Enhancing Financial Reporting Quality through Corporate Ethics Commitment: A Malaysian Review

Author(s):  
Noorul Azwin Md Nasir ◽  
Hafiza Aishah Hashim ◽  
Noorshella Che Nawi ◽  
Mohd Nor Hakimin Yusoff ◽  
Nur Athirah Mohd Aluwi

A rising number of cases involving ethical misconduct within firms have of late received considerable attention in Malaysia. Despite the country's declaring having a strong corporate governance policy, strengthened through the Code of Ethics for Company Directors and Malaysia Code of Corporate Governance, the unethical practices and lack of integrity within firms remain an issue. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Malaysia conducted a survey in 2018, it was found that 41 percent of Malaysian registered companies were guilty of committing some forms of economic crimes, specifically business misconduct, asset misappropriation, bribery, and corruption. They added, the actual number may be higher due to many cases of ethical misconduct that typically go unreported. Furthermore, crimes of ethical misconduct in Malaysia have also increased by 28 percent in the last two years. It was revealed taht corporate culture was the most influential element in helping detect early warning signs of ethical misconduct within a firm. A KPMG 2019 report published in the subsequent year also suggested that an unhinged desire for a wealthy lifestyle acts as a prime motivation behind many of the unethical behaviors discovered. Thus, in the light of the increasingly worsening situation of ethical misconduct in Malaysian firms, the need to explore these corporate ethical issues has never become more crucial and appropriate. The ubiquitous nature of the issue has subsequently jeopardized the financial reporting quality of Malaysia's firms. Keywords: Corporate Ethics, Corporate Governance, Earnings Management, Financial Reporting Quality

Author(s):  
Noorul Azwin Md Nasir ◽  
Hafiza Aishah Hashim ◽  
Noorshella Che Nawi ◽  
Mohd Nor Hakimin Yusoff ◽  
Nur Athirah Mohd Aluwi

Objective - A rising number of cases involving ethical misconduct within firms have of late received considerable attention in Malaysia. Despite the country's declaring having a strong corporate governance policy, strengthened through the Code of Ethics for Company Directors and Malaysia Code of Corporate Governance, unethical practices, and lack of integrity within firms remain an issue. This paper aims to review the current implementation of corporate ethical conducts among corporate governance practitioners as well as factors that influence corporate ethics commitment in a firm. Methodology/Technique - This paper is developed from extensive readings of previous literature on corporate governance practices and their effect on the quality of financial reports. Findings - This paper discloses collective approaches of corporate ethics practiced in Malaysian firms and how the implementation has enhanced the firms' overall financial reporting quality. It demonstrates current issues and the importance of corporate ethics commitment to enhance financial reporting quality. Firms that emphasize ethical commitments, reduce the risk of financial statement fraud and firms will naturally gain trust from their stakeholders. Novelty - This paper stresses the importance of sound ethical conduct above other factors that influence the financial reporting quality of firms in Malaysia. This paper is the result of extensive research on corporate ethics commitment and financial reporting quality. Type of Paper - Review. Keywords: Corporate Ethics; Corporate Governance; Financial Reporting Quality JEL Classification: G34, M41.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-423
Author(s):  
Ratna Wardhani ◽  
Sidharta Utama ◽  
Hilda Rossieta

This research investigates the effect of governance system and degree of convergence to IFRS on financial reporting quality. With sample of Asian countries, this study concludes that country level and firm level governance systems, both at, and the degree of convergence have positive influence on financial reporting quality.The effect of degree of convergence of local GAAP to IFRS and corporate governance practice to financial reporting quality will be stronger for companies in countries with weak investor protection. Also, we find that in company with weak corporate governance practice, the adoption of international standards will increase the quality of financial reporting.The results indicate that the adoption of international accounting standard become more important in the countries and companies with weak governance system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-65
Author(s):  
Tienshih Hsieh ◽  
Jean C. Bedard

ABSTRACT We investigate whether corporate governance quality explains differences in financial reporting quality and cost of capital following the XBRL Voluntary Filing Program (VFP) launched by the SEC. Research on the effects of voluntary XBRL adoption remains valuable, as a bill recently introduced in Congress could revert the majority of U.S. public companies to voluntary compliance. Further, such research informs investors, researchers, and regulators in other countries that do not yet require XBRL. We hypothesize that the likelihood of achieving XBRL's expected benefits is greater in companies with stronger corporate governance. For instance, such companies might implement XBRL in ways that substantially improve information gathering and reporting; or make better use of XBRL to enhance its benefits, regardless of implementation strategy. Results confirm the expected interactive effect of voluntary XBRL adoption and corporate governance strength on both financial reporting quality and cost of capital. These findings suggest that not all voluntary adopters benefited from XBRL; rather, only those with superior corporate governance show measurable benefits during our study period.


Accounting ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Abdulwahid A. Hashed ◽  
Faozi A. Almaqtari

The current research seeks to assess the influence of corporate governance mechanisms and IFRS adoption on compliance with IFRS, earning management, and financial reporting quality(FRQ). A sample comprises 102 Saudi listed firms for the period spanning from 2014 up to 2019 was used. The study used descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multivariate analysis to estimate the results. The results reveal that while board size, board meeting and foreign ownership had negative effects on compliance with IFRS, board and audit committee independence exhibited a positive effect. Further, the results demonstrate that there was a sign of earning management under IFRS when a performance magnitude was used. The results also indicate that board and audit committee size, audit committee meeting and managerial ownership had significant negative effects on financial reporting quality however, board and audit committee independence showed a significant positive effect. Importantly, the results found that FRQ under IFRS was better than Saudi GAAP. The present research provides practical implications for policy makers, stock market authority, and academicians. More regulatory and disclosure requirements have to be imposed and financial reporting supervisory board need to be formed. The present research provides a novel contribution to IFRS compliance, earning management, financial reporting quality and corporate governance literature. It has a unique contribution as it attempts to investigate this issue in the context of an emerging economy and a recent IFRS adopter; Saudi Arabia that has special country-specific characteristics. The study also provides an evidence by investigating earning management and financial reporting quality under both sets of accounting standards; IFRS and Saudi GAAP.


Wahana ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-130
Author(s):  
Djoko Susanto

The internal audit function, audit committee, and external auditor are three crucial stakeholders of corporate governance that safeguard the quality of financial reporting. In this article, I discuss the interrelationships between these monitoring mechanisms. I also provide insights about what we have learned from academic research about the working relationships between these three governance entities. This article should be of interest to academic researchers as well as to corporate stakeholders, which include management, investors, regulators, and Dewan Komisaris members. Future researchers can make use of this article as they contribute more work in areas related to auditing, monitoring and corporate governance, and financial reporting quality. Insights from this article can also guide corporate stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of the internal audit, audit committee, and external auditors in their organizations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 178-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Erieg Abu-Risheh ◽  
Mo’taz Amin Al-Sa’eed

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the good corporate governance practices on the financial reporting quality of Jordanian listed companies. Specifically, we focus on the board’s independence, board’s transparency, and separate audit committee. A listing of Share -Traded Jordanian Companies was available from the Amman Stock Exchange as of 31 December 2011. A total of (167) company shares were traded as of 31 of December 2011. It was decided to distribute (160) questionnaires to the related external auditors, the expertise members of the Audit Committees, and the Jordanian regulatory bodies that oversight the corporate reporting of those companies, which include the Jordanian Securities Commission, Insurance Commission, and Central Bank of Jordan. The empirical study is realized based on a sample of the companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. Our research results shows that the good corporate governance practices impact the financial reporting quality, were Independence is considered one of the determinants of the success of financial reporting quality (T = 3.709, 008) and (R= 0.676), in addition to that; the independent variables are able to explain the variance in the dependent variable, a multiple regression test was carried out to test the relationship between board of directors’ transparency, board of directors’ independence, and audit committees, and financial reporting quality (FRQ), they are able to explain nearly 0.805% (R=0.805% P< 0.000) of the variance in financial reporting quality. The correlation analysis allows testing the strength of relationships between several independent variables and one dependent variable, which is the case in this study. The results of correlation analysis shows that the relationships between boards of directors’ transparency, board of directors’ independence, and separate audit committees, and the dependent variable which is financial reporting quality (FRQ), are significant.


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