نشریه حسابداری و منافع اجتماعی
سال دوازدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 47، زمستان 1401)

The insurance industry plays an important role in sustainable development and directly and indirectly affects the sustainable performance of other industries and society. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of disclosure of sustainability components in the insurance industry.

In this study, the model extracted in the research of Mahmoudkhani, Rahmani, Homayoun, and Niakan (2021), which was obtained by analyzing the content of sustainability reports, was modified and supplemented by reviewing sustainability standards and guidelines and obtaining expert opinions. The board activity report of 26 insurance companies (7 members of the stock exchange and 19 members of the OTC market of Iran) for the year 2020 was analyzed. The Chi-square test was used to examine the differences in the disclosure of sustainability components at the company level.

According to the findings, the three main dimensions of sustainability reporting in the insurance industry are environmental, social, and governance dimensions. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance components in double and triple comparisons between sustainability components at the level of Iranian insurance companies. The disclosure rate of the governance dimension was 21.71 for each measure and 13.13 for the social dimension on average, while this ratio is 1.53 for the environmental dimension.

In the activity report of the board of directors, most disclosure is related to the governance dimension and no disclosure has been made regarding the climate change component. A reason for paying more attention to the governance aspect is related to the regulations of corporate governance in the insurance industry, which are implemented by insurance companies.

Contribution:

 The findings of this research enrich the research literature on sustainability reporting in the insurance industry and its results can be used by insurance companies to prepare and improve sustainability reporting.

The quality of accounting information can affect various variables and phenomena in the financial field. This study investigated its effect on the relationship between financial constraints with stock returns and new investment.

Using the regular screening sampling method, 148 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange for the years 2013 to 2019 were selected and tested with the help of multiple regression model with fixed effects.

Findings show that an increase in the quality of accounting information is associated with an increase in stock returns, and the improvement in the quality of accounting information is associated with new investments. The quality of accounting information weakens the negative relation between financial constraints and stock returns, but with the increase in the quality of accounting information, the positive relationship between financial constraints and new investments is strengthened.

the capital market reacts positively to the quality of accounting information, which leads to increase in stock return and new investment. On the other hand, the increase in financial constraints leads to a significant decrease in stock returns but an insignificant increase in new investments. And accounting information quality has a significant effect on these relations.

Contribution: 

Accounting information quality reduces the negative impact of financial constraints on stock returns. Financial constraints have no relation with new investment, but with the increase in the quality of accounting information, the positive relationship between financial constraints and new investment is strengthened.

 This study aims to determine the effect of peer firms' bankruptcy on financial reporting quality. Theoretically, it is expected that the effect of the peer firm bankruptcy will go beyond that company and significantly affect companies in the same industry.

 Information about 175 companies listed on the Tehran Stock from 2012 to 2020 will be examined. In terms of methodology, the current research is regression and correlation type.

 Findings show no significant relationship between peer bankruptcy and conservatism, accrued earnings management, and earnings response coefficient‌. However, supplementary studies suggest that there is a significant relationship between peer firms' bankruptcy and real earning management among firms with reduced earnings management‌.

 Overall, this study shows that the bankruptcy of a peer firm causes other companies operating in that industry to manipulate real activities to reduce earnings. The effect of the bankruptcy of competitors on the management of real profits and its lack of impact on the management of accrued profits can be justified by the fact that due to the monitoring mechanisms such as the existence of independent audits, companies tend to manipulate through accruals when they receive bad news from competitors. Are more inclined to manipulation through real activities because auditors' supervision is mostly done on accrual items and this manipulation is mostly in the direction of profit reduction‌.

Contribution:

 Findings show that the bankruptcy of a company not only affects the quality of its financial reporting but also affects some measures of financial reporting quality of its peers‌.

The research aims to design a network model of social responsibility actors in accounting from the perspective of a corporate governance system.

To achieve the research goal, primarily studying theoretical foundations, research background, and performing semi-structured interviews with experts; components and indicators effective on social accountability from the perspective of a corporate governance system based on actor-network have been identified. Finally, the research model has been presented based on a strategy of classic grounded theory as well as the identification of the main elements forming the model and the relationship between them. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire has been designed based on previous studies and interviews; and, data have been analyzed through structural equation modeling via SPSS 27 and Smart PLS 3.

According to the research findings and after analyzing the interviews at the open coding stage, 208 codes have been conceptualized; and, at the axial coding stage, they have been categorized into 23 subcategories, 10 main categories, 2 subthemes and finally one main theme.

As shown by the research results and based on actor-network theory, social responsibility and accountability from the perspective of corporate governance can be divided into two groups of human and non-human actors. Also, the relationship between the set of effective actors in the model is bilateral.

Knowledge Acquisition:

 Effort has been made in the research to strengthen the role of social accountability from the perspective of the corporate governance system through the usage made of actor-network theory; and, to identify and empower active actors in the field through designing a comprehensive model.

The development of the auditing profession and its ability to gain public trust will depend on the observance of professional ethics. The neoliberal mindset is one of the most important factors influencing the behaviors and level of ethics of auditors, and identifying the mindset is an important source of information to identify the ethical judgment of auditors. Therefore, in this study, the impact of neoliberalism on the ethical judgment of independent auditors has been investigated.

In this research, 194 auditors working in private sector auditing firms and auditing organizations in 2022 participated. Data were collected through a paper questionnaire and analyzed using Excel and SPSS software.

The findings of this study show that neoliberalism has a negative and significant relationship with the moral judgment of auditors and with increasing liberalism thinking, the moral judgment of auditor's decreases.

Based on the findings of this study, since the main task of auditors is to reassure and comment on financial statements and the judgment of auditors can affect the interests of many users, so identify those ethical factors that can affect the judgment of the auditor. To be effective is important.

Contribution: 

The findings of this study can lead to the development of auditing theories and texts about auditors' judgment, as well as useful information for the community of certified public accountants and other policymakers of the auditing profession about the level of neoliberal thinking among auditors and the effect of this thinking on their judgment

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of corporate governance on the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and cash holding in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, 180 companies were selected during the period from 2012 to 2018. In this study, the effect of three macroeconomic uncertainty variables; Economic growth rate fluctuations, inflation rate fluctuations and exchange rate fluctuations have been studied on cash holdings. Corporate governance has been used as a moderating variable. This research is applied in terms of purpose and its method is correlational. And because it examines cause and effect relationships between research variables, it is causal after the occurrence and in order to estimate research models to test the hypotheses of a sample of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange is examined. In this study, multivariate linear regression has been used for analysis. The results of this study show that with increasing macroeconomic uncertainty, cash holding decreases and with increasing macroeconomic uncertainty, strong corporate governance has a positive effect on cash holdings.

Over the past three decades, holistic financial reporting of governmental capital assets has become a challenging issue. Based on the New Public Management practices, public sector entities are required to report the economic values of all capital assets under their control to stakeholders in a model, but there is no comprehensive model for reporting governmental capital assets. This study aims to identify and propose a holistic practical approach to the recognition and reporting of governmental capital assets.

Using the Delphi method and interviewing 21 experts, data were collected and analyzed using SPSS software.

The purpose of the government in maintaining government capital assets can be a good basis for asset recognition and based on this, economic assets, defense assets, and heritage assets are identified.

Recognition of economic assets can be done based on criteria similar to the criteria for recognizing private sector assets. And due to the special nature of some governmental capital assets, two complementary criteria should be used to recognize these assets, including the absence of restrictions on the disposal and matching of assets to liabilities.

Contribution: 

In addition to financial reports, Requisite to capital asset Holistic reporting requires the preparation of non-financial reports for specific classes of these assets. Therefore, defense and social assets that do not meet the recognition criteria should be reported in defense and social reports in terms of physical units.