JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE
Year:2011 | Volume:2 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Before 2005, financial accountability of using Iran universities' financial resources was held in the hands of treasury officers who were selected by the ministry of Finance and Economic affaires. From 2005, based on the fourth economic, culture and social program act, the financial control system changed and financial managers were selected by the heads of universities. This has made these universities presidents responsible for financial accountability of deploying and expending financial resources to board of directors and the supreme audit court since 2005.Because of this financial control system change, it seems that the establishment of Internal Audit unit and Audit Committee is essential in order to improve the financial accountability of such organizations. In this research we have tested this matter by means of questionnaires filled by accounting and auditing experts (Including financial officers, financial managers, independent auditors and supervisors) of those universities. According to our findings, the establishment of Internal Audit unit and Audit Committee in universities will have a major impact on improving the financial accountability of the mentioned organizations.

This research studies the relationship between capital structure and ownership arrangements in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange in a descriptive-correlative inquiry. Using panel data method, four models have been devised for hypotheses testing in a sample consisting of 90 selected firms within 1382-87. The findings are indicative of an inverse significant relationship between capital structure and ownership arrangements. The relationship may reduce agency costs as institutional investors play a substantial role in transferring information and influencing the firm value. In this relationship, while it is not clear that the capital structure is the source of change in the ownership arrangements or vice versa, it seems necessary for investors and creditors to consider both of them in their decisions, concerning investment in the firm.

Following Sloan (1996), numerous studies document that the accrual component of earnings is less persistent than the cash flow component of earnings. Some intelligent specialists argue that accounting distortions cause lesser persistence of accrual component of earnings. Others attribute the latter to economic indices such as growth of firms. This study consider the role of accounting distortions in lower persistence of accruals by analyzing data from the firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during 1377 to 1387. Our evidence shows that accounting distortion is the important factor in lower persistence of accruals. Moreover, results show that growth of sales reduces accruals persistence, and that efficient use of assets increase accruals persistence.

This paper examines the relationship between the length of auditor tenure and the extent of corporate earnings management. In particular, we test the relationship between the length of auditor tenure and the magnitude of absolute discretionary accruals, using a sample of 133 firms over the period 1379 to 1385. We find a positive relationship between the tenure and absolute discretionary accruals. These findings show that as auditor tenure increases, the reporting flexibility in management using discretionary accruals rises. We also examine the relationship between auditor tenure and signed discretionary accruals. We find a significant negative relationship that is consistent with the view that management uses reporting flexibility to reduce reported earnings.

The subject concerning relationship between conservatism and information content of accruals relative to operating cash flows has been focused by many researchers. Felltham & Ohlson (1995) showed that the information content of accruals will increase conservatism, whereas the information content of cash flows remains unaffected. We predict that the score of conservatism of the firm has effect on their information content of accruals and cash flows, and firms with a high degree of conservatism have greater information content of accruals. This study is trying to collect evidence on this issue. To test the hypotheses in this study, two statistics methods for cross-section and panel data analysis have been used with financial information of 92 firms in Tehran Stock Exchange during 1999-2007. The results show that accruals and differential information content of cash flows relative to accruals for the firms exhibiting a high degree of conservatism is greater than that of the firms showing a low degree of conservatism. Also, there is a positive correlation between the differential information content of cash flows relative to accruals and conservatism score of firms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of modern and traditional liquidity indexes in forecasting Income Smoothing of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study five hypotheses were introduced. A bi-faceted classification was used to divide the participant companies into ‘income smoother’ and ‘non-income smoother’ groups. The data sample is restricted to 74 companies during the years 2000-2010. Using SPSS16 program for hypotheses testing, the results indicated that there is significant relationship between traditional indexes and size of companies with income smoothing, and that the most important effective item is the level of inventory in the companies.

The purpose of this study is to determine the credit rating of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange, using data envelopment analysis, DEA, technique. The DEA technique is a method of determining relative efficiency for the surveyed entities. Using this technique, the relative credit efficiency of the surveyed companies is calculated and then the credit rating of them, at total level, is determined. The statistical population in this research includes 281 companies for the period of 1385 to 1387. To provide credit rating of the surveyed companies, the data envelopment analysis technique included 2 inputs and 6 outputs that were selected from financial ratios. Research results encompass the credit rating of the surveyed companies that assigned ranks from AAA to D to them. The closer this rank to D, the financial ability decreases and the closer this rank to AAA, the financial ability increases. The results were consistent with the traditional analysis of ratios so that, a company, for example, with a “D” rate assigned to it, using traditional ratio analysis, was also in the worst financial position in comparison with the other surveyed companies, regarding the financial ability to pay debts.