This paper examines the relationship between cryptocurrency market dynamics and investor sentiment, employing advanced techniques like time-variant Granger causality and asymmetric time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) frequency connectivity. We create unique sentiment analysis tools, including a custom cryptocurrency sentiment lexicon, to deeply analyze content in the cryptocurrency

The microfinance sector, with its diverse ownership structures and distinctive capital structure, provides a unique setting to examine cross-country differences in financial reporting practices. However, research on how the legal enforcement environment affects the financial reporting quality of development finance organizations, such as microfinance institutions (MFIs), remains limited. This study

We examine the relationship between corporate site visits by institutional investors and the provision of trade credit to these firms by their suppliers and find a positive relationship between the frequency of site visits and the level of supplier trade credit. This relationship is more pronounced among firms with less transparent information environments and greater financial constraints. The findings

The special issue on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Accounting and Finance explores how AI technologies are transforming the fields of accounting and finance, examining both their practical applications and the associated challenges. The papers included in this issue demonstrate how AI can improve efficiency, enhance decision-making processes, and increase transparency across various domains, including

We examine the effects of negative interest rate policy (NIRP) on the scale of shadow banking. Utilising a Triple Differences (TD) model and a cross-country dataset of 676 non-bank financial intermediaries from 28 OECD countries over the period 2011–2017, we observe a reduction in the size of shadow banking entities. Moreover, the impact of NIRP is heterogeneous based on country- and entity-specific

As labour markets shift responsibility for navigating career transitions and employability from organisations to individuals, sensemaking around their own ‘perceived employability’ gains importance. Prior research suggests work integrated learning (WIL) experiences constitute a significant route to perceived employability for potential entrants to the accounting profession. The mechanisms through which

In April 2024, Shahzad Uddin, the recipient of the 2022 British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Distinguished Accounting Academic Award, delivered the Keynote Address at the Annual BAFA Conference. This article builds on that keynote to critically examine the systemic challenges faced by scholars researching the Majority World within the field of accounting. It highlights their marginalisation

This study examines the impact of institutional shareholder distraction on a firm's ability to maintain a safe workplace environment. By utilising extreme returns of firms in unrelated industries of institutional shareholders' portfolios as exogenous indicators of investor distraction, we demonstrate that institutional investor distraction is associated with a higher incidence of workplace injuries

This paper examines differences in the disclosure and efficacy of intended use of proceeds between private equity (PE)-backed and non-PE-backed initial public offerings (IPOs). We find that PE-backed issuers have a significantly higher (lower) probability of disclosing “repayment of debt” and “repayment to selling shareholders” (“M&A”) than non-PE-backed issuers. Moreover, PE-backed issuers that disclose

Cost measurement strategies are crucial for healthcare organisations, particularly for illicit drug use, often a lifelong condition. Long-term treatment and innovative cost-management strategies are necessary for sustainable treatment. This study proposes integrating digital transformation into drug-related healthcare spending estimates by examining existing models in the scientific literature that

Seeking to offer an integrated understanding of Hospital Management Accounting Systems (HMAS) dynamics—through a synthesis of 196 studies on management accounting in public healthcare since 1980—we provide critical insights into HMAS roles—diagnostic, interactive, culture shaping, political, and symbolic—and their interconnections, shedding light on their (in)effectiveness in relation to relevant actors

Drawing on a sample of Australian universities from 2012 to 2018, we investigate the association between the extent of university sustainability disclosure and student satisfaction. University sustainability disclosures are critical for communicating with key stakeholders when seeking resources, thereby facilitating student satisfaction. Using hand-collected data from university annual reports and

Prior literature (e.g., Brav & Gompers, 1997) establishes that the average VC-backed IPO does not outperform return based benchmarks. In this paper, we show, by accounting for VC holdings, that the average VC-backed IPO exhibits positive alphas (1.22pp) as long as the VC remains invested. The significant overperformance can be fully explained by active VC monitoring efforts, which diminishes following

The purpose of this editorial is to provide a summary of how legal, regulatory or political changes or innovations impact accounting or financial outcomes. The intersection of legal, regulatory, and political environments with accounting and financial outcomes is a critical area of study in the field of accounting. Legal frameworks, regulatory bodies, and political decisions create the environment

Entrepreneurship is an engine of economic growth and development in societies around the world. There are many accounting and finance issues faced by entrepreneurial firms related to financing, ownership structure, and corporate governance. Likewise, a growing body of literature in accounting and finance that highlights the importance of entrepreneurship has emerged in recent years. In this special

We examine whether the general managerial skills of chief executive officers (CEOs) affect corporate default risk. Employing a large panel of data on US firms, we find that generalist CEOs help reduce default risk. This result is robust to using different fixed effects (i.e., firm, CEO, and industry fixed effects), propensity score matching, and a difference-in-differences analysis to address endogeneity

Vertical integration can lower transaction costs and enhance a firm’s control over its supply chain, thereby mitigating supply chain risk and leading to lower yield spreads. However, it may also lead to asset specificity, which can reduce the liquidation value of assets and increase investment uncertainty, potentially resulting in higher yield spreads. We find that firms with greater vertical integration

This paper examines how on-chain factors (number of active wallets, transaction fees, and transaction volume) and off-chain factors (liquidity and investor attention) impact Bitcoin market efficiency from April 2014 to April 2022. We identify three periods in Bitcoin’s market development: development, growth, and additional development stage. We propose three hypotheses: (1) increased investor attention

We examine the reporting practice of linkage between strategy disclosures (management discussion of firm strategy and the business model) and financial performance disclosures in annual reports as a path for organizational learning. For identification, we use the UK Company Law Amendment mandating a Strategic Report as a separate section of the annual report so that strategy disclosures provide sufficient

The signing of the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) has strengthened the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) cross-border enforcement program over US-listed foreign firms through better cooperation with foreign securities regulators. Using the MMoU as a natural experiment, we examine the effect of enhanced SEC regulatory oversight on investment efficiency of US-listed foreign

We investigate the impact of anonymity and privacy-preservation on cryptocurrency use. We find that privacy coins, which deploy advanced privacy-preserving technologies to enhance trader anonymity, experience a relative increase in usage compared to non-privacy coins following regulatory interventions aimed at countering illegal activities in cryptocurrency trading and use. However, the adoption of

Constructing social networks of venture capital (VC) firms using social ties of VC partners in 36 countries, we find that VC firms that are central in the networks tend to lead VC investment syndicates, and this relation is more pronounced in countries with weaker institutional environments and investor protection. We show evidence that central VC firms achieve superior performance as they obtain better

We identify that technology crowdfunding campaigns attracting more domestic investors have a higher probability of project success and examine the role of home bias in supporting online innovative entrepreneurial financing. The extent of the home bias effect among technology entrepreneurs varies and is notably linked to their social capital. When a technology entrepreneur has high “old” social capital

Leveraging the unique institutional features of Korea's adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011, we examine analysts' and investors' reactions to the elimination of standardized OI reporting. We find that financial analysts are less likely to issue OI forecasts immediately after IFRS adoption. Additionally, the accuracy of OI forecasts declines compared with sales or

We investigate the relationship between customer concentration and the readability of suppliers' financial disclosures. Using a large sample of 9554 US-listed firms from 1994 to 2020, we find that suppliers with a more concentrated customer base produce lower quality 10-K reports. This negative association is driven by managerial obfuscation motives and is more pronounced for suppliers that pay excess

The emancipatory power of accounting is crucial for enabling sustainable living, placing a responsibility on accounting educators to unlock this potential. As sustainability remains an evolving global discussion, teaching it requires a shift from traditional, didactic approaches to accounting education. Paulo Freire's dialogical approach offers a valuable framework, assuming educators have the critical

Equity crowdfunding platforms are expanding globally, heralded for their capacity to connect entrepreneurs and investors transcending geographic boundaries. These platforms alleviate the distance-related frictions typical of traditional early-stage finance. Despite their global breadth, however, our knowledge of the internationalization of equity crowdfunding platforms remains limited. Drawing upon

We examine whether a narcissistic audit committee (AC) chair influences the quality of non-IFRS earnings disclosure. We find that executives are more likely to opportunistically subtract persistent income-decreasing items from IFRS earnings in firms with ACs chaired by highly narcissistic individuals. Interestingly, unlike the common belief that narcissism destroys value, our findings suggest narcissism

This paper examines the impact of climate risks on the debt structure of a sample of U.S. firms from 2002 through 2020. Climate risks—mainly physical, regulatory, and transition risks—are associated with a concentrated debt structure for the affected firms. However, when climate risks propagate through the channels of expected bankruptcy costs and sustainability, they are associated with a more diversified

This paper illustrates lesser-known positive impacts of financial advisers on communal fraud susceptibility. The analysis focuses on the unprecedented scale of adviser departures triggered by heightened educational and ethics requirements recently introduced in the Australian financial planning industry. We exploit this quasi-experimental setting of mass exits from the wealth management industry to

We examine the out-of-sample performance of adding green assets to a stock-bond-commodity benchmark portfolio as EU investors across seven investment horizons. By employing eight portfolio optimization techniques, we find that incorporating green assets leads to statistically significant improvement in the Sharpe ratio across different investment horizons and risk preferences. The Sharpe ratio, Sortino

This study investigates the effect of changes in the U.S. federal funds rate on the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. Our findings reveal that changes in the central bank's policy rate have a statistically significant and economically important counter-cyclical effect on DeFi lending rates and DeFi asset growth. Specifically, an increase in the federal funds rate leads to a decline in DeFi asset

In this study, we examine the impact of rank-and-file employee stock options on audit fees. We document compelling evidence that option grants to rank-and-file employees are positively related to audit fees. Further analyses show that this positive relation is more pronounced when a firm's real earnings manipulation risk is higher and when rank-and-file employees are more sensitive to monetary incentives

2Qingliang Tang acknowledges the research project on the topic “Managing the shift from voluntary to mandatory climate disclosure: The role of carbon accounting” received financial support "Priority Research Initiative" from School of Business, Western Sydney University 2024.The transition from voluntary to mandatory climate disclosure and reporting poses serious challenges for accounting professionals

Boundary objects are ambiguous terms that are useful in enabling parties with different incentives, belief systems, or cultural commitments to collaborate. However, the misunderstandings that arise due to this ambiguity will eventually prompt the initiation of a process of standardisation intended to make the meanings of terms more precise to all parties, thereby enabling collaboration to continue

Writing method sections for qualitative studies in accounting is challenging, partly due to the diverse methodological bases upon which different researchers can draw, partly because of the nature of collecting and analysing qualitative data which is semi-structured at best. Given the space constraints increasingly facing journal articles, this requires a delicate balance between succinct mobilisation

COVID-19 has impeded progress towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 10, which seeks to reduce inequalities. Low-wage workers were disproportionately affected by wage cuts, prompting governments worldwide to introduce wage subsidy programs. One of these schemes was Australia's JobKeeper program. Despite initial praise, the initiative was later blamed for intensifying

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) contracting incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related measures in executive compensation plans. Current research on this practice is limited to a US setting, despite global adoption. We investigate heterogeneity in CSR contracting using data from 59 countries between 2002 and 2019. We find that besides firm-level past ESG performance and

Given that the aim of corporate social and environmental disclosure mandates is to improve corporate social and environmental performance, this study investigates the impact of such mandates on performance. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we examine trends in corporate social and environmental performance before and after the introduction of Directive 2014/95/EU (hereafter, the Directive)

The research comprises a case study focussed on the wording of 34 audit reports of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which Cecil Rhodes established by Royal Charter to colonise Rhodesia from 1889 to 1924. The accounts were audited by Cooper Brothers & Co., now PricewaterhouseCoopers. The research analyses three audit-report characteristics that influenced audit-report wording. Of the 34 audit

Supervisor feedback is essential for training and socialising early career auditors. One fundamental aspect and choice of a supervisor's feedback practice and style is whether to focus on encouraging good or discouraging poor performance. We acknowledge that early career auditors likely receive feedback on both good and poor performance in ongoing and extended feedback relationships with their closest

Our study reveals that companies with higher Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ratings exhibit superior stock returns compared to their counterparts with lower ratings during periods of political uncertainty. This phenomenon is more pronounced in a closely contested election with a higher degree of unpredictability. Our results remain robust after addressing potential endogeneity issue and are

In this paper, considering the difference in the energy demand level, we utilize the daily pricing data from 10/01/2019 to 06/30/2023 to construct mimicking crypto portfolios with 12 clean cryptocurrencies to replace the dirty cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). With a monthly rebalancing strategy, the mimicking portfolio closely matches the exposures to the risk factors of the BTC but with fewer specific

Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2002 to 2020, we investigate the relationship between corporate culture and the extent of carbon emissions. We provide evidence that the quantum of carbon emissions is negatively associated with corporate cultural attributes manifested by integrity, teamwork, innovation, and respect. These results hold after controlling for potential endogeneity issues using

This study has two primary objectives. Firstly, it enhances the reliability and transparency of machine-learning-based models for predicting future changes in environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Secondly, it explores the relationship between ex-ante expected changes in ESG and future stock returns. This study collects 3258 STOXX Europe 600 firm-year observations. In the ESG prediction

We investigate the effect of Third-Party Auditor Liability (TPAL) risk on firms' trade credit policies. Exploiting the staggered state-level changes to TPAL in the US as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that firms in states with a higher risk of TPAL increase their use of trade credit. This relationship is more pronounced for firms with a more enhanced information environment, those with greater

Audit committees in the U.S. oversee risk management within organizations, including oversight of the disclosure of risk factors in periodic filings. Because audit committees have become increasingly over-burdened, we examine the impact of the busyness of audit committee members, measured via members’ service on other boards, on risk factor disclosures. We find firms with busy members issue disclosures

Prior studies provide mixed interpretations for the effect of abnormal audit fees on audit quality. One interpretation is that abnormal audit fees reflect economic bonding which decreases audit quality, while the other interpretation is that they are associated with unobserved audit efforts and audit risk. We argue that long-term abnormal audit fees clarify mixed evidence, as they reflect the gradual

We examine whether the audit regulation of disclosing key audit matters (KAM) provides value-relevant information to short sellers as informed investors. The theoretical underpinning for examining short sellers' ability and incentives to use KAM disclosures in their stock valuation implications is based on a prediction theory and a skilled information processing theory of short sellers. Using a sample

Organisation capital is an important firm-specific resource that is linked to value created by key talents, and the risk arising from the unexpected departure of key talents is detrimental to the firm. We find that trade credit decreases with organisation capital, particularly when labour mobility is greater or employees have more outside opportunities. This supports the agency view of organisation

This paper examines the role of individual actions in shaping accountability relationships by adopting a micro-level perspective. Drawing on the concept of intelligent accountability, it presents a three-phase processual model to analyse the unfolding of a stakeholder engagement plan within a large firm. Despite the firm's president aiming to foster inclusion and participation, managers exhibited varied

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has significantly reshaped governance. While much existing literature focuses on public blockchain governance, fewer investigate governance mechanisms of private and consortium blockchains, increasingly prevalent in society. We explore how blockchain systems enact governance using Beck et al.’s (2018) framework examining decision rights, accountability, and

This research analysed Brazilian Federal Universities to investigate the determinants of the public value disclosure. Based on the Public Value Disclosure Index, the Management Reports of 65 Brazilian universities were subjected to a content analysis to measure the level of public value disclosure, both in general and for each perspective of the public value strategic triangle. Beta regression was

This paper studies the spillover effect of natural disasters on analyst forecast performance for unaffected firms. Controlling for analyst, firm, and brokerage characteristics, we find that analysts, who track disaster-stricken firms, issue inaccurate forecasts for unaffected firms due to limited attention. Our analysis further reveals that analysts are more likely to issue inaccurate forecasts when

We examine the impact of institutional shareholders on the investment activity and external financing of established private companies. Our sample includes both VC and non-VC institutions, and both controlling and minority ownership stakes. Institutions give rise to higher levels of investment in intangible assets—but not in tangible assets—and higher funding via external equity. These results apply

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of the treatment of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges in accounting, emphasizing the challenges they present to traditional accounting and auditing practices within current regulatory frameworks. The cryptocurrency sector has experienced multiple disruptions in recent years. By analysing two case studies representing such disruptions – Binance

Utilizing data on 160,000 individually-owned micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and the consumption of their entrepreneurs from the Ant Group, the FinTech giant, we show that MSEs' usage of FinTech credit is followed by a significant reduction in their entrepreneurs' food consumption as a percentage of total consumption, which is driven by an increase in their non-food consumption. It confirms FinTech

This study examines women's career journeys to professorship in accounting and finance academia with a focus on the potential influence of various forms of capitals. Given the dearth of women at professorial level despite various institutional initiatives to reduce gender imbalances, it is critical that their careers be examined. We utilise the work of Bourdieu and studies on gender capital to interpret

This study explores how cybersecurity risk influences voluntary disclosure, with a particular focus on management forecasts. We find that managers in firms with higher ex-ante cyber risk issue more financial forecasts. This positive effect is largely due to increased information demand from market participants when confronted with elevated cybersecurity concerns. Further analyses reveal that management