Volume 12, 2012

 

Corporate Information Transparency on the Internet by Listed Companies in Spain (IBEX35) and Mexico (IPYC) Guadalupe del Carmen Briano Turrent and Lázaro Rodríguez Published January 2012
Financial and non-financial disclosure play a central role in the functioning of capital markets. In this context, the Internet has been adopted as an effective mechanism for large companies to disseminate corporate information. The institutional theory approach has been applied to identify both formal (fundamentally legal and economic) and informal factors that significantly influence listed companies’ level of corporate transparency on the Internet. Our work aims to build on existing study by focusing on two main objectives. Firstly, to make a comparative study of the corporate transparency of listed companies from Mexico and Spain by creating an index of corporate transparency on the Internet (e-CTI). And secondly, to identify the factors that affect this index using multiple regression analysis. Our study population is comprised of 70 companies, of which 35 belong to the Mexican Price and Quotations Index (IPyC) and 35 to the Spanish IBEX 35 index. The descriptive analysis reveals significant differences in the level of information disclosure between the two countries. The companies listed in Mexico obtain an e-CTI of 59%, while the Spanish ones register 80%, i.e. more importance is assigned to the disclosure of corporate governance data in Spain than in Mexico. Furthermore, this analysis shows that the factors most telling with regards to corporate transparency are the strength and application of law, GDP per capita, inflation and firm-level variables such as ownership concentration and Chairman of the Board-Chief Executive Officer (COB-CEO) duality. However, other variables such as board size and composition, profitability, leverage and firm size are not significant for the purposes of this analysis. Our work is of great relevance today, since most studies have focused on developed countries, mainly in the U.S. and Europe, with few comparisons being made between developed and developing countries, such as Spain and Mexico.
The Use of Dashboards in Performance Management: Evidence from Sales Managers Oana Velcu-Laitinen and Ogan M. Yigitbasioglu Published March 2012
The purpose of this paper is to identify and empirically examine the key features, purposes, uses, and benefits of performance dashboards. We find that only about a quarter of the sales managers surveyed in Finland used a dashboard, which was lower than previously reported. Dashboards were used for four distinct purposes: (i) monitoring, (ii) problem solving, (iii) rationalizing, and (iv) communication and consistency. There was a high correlation between the different uses of dashboards and user productivity indicating that dashboards were perceived as effective tools in performance management, not just for monitoring one‟s own performance but for other purposes including communication. The quality of the data in dashboards did not seem to be a concern (except for completeness) but it was a critical driver regarding its use. This is the first empirical study on performance dashboards in terms of adoption rates, key features, and benefits. The study highlights the research potential and benefits of dashboards, which could be valuable for future researchers and practitioners.
[XBRL in practice] XBRL and Integrated Reporting. The Spanish Accounting Association Taxonomy approach Javier Mora Gonzálbez and María Mora Rodríguez Published May 2012
Recently, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) developed a Discussion Paper (DP), offering initial proposals for the development of an International Integrated Reporting Framework, combining and connecting financial and non-financial information, including past and future information and outlining the next steps towards its creation and adoption. Among different aspects and elements of a future integrated report, the DP develops the idea of a report supported by XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). The aim of this article is to explain the proposal made to the IIRC by the Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association (Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas, AECA), of a taxonomy for integrated reporting. In that proposal, the Association made use of the most recent technical developments of XBRL, which are briefly discussed in the first part of the article.
Voluntary XBRL Adopters and Firm Characteristics: An Empirical Analysis Srinivasan (Srini) Ragothaman. Published July 2012
Some of the governance weaknesses stem from the information asymmetry between insiders and the investing public. One way to mitigate the information asymmetry problem is to enhance accounting disclosures through XBRL format. In this paper, we analyze financial characteristics of voluntary adopters of XBRL. We build a multivariate logistic regression model to examine the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary XBRL adopters. The new results of this study indicate that plant intensity (political costs), PE ratio (growth), and inventory ratio (complexity) are useful in discriminating voluntary “XBRL adopters” from non-adopters. We also confirm prior results with respect to firm size and debt ratio. We also build a multiple regression model and use the Governance Score developed by Brown and Caylor (2006) to further investigate the relationship between corporate governance rating and operating performance for voluntary XBRL adopters. Our results indicate that current ratio (liquidity), size, and auditor type are associated with corporate governance rating for voluntary adopters of XBRL.
Internal Control Computerization for Derivatives Seokjoo Andrew Chang, Guy Fernando, Mohamed E. Hussein and Kinsun Tam Published September 2012
Derivatives were at the center stage of many financial scandals, incidents of massive trading losses, as well as the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. Monitoring of derivatives transactions is desperately needed. As derivatives trading systems are computerized, management and accountants need to acquire IT knowledge and skills necessary to evaluate computerized internal controls on derivatives. To prepare management and accountants for derivatives control monitoring, this paper discusses implementation of computerized internal controls in relational database management systems over the life cycle of derivatives transactions.
An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between e-government and Corruption Jamshed J. Mistry and Abu Jalal Published November 2012
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between e-government and corruption in developed and developing countries. Specifically, we investigate two issues – (1) the impact of the use of e-government on corruption in countries around the world and (2) whether the impact of e-government on corruption will be higher in developed or developing countries. In order to examine these relationships we develop and test empirical models that investigate these relationships. The results suggest that as the use of ICT related e-government increases corruption decreases. We also find that the impact of e-government is higher in developing countries than in developed countries for the seven-year period between 2003 and 2010.