should work towards developing guidelines based on the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1 977. / Criminal & Procedural Law / LL.M (Law)

Milhares de empresas ao redor do mundo publicam anualmente relatórios de sustentabilidade, documentos que divulgam o desempenho econômico, ambiental, social e de governança da organização. Segundo dados de 2014, do relatório Spotlight on corporate transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, da empresa de auditoria KPMG, mais de 5.000 empresas em 88 países elaboram esses relatórios seguindo as diretrizes GRI Global Reporting Initiative (KPMG, 2014, p. 4). Frequentemente, tais relatórios são elaborados na língua oficial do país em que as empresas estão instaladas (língua de partida) e traduzidos para o inglês (língua de chegada). O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar a linguagem da tradução presente em relatórios de sustentabilidade que seguem o padrão GRI para identificar os principais traços típicos da tradução, tais como explicitação, simplificação e normalização, seguindo o arcabouço teórico de Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). Como objetivo secundário visamos identificar os principais termos e expressões desse modelo de relatório em português e seus equivalentes em inglês, para a compilação de uma proposta de glossário bilíngue na direção português-inglês. O estudo foi feito principalmente por meio dos Estudos da Tradução Baseados em Corpus e da Linguística de Corpus, utilizando um corpus paralelo, com 10 documentos coletados da internet em português com as respectivas traduções para o inglês, e dois corpora comparáveis bilíngues, com um total de 30 documentos em português e outros 30 escritos em inglês. Em relação ao objetivo principal, notamos que, embora os documentos originais e as traduções do corpus de estudo sejam bastante semelhantes, isto é, apresentem o mesmo número de páginas, o mesmo layout e, aparentemente, o mesmo conteúdo em cada página, foi possível notar traços de explicitação, simplificação e normalização na linguagem traduzida. / Thousands of companies around the world annually publish sustainability reports, documents that disclose the organization\'s economic, environmental, social and governance performance. According to data from 2014 report Spotlight on Corporate Transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, published by auditing company KPMG, more than 5,000 companies in 88 countries compile these reports following the GRI Global Reporting Initiative guidelines (KPMG, 2014, p.4). Such reports are often produced in the official language of the country where the companies are established (the source language) and translated into English (the target language). The aim of this research is to analyze the translation language present in sustainability reports that follow the GRI standard to identify the main typical features of translation, such as explicitation, simplification and normalization, following the theoretical framework of Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). As a secondary goal we aim to identify the main terms and expressions of this model of report in Portuguese and their English equivalents, for the compilation of a proposal of a bilingual glossary in the Portuguese-English direction. The study was carried out mainly through Corpus-Based Translation Studies and Corpus Linguistics, using a parallel corpus, with 10 documents collected from the Internet in Portuguese with the respective English translations, and two comparable bilingual corpora with a total of 30 documents in Portuguese and other 30 documents written in English. In relation to the main objective, we noticed that, although the original documents and the translations of the study corpus are very similar, that is, they present the same number of pages, the same layout and, apparently, the same content in each page, it was possible to note traces of explicitation, simplification and normalization in the translated language.

Chen Chang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-34). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Ma Yue. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-36). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Problem: Interim and annual reports are some of the most crucial sources of information regarding companies’ performances. Interested parties such as analysts and investors assess this information and compare it with expectations. Analysts’ expectations of companies’ interim reports are of great importance when analysing the future development of share movement. Possible deviations between analysts’ expectations and actual presented results from the individual companies might change the perceptions of specific future stock prices. Furthermore business sectors have different characteristics and might respond differently to unexpected earnings news. Over- and underperformance of the presented results in relation to analysts’ expectations could create specific stock price movements over a forthcoming period depending on the nature of the report. The authors label this phenomenon as persistent trends. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to establish whether persistency and trends could be observed in the future development of companies’ stock prices with regard to analysts’ expectations and the true result presented by the companies. Method: With a quantitative approach the authors conducted an event study aiming to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The study consisted of all fourth quarter reports presented 2001 throughout 2004 by the companies presently listed on the Most traded section of the Stockholm stock exchange A-list. The authors defined the nature of the studied reports as positive or negative depending on whether the pre-tax earning exceeded or were lower than the analysts’ expectations. Furthermore the authors constructed a mathematical formula which distinguished if the possible deviation of actual results compared to expectations was significant. The share price performance for two months subsequent to the earnings announcement was recorded and compared with the OMXS30 development for the equivalent time, thereby the authors gathered empirical evidence to fulfill the purpose. Furthermore the data was also divided into business subcategories to provide answers to whether there was uniform response to unexpected earnings information among business sectors. Results: The authors presented empirically founded evidence for the existence of persistent trends following the presentation of both positive and negative reports. The authors also rejected the presence of a uniform response to deviating earnings information in the business sectors.

Unlimited demands of development and non-stopped destruction of surrounding environments cause many environmental problems. In this paper, Climate Change as one important issue has been studied against an Asian background. For the purpose of showing a clear trend of communicated corporate awareness in global Climate Change issues, in this report, seventy Asian companies have been studied. The results show a relatively low-level growth curve of communicated corporate Climate Change awareness by dissecting companies’ CEO Letters during years 2000 to 2009, followed by a comparison study with European results and five possible explanations in the discussion part. As the conclusion of this paper, an increased interest among Asian governments and companies during year 2000-2009 has been observed. However, there is still lack of knowledge on a general level compared with the European results. According to the five possible explanations, several possible future studies have also been recommended in the paper: 1) Comparison study under the same scope within Asia or other continents; 2) Case-study on specific interested companies; 3) On-going study on the future curve trend with the same target group.

<p>Problem: Interim and annual reports are some of the most crucial sources of information regarding companies’ performances. Interested parties such as analysts and investors assess this information and compare it with expectations. Analysts’ expectations of companies’ interim reports are of great importance when analysing the future development of share movement. Possible deviations between analysts’ expectations and actual presented results from the individual companies might change the perceptions of specific future stock prices. Furthermore business sectors have different characteristics and might respond differently to unexpected earnings news. Over- and underperformance of the presented results in relation to analysts’ expectations could create specific stock price movements over a forthcoming period depending on the nature of the report. The authors label this phenomenon as persistent trends.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to establish whether persistency and trends could be observed in the future development of companies’ stock prices with regard to analysts’ expectations and the true result presented by the companies.</p><p>Method: With a quantitative approach the authors conducted an event study aiming to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The study consisted of all fourth quarter reports presented 2001 throughout 2004 by the companies presently listed on the Most traded section of the Stockholm stock exchange A-list. The authors defined the nature of the studied reports as positive or negative depending on whether the pre-tax earning exceeded or were lower than the analysts’ expectations. Furthermore the authors constructed a mathematical formula which distinguished if the possible deviation of actual results compared to expectations was significant. The share price performance for two months subsequent to the earnings announcement was recorded and compared with the OMXS30 development for the equivalent time, thereby the authors gathered empirical evidence to fulfill the purpose. Furthermore the data was also divided into business subcategories to provide answers to whether there was uniform response to unexpected earnings information among business sectors.</p><p>Results: The authors presented empirically founded evidence for the existence of persistent trends following the presentation of both positive and negative reports. The authors also rejected the presence of a uniform response to deviating earnings information in the business sectors.</p>

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Lincoln University, 2008. / Also available via the World Wide Web.