Journal of Empirical Research in Accounting
Year:2020 | Volume:9 | Issue:36|Papers Count:10

Objective: Firms with poor corporate governance, react more extremely to major economic shocks, as compared to firms with good corporate governance. Since there is a direct relation between corporate governance tools and shareholders’ value-added, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between some corporate governance tools and firm value in terms of economic sanctions. Methods: Research hypotheses are tested using a sample of 114 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 2008-2016 and multiple regression equations and panel data methods through Excel and Eviews9 software. Finding: Research findings suggest that there is no significant relation between the Board characteristic and firm value. However, there is a negative and significant relation between the economic sanctions and the firm value. Also, the results show that economic sanctions do not affect the relation between the Board characteristic and firm value. Conclusion: Based on the results, economic sanctions have a negative effect on the firm value by restricting business transactions. On the other hand, due to cultural and economic differences of Iran with other countries, the interactive effect of board characteristics and sanctions on the firm value is not significant.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate semi-strong market efficiency through review of the relation between increase or decrease of stock return and financial statement information. Using sixty six rolling panel-logit models & accounting variables, we estimate increase or decrease of each firm’ s stock return as a Pr summary amount and create a hedged portfolio via zero investment strategy. The firm stocks with Pr values equal or higher than 0. 6 are considered as a long position and the ones with Pr values equal or less than 0. 4 are considered as a short position. Returns from hedged portfolio are the basis for judgment about market efficiency in the semi strong level. The sample consists of 58 firms listed in TSE during 2006 to 2018. The results do not confirm the semi-strong market efficiency even after size and market risk adjustments. Also among all 17 accounting ratios used in order to predict changes in return, the following ratios are more often significant: changes in total assets ratio, the financial expenses to sales ratio, the change in EPS ratio, the change in sale to total assets ratio, the gross income to sale ratio, and the earnings before tax to sale ratio.

Accounting has been assisting any business activities from the origin of commerce. Due to the necessity for accurate reflection of the economic reality through financial reporting figures, accounting profession has been continuously improving. Furthermore, the information technology improvement and the emergence of internet have led to new ways of recording information. One of these changes is the creation of cloud accounting. Cloud accounting as a new technology with Internet infrastructure and new approaches can have significant benefits in providing electronic accounting services. Applying this technology in accounting and reporting requires consideration of various factors. The main objective of this study is to identify and rank the factors influencing the adoption of cloud accounting. The methodology is mixed exploratory sequential. The research has two qualitative and quantitative dimensions. This research identifies 16 factors contributing to adoption of the cloud accounting, based on the theoretical framework and experts' opinions. Statistical population of this study is all faculty members and accounting students. The sampling method is Snowball method and single stage cluster. Using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling of latent variables, the research finds that16 factors are effective in applying cloud accounting.

Sustainability reporting provides information on economic, environmental, social and governance performance. Various variables may be considered as a driver for a corporate sustainability reporting. The purpose of this study is to identify and rank sustainability reporting drivers and indicators. This research is qualitative and exploratory. The network analysis method is used to rank the drivers and indicators. The statistical population of respondents to the questionnaire contains experts in the fields of theoretical foundations of financial reporting and social sciences, capital market and environmental protection, who responded to 23 questionnaires in 2018. The findings of the research show that sustainability reporting drivers are classified in 5 main groups and 24 indicators. Among the drivers, the drivers of environmental requirements, corporate governance characteristics and firm structural characteristics are the most important, according to the expert opinion. Also, ranking of indicators show that the legal requirements, board members independence and profitability indices have the highest rank. The results of this study can promote the awareness of users about sustainability reporting, drivers and indicators.

This study examines the effect of cash distributions to shareholders on the relation between agency costs and conditional conservatism. The sample consists of 104 firms listed in TSE in the period from 2006-2014. Analysis of evidence based on panel data shows that there is a significant positive relation between the agency cost and demand for conditional conservatism. The relation between cash distribution and conditional conservatism is not significant. In addition, cash distribution has a significant and positive effect on the relation between agency costs and conditional conservatism. More dividend payments creates a conflict of interest between shareholders and creditors so, demand for conservatism increases from both creditors and shareholders. In such a situation, it is expected that accounting conservatism may create incentives for efficient investment decisions, facilitate the monitor of management investment decisions and ultimately lead to reduction of agency problems. Therefore, firms with high-level excess cash have higher levels of conservatism.

This study examines the factors affecting an auditor independence, considering the Iranian auditors’ and financial directors’ attitude of auditor independence. To examine auditors’ and financial managers’ attitude of this key concept, the study uses the seven main indicators effective on the auditor's independence. The required data is collected through questionnaires distributed among all employees in the IACPA firms and financial managers of firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange in 2016. Research findings show that despite a general agreement between auditors and financial managers on factors affecting an auditor independence, they believe that the intensity of the indicators effect on an auditor independence is significantly different, so that the effects of all seven indicators emerged from the auditors factor analysis are considered more intense.

Because management accountants contribute to the control process through providing performance reports that compare real results with planned outcomes for each responsibility center, building trust between this group of accountants who play a key role in the long-term success of the business unit, and the firm's managers, is one of the most important organizational issues. This research, using the qualitative research method and the field-based grounded theory approach, investigates the factors and conditions leading to building trust between managers and management accountants and accordingly it develops the relevant model. To answer the questions, this research uses results from interviewing 16 experts in this field. In 12th interview, we reached the saturation point in our findings. After initial coding of interviews and categorizing the various codes into basic themes based on the developed model, the research finds a set of Individual causal conditions such as competence, loyalty, and personality traits. Also it achieves organizational causal conditions such as team management and word-action fit; underlying factors such as organizational self-esteem, organizational culture; intervening conditions including the influence of location and time conditions on decisions; socio-cultural and economic-political factors; and strategies for transparency, loyalty, honesty, altruism, and job security. In addition, findings show that high morale, job satisfaction, and productivity improvement would be the consequences of building trust between managers and management accountants. Finally, using these findings, we are able to develop a manager and accountant trust model.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relation between related party transactions and accounting information quality. The sample consists of 136 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2012 to 2016, which are selected using the systematic removal method. This research uses a criterion of earnings management and three criteria of earnings smoothing. The research hypotheses are tested using the multivariate regression method. Results of the study indicate that there is a significant positive relation between related party transactions and earnings management. There is a positive relation between the second criterion of earnings smoothing and related party transactions. Finally, There is no significant relation between the first and third criterion of earnings smoothing and related party transactions.

Metaheuristic approaches are inspired mainly based on the order and rules of natural organisms. Today, these approaches have been widely used in various branches. According to the importance of forecasting, understanding the methods of earnings management forecast can provide useful information for the stakeholders. The variety of factors obtained due to the results of linear patterns used for measuring earnings management has caused investors to hesitate the reported earnings quality. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to provide an optimal templete for earnings management forecast. In the first step, the origin linear model is optimized using the pattern of neural networks then Particle Swarm Optimization and Imperialist Competitive Algorithms are used to optimize the pattern more. The sample consists of 620 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2010 to 2015. The results indicate usefulness and positive impact of panel data methods on the performance of earnings management forecast. The findings also show a significant difference between usefulness of the linear and nonlinear methods. In other words, using algorithms in earnings management forecast, the prediction accuracy increases with the elimination of inefficient variables. In addition, findings indicate a better and more suitable performance of Imperialist Competitive Algorithm than other patterns in the efficiency of the management variables with accuracy (95/8%).

The purpose of this study is to explain the moderating role of related party transactions in the relation between political connections and audit report lag. One of the criteria for financial reporting quality is being up-todate. On the other hand, in politically minded firms, managers find incentives for potential benefits, which can lead to a loss of their rights. The sample of this research consists of 156 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 2012 to 2016. The research findings based on the panel data and multi-variate linear regression analysis show that political connections lead to an increase in the audit report lag. Related party transactions increase the audit report lag as well as strengthen the relation between political connections and the audit report lag. This confirms that firms with a political relationship with dealers use related party transactions to hide some transactions they do.