QUALITATIVE FACTORS OF MATERIALITY - A REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Determination of materiality is a crucial step in an audit mission because it affects theentire audit process. The incorrect application of materiality can have serious negativerepercussions on both the audited entity and the auditor (Enron-Anderson). Researches conductedover time revealed the complexity of this element in an audit mission and the need to emergencesome generally accepted rules and regulations to provide support in defining and substantiating theprofessional judgment applied in this stage of the audit.materiality, quantitative factors, professional judgment, reviews of research.

USING MANAGEMENT CONTROL TO ALIGN ORGANIZATIONAL STARTEGIES AND TO MEASURE PERFORMANCES

Practice shows that, in order to improve internal and external communication, managers need to increase the request of information about their business administration. So, for this, they need a complementary system which assures them this kind of informa

PREFERENCE OF THE LISTED ENTITIES REGARDING THE SELECTION OF THE EXTERNAL AUDITOR

The present research aims to highlight the importance of the external auditing in supporting corporate governance and the preference of the listed entities to be audited by the big audit companies. Given the proposed objectives of the research, our scientific method is based on a deductive approach from general to particular that combines quantitative and qualitative studies. The role of the external audit was analyzed by conducting a study of literature on two levels: a theoretical-conceptual level in terms of economic theories and an empirical-practical level based on literature from which we extracted through a content analysis the defining elements of the audit work quality. Falling within the scope of the study, we evaluated the preference of the listed entities to be audited by the Big Four. To this end we used the content analysis of the publicly posted audit reports for the period 2005-2009. Our research results show that although we are a country with an emerging capital market development, the entities in the I-st category on the Bucharest Stock Exchange tend to an audit conducted by one of the big audit companies. Another result arising from our study is that the entities of the I-st category on the Bucharest Stock Exchange become more transparent from a year to another. Whether for the year 2005 we find only 12 audit reports publicly posted, in 2007 we can find 21 audit reports publicly posted. The trend of the large entities audited shows that the preference of the entities to be audited by one of the Big Four is higher from a year to another. The preparation of the financial statements and their audit must be done according to regulations for the currently period. The presumption found in the literature according to which the large entities are audited by the big audit companies which provide higher audit quality is confirmed in the case of our national country as well.external audit, audit report, opinion, listed companies, Big Four

EMPIRIJSKA STUDIJA IMPLIKACIJA KVALITATIVNIH FAKTORA U DONOŠENJU ODLUKA VEZANIH ZA RAZINU MATERIJALNOSTI. SLUČAJ RUMUNJSKE

The paper aims to present the importance of qualitative factors in determining the materiality level in an audit mission. According to the literature a quantitative approach of materiality is insufficient for appropriate decisions, therefore it is required a more serious treatment of this issue. Data collected in the research were processed using the Ordered Logit Model, and the results showed that there is a significant correlation between the materiality level and the sectors in which the audited companies operate, the auditor’s experience in the field and the longevity of the relationship with the client. There is no any correlation between the materiality level and the needs of the users of financial statements or the management objectives.Rad želi predstaviti važnost kvalitativnih faktora u određivanju razine materijalnosti u postupku revizije. Literatura nam govori da kvantitativni pristup materijalnosti nije dovoljan za prikladne odluke, te je stoga potreban ozbiljniji pristup ovoj temi. Podaci sakupljeni u istraživanju obrađeni su pomoću Order Logit Modela a rezultati su pokazali da postoji značajna korelacija između razine materijalnosti i sektora u kojima djeluju revidirane tvrtke, revizorovo iskustvo na polju dugovječnosti odnosa s klijentom. Ne postoji nikakva korelacija između razine materijalnosti i potreba korisnika financijskih izvještaja ili ciljeva menadžmenta

The Role of Bioenergy in Transition to a Sustainable Bioeconomy – Study on EU Countries

Starting with the significant differences between the European Union member states regarding the implementation of the sustainable development goals stipulated by the United Nations and the transition from the fossil fuel economy to the one based on the principles of bio-economics, the article aims highlighting the correlation between the bioenergy production and a range of economic, environmental or innovation indicators for each Member State. The designed model uses data for 25 EU Member States collected for the period 2007-2013. The novelty of this study derives from the use of linear regression to estimate the impact of bioenergy evolution on the country's energy dependence and Panel Least Squares to identify the correlations between bioenergy and fossil fuel production, PIB per unit of energy use, the degree of innovation in the field and renewable energy generation. The obtained results show that the bioenergy-renewable-energy-dependency relationship is not significantly influenced by the economic crisis, even if the proposed model is weaker. At the same time, bioenergy positively correlates with the degree of innovation in the field or with the energy from natural gas and negatively with the economic efficiency of a state. The article presents the gap between countries regarding bioenergy, as well as their evolution during the analyzed period. All these values support the positive effects that bioenergy will have on the sustainable development of the bioeconomy. Bioenergy production can make a significant contribution to mitigating climate change while ensuring the diversification of energy resources in the long run

CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development is a model for resource use meant to satisfy human needs, without polluting the environment, so that these needs can be satisfied not only in the present, but in the future as well. It is a concept of nowadays with no generally accepted definition, placing environment first and foremost, aiming at implementing the environmental policies in all structures and at all economic levels. Within the present study we have aimed at creating a conceptual delimitation on sustainable development, sustainability and socialresponsibility, concepts of present interest, that tend to become a mystery for the academic community and practitioners by their variety and complexity of approaches. During our scientific endeavor we believe that social responsibility is the foundation of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a concept used especially at macro-economic level, while social responsibility is used at entity level and incorporates the economic, environmental and social dimension, which has a voluntary character and tries to respond to the information needs of the society and other stakeholders. Sustainability at the entity\'s level is the goal or final objective of sustainable development – satisfaction of present needs without compromising the possibility for future generations to satisfy their own needs, while social responsibility is an intermediate phase of sustainability wherein entities try to balance the economic, social and environmental dimension. Thus, we can state we include ourselves within social corporatism, slightly close to social institutionalism, which is characteristic to developed countries, giving a particular importance to social contract and relations between entity and society. We believe that in Romania, a POSDRU funded project should be regarded as a legal person with social values, which must be based on sustainable development and to promote, besides legal liability of automatically deriving legal contract, social responsibility, which resulting from its relationship with society in which it is implemented, and within these relations, environmental protection represent a major social responsibility of any kind of project

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN ROMANIA THROUGH EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL FUNDS – A SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS APPROACH

European Structural Funds have been created with the clear goal to redistribute money among European Union members in such a way as to help poorer regions diminish the gaps between them and the richer ones. The present study assesses this problem for the Structural Operational Programme Environment in Romania. Using spatial econometrics methods, we evaluate two issues on the sample of 42 Romanian counties. The first one is if any clusterization process takes place in what regards contracting funds through ESF for environmental protection projects. The second one is intended to test whether the main principle of the ESF is satisfied – helping the poor in a sustainable development process. Using the quartile maps and the spatial Moran's I autocorrelation coefficient we show different results for the clusterization topic. When considering the budget value of the projects implemented through SOP ENV, both as total and as eligible share, Romanian counties group based on a positive global spatial autocorrelation. This means that counties with approximately the same budget levels are neighbours. Transylvanian counties have gained the most out of the projects on environment. When the number of contracts is assessed, the distribution of the counties proves to be random and no global spatial autocorrelation was found. Moreover, the map analysis shows that, in general, there is a negative relationship between the value of the budget and the number of contracts. The spatial regression analysis shows the violation of the ESF principle. The coefficients of the GDP are positive. This implies a direct relationship between the richness of the county and the projects implemented through the SOP ENV. Thus, instead of being used by the poorer regions, money goes to the richer ones. The higher the GDP, the higher the value of the budget for the environmental protection programmes financed through European funds. The GDP also positively influences the number of contracts scheduled or signed, but the only at a 10% significance level

WHAT INFLUENCES STUDENTS' EXPECTATIONS IN WHAT REGARDS GRADES?

After a period of studying a certain subject, students form an opinion about it and begin having certain expectations. These expectations and the degree in which, in the end, they fulfil, contribute to the reputation of the university. Consequently, a continuous evaluation of the quality of the educational process is needed. The present research presents a part of a more complex study made on a sample of master students in Audit and Financial Management in Romania. The goal was to evidence the main factors that affect students' expectations in what regards the grades they will obtain at the end of the semester. For this, a questionnaire of 20 questions was applied to 250 such students. After factor reduction procedures were applied, six most significant variables were kept in the analysis: the proportion of knowledge acquired, the perceived level of utility of the discipline in the professional career of the student, the proportion in which the subject could contribute to getting employed in the field it belongs to, the evaluation method and two variables evaluating through grades the didactic performance during the course and the overall performance of the tenure professor. The influence of these variables upon the grade expected by the student was assessed with the help of the OLS regression, both in the simple and multiple forms. Out of the six hypotheses formulated, only one proved to be false based on the simple regression analysis. When individually assessed, the evaluation method announced by the teacher at the beginning of the semester turned out to have no statistically significant influence upon students' expectations. For the rest of the variables, results were according to the assumptions made, i.e. all determine in a significant positive manner the students' opinion about the grade they will get. We have also constructed the multiple regression models. When putting all variables together, the significance changes. The level of difficulty of the evaluation method becomes significant, while from the rest of the variables only the proportion of knowledge acquirement still holds. The final conclusion is as expected: the higher the proportion of acquirement, the higher the grade expected at the end of the semester, while the more difficult the evaluation method, the lower the grade

Environmental Reporting and Good Practice of Corporate Governance: Petroleum Industry Case Study

AbstractBecause environmental reporting remains voluntary on an international level, there are major differences in terms of the quality and quantity of environmental information, reported by entities from varied industries and countries. Starting from the agency theory, the company is accountable for the decision to report environmental information, decision which is made by the management to serve for the best interest of the shareholders (Buniamin et al., 2011: 56). Within this study, we would therefore focus on certain factors related to the entity's internal characteristics, consisting mainly in how the entity is managed, in order to identify if good corporate governance practices explain the voluntary environmental reporting. The research is conducted as an empirical study which explains how the disclosure of environmental information varies across the largest entities operating in the petroleum industry and reflects factors that could account for these variations. The paper identifies the corporate governance characteristics such as the percentage of independent directors and the existence of an environmental committee as factors that explain the variation in environmental information disclosure. We conclude that in order to secure the transparency of environmental performance within a company, the board should ensure a sufficiently number of independent members able to exercise an independent reasoning for solving potential conflicts of interests. Also, the environmental committee monitors the company's activity in terms of its environmental impact, bringing about increasing transparency regarding the environmental aspects. We can therefore consider that implementing good corporate governance practices by establishing environmental, safety or responsibility committees that monitor the environmental impact of the company and introducing a sufficient numbers of directors ensuring transparency and objectivity can solve the agency's theory conflict and determine companies to report more voluntary information regarding their environmental performance and other aspects. The paper contributes to an understanding of the correlations between corporate governance practices and voluntary environmental reporting

Quality of the Teaching Process and its Factors of Influence from the Perspective of Future Business Specialists

In the context of the large number of Romanian economic graduates competing for a relatively small number of specialized positions, an increasingly dynamic environment that requires specialists and leaders with practical skills, internationalization and increasing competition among higher education institutions to attract both students and financing, it is necessary to evaluate the quality and performance of business educational programs. Periodic evaluation is the premise of improving and modernizing educational services, and students, as the primary beneficiaries of education, are the first to be included in this process. Therefore, the goal of this research is to identify the perceptions of students specializing in the financial management of European funds regarding the quality of teaching staff and the teaching process. This study takes a quantitative approach using a survey method and a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The questionnaire includes a set of 11 specific items that are considered to be most relevant to the quality of higher education services and two related to overall perceptions of quality. Data were collected from a sample of more than 1,500 students enrolled in a new master’s program on the axis specified above. Analyses showed that three factors have a significant influence not only on the assessment of teacher performance during courses and seminars but also on the quality of the teacher involved in the process: the use of modern teaching techniques, the degree to which master’s students are trained and actively participate in teaching activities, and the presentation of quality and coherent information. A teacher’s performance is influenced to a lesser extent, but still a significant one, by other two items included in this study: delivering materials on time and efficiently using the time allocated to the discipline. However, professor performance is also negatively correlated with the relevance of the information offered to students and the difficulty of the assessment. This study offers a valuable perspective on the quality of the educational process as perceived by Romanian university students. It identifies the most relevant factors in ensuring the quality of a master’s program focused on providing practical skills and training international specialists in the area of international funds management