This paper is an empirical testing of the association between Cost Standard-Setting (PSS) on Work Performance (WP), mediated With Information Asymmetry (IA), and Goal Complexity (GC). It is a rule of thumb that PSS setting can lower the level of IA and GC between the managers and the employees and leads to better WP. The present work uses a path model to measure the direct, indirect, and spurious effect between the dependent and independent variables of this study. Data were collected from ten corporate firms in Iraq via a pre-designed questionnaire survey, the questionnaire forms were distributed randomly to the firm’s top management personnel, departmental managers, engineers, accountants, and administrators who are involved in PSS. Around 350 forms were distributed for data collection, however, only 198 forms were considered for this analysis, the rest of the forms were discarded due to incompleteness or missing values. The findings of the study showed a significant direct effect of PSS on WP. Likewise, there was clear evidence of an indirect effect via the mediating variables (IA and GC). The influence of IA and GC confirms the strong association between the independent variable (PSS) on the dependent variable (WP).

This study investigates whether Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) is affected by IFRS convergence and social value in a country that has strict societal norms (Saudi Arabia). Using a sample of 292 Saudi manufacturing and utilities firms listed on the Saudi Capital Market during the period of 2015-2019, the study finds that IFRS convergence is not related to the CSD of the Saudi manufacturing and utilities firms. On the other hand, social values (as modeled by adopting CSD as a strategic objective) are significantly related to CSD. These results provide evidence supporting the view that CSD is influenced by social values rather than the change in the corporate disclosure environment in countries that exhibit strong conformity to societal values, such as Saudi Arabia. Overall, the current study adds to an understanding of the factors that determine CSD outside the shareholder-stakeholder orientation model.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is undeniable that many companies are experiencing a decline in turnover, and some companies have even been forced to go out of business. Due to the many fraud incidents, corporate governance is vital in ensuring earnings persistence by considering many audit committee structures. Based on this phenomenon, the purpose of this study is to determine how significant the role of corporate governance is in overcoming earnings persistence moderated by the number of audit committees. This study is quantitative descriptive with a population of all companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Index (IDX), and the number of samples with several criteria found as many as six companies. This research period was conducted from 2011-2019. This result implies a positive influence on corporate governance moderated by the audit committee on earnings persistence. This led to point out that the power of corporate governance has a positive effect on earnings persistence.

Under the conditions of intense competitive struggle, integrated assessment methods are gaining increasingly greater importance in the processes of information and analytical support of enterprise development management. Enterprise competitiveness is one of the most universal, and, consequently, methodological and applied features among such generalizing characteristics. However, almost all of the approaches used are characterized by both significant advantages and certain disadvantages as of the date. This study develops a system of information and analytical support for managing enterprise competitiveness in the market of fast moving consumer goods, where competition is near the highest. The author's approach for assessing the competitiveness status of enterprises is developed. For this purpose, a system of indicators is determined, which reveal comprehensively and systematically the main parameters of competitiveness according to its structural components, or subsystems: (1) personnel, (2) property, (3) commodity, (4) organizational. The peculiarity of the approach includes the combination of the method of enterprise position rating in the market, and expert survey, which ends with presentation of the results using the graphical method. Summarizing approbation of the developed methodological approach to the assessment of enterprise competitiveness status, the results allow to allocate the leader enterprises, enterprises of average level of competitiveness, enterprises of attack zones and lost opportunities, and outsider enterprises are obtained. The results include the possibility of implementing a new better and more comprehensive approach for analyzing the status of competitiveness of competing enterprises, which serves as a significant information and analytical basis for policy planning to strengthen the competitive position of businesses for the consumer goods market.

This study aims to examine the role of human capital, which is part of intellectual capital, as a mediator in the relationship between audit committee expertise and the number of audit committee meetings with real earnings management. This research is a quantitative study. The data source used is data from manufacturing companies in Indonesia. The sample selection technique used purposive sampling. The analysis technique uses path analysis. The results showed that the expertise of the audit committee had a significant effect on human capital, while the number of audit meetings had no effect on human capital. The results of this study also state that audit committee expertise, number of audit committee meetings and human capital performance have no effect on real earnings management actions. Furthermore, there is empirical evidence that shows that human capital has a mediating effect on the relationship between audit committee expertise and the number of audit committee meetings with real earnings management. The role of human capital in the relationship between the expertise of the audit committee and the number of audit committee meetings becomes originality, so it is the main contribution of research. The limitation of this research is that it only uses human capital as a mediating variable.

Income smoothing is basically a management strategy to reduce fluctuating income levels. This study aims to determine the effect of company size, leverage and profitability on income smoothing in companies listed on the LQ45 Index of the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2017-2019 period. It was carried out on companies listed on the LQ45 Index of the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017-2019. Sampling was conducted by utilizing purposive sampling and obtained 11 companies, from which 33 data were collected. The analysis technique used was multiple linear regression analysis. Results showed that company size, leverage and profitability simultaneously can affect income smoothing of a company. Company size and profitability partially have a positive effect on income smoothing, while leverage has a negative effect on income smoothing.

The purpose of the study is to examine whether internal auditors have the courage to report audit findings and fraud when they are under pressure and unpleasant situations. We used the experiment with 107 participants who were internal auditors from various companies. Participants were divided randomly into two groups with different treatments. The first group was given the low-pressure treatment by giving information that the company’s top management has good integrity and is open to every aspiration, and organizational culture is clean and free of corruption. Meanwhile, the second group was given high-pressure treatment in the form of information that the company's top management is firm and happy when all subordinates carry out their instructions and directions. The results show that the pressure influences auditors' courage to report fraud findings. Internal auditors with a low pressure are more willing to report indications of fraud than internal auditors with high pressure. Furthermore, the pressure will not impact reporting issues other than fraud. We found no difference in the reporting number of audit findings under low- or high-pressure conditions.

This study mainly aimed to examine the effect of internal risks on the financial performance of the Jordanian commercial banks. The study sample comprised the entire commercial banks that are included in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) spanning the period from 2009 to 2019. The study formulated four hypotheses, which are related to the effects of liquidity risk and leverage risk on the bank’s performance, proxied by ROA and ROE. Based on the results, liquidity risk did not have a significant effect on both ROA and ROE, while leverage risk did not have a significant effect on ROA, but it did on ROE. It can thus be concluded that the use of financial leverage should be taken into consideration because of its negative influence on the banks’ financial performance, specifically on the shareholders’ returns. It is recommended that future studies examine the effect of additional risk types, like credit risk and operational risk on the performance of banks.

Determining cash holdings is amongst the most important financial decisions made by heads of corporations. This decision relies on theoretical convictions and views as well as firm specific characteristics. This article analyzes the determinants of cash management in Moroccan corporations. By mobilizing all the theories of optimal financial structure, our research attempts to focus on the field of knowledge in the financial management of cash surpluses. No analysis has been carried out concerning cash and cash equivalents in Moroccan firms. These results could, therefore, contextualize the existing knowledge in this research theme and better understand the behavior of companies and their main trends in terms of cash flow, as well as the objectives and motivations of managers. The sample studied consists of 42 Moroccan companies, which are all publicly traded on the Casablanca Stock Exchange over 13 years (2007-2019). This research uses an empirical econometric study based on a positivist approach with a hypothetical-deductive method. We use panel regression analysis and perform all the necessary tests to determine the exact nature of this dataset. Our results show some evidence that a strong positive correlation exists between liquidity level and cash-flow as well as family shareholding. It is also found that the cash holdings of these companies are significantly negatively affected by how large or small the firm is, working capital requirement, debt leverage, as well as growth opportunity of the firm.

This research empirically investigates the role of the enterprise risk management system implementation level in capturing firm managerial incentives. The system plays an important role in understanding the association between international financial reporting standards and the capital market. Listed firms in the Australian market were used for the period 2000-2010 for this purpose. The study results imply that implementing higher levels of ERM by Australian firms during the mandatory IFRS adoption period does not capture firm incentives in IFRS period. Consequently, these results suggest that the implementation of ERM by Australian firms does not reduce the contractual costs between investors and management, whilst adopting IFRS does. Future research may use other techniques and/or strategies other than ERM, to capture the firm incentives, and as a result, may have economic consequences.