Junaid M. Shaikh

E‐commerce impact: emerging technology – electronic auditing

Purpose – We expect an explosive application of these technologies to take place when they become mature and may further assist auditors in improving the quality of their work. How to use some of the computer‐assisted auditing techniques (CAATs) more effectively with the emerging information technologies.Design/methodology/approach – Constructed an infrastructure with the support of emerging technologies. Electronic auditing (EA) framework–prepared and used with information technology, these examples are object‐oriented distributed middlewares, internet security technologies, and intelligent agents.Findings – How a CPA may conveniently audit the loan account of a bank with EA framework. Demonstration/application.Research limitations/implications – Auditors will have to design one specialized audit software for each auditees electronic data processing (EDP) system if the EDP system uses proprietary file formats or different operating systems. The EA has some limitations. This approach depends on distribut...

The Influence of Board Characteristics on Sustainability Reporting: Empirical Evidence from Sri Lankan Firms

Purpose - – Drawing on agency theory and legitimacy theory perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of board characteristics on sustainability reporting of listed companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach - – A sample of 148 listed companies was drawn from the CSE using stratified random sampling method and data were collected from the 2012 annual reports. The proposed hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical binary logistic regression. Findings - – This study documents that board size and dual leadership are positively associated with sustainability reporting and boards with female directors are negatively associated with sustainability reporting. This study also found that sustainability reporting is likely to be influenced by firm size and firm growth. Additionally, the study also reveals that younger firms are likely to adopt sustainability reporting. Originality/value - – This is the first study to examine the influence of board characteristics on sustainability reporting in Sri Lanka, considered as a developing economy with an emerging equity market.

Lessons in corporate governance from Kautilya's Arthashastra in ancient India

This paper explores the lessons in corporate governance from Kautilyas Arthashastra, highlighting the contribution made by Kautilya in ancient India (4th Century BC). The lessons from Kautilyas Arthashastra are relevant even today and can be integrated into the modern context of corporate management towards achieving the ultimate aim of corporate governance, which is to provide value to shareholders and stakeholders. Chinmayananda (2003) states that from time to time there is a need to look and re-look at some of the ancient works and provide an intelligent interpretation and re-interpretation to apply effectively in the context of modern corporate management. The prospects of analysis of Kautilyas Arthashastra in other areas of corporate management such as strategic management, financial management and human resource management can be considered for future research.

Corporate governance through an audit committee: an empirical study

Even though there are many measures to put corporate governance (CG) in place and practise, an important tool essential for the success is the efficacy and effective functioning of an audit committee (AC). Nowadays, an AC is being looked upon as a distinct culture for CG and has received wide-publicity across the globe. Government authorities, regulators and international bodies all have indicated that they view an AC as a potentially powerful tool that can enhance the reliability and transparency of financial information. Being mandatory under SEBI’s clause 49 of the listing agreement, an AC can be of great help to the board in implementing, monitoring and continuing ‘good’ CG practises to the benefit of the corporation and all its stakeholders. This study performs a ‘content’ analysis on the AC reports of the top 500 listed companies in India during 2005 to 2008 to determine the information content of these reports and the extent to which these reports conform to the clause 49 requirements of the SEBI. Also, discussed are the various trends about an AC characteristics viz., size, composition, activity, as well as, the extent of non-audit services provided by auditors in the top 500 listed Indian companies.

A 'macro' analysis of the use of XBRL

eXtensible business reporting language (XBRL) is increasingly used for reporting to shareholders, filing with stock exchange regulators and for decision making and taxation purposes. This paper provides a macro analysis of the use of XBRL in the USA and UK and highlights some directions for further research. It finds that the pace of XBRL adoption across countries and industries varies. The country analysis suggests that there has been greater support and adoption of XBRL in the USA as compared to the UK. Moreover, XBRL seems to be widely used in the financial services sector as compared to others. This paper identifies several areas for research at the macro country and industry level and the micro company level. It is argued that greater support from the accounting profession and regulators is required to raise XBRL awareness and speed the pace of adoption in practice.

Customers’ confidence and trust towards privacy policy: a conceptual research of hotel revenue management

This empirical research involves determination on customers’ confidence on hotel’s custodian of customers’ personal information as Kao et al. (2008) suggests that increase customers’ confidence may enhance customers’ satisfaction experiential value and may imply revenue potential. Customers demand assurance that their personal data will be safe and secure. A confident and satisfied customer may spread favourable words of mouth about hotel privy image that will eventually bring about positive impact on revenue. Seventy randomly selected respondents were interviewed and distributed with closed structured questionnaire to investigate some chosen antecedents’ variables, a determinant construct of customers’ confidence and trust. The findings corroborate that customers’ personal belief primarily contributes to their high level of confidence on hotel privacy policy. Therefore, in an effort to achieve a potential revenue management, the hoteliers have to be mindful of customers’ belief, as a major driver for consumers enhanced confidence.

Factors influencing entrepreneurship in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) among residents in Sarawak Malaysia

Generally, majority of the entrepreneurs who are involved in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) industry in Sarawak contribute to the economy revenue in Sarawak Malaysia. There are many types of businesses in SMEs industry where the entrepreneurs can choose from if they have interest in business. It is not only about the interest factor but there are a lot of other factors which can influence those people to participate in business. This research is based on the quantitative type of study. The analysis data showed that individual and environment factor do have relationship with the level of involvement in business. Furthermore, knowledge and business strategy factor do have relationship with the level of successful in business. This research can be a useful reference and may contribute new idea especially to those new researchers in the future.

The financial ratio usage towards predicting stock returns in Malaysia

This paper examines whether a simple fundamental analysis strategy based on historical accounting information can predict stock returns. Construction and material sector are chosen in this study. Five common stock return predictor used in this study are price earning (PE), return of equity (ROE), debt to equity (DE), earning growth (EG) and price to net tangible asset (P/NTA). The results show that historical accounting signals are able to predict stock return. The mature group firm outperformed new and stable firm in predictive power. The finding reveals that nearly all return predictor have positive correlation with future stock return. Despite the down activity of the market over the sample period chosen, results reveal that fundamental accounting signals of winner portfolio that provide positive future return from a loser one generating a negative return still be able to generate positive return.

Measurement of performance at institutions of higher learning: the balanced score card approach

Organisations have to confront with new developments brought about by the shift of industrial age competition to information age competition. As a result of this, certain assumptions with regard to the running and measurement of organisational performance have become obsolete. Information becomes essential to bring about new capabilities for competitive success. In the information age, it is vital for organisations to attempt to create future value through investments in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology and innovation (Kaplan and Norton, 1998a). Therefore, in information age, organisations need to formulate and utilise performance measurement tools that can be used to develop strategies, not only to create value for the current and future customers, but also to enhance current and future capabilities necessary to improve future performance. The tools are not only to be used to control behaviour and to evaluate past performances, but also to articulate and communicate future strategies. In brief, the objectives of this research study are: evaluate performance measurement at institutions of higher learning; assess the level of awareness and knowledge of balanced scorecard as a measure.

Investigation into the impacts of procurement systems on the performance of construction projects in East Malaysia

This research investigated the impacts of procurement systems on the performance of construction projects in East Malaysia. Construction project outcome is measured in terms of time, cost and quality achieved. Project clients demand the best value for their money and they want their projects to be completed on time, within budgeted cost and at appropriate quality or specification. The sample in this research consists of 58 participants that work in a construction companies/industry. About 90 questionnaires were distributed, 69 were successfully returned and 58 were fully completed. The sample comprises project clients/owners, project managers, consultants and construction workers. The aim of using project clients, project managers, consultants and construction workers from different companies is because they work under different circumstances. The researchers distributed questionnaires randomly among the participants in different construction companies. The key findings showed that traditional procurement system (TPS) benefits cost and quality but at the expense of time. In other words, TPS has positive impacts on project objectives of cost and quality and negative impact on project time. Whereas, design and build procurement system showed that project objectives of cost and time are positive with negative impact on project quality.