Financial Accounting
Alireza Javadipour; jafar babajani; Ghasem blue; vajhollah ghorbanizadeh
Abstract
Due to the lack of comprehensive research in the country in order to provide a model to evaluate the performance of the audit committee, the present research has addressed this issue and a practical model for the use of the activities of the audit committee has been presented.Method: The research method ...
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Due to the lack of comprehensive research in the country in order to provide a model to evaluate the performance of the audit committee, the present research has addressed this issue and a practical model for the use of the activities of the audit committee has been presented.Method: The research method used in the first stage of the research was extracting the dimensions, components and performance evaluation indicators of the audit committee from the theoretical sources of the research. Then, the fuzzy Delphi method was used to screen the indicators, and the best-worst (BWM) multi-criteria decision-making method was used to weight each dimension, component, and index.Findings: The model obtained in the current research includes 3 parts of evaluating the individual characteristics of the members of the audit committee, evaluating the work processes and reporting of the audit committee, and evaluating its duties and responsibilities, and the final model includes 3 dimensions, 13 components and 78indicator.Conclusion: According to the findings of the research, the important components in evaluating the performance of the audit committee are the audit committee meetings, the audit committee resources, communication with the board of directors, the audit committee charter, and monitoring of financial reporting. Also, the results showed that the working and reporting processes of the audit committee have the most weight in the evaluation of the audit committee's performance, and the evaluation of the audit committee meetings as the focus of the audit committee's activities is the most important among the evaluation components.
Audit Quality
Mandana Taheri; Ghasem Blue; Ramin Parvarpour
Abstract
Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty are features of the capital market in today's complex business environment, which increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can be effective in explaining audit fees. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of legal claims risk, information ...
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Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty are features of the capital market in today's complex business environment, which increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can be effective in explaining audit fees. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of legal claims risk, information asymmetry and economic uncertainty in explaining audit fees. The time domain of the research is the period from 2013 to 2021 and the research sample includes 120 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Research findings, based on analysis using multivariable regression models on combined data, show that among the macroeconomic variables investigated (including economic growth rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate), both economic growth rate and inflation rate have a direct and significant relationship with the audit fee. Additionally, there is a direct and significant relationship between the risk of lawsuits and information asymmetry with the audit fee. The results indicate that the risk of lawsuits, economic uncertainty and information asymmetry play an effective role in explaining auditors' fees. IntroductionAudit fees indicate the amount of auditors' effort to reduce the audit risk to the reasonable level. It is a measure to control financial risk and some legal claims that are threatening audit firms. According to litigation risk, auditors try to control this risk by increasing their efforts and audit fees. Chen (2019) and Frino et al. (2022) state that information asymmetry and economic uncertainty increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can influence audit fees. In other words, audit services are necessitated by the conflict between shareholders and managers. Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty increase agency costs, thereby heightening the necessity for auditing to control and manage these costs. Consequently, auditors increase audit fees to manage audit risks and ensure the thoroughness of their audit work. Therefore, this research aims to explain the effect of litigation risk, information asymmetry, and economic uncertainty on audit fees. MethodologyOur data were collected using financial statements, notes, and audit reports in CODAL[1] database and Rahavard-e-Novin[2] software. The final sample for a period of 2013-2021 consists of 1080 firm-year observations. In addition, the GARCH models were employed to measure the independent variables. To test the first and second hypotheses of this research, model 1 is used:Afeet= litig riskt+ Asymmetryt+ Sizet+ INVRECt +Levt + ROAt+ losst+ CHANGEt +Adu sizet + Specialistt+ LIQUIDt + SALEt +Year Effects+ Industry Effects (1)To test the third hypothesis of research, model 2 is used:Afeet= Economic Growtht-1+ Inflation Ratet-1+ Exchange Ratet-1+ Interest Ratet-1+ Sizet+ INVRECt +Levt + ROAt+ losst+ CHANGEt +Adu sizet + Specialistt+ LIQUIDt + SALEt +Year Effects+ Industry Effects (2)Where, SIZE represents the natural logarithm of total assets; INVREC denotes the amount of inventory and receivables divided by total assets; Lev indicates total liabilities divided by total assets; ROA signifies net profit divided by total assets; LOSS is assigned 1 if a firm has experienced a loss in any of the last three years, and 0 otherwise; CHANGE is assigned 1 if a firm has changed its auditor, and 0 otherwise; LIQUID represents current assets divided by total assets; SALE represents the ratio of sales to assets; Adu size is a dummy variable that equals 1 if the audit firm was either the Iran Audit Organization (IAO) or Mofid Rahbar (an audit firm belonging to IACPA), and 0 otherwise. SPECIALISR is assigned 1 if the auditor is an industry specialist, and 0 otherwise. Audit Fee (AFEE): is the natural logarithm of the audit fee.Information Asymmetry (Asymmetry): According to the model of Venkatesh and Chiang (1986).Economic Uncertainty (RM): Economic uncertainty is the inability of agents to accurately predict the outcomes of decisions. In this research, it has been measured by four indicators, including the fluctuation of economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate. In addition, a GARCH model was used to index these criteria. For this purpose, a volatile measure of changes in the Gross National Product (GNP) index was considered to be an indicator of the risk of macroeconomic factors that the firm faces in its financial and production decisions. The results of the estimation of the GARCH model led to conditional variances, which ultimately lead to the standard deviation or the concept of uncertainty upon taking the square root.Litigation Risk (Litig risk): We measure this variable based on Lowry and Shu (2002), Krishnan and Zhang (2005), and Sun and Liu (2011). ConclusionThe results of testing the first and second hypotheses indicate that the risk of lawsuits and information asymmetry have a positive and significant relationship with audit fees. In the third hypothesis, the effect of lack of economy on remuneration was investigated. In this research, four indicators including economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate have been used to measure the economic uncertainty of macroeconomic variables. In this regard, the results of the hypothesis testing show that economic uncertainty based on inflation and economic growth criteria has a positive and significant relationship with audit fees. Additionally, economic uncertainty based on interest rate criterion has a negative and significant relationship with audit fees. However, the exchange rate indicator does not have a significant effect on audit fees. Therefore, it can be seen that audit risk as an indicator of determining audit fees is influenced by some economic variables such as inflation and economic growth.In order to strengthen the results and address potential endogeneity in the research models, we redefined the dependent variable as imaginary (bivariate) and re-estimated the initial models of all three hypotheses. The results of these re-estimations confirmed the findings of the least squares regression in the first model for the first and second hypotheses. In the third hypothesis regarding economic uncertainty, economic growth and inflation rate criteria, as well as exchange rate, lead to an increase in the audit fee, while interest rate causes a decrease in the audit fee. Additionally, new control variables were added to the initial models based on the information provided in previous sections. The results of these additions confirm the findings of the initial estimation of the hypotheses.
Accounting report
Mohammad Javad Salimi; Ghassem blue; Maghsoud Amiri; Hamed Zakeri
Abstract
The earnings forecasts report is considered as one of the most important and effective reports in investors' decision-making. The purpose of this study is to present an earnings forecasts reporting framework in Iran's capital market. To achieve this research goal, the earnings forecasts reporting framework ...
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The earnings forecasts report is considered as one of the most important and effective reports in investors' decision-making. The purpose of this study is to present an earnings forecasts reporting framework in Iran's capital market. To achieve this research goal, the earnings forecasts reporting framework was identified first by studying the theoretical foundations and the background of the research, as well as interviewing 21 experts using the snowball method and the theme analysis method. Then, through the implementation of the fuzzy Delphi method and solicitation of opinions from 183 experts using a questionnaire and targeted judgmental sampling method, a consensus was reached on the reporting framework, resulting in the presentation of the earnings forecasts reporting framework in Iran's capital market. The research population included university faculty members, employees in regulatory organizations, investors, auditors, and providers of financial information. The research results showed that out of 122 detailed themes extracted through theme analysis, categorized into six main themes and 14 sub-themes, 97 detailed themes obtained the consensus among the Delphi group, thereby forming components of the earnings forecasts reporting framework. The main elements of the earnings forecasts reporting framework encompass generalities, environmental fields, characteristics, consequences, challenges, and evaluation. The findings of this research can serve as a guide for developing financial reporting standards and modifying procedures and regulations.IntroductionThe management forecasts earnings is one of the disclosed information outside the financial statements, which reflects the management's forecast about the future prospects. This report is one of the most important sources of information for companies in the capital market. Corporate management possesses considerable information advantages about contingencies related to future profitability. Management disclosures are considered a valuable and potential source of information for investors. Investors are interested in estimating the future benefits of their investment so that they can assess receiving future cash earnings as well as the value of their shares. Therefore, the expected earnings from companies are important for investors and beneficiaries to make investment decisions.How to present the earnings forecast report has been a challenging issue in recent years. Therefore, in the current situation, examining the framework and reporting method of earnings forecasting in the Iranian capital market using the opinions of experts is regarded as an essential need.Considering the importance of earnings forecast reporting for investors, the problem of the current research is: What is the earnings forecast reporting framework in Iran's capital market? Additionally, what are the components of this framework based on the country's economic and capital market conditions? Literature ReviewThere are several reasons for disclosing the information of managers and publishing the earnings forecast report. One reason for this is agency theory, which refers to the conflict of interests between managers and owners. In addition, we can refer to the Signaling theory, Expectation adjustment hypothesis, and Legal liability hypothesis.The primary framework of earnings forecasting reporting includes the purpose, users, limitations, environmental fields, characteristics, and consequences.Hirst et al. (2008) provided a framework regarding management earnings forecasting. They categorized earnings forecasts into three components including antecedents, characteristics, and consequences. They concluded that earnings forecasting characteristics are less explored in both theoretical and empirical research, despite managers having the most control over this component.Preussner and Aschauer (2022) synthesized the literature on management earnings forecasts and adaption mechanisms, combined existing theories into a unifying framework. Overall, the literature review provides strong support for a positive correlation between the extent and credibility of management earnings forecasts, on the one hand, and stock returns, share liquidity, and analyst coverage, on the other hand. Earnings forecasts tend to be optimistically biased, with a positive correlation with forecast uncertainty, earnings flexibility, financial distress, investor sentiment, and the share price dependency of managers' remuneration. Firm growth, legal liability, and litigation risk are significantly associated with forecast pessimism.Until 2017, listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange published an independent report titled earnings forecasts report. The Securities and Exchange Organization announced in a notification that since January 2018, the Issuers are not allowed to publish earnings forecasts report. Instead, they are required to prepare and disclose the management's interpretive report alongside the interim and annual financial statements. Recently, as of July 2021, the return of the earnings forecast report was announced with a new procedure for five industries.MethodologyTo achieve the goal of the research, the primary framework was first identified by studying the literature review and theoretical background. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 21 experts using the snowball sampling method. The data from the interview was analyzed using the theme analysis method and the earnings forecasts reporting framework was extracted according to the country's environmental characteristics. Finally, the fuzzy Delphi method was implemented and opinions were gathered from 183 experts through a questionnaire and targeted judgment sampling method to reach a consensus on the earnings forecasts reporting framework.The statistical population of the research included university faculty members, employees in regulatory organizations, investors, auditors, and providers of financial information.ResultsThe research results showed that out of 122 detailed themes extracted through theme analysis, which were categorized into 6 main themes and 14 sub-themes, 97 detailed themes obtained consensus from the Delphi group and were identified as components of the earnings forecasts reporting framework. The main themes of the framework are generalities, environmental fields, characteristics, consequences, challenges, and evaluation. Each main theme consists of sub-themes. For example, the generalities theme includes sub-themes such as purpose, users, and limitations. The environmental fields theme covers aspects related to the forecast environment and company characteristics. The characteristics theme encompasses the method of publishing, features, text of the report, and assurance. The consequences theme addresses the consequences of publishing and non-publishing. The challenges theme explores the challenges in the environment and the company. Lastly, the evaluation theme focuses on the evaluation of the disclosure procedure.DiscussionThe findings of this research can serve as a valuable guide for developing financial reporting standards and modifying procedures and regulations.The paper has some limitations. The use of questionnaires, which is common in humanities research, is inherently limited, and this research is no exception. The time limitation, the diverse knowledge base of the experts, and their interest in the research topic may have influenced the quality of the experts' responses to the questionnaire.ConclusionThis research has presented the earnings forecasts reporting framework in Iran's capital market, consisting of 6 main themes. The results of this study can help Iran's Accounting Standards Development Committee in developing standards. Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Organization can use the framework, particularly for the evaluation theme to modify and present regulations related to earnings forecasting reporting. Additionally, investors can use the results of this research to enhance their understanding about the earnings forecast report and make more informed investment decisions. Issuers can also use the framework to improve information disclosure and prepare reports.AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to all the esteemed professors and experts who helped me in this way. I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff of Allameh Tabataba’i University for their cooperation.
Accounting report
Ali Saqafi; Ghasem Blue; HosseinAli Sohrabi Varzaneh
Abstract
Development of Earnings quality measures, especially Accruals quality measures, has been a critical line of research over more than three decades. Literature indicates that linear-regression-based measures are subject to (suffer from) significant estimation error in non-discretionary accruals estimation. ...
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Development of Earnings quality measures, especially Accruals quality measures, has been a critical line of research over more than three decades. Literature indicates that linear-regression-based measures are subject to (suffer from) significant estimation error in non-discretionary accruals estimation. Therefore, recent research used machine learning algorithms including multilayer perceptron and radial basis neural networks, in order to address the issue. However, being founded on Blackbox approach limits future development and applicability of these methods. So, to address the limitations, we have used Group Method of Handling Data (GMDH) approach, as a Whitebox approach, in order to estimate the accruals. Findings using data from 299 Tehran Securities Exchange listed companies during 1385 to 1397 suggests that GMDH-based models perform superior to regression models and multilayer perceptron neural networks in terms of estimation error measured by mean squared error. Moreover, Cash flow approach in total accruals calculation leads to less estimation error compared to balance sheet approach. As a result, the model developed in this article can be used by market participants such as regulators, analyst and auditors in order to detect probable financial reporting misstatements.
Financial Accounting
Iraj Davanipour; Ghasem Blue; Maghsoud Amiri
Abstract
This research aims to present a pattern for measuring the quality of financial statements. To achieve this aim, firstly by reviewing the literature and theoretical background and also running an expert interview, a collection of indexes related to the quality of financial statements are identified, and ...
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This research aims to present a pattern for measuring the quality of financial statements. To achieve this aim, firstly by reviewing the literature and theoretical background and also running an expert interview, a collection of indexes related to the quality of financial statements are identified, and then by using a questionnaire and performing Fuzzy Delphi method and confirmatory factor analysis we have identified indexes which have a significant effect on the quality of financial statements. After that, using the analytic network process, we have measured the relative weight of each of those indexes (7 indexes) regarding their effect on the quality of financial statements. Lastly, by measuring each of the indexes, and then computing the weighted average of measurements of all indexes (7 indexes), the measure of the quality of financial statements is computed. For assessing the validity of the presented pattern, we have used a regression model for 57 companies listed in Tehran Exchange for years from 1394 to 1396. We have shown that consistent with the literature, there is a significant negative relationship between the quality of financial statements and cost of equity. This relationship proves that the presented pattern has enough validity for measuring the quality of financial statements. Results of this research have shown that average of measures of quality of financial statements for 57 selected firms during years 1394 to 1396 are improved.
Ghasem Blue; Mohammad Marfou; Arian Ghahremani
Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to explain the effect of accounting information quality on corporate equity cost and to investigate the moderating role of information asymmetry and the simultaneous moderating role of this variable and the comparability of financial statements in this context. The ...
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The purpose of the present study is to explain the effect of accounting information quality on corporate equity cost and to investigate the moderating role of information asymmetry and the simultaneous moderating role of this variable and the comparability of financial statements in this context. The research timeframe for this period is 5 years from the beginning of 2013 until the end of 2017 and the sample includes 91 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Multivariate regression was used for statistical analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that the quality of accounting information has an adverse effect on equity cost, so that the higher the quality of accounting information, the lower the cost of equity; and vice versa. Also, information asymmetry has a direct relationship with this effect. But the simultaneous impact of comparability of financial statements and information asymmetry on the impact of accounting information quality on equity costs is not confirmed. The results of the first two hypotheses are similar to those of Emof et al. (2018), which examined the effect of accounting information quality on equity cost in the United States, but the third hypothesis suggests that it is inconsistent.
Ghasem Blue; Amir Abbas Sahebgharani; seyedeh mahboobeh jafari
Abstract
In recent years, the capital market has played a significant role in the financing of the government and the private sector and provided a variety of tools for this purpose, mainly based on the asset backed securities and asset base securities, on the other hand, due to the requirement of the supervisory ...
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In recent years, the capital market has played a significant role in the financing of the government and the private sector and provided a variety of tools for this purpose, mainly based on the asset backed securities and asset base securities, on the other hand, due to the requirement of the supervisory authority of the capital market to rate its debt securities before it is published and the need to enter the rating process of securities, it is necessary to have securities rating pattern Published in the capital market are designed and explained. Based on the above, the present study attempts to develop a credit rating model for asset backed Securities based on sukuk in the capital market. On one hand, the problems of executing Sukuk publishing, such as obligatory guarantee, are overcome, and on the other hand, the field of transparency of the market Financing and accelerating the financing process through this market will ultimately lead to a reduction in the cost of financing a firm.In this study, firstly, by studying the theoretical foundations of the publishing of asset-backed securities and other sources of information, such as guidelines issued by the Capital Markets Authority, the International Institutions and International Financial Institutions' Guidelines, the Primary Model The asset back rating was extracted, and then this model was developed for the purpose of obtaining consensus and Delphi Research methodology was subjected to an expert opinion survey and ultimately the final model of asset-backed securities ranking was presented.
Ghasem blue; Zahra Farjam
Abstract
Aware of the economic performance of the business in the future will help potential investors and Creditors in economic decisions. Investment decision taken on the basis of forecasted earnings. Therefore the accuracy of these predictions is important. Prior research has shown that cost forecast error ...
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Aware of the economic performance of the business in the future will help potential investors and Creditors in economic decisions. Investment decision taken on the basis of forecasted earnings. Therefore the accuracy of these predictions is important. Prior research has shown that cost forecast error is more than sales forecast error and has more effect on the earning forecast error and claimed that this error is due to ignoring the cost behavior. This research was investigated cost behavior forecast accuracy by studying 104 company from 2010-2015. Samples were separated to companies with symmetrical (equal) favorable and unfavorable sales forecast error and were compared. T test and Mann-Whitney tests were used for this purpose. The results showed that managers are not predicting the cost variability correctly; however, due to the symmetry of the earning forecast error in firms with equal sales forecasting error, it can be concluded that managers generally pay attention to cost behavior in their predictions. In other words, according to the proportion of sales forecast error and cost forecast error, the main reason for the earning forecast error is the error in predicting sales.
Saber Sheri Anaghiz
Abstract
The company's ability to identify potential funding sources both internal and external, are the main factors of growth and development. The main objective of companies is to maximize shareholder wealth and the company's capital structure is one of the factors contributing to this, that involve financial ...
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The company's ability to identify potential funding sources both internal and external, are the main factors of growth and development. The main objective of companies is to maximize shareholder wealth and the company's capital structure is one of the factors contributing to this, that involve financial resources commensurate with the risk and return. On the other hand, several studies have shown that due to the problems of the traditional theory of capital structure, one of the most important factors, affecting the issues of financing in companies, is financial flexibility. This study examines the impact of financial flexibility on capital structure decisions. For this purpose, the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange, 108companies were selected and financial data for the years 1382 to 1392 were studied. The results indicate that current period financial flexibility has a significant and positive relationship with capital structure. The results also suggest that for companies that have negative marginal value of cash, financial flexibility in capital structure decisions, is a priority.
