Government accounting reforms in Sub-Saharan African countries and the selective ignorance of the epistemic community:A competing logics perspective

The objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it assesses existing local accounting and financial reporting practices in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focusing on the extent to which recent government financial statements published by ten selected countries adhere to mainstream qualitative features of public sector reporting. Second, it investigates the multiple institutional logics at play in the context of government accounting reforms (GARs) in SSA, involving international organisations, epistemic community members, policy makers and local actors. Data for the study are drawn from a content analysis and disclosure scoring of ten SSA government financial statements, supplemented by forty semi-structured interviews carried out in Nigeria and Tanzania. Our findings demonstrate how the generalised assumptive logics of international organisations, coupled with the market and professional logics of epistemic community members and state logics of local politicians, have led to the marginalisation of ‘good’ existing accounting and financial reporting practice in SSA (as reflected by the extent to which government financial statements adhere to mainstream features of public sector reporting) - while providing the countries with a strong impetus for undertaking a transition towards large-scale GARs involving accrual accounting and IPSASs. The role of the epistemic community in selectively ignoring the positive aspects of local accounting practice is a significant impediment. In this way, members of this epistemic community continue to execute their ‘relational power’ generated through professional knowledge, expertise and elite connections over the local actors, hence upholding the generalised assumptive logics. The paper argues that public accountability and transparency can be strengthened in SSA countries provided there is an ‘intelligent’ application of existing regulations and accounting systems, rather than seeking to merely replace them with externally imposed large-scale GARs

Corporate governance and performance in sports organisations: The case of UK premier leagues

A considerable amount of accounting, economics and finance studies have investigated the link between corporate governance (CG) and performance in profit and non‐profit organisations. This paper departs from the existing literature by investigating the relationship between CG structures and both financial performance (FP, measured as return on assets (ROA) and equity (ROE)) and non‐financial performance, measured as league points won (NFP‐Points), of sports organisations with specific focus on UK premier leagues' football (soccer) teams. We collect data relating to CG structures, FP and NFP‐Points of football clubs playing in the four UK premier leagues in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales along with the English Championship teams over the 2011–2016 period. We analyse our data relating to 80 football clubs over a 6‐year period (generating 397 club‐year observations) by running a number of multivariate analyses to test our hypotheses. Our findings are as follows. First, we find that NFP‐Points is higher in clubs with larger boards, non‐executive directors (NED), CEO role duality, and higher percentage of foreign and/or younger directors, but lower in firms with higher percentage of female directors. Second and by contrast, we find that the relationship between these same set of variables and FP is, however, insignificant except for boards with NED that remained significant and negatively related to ROA. Our findings appear to reflect the prioritisation of on‐the‐field performance over off‐the‐field performance by sports organisations. Our evidence is largely robust to using alternative measures and estimation models

Corporate governance and dividend pay-out policy in UK listed SMEs: The effects of corporate board characteristics

Purpose: This paper examines the extent to which corporate board characteristics influence the level of dividend pay-out ratio using a sample of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 2010 to 2013 listed on the Alternative Investment Market. Design/methodology/approach: The data is analysed by employing multivariate regression techniques, including estimating fixed effects, lagged effects and two-stage least squares regressions. Findings: The results show that board size, the frequency of board meetings, board gender diversity and audit committee size have a significant relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. Audit committee size and board size have a positive association with the level of dividend pay-out, whilst the frequency of board meetings and board gender diversity has a significant negative relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. By contrast, the findings suggest that board independence and CEO role duality do not have any significant effect on the level of dividend pay-out. Originality/value: This is one of the first attempts at examining the relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy in the UK’s Alternative Investment Market, with the analysis distinctively informed by agency theoretical insights drawn from the outcome and substitution hypotheses

Public sector external auditing in Tanzania: a theory of managing colonising tendencies

This study investigates the public sector external auditing (PSA) phenomenon in Tanzania, and seeks to understand the role of PSA, and the conditions in which it operates. In recent years, Tanzania has shown increased recognition of the contribution PSA makes to accountability, performance and the fight against corruption (CAGT, 2007). While empirical evidence to support this recognition is lacking in Tanzania, the literature review revealed mixed findings. Furthermore, the study responds to calls for more PSA studies in developing countries (Goddard, 2010) in general (Leung, White and Cooper, 2011) and those which adopt critical interpretive approaches (Baker and Bettner, 1997). The study adopts and implements a critical interpretive research strategy in fieldwork undertaken at the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT). Specifically, it employs the grounded theory method (GTM) as an interpretive approach and strategically accommodates critical thinking in questioning and interpreting the case under study (Laughlin, 1995; Gibson, 2007). It also adopts elements of Habermas’ critical theory (HCT) as a lens through which interpretively field gained understanding is extended (Habermas, 1987). This study’s findings indicate that PSA in Tanzania encountered colonising tendencies because of weak working relationship between the NAOT and other accountability agencies, inconsistencies in governance and politics, the culture of corruption and secrecy, dependence on foreign financing and mimicking of foreign models. To coexist within this colonising environment, managing colonising tendencies appeared to be the core strategy for both the government and external auditors. While the government appeared to manage NAOT appearance and exploited the legitimising features of PSA, external auditors manoeuvred within colonising tendencies and attempted to maintain the ‘audit supremacy’ image. External auditors managed their relationship with auditees and the complexities of PSA roles. Managing colonising tendencies resulted into obscured subordination of PSA, contributing to cosmetic accountability and growing public interest in PSA. This research contributes to the understanding of the role and conditions shaping PSA in a developing country. It provides field-based evidence that maintaining an appearance of SAI’s ‘supremacy’ without resolving problems in the underlying power relations leads to superficial contributions from PSA. It also contributes to critical interpretive research in developing countries. Exploiting the pragmatic nature of grounded theory (GT), the research provides a practical demonstration of accommodating critical theory in a GTM. Finally, the colonisation thesis in HCT helped the researcher to develop a societal extension of the emergent theory, which also extended the thesis by highlighting external auditors’ responses to colonisation<br/

Public sector external auditing in Tanzania: a theory of managing colonising tendencies

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge and obtain an understanding of the phenomenon of public sector external auditing (PSEA) in Tanzania.Methodology/approach: The paper used a grounded theory method informed by a critical approach. It used data from multiple sources including interviews, observations and documents, to provide a theoretical and practical understanding of PSEA in Tanzania. The theoretical aspects were developed ‘in vivo’ and were also informed by the Habermasian concept of colonisation.Findings: The principal research findings from the data concern the central phenomenon of managing colonising tendencies in PSEA which appeared to be the core strategy for both the government and external auditors. While the government appeared to manage the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) appearance and exploited the legitimising features of PSEA, external auditors manoeuvred within colonising tendencies and attempted to maintain the ‘audit supremacy’ image. PSEA in Tanzania encountered colonising tendencies because of weak working relationship between the NAOT and other accountability agencies, inconsistencies in governance and politics, the culture of corruption and secrecy, dependence on foreign financing and mimicking of foreign models. To coexist within this colonising environment, external auditors managed their relationship with auditees and the complexities of PSEA roles. Managing colonising tendencies resulted into obscured subordination of PSEA, contributing to cosmetic accountability and growing public interest in PSEA.Research limitations/implications: It is hoped that future research in other countries, in and beyond Africa, will be undertaken to broaden and deepen our understanding of the external auditing of public sector entities.Originality/value: The paper combines grounded theory with a critical approach to understand PSEA in a developing country.<br/

The two publics and institutional theory – a study of public sector accounting in Tanzania

This paper summarises, and attempts to theorise, the findings of a series of research projects investigating accounting practices across the public sector in Tanzania. Data was collected principally by interviewing participants in central and local government and in a number of NGO's. Analysis was undertaken using grounded theory methods, alongside a theoretical framework. This framework comprised the work of the post-colonial theorist Ekeh, 1975, Ekeh, 1994a and Ekeh, 1994b and the concepts of legitimacy, loose coupling and isomorphism from institutional theory. Legitimacy and loose coupling were central concerns in all the institutions and played a significant role in understanding their accounting practices. However, there were significant differences between the settings’ responses. These can be partly explained as responses to different isomorphistic pressures. Differences between institutions can be further explained using Ekeh's concepts of the primordial and the civic publics. Gaming and corruption were evident in central government, associated more with the civic public. Accountability and a sense of moral responsibility appeared to be stronger in NGOs, which were more closely associated with the primordial public. In contrast to the central government, which was associated more with the civic public, accounting was extremely problematic resulting in many dysfunctional practices. However gaming and corruption were most evident in local government where participants were subject to a conflict between the two publics’ moralities

The perceived association between audit rotation and audit quality: Evidence from the UAE

Purpose: the purpose of this paper is to explore the perceived association between audit rotation (AR) and audit quality (AQ) using respondents from a sample of audit firms operating in a developing economy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper addresses the following research question: How do UAE auditors perceive the association between various forms of AR and AQ?Design/Methodology: we collected perception data from a sample of UAE auditors using a questionnaire, and applied several non-parametric statistical techniques to analyze the data, and to answer five exploratory research questions on the perceived association between various forms of AR and AQ.Findings: the findings suggest that the UAE auditors in our sample did not perceive the association between individual types of AR and AQ as significantly different, and that AR in general is essential for AQ improvement and enhances trust in the audit process. Similarly, we find more support for the perception that medium audit tenure is associated with a lower impairment effect on auditor independence. Furthermore, we find no significant differences in perception based on gender, but younger/less experienced professionals and professionals in self-employed practices and small audit firms (compared to other demographics) significantly perceived AR enforceability and AT length to be associated with AQ. Our findings help to enrich our understanding of the perceived AR-AQ association in a relatively new context and less researched audit area in a developing economy.Originality/Value: although lively debates on the question of AR and AQ within the accounting, finance, investment professions and in the financial media continue, there has been relatively limited knowledge and a dearth of empirical studies on this question in most developing economies. Being the first attempt in the country – the UAE, this study contributes towards addressing this gap in empirical knowledge by exploring the perceived association between various forms of AR and AQ in a developing economy

Corporate governance, national governance quality, and biodiversity reporting: Global evidence

We explore the effects of corporate governance and national governance quality on corporate biodiversity reporting and investigate whether national governance quality moderates the relationship between corporate governance and biodiversity reporting practices. Using a sample of global firms across 36 countries over the 2009 to 2020 period, we find that the overall quality of corporate governance and individual governance dimensions, such as management effectiveness, corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, and shareholder treatment are positively associated with biodiversity reporting. Our results suggest that firms operating in countries with strong national governance systems tend to disseminate extensive biodiversity information. We also find that national governance quality positively moderates the relationships of CSR practices and shareholder treatment with biodiversity reporting practices, but has no impact on the link between management effectiveness and biodiversity reporting. Our findings have a number of implications for regulators, policymakers, and organizational stakeholders. Overall, our results support the dynamic capabilities view in that internal and external governance mechanisms/systems can motivate and compel boards of directors and management teams to develop dynamic capabilities, engage in sustainability practices, and enhance biodiversity transparency

Women on corporate boards and corporate financial and non-financial performance: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

This paper provides an up-to-date and comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of the existing research on women on corporate boards (WOCBs) and corporate financial and non-financial performance. The aim is to synthesise and extend current understanding of both the existing (i) theoretical (i.e., economic, psychological and social) perspectives and (ii) empirical evidence on the (a) multi-level (i.e., individual-, social-, firm- and country-level) antecedents of WOCBs, and (b) the effects that WOCBs have on a wide range of corporate financial and non-financial performance. We achieve this by adopting a three-step SLR approach to analyse/review one of the largest SLR datasets to be employed to date, consisting of 634 mixed, qualitative, quantitative and theoretical studies conducted in over 100 countries from more than 10 disciplines (e.g., accounting, finance, economics and governance) from 1981 to 2019 and published in 270 top-ranked journals. Our findings are as follows. First, a large number of existing studies are descriptive and/or they draw on single rather than multi-theoretical perspectives. Second, existing studies have focused on firm-level rather than country-level antecedents of WOCBs. Third, observable methodological limitations include the dearth of qualitative, mixed-methods and cross-cultural/country studies. Finally, we outline opportunities for future WOCBs research

Board Sustainability Committees, Climate Change Initiatives, Carbon Performance, and Market Value

We examine the interrelationships among board sustainability committees, process-based climate change initiatives, outcome-based carbon performance, and market value through the lens of economic- and social-based theoretical perspectives. Using a panel dataset of 8,408 observations from 35 countries between 2002 and 2019, we find that higher levels of actual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are negatively associated with market value. Further, we reveal a positive association between process-based climate change initiatives and market value. We then provide evidence that process-based climate change initiatives are positively related to increased levels of GHG emissions. We also observe that the presence of a board sustainability committee has a positive impact on market value, but does not seem to improve outcome-based carbon performance. Finally, we show that the predicted relationships vary across different country-groups, sector-groups, and periods. Our empirical findings are robust to alternative measures, endogeneities, and sample selection bias. Overall, our evidence supports the symbolic legitimation/greenwashing view in that firms are likely to employ process-based climate change initiatives under a symbolic approach to create positive impressions among stakeholders and protect their legitimacy