We examine whether UK firms engage in earnings management or forecast guidance to ensure that their reported earnings meet analyst earnings expectations. We explore two earnings management mechanisms: (a) positive abnormal working capital accruals; and (b) classification shifting of core...

The pooling method of accounting for business combinations was banned in the USA in 2001 and by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in 2004. Although the US ban was controversial, the IASB ban received much less opposition. We review comment letters to the IASB and discuss...

We examine the economic consequences of the mandatory adoption of IFRS in EU countries by showing which types of economies have the largest reduction in investment-cash flow sensitivity post-IFRS. We also examine whether the reduction in investment-cash flow sensitivity depends on firm size as...

This study explores the market response to achieving analyst earnings expectations, distinguishing between expectations achieved through earnings forecast guidance and earnings management. We consider three earnings management tools: real earnings management, working capital accruals management,...

This paper introduces a model seeking to explain the discretionary write-downs, write-offs, and other restructuring provisions reported by managers. The model comprises a firm, a manager, and a financial market. The firm is about to be restructured. The manager has some private information about...

Recent research into management accounting practices suggests that companies are now placing considerable emphasis on profitability analysis and consider it to be one of the most important management accounting practices. There is however little recent empirical research relating to the content...

The disclosure of Corporate Governance (CG) information by firms has been found in prior studies to have an impact on the market value of firms. This thesis extends the research by studying the impact of voluntary CG disclosure by firms in Hong Kong, a market which provides a strong legal...

Despite a documented decline in the number of dividend payers in the UK it is found that aggregate real dividends paid by industrials actually increased between 1979 and 2000. This was attributed to the firms lost from the sample being generally small distributors of dividends whilst the growth...

This paper investigates the abnormal share return dispersion occurring when companies announce their interim or final earnings. Whereas, prior research has focused on abnormal returns, little attention has been given to investigating the dispersion of the abnormal returns. We find strong...

A sample of 76 firms that operate in the Internet is studied in order to explore forms of identifying and measuring intangible assets in this area of business. The firms meet three conditions: operate in the Internet, have available accounting information, and be quoted in the stock exchange....