THE IRANIAN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING REVIEW
Year:2018 | Volume:25 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:9

One way to increase business credit is to reduce the information asymmetry between buyer and seller. By increasing the financial reporting quality and disclosure quality, buyers can provide more information to their vendors on their financial position and performance, reduce the existing information asymmetry and thereby increase the received credit from sellers. This research investigates the relationship between financial reporting quality and disclosure quality with commercial credit in 146 firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2004-2016. Because the financial reporting quality and the disclosure quality are endogenous variables, to hypotheses testing, this paper uses the instrumental variable approach along with two stage least squares estimator (2SLS) and compares these results with the results of ordinary least squares estimator (OLS). The results of 2SLS approach show that the increase in financial reporting quality and disclosure quality increases the amount of commercial credit. However, the results of OLS approach show that disclosure quality (and not financial reporting quality) has a significant positive effect on commercial credit.

Restatements’ of financial statements and consequently audit failures are surprisingly high in Iran and audit report lag (ARL) is also falling sharply. Although there are studies about determinations of audit failure, the role of ARL in audit failure by taking into account the possible moderating role of family ownership has not been investigated. One of the factors that affects auditors’ ability in detecting breaches in clients’ financial statements is audit effort. Hence, it can be predicted that ARL, as a surrogate of audit effort, has a negative relation with audit failure. The results of multivariate analysis reveal that ARL has a negative and significant relation with Type II audit failure, but there is no significant association between ARL and Type I audit failure. Moreover, family ownership is positively associated with Type I audit failure and it has an insignificant relation with Type II audit failure. Finally our findings show that family ownership does not moderate the relation between ARL and Type II audit failure.

The process of capital allocation is based on the information provided through financial reporting. In this context, auditing is regarded as a tool for improving the quality of financial statements. Hence, professional ethics and codes are necessary for auditors so they can perform their duties in a regular manner. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the role of auditors' psychological empowerment on observance of the code of professional ethics with emphasis on the moderating role of organizational status and job experience. Research data is gathered thorough 288 online questionnaires which are distributed to those auditors that work for audit institutions of Iranian association of certificate public accountants. The results suggest that psychological empowerment in the workplace can have a significant impact on the observance of code of professional conduct. Also, job experience could have act as a moderating variable on the relationship between psychological empowerment and observance of code of professional conduct.

Economic and political structures in the capital market pressures can affect managers, auditors and investors behavior in the face of the financial reporting. One of the best examples of political and macroeconomic actions in recent years is the economic sanctions against Iran. Companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange also inevitably have been influenced by the pressures of economic sanctions against Iran. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of economic sanctions on the Information content of financial statements. The data has been analyzed using a sample of 165 listed firms in the Tehran Stock Exchange during from 2001 to 2014 and panel data regression models. The results show that the information content of financial statements reduced in the period of economic sanctions. Also, reduction in the financial information content of loss-making companies and firms with high earnings management during the period of intensifying economic sanctions has been more than reduction in other companies.

This paper investigates the threshold effects of business cycles on earnings quality for the period of 2005 to 2015, using Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model as one of the most prominent regimeswitching models. For this end, accruals quality and earnings smoothing are used as measures of earnings quality, and sales growth as transition variable. The linearity test results indicate nonlinear relationship among variables under consideration. Moreover, considering one transition function and one threshold parameter, as a two regime model, is sufficient to specification the nonlinear relationship among variables. The results indicate that in the first regime, business cycles have a negative impact on both earnings smoothing and accruals quality, and beyond threshold value, in the second regime, the impact of business cycles is positive. Therefore business cycles have played an important role on the earnings quality.

Literature shows that a great number of research about different areas of internal audit have been accomplished; however, there is no any framework for the key elements of the internal audit neither in Iran nor in other countries. In this research, to determine the key components of the internal audit, the literature is assessed utilizing the content analysis; then the key elements of the internal audit are classified into some concepts and factors. Ultimately, in order to validate these concepts and factors, the Delphi Method is employed to evaluate the opinions of internal audit experts and professionals. The results show five concepts, including key features of the IAF, managing the internal audit activity, services and role of IAF, professional practices and organizational relationship, and 17 other key factors like competence, interactions with board, audit committee and senior management (management support), outsourcing, employee management, assurance and consulting services, IAF performance evaluation (quality assurance and improvement program), organizational independence, and so forth which are entirely verified by internal audit experts and professionals. This framework relying on the related literature in the field of internal audit could be contributory in describing variables for future studies.

The main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive picture of the current status of audit research in Iran. In addition, this study seeks to present more clear directions about the research opportunities by examining the trends of research themes overtime as well as identifying research areas which have been less considered by researchers. This paper reviews 457 audit research articles published in 16 accounting and auditing scientific journals as well as publications of economic, management and financial groups from 1992 to autumn of 2017. In order to make a literature review map, the conceptual framework of the articles was examined and independent and dependent variables were identified. Based on the matrix of relations examined in the papers, a comprehensive conceptual framework of audit research in Iran was obtained and 11 research areas were identified along with the frequency of studied relationships in each area. More than 60% of the research has used the archival method and 33% of the research has used the survey method. Audit quality has been a major part of past studies and 70 percent of the research conducted in this area has examined the consequences of audit quality. After audit quality, audit fees and auditors' opinions are ranked second and third. Professional Skepticism, judgment and decision making, fraud, ethics, and professional conduct have been less considered by researchers.