OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY IN LISTED NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS IN NIGERIA

The objective of this study is to appraise the effect of the ownership structure on the quality of financial reporting in Nigeria. The study used data from 41 non-financial firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the 2011 to 2019 period. The Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique was adopted for the study which is vigorous to the threat of heteroskedasticity and endogeneity. The study findings revealed that institutional and foreign ownership has a significant negative relationship with earnings management, thereby, improving the reporting quality. However, the results show that managerial ownership has an insignificant negative relationship with earnings management. The finding of this study is also robust in scope concerning the issue of unobserved heterogeneity which prior studies have failed to address. Thus, future corporate governance reforms should recognize and sustain these efforts. The study recommends that Firms should expand their institutional and foreign ownership by providing sufficient shares to them. This is important because they frequently deploy their professionalism and wealth of experience to the firms towards meeting corporate goals and agitation of good reporting practice. On the other hand, Firms should ensure that the shareholding of the insider managers is not too high in such a way that the proportion of their shareholding should be minimal. Their shares should not exceed 10% of the total shareholding in the company as it was found to be among the variables that reduce firms' performance.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED INDUSTRIAL GOODS SECTOR IN NIGERIA

The aim of this paper is to examine how sustainability reporting affects the performance of listed industrial goods companies in Nigeria. For a period of ten years, from 2011 to 2020. This study used time-series and cross-sectional analysis of selected listed industrial goods companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Ex-Post Facto research was used in this study. Data were gathered from secondary sources such as fact books and financial statements of the companies in Nigeria. Using E-View 9.0 statistical software, the data were statistically analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study demonstrated that, at a 5% level of significance, sustainability reporting (as measured by economic, environmental, and social performance indices) has a positive significant effect on return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share. The study proposes, among other things, that a standardized Sustainability Index be adopted, since this will assist to put pressure on firms to pay greater attention to their environment and take sustainable development issues more seriously.

FAMILY FIRMS: COVID-19 CHALLENGES AND FUTURE OUTLOOK

The COVID-19 pandemic endangered the survival of many firms and emphasized the need to reevaluate corporate strategy. This paper studies the impact of the pandemic on family businesses and how it changed their strategy, priorities, and outlook. We use data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Family Business Survey 2021 that covers 2,801 family firms in 87 countries. Our study highlights some of the challenges family businesses faced during the pandemic and the need for an updated blueprint to ensure their long-lasting success. The survey draws attention to the financial resilience of family businesses and their unique advantages in terms of reputation and trust. However, it also underscores the need for family firms to adopt a more focused environment, social and governance (ESG) agenda, and to invest in technological transformation. The paper analyzes the congruity between academic research and CEO responses and forms a bridge between the academic literature on family firms and the real-world surveys of CEOs of family businesses conducted by PwC.

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS ADOPTION, INVESTOR PROTECTION, AND FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT: A REVIEW

This paper aims to analyze the impacts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in relation to investor protection based on existing empirical literature. This study uses a historical approach and focuses on thirty-six relevant articles published in accounting and finance journals. The author provides a theoretical groundwork of the association between IFRS adoption and FPI and summarizes the results. The findings are critically analyzed by employing developed vs. developing country lens. The review study reveals that the effects of IFRS adoption on FPI significantly differ between developed and developing countries. Although the positive impact of IFRS adoption on FPI is documented in existing literature, not all countries (particularly developing countries), firms, and users have benefited or equally benefited from IFRS adoption regarding FPI. In addition, the positive impacts of IFRS adoption on FPI are associated with the country's regulatory environment, such as level of investor protection. The findings of the study suggest that developing countries should ensure a proper regulatory environment to reap the full benefits of IFRS adoption. This review contributes to the existing literature by providing a comparative analysis of IFRS adoption effect on FPI between developed and developing countries while also suggests future research avenues.

FACTORS SHAPING CAPITAL STRUCTURE: EVIDENCE FROM PRIVATE COMMERCIAL BANKS IN BANGLADESH

This study investigates how various determinants shape the capital structure of commercial banks in Bangladesh, employing panel data, structured from available secondary sources, covering 22 banks as samples from 61 scheduled banks for the period of 2011 to 2020, conducting Feasible Generalized Least Squared (FGLS) Regression Model. Several diagnostic tests have been conducted to ensure the robustness and stability of the model. The study results reveal that return on assets, earnings per share, asset growth, asset structure, investment structure, cost per loan assets, and loan loss provisioning considerably influence the capital structure or the leverage of commercial banks. On the contrary, the authors find no explicit evidence that bank size, liquidity, capital adequacy, and non-performing loan ratio have significant impacts on the capital structure of the banking industry of Bangladesh. The findings of this study advocate that return on assets, earnings per share, asset structure, and cost per loan assets as the dominant explanatory factors of capital structure. Besides, asset growth, investment structure, and loan loss provisioning affect less significantly on determining the capital structure of the banking industry. This study also brings the academicians, researchers, and analysts with corroborating new routes for exploring further research in this field.

IMPACTS OF EARNINGS MANAGEMENT ON CORPORATE FAILURE: A CASE STUDY OF WIRECARD

The purpose of this study is to find out whether earnings management has impacts on bankruptcy risk based on the data of Wirecard Company. The M-score of Beneish's (1999) model has been used to detect the probability of earnings management. On the other hand, the Z"-Score of Altman's (1968) model has been applied to detect Corporate Failure. Both the models are widely used models in their respective fields. The data from 2002 to 2019 were collected from the annual reports of the Wirecard Company. The result of M-Score indicates that earnings management has a significant impact on the corporate failure (Z-Score) of the company. This finding specifies that a financially distressed firm adopts earnings manipulations. The finding also implies that earnings manipulations harm the financial health of a firm. According to the findings, it can be suggested that to know the financial aspects of a company, both the (Beneish M-model and Altman Z-score model) models could be used concurrently. Beneish M-model is for detecting earnings management and the Altman Z-score model is for determining corporate failure. The novelty of the study is that no study was done on Wirecard Company focusing on the association between earnings management & bankruptcy risk.

LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LISTED OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

The purpose of this paper is to figure out the link between liquidity and profitability, as well as the impact of liquidity on profitability. Ten listed companies with a bigger market share in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy were subjected to a fixed panel regression study. Secondary data was gathered for ten years, from 2011 to 2020, from their published annual reports. Profit after tax (PAT), Return on Asset (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE) were used to determine profitability (ROE). Internal liquidity variables such as equity, debt, and sales were utilized to determine the behavior of the dependent variable, but external elements such as lending interest rate and exchange rate were employed to further explain profitability behavior. The data were analyzed using a multiple regression approach. The findings reveal that debt has a significant negative impact on companies' profitability. Similarly, equity capital, as well as retained earnings, are more beneficial to firms than the debt financing of the oil and gas sector. The study, therefore, recommends that oil and gas firms should boost their equity capital, improve their revenues, increase their retain earnings, and reduce debt financing to enable them to generate more wealth for shareholders.

THE EFFECT OF ADOPTION OF IFRS BASED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS: INDIAN EVIDENCES OF ENHANCED VALUE RELEVANCE AND UNIFORMITY

This study examines how relevant the accounting information was for the value of the firm prior to 2016, when India had the indigenous Accounting Standards, and after 2016 when India adopted new accounting standards known as IND-AS, which were the convergence standards mostly in line with IFRS. As an extension to this, we have performed another round of analysis to observe whether the enhanced value relevance is symmetrically distributed among big and small firms. We have used the price regression model of (Barth et al, 2008) on 1770 firm-years data of Indian firms and applied panel data analysis. We have found 66% adjusted R2 under OLS method for the period prior to 2016 and 78% for the post-change period. Further to this, big and small firms, in the new regime, have shown 84% and 89% adjusted R2. From the results, we have found substantial improvement in value relevance of accounting information in the IND-AS period. We have also found that the enhanced value relevance is uniformly distributed across firms irrespective of firm-size.

USING ERP SYSTEM TO TEACH ACCOUNTING COURSES

This paper discusses the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a teaching tool in Accounting Courses. Students can understand better the accounting cycle and business transaction processing by doing exercises and projects using the ERP system because it clearly shows the complete transaction cycle from the beginning to the end in a systematic and integrated way. Specifically, practical suggestions and usages in the class setting are illustrated based on the SAP system. This hands-on and active learning approach greatly enhances the learning of Accounting Courses such as financial and managerial accounting courses, finance courses, and information systems courses.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY OF NIGERIAN FINANCIAL SERVICE INDUSTRY

The study evaluated the effect of executive compensation on financial reporting quality in Nigerian financial service industry for the period covered. These were with a view to providing information on the effect of executive compensation and financial reporting quality in Nigeria. The study employed a secondary source of data collection. The population for the study consisted of 22 quoted deposit money banks listed and whose stocks are actively traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market for the period 2006-2017.The sample size of 14 was determined using purposive sampling method. Secondary data were collected on variables executive compensation, non-performing loan, loan loss provision, total loan, residual term all obtained from the audited Annual reports of the selected deposit money banks, fact book published by Nigerian Stock Exchange, and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using Robust Regression. The results showed executive compensation (coef. =-0.139, p˂0.004) has a negative significant relationship with financial reporting quality. This study concluded that executive compensation has a negative significant effect on financial reporting quality.