فصلنامه دانش حسابداری مالی
سال دهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 37، تابستان 1402)

Due to the nature of the audit work, auditors are faced with various forms of providing information that have the necessary power to influence the auditor's judgment due to rationality. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of information presentation form on the quality of auditors 'judgment and to consider professional skepticism and experience to reduce the effect of information presentation form on the quality of auditors' judgment.

The required data were collected through a questionnaire by designing three scenarios in three stages for a group. In the first stage, the information was presented in the form of text, in the second stage, the information was presented in the form of tabular numbers and in the third stage, the information was presented in the form of graphic forms using an integrated reporting system. In this situation, only 66 questionnaires were completed by individuals who were present in all three stages and were tested as the final statistical sample of the research. In order to test the research hypotheses, Wilcoxon, Mann-Vinty test, structural equation modeling and parabolic regression were used.

The findings show that auditors are affected by the way information is presented. In addition to the subscales of knowledge search, interruption in judgment, the questioning mind in the variable of professional skepticism reduces the effect of the form of information presentation on the quality of auditors' judgment. Finally, experience has a curvilinear effect on the standard deviation of judgment.

When information is presented to auditors with different appearance frameworks and designs, it affects their judgment and the skepticism of the auditor's profession is beneficial in reducing the effect of information presentation on the quality of judgment. In addition, the average experience of auditors has more advantages in reducing the effect of the form of information presentation on the quality of auditors' judgment than low experience and high experience.

Contribution: 

Providing evidence that auditors's judgment is influenced by factors that affect the quality of judgment by influencing the individual's attention will lead to a less attentive attitude in the field of audit judgment. In addition, identifying the behavior of the components of experience and professional skepticism in the form of information presentation as mitigating factors can be useful.

One of the challenging subjects that has been discussed in various kinds in the financial literature is abnormal returns. In this regard, a significant part of capital market studies is to investigate the behavior of returns and the factors them. In this context, shareholder's protection as a construct multidimensional can be considered in studies related to stock returns and help to improve price informative. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of shareholder protection on abnormal returns.

In this research, the information related to 166 firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2006 to 2022 has been tested using panel data and unbalanced panel methods, and robust tests have been used to strengthen the findings.

The findings show that in firms whose institutional ownership changed, the composite index of shareholder's protection has a negative effect on abnormal returns. However, such a link is not established in all industries, especially political industries. Also, there was a significant difference in the years before and after the structural break.

According to the hypothesis of information content, this result shows that shareholders protection through transactions of knowledgeable investors such as institutional shareholders helps the stock prices to be closer to the Intrinsic value.

Contribution: 

This research can provide a new field of study. Because interdisciplinary concepts such as shareholder's protection, which are subjectivity at micro and macro levels, are important for explaining market phenomena.

 The type of business strategy chosen can affect all aspects and reports of the company. The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating effect of cost leadership, differentiation, defensive and offensive business strategies on the relationship between fraudulent financial reporting and sustainability reporting.

 The current research is an applied research in terms of the goal, and since we seek to discover the relationship between variables, it is classified in the descriptive-correlation research group. The statistical sample of the research includes 1.012 companies -year. To collect data, independent auditor's report, board of directors, management commentary, financial statements and explanatory notes and Kodal website were used.

 The research results indicate that the relationship between fraudulent financial reporting and sustainability is strengthened by the adjustment variable of business strategies. That is, fraudulent financial reporting and sustainability in companies following cost leadership business strategy are less than companies following differentiation strategy. It should be noted that companies following a defensive business strategy have fraudulent financial reporting and less stability than companies following an aggressive business strategy.

 Although both business strategies of Porter (1980) and Miles and Snow (1978) are in the same direction in classifying the strategy adopted by companies, but the business strategy of Miles and Snow (1978), (defensive and offensive) has a higher classification power and it shows the type of strategy adopted by the company better.

Contribution:

 Users of financial and sustainability reports of the companies can learn about the possibility of fraudulent reporting according to the type of business strategy adopted by the companies, which is a special knowledge contribution to this research. Also, this research opens a new chapter in sustainability research by proving the effect of business strategy on the relationship between fraudulent reporting and sustainability reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to review the effect of integrated reporting on earnings quality with emphasis on agency costs in the companies listed at Tehtan Stock Exchange.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and the information of 149 companies during 2013 to 2021 has been used. To analyze the findings, Structural Equation and partial least square were used, which provide the possibility of examining direct and indirect relationships between variables.

The results showed that integrated reporting has a positive and significant effect on earnings quality. Also, agency costs have a positive and significant effect on the relationships between earnings quality and on integrated reporting.

The International Framework for Integrated Reporting sets the dual goals of improving information for external supplires of capital and better internal decision making for integrated reporting. If disclosure mechanisms are more transparent, information will be provided with better quality. Integrated reporting as a disclosure mechanism has a positiv effect on accounting information and especially the quality of reported earnings. If the earnings quality is high, it is expected that managers will show more willingness to disclose additional information. Based on this, agency costs are also reduced.

Contribution: 

Integrated Reporting through the provision of clear and comprehensive information allows internal decision makers to make optimal decisions that improve the company’s performance. The results of this paper consider it necessary to pay attention to the role of integrated reporting. Also, examining different earnings quality criteria and considering agency costs as moderating variables and measuring variables using multiple criteria and evaluating their validity based on structural equation modeling is considered as research innovation.

Disclosure of the business model in annual reports by companies is a method for improving the usefulness of information and transferring information related to the performance of the company's strategy and its effects on the stakeholders, so the purpose of this research is to identify the dimensions and components of the disclosure of the business model in annual reports.

This research in 2022 has evaluated and systematically analyzed the results and findings of previous researches with a qualitative approach and a metasynthesis tool. In this research, a total of 166 articles were extracted and analyzed, and after analyzing the desired components, 45 articles were finalized. Using the Shannon entropy quantitative method, based on the content analysis approach, the effect coefficients of the components identified in the finalized studies were determined.

The findings indicate that the business model disclosure in annual reports is classified into 20 components and 88 codes. Among the identified components, the point of differentiation of the company, financial and non-financial performance are more important than other components.

Finally, the business model disclosure model in annual reports has high reliability and can be used in order to be accountable to the stakeholders.

Contribution: 

This research, by comprehensively examining the factors affecting the disclosure of the business model, provides a new perspective in examining the drivers of annual reports to the users of the research results and improves the awareness of the stakeholders in identifying the drivers and factors affecting this type of reporting.

The main objective of this research is to determine the impact of risk management on the relationship between business strategy and firm’s risk disclosure.

The research hypotheses were tested based on combined data and using multiple regression models. In addition, the mediation effect was assessed using the Sobel test. The period of this study is from 2015 to 2020, during which time exaggerated data from 126 companies were examined.

The results of this study show that the type of business strategy has a direct impact on the risk management framework of firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Thus, defensive business strategy leads to stronger risk management than offensive business strategy which creates weaker risk management. Even though business strategy does not have a direct impact on corporate disclosure, organizational risk management as a mediating variable leads firms with a defensive approach to adopt a more negative tone and firms with an offensive approach to adopt a more positive tone.

Although the type of firm's business strategy does not directly influence the tone of risk disclosure, risk management as a mediator variable causes the extent of firm risk appetite, or in other words its business strategy, to have an inverse relationship with the tone of risk disclosure.

Contribution:

 The literature review in the field of risk disclosure shows that there is no study that addresses the management factors including business strategy and risk management that have an invisible influence on the tone of risk disclosure. Therefore, this study aims to develop the literature in this area to help researchers and legislators in the capital market field to explain new policies and laws, and to help shareholders in the capital market to make predictions and assessments when relying on the tone of risk disclosure.

This study strives to assess the underlying and effective factors of monopolism and Machiavellian biases in audit and present some strategies for them to improve auditors' judgment quality in the light of accounting critical theory using grounded theory.

Since Machiavellian traits and monopolism in audit tend to have the desire for elitism, the statistical society of this study comprises professional academic accounting professors, stakeholders of audit institutes, and top managers of audit organizations. This research has been implemented during 2021 and 2022 using composite purposive sampling, and 12 in-depth and semi-structured interviews until reaching theoretical saturation. Moreover, structural equation modeling (SEM) and PLS software have been used to examine the validity of the conceptual model of study.

Results showed that cultural, environmental, and social factors had an impact (0.276) on audit monopolism and also had an effect (0.463) on the Machiavellian biases of auditors. Structural and technical agents had 0.485 and 0.358 impact factors on monopolism and Machiavellian biases, respectively. Moreover, political governance in the audit profession influences (0.654) monopolism in the audit profession because regulatory bodies are close to the government. In addition, restrictive, legal, and regulatory factors have an impact factor of 0.368 on monopolism in the audit profession, and this component influence (0.597) the Machiavellian biases. Also, creating a foundation for increasing audit quality is one of the consequences of Restricting Monopolism in auditing and Machiavellian Property of auditors.

Restricting of Machiavellian characteristics and Monopolism in auditing can be achieved through strengthening the knowledge and skills of human resources, structural and technical reforms, economic improvement and political communication, determination in the implementation of laws and continuous monitoring of auditors' performance, and improves the quality of auditing services and Intellectual and practical maturity of auditors.

Contribution:

The novelty aspect of this study is mixing qualitative analysis and empirical experiments to identify factors affecting monopolism in audit and creating Machiavellian biases in Iran. To match with sorted viewpoints of audit professionals, some strategies are proposed to restrict these two phenomena influencing the quality of audits.