فصلنامه بررسی های حسابداری و حسابرسی
پیاپی 103 (بهار 1400)

Existence of high quality and comparable information is an effective factor in increasing investors' confidence in the optimal allocation of resources in the form of investment decisions and financing. In this regard, one of the external factors affecting the quality of financial reporting is the social attitude of companies to ensure the interests of all stakeholders as social legitimacy. However, companies' commitment to this can also be different due to the need to implement different business procedures at different stages of a company's life cycle. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social responsibility and financial statement comparability in the life cycle of a company.

This research is an applied one in terms of purpose, and is correlation and post-event in terms of method. In order to test the research hypotheses, 123 companies in the period 2012-2019 were selected and analyzed using multiple regression models. To measure the social responsibility index, three economic, legal and moral dimensions of social responsibility were used by using the combined index of the mentioned variables and by decimating the relevant indicators, similar to the method of Gaio and Raposo (2010). To measure the financial statement comparability, De Franco et al. (2011) model was used and for the life cycle of the company, Dickinson (2011) method was used in accordance with the cash flow pattern (operating activities, investment and financing).

The results of hypothesis testing show that the total index of social responsibility has a positive effect on the financial statements` comparability and causes it to increase. And the index of social responsibility in the growth stage has the most and in the maturity stage has the least impact and in the decline stage has no effect on the financial statement s` comparability. Thus in the stages of growth and maturity it has a positive effect and in the decline phase has no significant effect on the financial statement comparability.

The increase in the company's social responsibility for transparent accountability for its annual performance to various stakeholders and as a result more monitoring of the company's performance reduce information asymmetry and therefore increase the quality and financial statement comparability. And companies in the stages of business growth and maturity, unlike the stage of decline, due to more access to financial resources and focus on differentiation strategy, use social responsibility to increase the quality of reporting and gain and strengthen their competitive position. Thus, companies in the stages of growth and maturity, use social responsibility to increase the reporting quality and acquisition and strengthening of competitive position. Because in terms of signaling theory, companies in the growth phase of their life cycle due to long-term time horizons in achieving goals, need to be seen, need to visualize their future performance and growth opportunities and more involvement of stakeholders. However, in the final stages of the life cycle, due to limited financial resources, declining profitability and changing companies' approach to survival strategy, they have limited resources to invest in social responsibility.

Since investors are usually risk averse, liquidity risk can affect the returns on their investments. Thus, liquidity is significant for investors. Given the management entrenchment hypothesis and the investment opportunities hypothesis, it is ambiguous to determine the type of effect of surplus cash on trading continuity and stock liquidity risk. Consequently, to overcome this ambiguity, it is necessary to empirically test these relationships. In this regard, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of financial constraint on the relationship between cash surplus and liquidity risk and the continuation of stock trading of listed companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2011- 2020.

The statistical population of this research is the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchangethat for this purpose, 147 companies were selected through systematic elimination method and multivariate regression and Panel data method were used to test the hypotheses.

The results and findings of the study confirm the negative effect of surplus cash on liquidity risk and trading continuity. Other findings of the study Showed that financial constraints decline the relationship between excess cash and stock liquidity and transaction continuity.

The results of the study indicate that the excess cash leads to an increase in agency and decrease in liquidity and continuity of transactions. This result is weaker in companies with financial constraints, because these companies can attract more investors and boost their stock trading through surplus cash. In other words, the existence of financial constraints leads to the dominance of the investment opportunity hypothesis over the management fortification hypothesis.

This study aims to provide a dynamic model based on accounting and economic variables, considering the affectability of managers' decisions from cognitive biases. The neglected point in accounting studies is investigating the amplifying or alleviating effect of managers’ cognitive biases on the extent of affectability of companies from uncertainty in the business environment, which shows the necessity of this research.

System dynamics approach has been used to model and study the interaction between components based on the information of companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange in a period of 9 years from 2011 to 2019. For simulation horizon, 15 years from 2011 to 2026 have been considered.

The uncertainty caused by higher inflation reduces the overinvestment of managers, while the projection bias reduces this negative effect. Although rising inflation also increases the tendency of loss aversion managers to receive loan, the difference between such managers is that they consider external financing when the weighted average cost of capital due to reliance on internal financing has gone up. Another result of this study was that managers with overconfidence bias underestimate the cost of internal resources, and based on inherent risk aversion, they reduce the portion of external financing risk to use it as an investment.

The decision making model of managers is influenced by cognitive biases and these deviations shape the behavior of managers in the face of environmental and exogenousfactors. Managers limit their investments and capital expenditure policies due to the condition of the country's economic environment. However, due to behavioral biases affecting their economic decision-making pattern, the overall performance of companies weakened and in fact, these companies lose their opportunities to value making and wealth creation.

The main purpose of the present research is to investigate the relationship between audit committeefeatures and audit reporting readability.

The present research is an applied one in terms of purpose and is descriptive-correlation in terms of method. The Statistic population includes listed firms in the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2014 to 2018 with 72 firms as sample.

This research, which has used panel data with fixed effects, indicates the analysed results of the firm data using  multivariate regression method that there is not a significant relationship between audit committee size, audit committee independence and audit committee financial Expertise with Audit reporting readability.

Despite the lack of a significant relationship between Audit committee size, audit committee independence and audit committee financial expertise with audit reporting readability need attention to the effectiveness of audit committees’ characteristics is very important.

Accounting conservatism, as a factor that leads to the timely identification of bad news and the delay of good news, is able to control and to some extent reduce the investor sentiment. Therefore, it is expected that with the change in the level of the investor sentiment, the level of accounting conservatism will also change. However, the use of conservatism to control the investor sentiment under factors such as the efficiency of the management unit of the economic unit. In other words, management ability can moderate the relationship between investor sentiment and conservatism. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the moderating effect of management ability on the relationship between investor sentiment and accounting conservatism.

To achieve the purpose of the research, a statistical sample including 135 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2014 to 2018 has been selected. And to test the hypothesis, combined data with ordinary least squares regression model have been used.

The findings of this study show that there is a positive and significant relationship between investor sentiment and accounting conservatism. In other words, in periods when the stock market is associated with the investor sentiment, firms use conservative mechanisms. Accounting is done to deal with this behavioral process of investors. In addition, the research findings indicate that managerial ability does not play a moderating role in the relationship between investor sentiment and conservatism.

The results of the study show that when the investor sentiment intensifies, in order to prevent and reduce this behavioral bias, firms provide faster bad news and early identification of economic losses, as well as delay good news and more strict recognition of returns. To avoid future problems caused by investment feelings to some extent. In addition, the able manager uses accounting conservatism against investor sentiment to the same extent as other managers. In other words, management ability cannot affect the relationship between investor sentiment and accounting conservatism. Hence, our study extends the literature on the impact of management ability on the relationship between investor sentiment and accounting conservatism and the conclusions have important implications for the improvement of Iran’s market efficiency.

Internal whistle-blowing is known as one of the most effective methods for identifying fraud. Understanding the factors influencing the reporting of fraud according to the bystander effect can be a great help in reducing fraud. This is important in this study with the aim of the pattern of factors affecting the whistle-blowing with emphasis on the bystander effect.

To answer the research question, Meta-composition, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews with experts (Delphi) were used. A total of 61 articles related to the research topic include fraud, spectator, bystander effect, fraud report, whistle-blowing, diffusion of responsibility, non-motivated, and disclosure of illegal activities, were analyzed and 14 experts were interviewed.

Analyzes show that 5 individual structures (including 19 cases and cases such as weakness of courage and fear of evaluation and judgment), interpersonal (including 4 cases and cases such as unfamiliarity with the principles of social behavior and weakness in social responsibility), moral- Cultural (including 9 cases and cases such as weakness in piety and spirituality and lack of honesty and integrity), administrative-managerial (including 12 cases and cases such as lack of legal and social support and lack of organizational transparency) and the nature of the violation (including 7 cases and cases such as The number of informed people and the uncertainty of the occurrence of violations affect the internal reporting of financial violations) because of the spectator phenomenon. Also, each structure has components, and each component affects the spectator and internal reporting of financial violations.

In some cases, the violation can be reported to other employees, but instead of reporting, they only become spectators who have observed the violation. Spectator management allows employees to report financial violations. Violators are in front of the eyes of spectators who feel responsible for exposing the violation. This study examined this issue and showed that paying attention to the five identified structures will reduce corruption and misconduct and will protect the interests of stakeholders and the public. It also provides a platform for employees to report violations in organizations.

This study aims to identify nonfinancial measures based on the thematic analysis.

The thematic analyses of interviews with experts were used in this study to propose some of the nonfinancial measures for reporting and identification. In fact, data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews, the qualitative data of which were analyzed in the thematic analysis. The snowball sampling technique was then employed, and the saturation point was reached after 21 interviews.

Identification of nonfinancial measures for reporting can be analyzed from several dimensions such as reporting nonfinancial measures with intra-organisational, extra-organisational, quantitative, and qualitative origins as well as the location and frequency of reporting nonfinancial measures and optional or mandatory reporting of nonfinancial measures. The quantitative section includes the criteria that can be converted into numbers, whereas the qualitative section discusses concepts beyond numbers and figures.
Intra-organisational and quantitative nonfinancial measures: 1- human capital (population, salary, training, and personnel rotation), 2- extent of obsolescence or failure, production date, and expiry date on the inventory, 3- production time and speed, 4- sales growth and recession of future products, 5- equipment lifetime and use of modern technology in production, 6- intangible assets (copyright and patent), 7- use of modern technologies.Intra-organisational and qualitative nonfinancial measures: 8- human capital (competency, innovation, knowledge, creativity, ethics, and experience), 9- structural capital (intrinsic control structure, board structure and independence, and company auditing structure), 10- management strategies and future outlooks and strategies, 11- plans and goals (R&D and brand), 12- IT investment knowledge in providing IT infrastructure including computers, networks, and databanks, 13- presentation of existing risks.Extra-organisational and quantitative nonfinancial measures: 14- ability to pay off old and new customer receivables, 15- period of customer receivables and quantity of major and retail customers, 16- environmental problems (shares of carbon and greenhouse gases from production and felonies), 17- institutional and legal investors’ support for company, 18- quantity and percentage of loyal customers and number of sales contracts, 19- comparison of performance with other rivals based on sales rate, 20- use of modern technologies (cost and income).Extra-organisational and qualitative nonfinancial measures: 21- governmental-political connections and support, 22- membership in professional associations and grant of professional certificates for quality of standard products, 23- marketing method and power, advertising strategies, and brand development, 24- product distribution and transportation network of company, 25- human capital (extra-organisational specialised labor force recruitment mechanism and customer relationship), 26- customer capital (satisfaction, communications, accountability, guarantee), 27- communicational capital (rivals and business partners).

According to the results, reporting nonfinancial measures included four main themes known as generalities, different types of nonfinancial measures, reporting and auditing nonfinancial measures, and outcomes of nonfinancial measures. In addition, reporting and presenting nonfinancial measures can improve user decisions and accountability, enhance market efficiency, decrease information asymmetry, and result in the optimal allocation of resources in economy.