The ‘Millionaire’ method for encouraging participation

Encouraging students to participate during class time is important to facilitate the learning process and encourage deep learning to take place. However, students with certain cultural and education backgrounds are often reluctant to participate in class discussion. This article provides some initial insight into the use of the Personal Response System (PRS) to encourage class participation at the postgraduate level. I found that students' participation levels were increased when using the PRS, and further class discussion and debate was stimulated as a result

Corporate governance and the informativeness of disclosures in Australia:a re-examination

We re-examine the association between corporate governance and disclosures reported by Beekes and Brown (2006), using an extended time series of Australian data. Since the ASX corporate governance guidelines were introduced in 2003, firms generally have increased their disclosure frequency and demonstrated an improvement in the timeliness of bad news relative to good news, indicating a levelling of disclosure practices and greater transparency. Better governed firms have become more cautious in their disclosure practices. However they continue to be more balanced with respect to good and bad news timeliness. Changes to disclosure laws have also influenced company practices

Financial integration and the transparency of firms in emerging capital markets

We examine the association between financial integration and capital market transparency of emerging-market firms. We use four intra-year price timeliness measures derived from the Beekes and Brown (2006, 2007) methods as indicators of the firm’s transparency. The sample comprises 57,465 firm-year observations on listed companies in 24 emerging economies over the period 1995-2010. As expected, we find that greater financial integration is associated with greater transparency, and that the effect is more pronounced when the news about the firm is bad. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we find evidence of a mechanism through which financial integration enhances the information environment: improved corporate governance

Factors influencing quality threatening behaviour in a big four accounting firm

We investigate the determinants of employee dysfunctional behaviour, focusing on how functional area and hierarchical level affect behavioural outcomes. This is an empirical study based upon results obtained from a company based web survey in a Big Four accounting firm in the UK. Our results show dysfunctional behaviour increases when performance evaluation focuses on the achievement of pre-set targets. However such behaviours are reduced as organizational commitment, perceptions of fairness and interactions with superiors increase. Our results show that the strength of these effects differs across hierarchical levels. We also provide some preliminary evidence of differences in behavioural responses in the non-audit section of the firm. Our results confirm hierarchical level is an important contextual factor affecting the use of performance management systems

Corporate governance and transparency in Japan

Corporate governance (CG) reformists typically presume better-governed companies are more transparent to investors. We focus on CG and transparency in Japan, where CG has been an ongoing issue. Using local ratings of Japanese companies’ CG, and data on corporate disclosures and their associated stock returns, we do find better-governed Japanese companies have made more frequent and timelier disclosures, and that their share prices have reflected value-relevant information earlier. While these results hold for good news, they do not hold for bad. Consequently, governance guidance in Japan may not have resulted in both timelier and more balanced release of newsworthy information

Corporate governance and transparency in Japan

Corporate governance (CG) reformists typically presume better-governed companies are more transparent to investors. We focus on CG and transparency in Japan, where CG has been an ongoing issue. Using local ratings of Japanese companies’ CG, and data on corporate disclosures and their associated stock returns, we do find better-governed Japanese companies have made more frequent and timelier disclosures, and that their share prices have reflected value-relevant information earlier. While these results hold for good news, they do not hold for bad. Consequently, governance guidance in Japan may not have resulted in both timelier and more balanced release of newsworthy information

Corporate governance, companies’ disclosure practices, and market transparency:a cross country study

We examine the link between corporate governance, companies’ disclosure practices and their equity market transparency in a study of more than 5,000 listed companies in 23 countries covering the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008. Our results confirm the belief that better-governed firms make more frequent disclosures to the market. We also find greater disclosure in common law relative to code law countries. However firms with better governance in both code and common law countries make more frequent disclosures. We measure market transparency by the timeliness of prices. In contrast to single country studies, results show, for the 23 countries collectively, better corporate governance is associated with less timely share prices. This would suggest that a firm substitutes better corporate governance for transparency. We are thus led to the conclusion that even if information is disclosed more frequently by better-governed firms, it does not necessarily follow that information is reflected in share prices on a timelier basis

Corporate governance, companies’ disclosure practices, and market transparency:a cross country study

We examine the link between corporate governance, companies’ disclosure practices and their equity market transparency in a study of more than 5,000 listed companies in 23 countries covering the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008. Our results confirm the belief that better-governed firms make more frequent disclosures to the market. We also find greater disclosure in common law relative to code law countries. However firms with better governance in both code and common law countries make more frequent disclosures. We measure market transparency by the timeliness of prices. In contrast to single country studies, results show, for the 23 countries collectively, better corporate governance is associated with less timely share prices. This would suggest that a firm substitutes better corporate governance for transparency. We are thus led to the conclusion that even if information is disclosed more frequently by better-governed firms, it does not necessarily follow that information is reflected in share prices on a timelier basis

The effects of corporate governance on information disclosure, timeliness and market participants’ expectations.

We examine whether corporate governance has an influence on Canadian firms’ disclosure practices, the timeliness of price discovery and market participants’ (analysts’) behaviour in a study of Canadian listed companies for the period 2002-2007. Our results confirm other evidence that better-governed firms make more disclosures and their stock price discovery is more timely. This suggests a complementary association between corporate governance quality and disclosure. However, despite releasing more documents overall, we find releases from better-governed firms to the stock market are made on a less timely basis, perhaps implying a more conservative approach to the release of disclosures to the stock market. We further find that analyst following is positively associated with a firm’s corporate governance quality. In addition, for firms with better corporate governance, analysts’ Earnings Per Share forecasts are more accurate and less dispersed. More detailed analysis reveals only certain components of corporate governance are associated with disclosures and overall transparency. Taken as a whole, our results confirm corporate governance can play a significant role in determining the efficiency of a country’s equity market