مجله پیشرفت های حسابداری
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 71، پاییز و زمستان 1395)

Public universities around the world are faced with environmental change. The leading to a need for improved information for decision making to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of service quality. Reforms of accountability system have been one program to provide improved information for decision making in higher education. Reforms taking place in most developed and developing countries have faced challenges, barriers and problems. Despite the emphasis of the legislators in the Third Economic, Social and Cultural plan based on the reforms in governmental budgeting and changes from program budgeting to performance-based budgeting, the end of 1383 was the last year of the program, was not gained much success. Still trying to establish performance-based budgeting continued in the fourth and fifth development programs coding are also considered guidelines for universities and public sector accounting system based on accrual accounting implementation of the notification of the beginning of 1394, is in line with the implementation of the reforms. Due to the above argument, we need to examine why despite the flaws of the current accounting system and provided necessary legislative, including the areas of autonomy granted to universities, drastic reforms in the Financial system and operational accountability of these institutions has not been happened. In fact what kind of barriers has the implementation of reforms in financial and operational accountability system of public universities has been faced with? What are the momentums beginning with reforms in state universities?
Research Questions: 1- What are the Confusers of reform in financial accountability and operational system of public universities?
2- What are the frustrators of reform in financial accountability and operational system of public universities?
3- What are the Delayer of reform in financial accountability and operational system of public universities?
4- What are the momentum of reform in financial accountability and operational system of public universities?
Research The aim of this study is to identify barriers and constraints in implementing reforms in the of financial and operational accountability system of public universities using Delphi research and gaining opinions of experts in this field. The study population consisted of all experts in the field of reforms of the financial and operational accountability system of universities. Due to the limited number of experts in this area snowball sampling was used to identify them and 40 experts were formed Delphi members. In this study, to determine consensus among panel members Kendall's coefficient was used. Kendall‘s coefficient of concordance (Kendall‘s W), is a consensus criterion representing the level of consensus between the participants. Kendall‘s coefficient of concordance ranges from 0 to 1, indicating the degree of consensus reached by the panel (strong consensus for W > 0.7; moderate consensus for W=0.5; and weak consensus for W Results showed that the experts have strong agreement on three of the five factors, as Confusers, among them the knowledge and unrelated Field of Study were identified as the primary causes of conflict.
Strong agreement of experts with all five factors of frustrators were documented. Eight cases of the ten factors as Delayer, were agreed upon by the experts and the top Delayer was the lack of qualified managers to oversee the reform process and support it. Finally, all factors contributing to momentum received strong agreement but training of Establishment team, ranked as first momentum.
Discussion and The results of comparative studies in the literature of reforms in financial and operational accountability system in universities showed that for successful implementation of reforms key success factors are required in most countries. Due to the lack of necessary infrastructure for the reform process of change, evidence points to attempts for the transformation rather than the achievement of reform. Results indicate that the process of reform occur slowly when training staff development activities carried out at the same time. Accounting reforms in the
public sector in developing countries are also likely due to motivation by the result in a government, yet there is no evidence that these developments will ensure success. A fact that has been true in relation to the reform in our country.

The information content perspective stresses accounting’s role as a source of information. To provide information means it is possible to become better informed, to learn something we did not yet know. In turn, being able to become better informed means we were initially less informed, that uncertainty was present. Uncertainty is the opposite of certainty lack of complete foreknowledge, a setting in which there is ambiguity measure on the set of possible states. Probability means some states are more likely to occur than other states, just as others may be equally likely. Being serious about information is no easy task. Developing the skill to understand and be facile with information issues requires patience and effort. Increasing the probability and reaching certainty requires to have an adequate information content. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a formal definition of information using concepts from Shannon's influential paper and to develop a measure of the information content of a message. Throughout, we stress the difference between information and knowledge (i.e. all information is knowledge but not all knowledge is information). We then argue that the financial accounting process can really be formalized as a communication system where information can be determined as having been transmitted when uncertainty regarding a future probability state-space has changed. Furthermore, we demonstrate analytically a way in which Shannon's entropy measure can be used to determine the information content of an accounting report (e.g. financial statement). Finally, we explore the measure empirically to see what insights might be gained.
Research Hypothesis: We hypothesize that uncertainty rate of accounting earnings has a negative correlation with annual return of firms, and firms which have low uncertainty rate have a greater annual return and firms which have high uncertainty rate experience lower degree of annual return. This paper is trying to collect evidence to verify this fact.
The research method used in this article is multivariate regression analysis of the impact of annual return and uncertainty ratios. Based on the previous discussion and assuming q(t) adequately captures the strength of the information environment surrounding each company.
Results of statistic test of research hypothesis regarding the relationship between annual return and uncertainty ratios showed that this hypothesis was approved, in a way that it has been assessed to be negative.
Discussion and The findings of the hypothesis test confirm this hypothesis stipulating the existence of an association between annual return and uncertainty ratios, so this relationship is negative. Regarding the purpose of the research which is examining the relationship between annual return and uncertainty ratio, it is impossible to compare the results of this hypothesis with the results of other studies. In this hypothesis, the impact of controlled variables such as firm size, the ratio of market to book value were also tested. The results show a positive and an insignificant impact of firm size, while there is a positive and significant impact between the ratio of market to book value and annual return.

One of the most important issues nowadays in the audit field is the audit quality. Furthermore, analysts of financial information and stock market participants consider quality of earnings as important information. Various factors affect the quality of audit including the independence of audit, firm size, reputation and tenure and change of independent auditors noted (Namazi, 1390). Also Earnings quality can be measured by accruals quality, earning persistence, earning predictability and earning smoothing (Nichols, 2002). On these issues, some accounting professionals and financial markets believe that the audit quality and earnings quality could have a meaningful relationship and be effective. So to assess the financial and accounting information by business people and investors, a review of the relationship between them is necessary.
The present study aims at examining the relationship between tenure and change auditor with earnings quality at Tehran Stock Exchange.
Hypothesis: The main goal of the study is to examine the relationship between tenure and change auditor with earnings quality at Tehran stock exchange. Thus research hypotheses are developed as follows: H1. There is a significant relationship between auditor tenure and earnings quality.
H2. There is a significant relationship auditor rotation and earnings quality.
In this research, the independent variables are auditor tenure and auditor change (as a proxy for audit quality), and dependent variable is earnings quality measured by Kasznik model (1999). According to the literature, control variables include firm size, leverage and grow rate of sales.
The data required for the research were gathered through official websites of Tehran Stock Exchange. The research method is a descriptive and correlational approach. The 83 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period from 2004 to 2015 were examined. To test research hypotheses, we have used a multiple linear regression model and E-views software.
The first hypothesis of the study was proposed and tested to investigate the relationship between auditor tenure and earnings quality. The results showed that increasing the tenure of the auditors resulted in increasing the accrual items and thus the quality of earnings was reduced. The result of this hypothesis is consistent with the results of the study conducted by Diana (2013), Geiger (2002) and Gul(2009).
The second hypothesis of this study was the relationship between auditor rotation and earnings quality. The results showed that increasing auditor change caused decreasing accrual so earning quality increased. The results of this hypothesis are consistent with the research results of Levis (2001) and Maxwell (2004).
The research findings showed that by increasing auditors’ tenure the amount of accruals will increase and thus the earning quality will decrease. Meanwhile, by increasing the amount auditor change, accruals will decrease and the amount of earning quality will increase.

Both theory and empirical evidence support the notion that equity mispricing has an impact on managers’ investment and financing decisions. For instance, misevaluation can drive firms’ takeover behavior (Rhodes-Kropf et al., 2005). Stock mispricing occurs when the stock price deviates from its fundamental value. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between stock mispricing and corporate investment behavior. We also examine the impact of financial constraint on mispricing-investment relationship. Then we test a catering theory describing how managers cater to the firm's short-horizon shareholders.
Hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: Stock mispricing has a significant and positive impact on firm investment.
Hypothesis 2: The more the firm depends on equity (financially constrained), the higher the sensitivity of firm investments to stock mispricing.
Hypothesis 3: The shorter the investment horizon of shareholders, the more pronounced the effect of stock mispricing on corporate investments.
We base our sample selection on all of the firms listed on the TSE during 2006-2015 period. The sample consists of 173 Tehran Stock Exchange firms. The sample excludes the following: 1-financial firms, 2-firms in the utility industry, 3-firms-year with missing data, and 4-firms that have not fiscal year end on 12.29 or change the fiscal year end during the time period. The resulting sample yields 1496 firm-year observations. Our basic methodology involves multiple regressions using Panel Data method. The models are estimated with Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Generalized Least Square (GLS). Variables definitions are as follows:
Dependent Variable: Investment: We define investment as sum of capital expenditures (dividend plus interest paid), fix asset acquisitions minus sale of fixed assets divided to beginning year total asset.

Independent Variables: Mispricing: To obtain the mispricing variables we rely on Rhodes-Kropf, Robinson and Viswanathan’s (2005) market-to-book decomposition methodology. They decompose the MTB ratio to mispricing and growth components. Mispricing is the ratio of the market value of firm i at the time t on the fundamental value of firm i at time t, (M/V). If mispricing is positive (negative) then the firm is overvalued (undervalued). The fundamental value of the firm V is a function of certain accounting variables (θ) and their multiples (αs) and is calculated in two steps: First, we estimate the model (1):
where M is the firm market value, BV is the book value of equity, NI is net income, D (NI it Control Variables: Net Equity Issuance: the ratio of net equity issued to total assets.
Cash Flow: Cash Flow from Operations to Total Asset.
Growth: according to the Rhodes-Kropf, et al (2005) Growth component is equal to the fundamental value of the firm (v (it)) divided by Book Value.
Free Float: this variable is included to control the Share Turnover ratio.
The results show that stock mispricing has positive impact on investment behavior. However, the degree of financial constraints has not significance impact on mispricing-investment relationship. The results also show that catering theory was true and the managers are going to cater stockholders in short-Horizon.
Discussion and Some behavioral reasons such as shareholders herding behavior, over (under) reaction and information asymmetry are the main factors that cause the mispricing. Standard finance theory could not explain behavioral problems and capital market expectations, but the behavioral finance has tried to explain these issues. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of mispricing on the investment behaviors of firms. The results showed that mispricing has a direct impact on investment decisions. The results also showed that the financial constraints have no effect on mispricing-investment relationship. In case of catering theory it was found that managers seek to cater shareholders who have short - horizon (and more traded shares) and do not pay attention to long run performance. The results are consistent with Morck et al. (1990), Chang et al. (2007), Alzahrani and Rao (2014) and not inconsistent with the behavioral finance theories like market timing theory, catering theory, agency theory.

Narcissism as a personality characteristic has some indications such as influence of personal wishes, requesting others to answer, and cognitive bias. Narcissism of managers may have some effects on organizational consequences through the impact on managers` decisions in different fields such as strategy, structure and recruitment. Obviously, narcissism compared with other personal characteristics make managers do activities in order to seek the attention of others that subsequently affects the performance of the organization. According to recent studies, it is argued that narcissism has a vital role in earnings management activities and ideal financial performance exhibition. In this respect, the main goal of this research is to conduct an empirical study of the impact of managers’ narcissism on earnings management and financial performance of listed companies of Tehran Stock Exchange.
Research Questions or hypotheses: The research hypotheses are as follows:First main hypothesis: CEO Narcissism has a significant positive effect on earning management.
First subsidiary hypothesis: CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on discretionary revenues.
Second subsidiary hypothesis: CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on discretionary accruals.
Second main hypothesis: CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on financial performance.
First subsidiary hypothesis: CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on ROA ratio.
Second subsidiary hypothesis: CEO narcissism has a significant positive effect on PEG ratio.
This study is an ex-post research with a quasi-experimental design. The sample consists of 52 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2004-2015. SPSS software, structure equation modelling (SEM), and Image J were used for preparing the data and statistical analysis, respectively.
Statistical analysis using structural equation techniques shows that there is a significant positive relation between managers’ narcissism and earnings management and financial performance indicators. In other words, it was seen that in giving ideal financial performance declaration to stakeholder, more narcissism in managers leads to more tendency to earnings management.

The main goal of providing financial information is to improve the ability of decision makers to make financial and economic decisions. Therefore, the accuracy of the information provided increases the possibility of the accuracy of decisions. Understand and predict the likelihood of bankruptcy and attempt to improve these models has been the most important financial concern of decision-makers over the past decade being the subject of extensive researches conducted by financial and accounting researchers. In our country this subject has always attracted the attention of researchers. Previous studies used different models and techniques to predict bankruptcy, but the constant technological changes and economic developments on one hand, and the complexity of the business environment in the country due to economic sanctions on the other hand have faced durability of existing companies with a serious threat and thus the necessity to provide appropriate models and use new techniques for accurate prediction of corporate bankruptcies have doubled in Iran. Accordingly, it is necessary to carry out more intense scientific research in the field. Thus, the current paper aims to explore new bankruptcy models that fit Iran economic environment using factor analysis techniques, neural network and logit.
Research Hypothesis: To predict the bankruptcy of companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange Market, we use analysis factor as a data reduction method. In this study we examined the accuracy of prediction failure models with these factors. The Following hypothesis can be made in this regard: 1) Exploratory factor utilizes the logit model's ability to predict bankruptcy.
2) Exploratory factor utilizes neural networks, have the ability to predict bankruptcy.
3) Neural networks have higher ability than logit model in recognition of bankruptcy companies.

This is an applied EX- post factor correlational study. This research consisted of firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period from 2008 to 2015.
Accordingly, a list of companies has been prepared to study including 40 bankrupt ones that were subject to Article 141 of the commercial code and article 41 of stock exchange directions. It also should be noted that using the information related to six years before bankruptcy for each company required them to be studied during the periods from 2008 to 2015. Then we used Q.Tobin to select 82 companies that are not bankrupt. We used 55 financial ratio and analysis factor to reduction data (12 factor).
Dependent variable: the probability of bankruptcy of a firm; zero for bankrupt companies and one for others.
Independent variables:12 Factors Extraction of 55 financial ratios.
In this study, 55 financial ratios were reduced to 12 factors by factor analysis, so that each factor contained factor loads of variables. Then, it was reviewed by using logit and neural network. In addition, Q.tobin’s criteria was used to unbankrupt companies & article 141 of commercial code and article 41 of stock exchange directions to select bankrupt companies. To analyze data, SPSS 23 & MATLAB softwares were used as results were determined by comparing. Exploratory factors have a high capability in predicting bankrupt companies. In this respect, both models enjoyed high accuracy. As a whole, neural network method has high accuracy in classified companies. Thus, in both models, the highest accuracy is dedicated to data about a year before the base year.
Discussion and The findings show that the use of factor analysis to convert various financial ratios to several homogeneous factors and the use of neural network techniques and logit for data analysis improve the ability of models to predict corporate bankruptcy.
Therefore, to determine and estimate companies bankruptcy, it is suggested the investors, including potential investors and financial analyzers use this techniques, variables and used models in this study. Using the neural network model is more emphasized by researchers, of course. To review the ongoing concern of companie's activity auditors can also use above-mentioned models. With the help of results and presented model in current article, banks and other financial and credit institutions as well as creditors in general can examine the decision on granting the loan to the companies, especially companies with consecutive & accumulated losses. Moreover, they can make decisions that are more reasonable as well as prevent wasting their capitals.

Accounting earnings are viewed as the premier information item provided in financial statements. Earnings are widely used as a key performance indicator of business success. Failure to meet or beat market expectations results in adverse consequences for the firm. Managers are, therefore, concerned about reporting an earnings number that meets or exceeds market expectations. Three research designs were commonly used in the earnings management literature: those based on aggregate accruals, those based on specific accruals and those based on the distribution of earnings (McNichols, 2000). As Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) suggest the earnings distribution approach investigates the statistical feature of earnings distribution to discover any abnormal patterns. These studies consider the behavior of earnings around a specific threshold to examine whether or not the frequency distribution of earnings above or below the threshold is smooth. In this paper, we use earnings distribution approach (EDA) to investigate whether firms manage reported earnings. This paper has focused on two earnings targets, namely (1) reporting profits, or ‘positive earnings’, (2) reporting results that improve upon last year’s performance. Our next question is related to the incentives of firms to manage earnings. We examine the capability of prospect theory to explain the motivation of this type of earnings management. If the preferences of the stakeholders are consistent with the prospect theory, then the manager has an incentive to report earnings that exceed the threshold, or the reference point, such as zero earnings levels or zero earnings changes, to obtain more rewards.
Research Hypotheses: Based on the theoretical literature and the conducted studies, research hypotheses were developed as follows:
Primary Hypotheses: 1- Earnings are managed to avoid losses.
2- Earnings are managed to avoid earnings decreases.
Secondary Hypotheses
1- In the case of earnings management to avoid losses, zero scaled earnings is the reference point corresponding to prospect theory
2- In the case of earnings management to avoid earnings decrease, zero scaled earnings change is the reference point corresponding to prospect theory
In this research, our data were obtained from the Iranian database of Tehran Stock Exchange (Rah Avard Novin). The sample was selected from the period 2009-2013. We investigate two earnings variables. One is earnings level and the other is earnings change. For the earnings level variable, we used 908 firm-year observations and for the earnings change variable, there are 917 firm-year observations. We used annual net earnings to measure first threshold, which is avoiding losses and annual net earnings changes to measure second threshold, which is avoiding earnings decreases. The earnings observations are drawn from a broad range of firm sizes and are therefore scaled. The earnings variable is scaled by beginning-of-the-year market value of common equity. We present two types of evidence to determine whether earnings management leads to avoiding earnings decreases and losses. First, we present graphical evidence in the form of histograms of the pooled cross-sectional empirical distributions of scaled earnings changes and levels of earnings. Second, we investigate the significance of any irregularities around the zero point via Burgstahler and Dichev statistical method.
The results of this research show that at a confidence level of 95%, earnings are managed to avoid losses. On the other words, we find that more firms than expected report small positive earnings in the Tehran Stock Exchange. However, there is no evidence to support that earnings are managed to avoid earnings decrease. Moreover, the findings show that the prospect theory can be used to explain the reasons and motives of earnings management to avoid losses.
Discussion and This paper provides compelling empirical evidence that earnings are managed to avoid losses. Earnings distributions show unexpectedly high frequencies of observations above the zero scaled earnings and unexpectedly low frequencies of observations below the zero scaled earnings. In addition, findings show that Kahneman and Tversky’s ‘prospect theory’ provide possible explanation for such behavior. From a psychological perspective, prospect theory postulates that decision-makers derive value from gains and losses with respect to a reference point, rather than from absolute levels of wealth. This captures the notion that losses are more displeasing than the equivalent gain. Thus, individuals derive the highest value when wealth moves from a loss to a gain relative to reference points. Firms above the earnings threshold are found to be risk averters while firms below the earnings threshold are found to be risk lovers. However, the study has several limitations. The earnings distribution approach does not capture the magnitude of earnings management. Furthermore, it does not specify the methods by which earnings are managed.