Earnings management: detection, application and contagion

The accounting scandals in the 2000s and 2010s have led to a number of large-scale reforms in financial reporting and corporate governance regulations around the world, and still attract a lot of public debates recently. In that context, the demand for further knowledge on earnings management is very topical. What we have known is earnings management does exist. What we have not known, however, seems still overwhelming. We need to know more about issues such as how earnings management could be detected, to what extent earnings management has an impact on investment decisions, what drives earnings management behaviour etc. The accounting research community has responded to such demand by producing a very large, and still growing, volume of publications on the topic during the last few decades. In fact, earnings management has now been one of the largest strands in the mainstream accounting literature. This thesis aims to make original and important contributions to the literature on earnings management. The main components of the thesis comprise of three empirical chapters which analyse secondary data on the United Kingdom's (the UK hereafter) stock market during the period from 1995 to 2011. The contributions are made on three important and inter-related research strands within the earnings management literature, namely the earnings management detection models, the impact of earnings management on stock market investment, and the spread of earnings management as a corporate decision through board network. The first empirical chapter constructs a signal-based composite index, namely ESCORE, which captures the context of earnings management. Specifically, ESCORE aggregates fifteen individual signals related to earnings management based on prior relevant literature. Empirical results using UK data shows that when ESCORE is higher, firms do manage earnings with greater magnitude and are more likely to be most aggressive using both accruals and real earnings management. Firms which are investigated for financial-statement-related irregularities are also shown to have significantly higher ESCORE. The composite score can be easily applied in practice as well as replicated in subsequent studies, especially in emerging market where small samples technically constrain the use of other existing earnings management detection models. The approach to construct ESCORE is innovative and it only measures the likelihood rather than the magnitude of earnings management. This aspect of ESCORE is important given the growing criticisms that none of the existing earnings management models could actually measure the magnitude of earnings management. Using ESCORE as a measure that captures the general context of earnings management, the second empirical chapter asks if investors rationally price the information contained in such context. Empirical evidence shows that firms with low ESCORE outperform those with high ESCORE by 1.37% per month after controlling for risk loadings on the market, size, book-to-market and momentum factors in up to one year after portfolio formation. The relationship between ESCORE and future returns is still significant, in both economic and statistical terms, after controlling for various other known 'market anomalies', including the size, value-glamour, seasoned equity offer, market irrational reaction to financial distress, balance sheet bloat, profitability and discretionary accruals. This finding is in line with the behavioural explanation that investors tend to ignore the observable context of earnings management under the influence of the well-documented base rate fallacy. This is an original piece of knowledge which makes significant and interesting contributions to the literature on market anomalies. The third and last empirical chapter investigates whether aggressive earnings management practices spread across firms sharing interlocked directors. The evidence shows that if a firm aggressively manages earnings (referred to as a 'contagious firm') via accruals (or production activities and discretionary expenses) manipulation in a year, any firms (referred to as 'exposed firms') which are interlocked with that contagious firm in that year and the two following years are more likely to aggressively manage earnings via accruals (or production activities and discretionary expenses, respectively) manipulation. The contagion effect is found to be more pronounced if the interlocked director is male, older, British, and charged with duties which could influence financial reporting. The contagion effect is robust after controlling for endogeneity issues and common characteristics of the interlocked firms. The evidence presented in this chapter is both original and a significant contribution to our knowledge on the impact of board networks on corporate decisions, a topic which attracts a lot of attention as it fits directly to the process of reforming corporate governance codes to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the boards of directors

CELLULOSE NANOCRYSTALS: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFECT ON HYDROXYPROPYL METHYLCELLULOSE-BASED COMPOSITE FILMS AND COATINGS

This study aimed to synthesize, determine characteristics of cellulose nanocrystals such as morphology, size particle, zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The study also evaluated effect of concentration of added cellulose nanocrystals to hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-base films and coatings containing carnauba Nano emulsion and chitosan nanoparticles. Results showed the shape and size of the nanoparticle generally depend on hydrolysis condition of microcrystalline cellulose. Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from processing hydrolyzed microcrystalline cellulose in range from 47 wt. % to 55 wt. % had length range of from 160 to 196 nm and diameter from 9 to 11 nm. Cellulose nanocrystals were added into nanocomposite HPMC that incorporated with both of carnauba Nano emulsion and chitosan nanoparticles with concentration of cellulose nanocrystals at levels: 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1.1 %. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that nanocomposite films become more compact and dense due to the cellulose nanocrystals occupy empty spaces of porous of matrix nanocomposite HPMC increasing the collapse of the pores in the films. The concentration of cellulose nanocrystals at 0.5 % was added to Nanocomposite HPMC including both of carnauba nano emulsion and chitosan nanoparticles improved the physical strength of film with the best quality compared with other films as: film solubility was raised up 16.65 %, film drying time is faster than others (51.33 minutes). Assessement of the effect of cellulose nanocrystals added into the nanocomposite films coated on fruit bananas showed that respiration of bananas were reduced from 57.08 ml CO2/kg.h to 30.17 ml CO2/kg.h;  weight loss was declined from 4.0 % to 1.82 % thanks to the limitation of the films gas and moisture permeability

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on First-generation, Low-income and Rural Students in Indonesia and Vietnam: A cross-cultural comparative study

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact worldwide, affecting 600 million students in higher education institutions across 200 countries. However, comparative studies by country on this topic are limited. In this paper, we explore the question: how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected higher education students and which ones have been impacted the most? Indonesia and Vietnam are our focus. We leveraged a rich set of data collected online from college/university students from both countries involving over 2600 participants, and used regression analyses to measure the students\u27 outcomes, including the dimensions of their wellbeing, financial hardships, access to technology, and educational satisfaction. As expected, we find that there are statistically significant differences between both countries, especially among first-generation, low-income and rural students in almost all the outcomes in our four domains. We observed that low-income students and rural students in both countries were less likely to have access to technology during the pandemic than their more affluent and urban counterparts. They also were more likely to endure financial hardships during the pandemic. We did not find any statistically significant estimates for students’ burnout measures among the students in these two countries. In addition, we observed lower likelihood of satisfaction from rural and low-income students in Indonesia. We provide our policy recommendations for both countries

TÀI NGUYÊN VỊ THẾ VÙNG BỜ KHÁNH HÒA: TIỀM NĂNG VÀ TRIỂN VỌNG

Coastal area in Khanh Hoa Province belongs to Coastal South Central Region, where the Vietnam mainland juts out farthest into the west of the East Sea, and has a special relationship in space with the offshore Spratly islands, the geo-strategic Highlands and economic - political centre of Ho Chi Minh City. This coastal area is close to the sloping and deep continental shelf; possesses the diverse landforms and complex spatial structure with the systems of peninsula, islands, bays, lagoons and river mouths etc. that creates enormous potential for geo-natural position resources, of which highlights are the values of coastal bays and islands. In the geo-economic position resources, Khanh Hoa coastal area has great potential to build the base for exploiting offshore resources, establish large  marine economic zones, and develop the economy of marine services, especially the port - navigation and coastal ecotourism. In the geo-political position resources, this is one of leading sites for defending and protecting the country from sea, and ensuring the sovereignty and national interests in the East Sea including the direct administration of Spratly island district. The detailed investigation and assessment of the position resources in this coastal area will be an important scientific basis for the sea and island development in Khanh Hoa province.Vùng bờ tỉnh Khánh Hòa nằm ở duyên hải Nam Trung Bộ, thuộc phần nhô ra xa  nhất của đất liền Việt Nam ra vùng giữa bờ tây Biển Đông, có quan hệ đặc biệt về không gian với quần đảo xa bờ Trường Sa, vùng địa bàn chiến lược Tây Nguyên và trung tâm kinh tế - chính trị thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Đây là vùng bờ có thềm lục địa phía ngoài sâu và dốc; hình thể và cấu trúc không gian đa dạng và phức tạp với hệ thống các bán đảo, đảo, vũng vịnh, đầm và cửa sông ... tạo ra tiềm năng to lớn về tài nguyên địa - tự nhiên, mà nổi bật là giá trị của hệ thống các vũng vịnh và đảo ven bờ. Về tài nguyên địa - kinh tế, vùng bờ Khánh Hòa có tiềm năng lớn xây dựng cơ sở hậu cần khai thác tài nguyên biển xa, xây dựng các cơ sở kinh tế biển lớn, phát triển kinh tế dịch vụ biển, đặc biệt là cảng - hàng hải và du lịch sinh thái biển. Về tài nguyên địa - chính trị, đây là một trong những vị trí có vai trò quan trọng trong việc phòng thủ và bảo vệ đất nước từ biển, đảm bảo chủ quyền và lợi ích quốc gia trên Biển Đông, trong đó có việc trực tiếp quản lý huyện đảo Trường Sa. Việc điều tra, đánh giá chi tiết tài nguyên vị thế vùng bờ sẽ là cơ sở khoa học quan trọng để phát triển biển đảo tỉnh Khánh Hòa

Impact of trained human resources, adoption of technology and international standards on the improvement of accounting and auditing activities in the agricultural sector in Viet Nam

Recently, the adoption of accounting and auditing standards in the agricultural sector has been a global phenomenon that has gained increasing trend due to the significant role of the agricultural industry in the country's economy. Thus, the present study examines the impact of trained human resources, technology adoption, and international standards on improving accounting and auditing activities in the agricultural sector in Vietnam. The present research investigates the moderating impact of agricultural, institutional support among the linkage of trained human resources, technology adoption, international standards, and improvement of accounting and auditing activities in the agricultural sector. The present article has adopted the questionnaires to gather the primary data from selected respondents. The current research has applied the smart-PLS to test the study's hypotheses. The results revealed that trained human resources, technology adoption, and international standards positively impact the improvement of accounting and auditing activities in the agricultural sector. The findings also indicated that the agricultural institutional support significantly moderates the linkage of trained human resources, technology adoption, international standards, and improved accounting and auditing activities in the agricultural sector.Nguyen Van Hoa (University of Kinh Bac (UKB)), Nguyen Thi Hanh Duyen (Vinh University), Vu Ngoc Huyen (Viet Nam National University of Agriculture (VNUA)), Hoang Vu Quang (Researcher at Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD)), Nguyen Van Huong (Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY)), Nguyen Thi Cam Tu (National Economics University (NEU)), Bui Thi Minh Nguyet (Vietnam National University of Forestry (VNUF))Includes bibliographical references

Behavioral Improvements and its Molecular Mechanism of Ilex kudingcha C.J. Tseng on Animal Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common chronic neurodegenerative disease with well-defined pathophysiological mechanisms. Ilex kudingcha (IK) C.J. Tseng is commonly known as bitter tea or “Khom” tea in Vietnam. The present study was conducted to investigate the anti-dementia effect of IK using olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice. OBX mice were daily treated with IK extract (540 mg/kg) or reference drug, tacrine (2.5 mg/kg) 1 week before and continuously for 3 days after the OBX surgery. The object recognition test, modified Y maze test and fear conditioning test were employed to analyze non-spatial short-term, spatial short-term and long-term memories of the mice respectively. Administration of IK extract and tacrine attenuated these OBX-induced cognitive deficits in mice. The effects of IK and tacrine on spatial short-term memory impairment were reversed by scopolamine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist. The amyloid-beta (Aβ) production in adult transgenic Drosophila brain flies was also investigated by using Western blotting with APP-HA antibody. These results indicated that IK extract improves short-term and long-term memory disturbances in OBX mice and that muscarinic receptor may play a role on these actions. In addition, our result also showed that IK extract reduces the expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in brain of AD model using Drosophila melanogaster

IMPROVEMENT OF CO2 PURIFYING SYSTEM BY PHOTOCATALYST FOR APPLICATION IN MICROALGAE CULTURE TECHNOLOGY

By reactive grinding method Vanadium-doped rutile TiO2 nanoparticle material was obtained with an average particle size of 20‐40nm, the Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) specific surface area about 20 m2g−1 and it absorbed strongly in the UV region and increased at the visible wavelength of 430 – 570 nm. This study focused on the improvement of exhaust gas treatment from coal-fired flue gas of the traditional adsorption-catalysis system (Modular System for Treating Flue Gas - MSTFG) by using the V2O5/TiO2 Rutile as photocatalyst. The results showed that integrating both catalytic systems mentioned above increased the gas treatment efficiency: CO from 77 % to over 98 %, NOx from 50 % to 93 %, SO2 was absent as opposed to the input gas component. Also it showed that V2O5/TiO2 Rutile integrated with MSTFG has got high efficiency of CO treatment, also secured the high obtained CO2 concentration as a valuable carbon source for microagal mass culture as well as saving energy and simplifying devices

Depth-dose distribution in potatoes with low-energy X-rays

Irradiation is known as a handful measure to inhibit potato sprouting, kill harmful bacteria, and increase preservation. The absorbed dose is one of the essential characteristics of the irradiation process. In this study, the depth-dose distributions in potatoes and polymethyl methacrylate were investigated under low-energy X-ray irradiation by using the Fricke dosimeter and Gafchromic film dosimeter. The dose rates required for the rays to penetrate in polymethyl methacrylate were compared with those in potatoes. Polymethyl methacrylate could be used as a phantom in measuring the depth dose delivered in potatoes. The difference in depth-dose distribution in potatoes between one-sided and double-sided irradiation was also investigated. The calculated dose uniformity ratio values are 5.8 and 1.9 for potatoes irradiating one-sided and double-sided

Adsorption of ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate onto rice husk biochar for nitrogen removal

This study aims to investigate the adsorption capacity of ammonium NH4+, nitrite NO2- and nitrate NO3- onto rice husk biochar (RHB) obtained from 550 °C pyrolysis temperature in the context of using low-cost absorbent for recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Raw RHB at its original size 5–8 mm has been choosen for testing its adsorption capacity as well as several key material properties (pHPZC, surface area, and elemental analysis). From surface functional group analysis, there existed the O–H group (at frequency 3443 cm-1), –CH3 (2360 cm-1), and either –C=O or C=C group (in the range of frequency 1600–1650 cm-1) as well as –COOH (1456 cm‒1) that helped enhance chemical adsorption. The experimental adsorption data has been roughly consistent with Langmuir and Freundlich models that used to calculate the maximum saturated monolayer adsorption capacity Q0max of ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate were 0.1003, 0.2477, and 0.1290 mg/g respectively. Therefore, RHB could be a potential candidate for biofilter application in both targets cost-efficient and sustainable that worth applied at scale

Academic Anxiety of Vietnamese Secondary School Students as a Reason for Applying Online Learning

Academic anxiety is one of the major problems in student psychology across the world. It applies equally to students of all ages, from elementary school to college and university students. Research shows that learning online is an effective way to defuse feelings of academic anxiety. Elimination of anxiety is clearly visible regardless of age, gender, or prior online learning experience. The study aims to identify academic anxiety as one of the most important reasons for moving to online learning or blended learning in secondary school. The study investigated academic anxiety among secondary school students in Vietnam. After surveying 677 students in classroom learning, the results showed that 13.7% of secondary students suffered from frequent anxiety, and 3.0% of them suffered from very frequent anxiety. Lower anxiety was observed among students actively participated in-class activities, and students with excellent academic performance. These factors can be optimally enhanced through blended and online learning. There were no differences in academic anxiety among male and female students, urban and rural students. There was a moderate correlation between a student's anxiety level and pressure of the school, parental expectations, students' motivation for high performance, and especially, among students who have the melancholic temperament. And the influence of these negative factors can also be optimally reduced with the help of online learning. Regression model could provide useful suggestions for parents, teachers and students in reducing academic anxiety for students, including the use of full or blended online learning