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The six scholarly studies that constitute this special issue focus on various interesting subjects including the German firms’ global performance and budgetary transparency in public sector to the role of management and their support in organizational performance and performance of employees and their impact on social and environmental aspects of the business working environment in both developed and developing countries. While the first paper is based on data from Germany, the next five papers are from Vietnam and Thailand that provide interesting insights about countries from two different regions (Europe and East Asia) and open the discussion around the impact of social, political and cultural differences in different geographical regions and how they play a phenomenal role in affecting both organizations and individuals.

We investigate whether the number and type (the nature and repetitiveness) of audit qualification paragraphs (AQPs) play a role in audit report lag (ARL). We use a unique dataset of listed firms in Iran where the multitude and diversity of AQPs are very high. The results show that ARL is longer for firms with a greater number of AQPs, that there is a significant positive relationship between all AQP types and ARL except for misclassification of accounting numbers in financial statements, and that ARL increases with the number of non-repetitive AQPs. We employed several sensitivity tests, and the results did not change materially. Drawing on prior studies, we have developed two arguments, “additional audit procedures” and “auditor-client negotiations”, to explain the role of the number and type of AQPs on ARL. The findings of this study have significant implications for investors, auditors and authority bodies in terms of paying close attention to the number and type of AQPs in their decisions.

Investment efficiency shows how well a company invests its assets. Although institutional shareholders play undeniable roles in companies, it is not clear whether they are able to monitor managers and make investment decisions or not. This study gives answers to stakeholders, ad-dresses concerns about the effect of the owners on investment efficiency, and aims to add to the literature on emerging markets by investigating the relationship in Iran, a different environment from developed ones. Based on monitoring power, the shareholders are divided into two types: active and passive ones. Investment problems are classified into two types: over- and un-der-investment problems. The sample consists of 101 firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2016. Some regression models are used. The results illustrated that institutional owners have a positive effect on investment efficiency and decrease both over- and un-der-investment problems and so, the efficient monitoring school is approved. Additionally, active ones are positively correlated with investment efficiency and decrease both investment ineffi-ciency problems. Institutional ownership is the cause of investment efficiency, not the reverse. Based on findings, in emerging markets like Iran’s market, investors are recommended to give notice to the level of active ownership in firms; ownership structure is a good sign of efficiency.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the structures of inter-organizational connections and innovation results in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Existing literature shows that inter-organization connections can benefit firms in terms of innovation. However, there is a theoretical gap regarding how a combination of various structures of inter-organization connections affects innovation results. To close this gap, innovation network theory is employed to support our hypotheses. Consistent with prior research, we find that SMEs’ innovation can benefit from having sparse connections and interlocked connections. However, in contrast to prior research, our research emphasizes the importance of the combined network effect between sparse and interlocked connections.

Purpose- There is a dearth of research that investigates the impact of national culture on budgeting and management indexes in the public sector across developing countries. Limited studies in accounting and management have explained the role of national culture in shaping organisational and individual values. It is posited that national cultural variables impact budget transparency and performance management. This study contributes to the literature by examining these relations in 16 developing countries. Design/methodology/approach- Adopting an unbalanced timing framework, the current paper seeks to fulfill this gap and applies four cultural dimensions from the GLOBE study (House et al. 2004) as explanatory variables to investigate whether national culture is associated with budget transparency and performance management or not; particularly in the context of developing countries. The paper uses budget transparency as the first dependent variable, based on the OECD database from Qi and Mensah (2011), along with performance management as the second dependent variable, from the BTI Project (2016), according to the leadership’s political performance management. Findings- Generally, the empirical findings reveal a minimal relation among GLOBE cultural variables with budget transparency and performance management. Particularly, the empirical findings indicate that only performance orientation has a significant relation with budget transparency and performance management. Research implications– The findings of this paper suggest that any plan to improve a nation’s budget transparency should consider the links between budgeting, performance management and the culture of those that run them. Originality/value –The formal adoption of new methods by performance management may not be enough without accompanying efforts to transform performance orientation as an index of national culture.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of the social and professional identity of the members of the audit committee and the characteristics of the governance system on the financial reporting quality. The modified Jones model was used to express the financial reporting quality. Given that part of the data was obtained through a questionnaire and another part by using financial statements. The research period was 2019 and the sample size was 79 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. To test the research hypotheses, the method of decision making artificial intelligence method and MATLAB software were used. The results of the section of the governance system features indicate the effect of the dual role of the CEO and the ratio of institutional owners on the financial reporting quality. It can be stated that corporate governance mechanisms can reduce opportunistic behavior; they can improve the quality of information by reducing the cost of representation. Also, the results of the audit committee's benchmarks indicate the impact of the audit committee's social identity and the number of employees in internal accounting section on the financial reporting quality, which suggests that effective audit committees, as a determining factor in the financial reporting process, increase the credibility of audited financial statements. In this study, for the first time, the impact of audit committee social identity along with other characteristics of governance system on the quality of financial reporting was analyzed by artificial intelligence.

The current state of business worldwide is being challenged by technology, which completely transforms old and arduous processes. As the main modern concern is overall data protection and the greater aim is building smarter cities, companies and government agencies are increasingly focused on blockchain databases. This paper focuses on the vehicle market, as it is continuously evolving sales-wise, technology-wise and for comfort/driving possibilities. While studies (Meticulous Market Research, 2020) show that vehicle Artificial Intelligence grows in revenue, they also prove that this is an insecure market, due to miss opportune hackings. Thus, a greater need for security is being expressed all over the vehicle market and many industry players have shifted their attention towards blockchain and its benefits. This paper investigates and describes the concept of vehicle industry in Romania focusing on students sampled from a small demographic segment, due to research limitations. The aim of this study is to examine the importance of having a blockchain system implemented and what are the challenges to have this in place. By analyzing the surveys gathered from 150 students, this study has found that a huge percentage of respondents have a positive attitude towards this technology, hence this is a valid solution for future implementation as it is discussed below in this research.

Purpose – Despite cultural dimensions being included in hundreds of business and management research studies, there have been relatively few studies in public sector accounting that include the use of cultural dimensions. It is posited that national cultural variables impact the institutions, which in turn have an influence on the public sector budgeting. This study contributes to the literature by examining these relations in 31 countries. Design/methodology/approach – These relationships are empirically evaluated by structural equation modelling using measures of national culture from the GLOBE study and Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) measures named institutions from the World Bank. Furthermore, measures of public sector budgeting are evaluated in which public sector budgeting is classified according to the legislative power of the purse and budget transparency. Findings – Generally, findings reveal that institutions mediate the relationship among national cultural variables and budgeting at the national level. By that means, budgeting in a given nation is linked to the nation’s supporting institutions which, in turn, are influenced by the national culture of those who maintain them. Particularly, power distance and uncertainty avoidance impact budgeting through the full mediation of institutions. Research limitations/implications – The World Bank’s database used for the institutions contained over 200 countries (Kaufmann et al., 2007/2019); the GLOBE cultural database (House et al., 2004) contained data for 62 societies; the public sector budgeting (Qi and Mensah, 2011) included power of the purse and budgeting transparency country scores for 49 countries; and the datasets comprised 31 nations, mostly from OECD countries. While smaller than we would have preferred, the size is consistent with other international studies (for instance: Waldman et al., 2006; Kwok and Tadesse, 2006). Practical implications – The findings of this paper suggest that any plan to

This paper examines the relationship between terrorism and innovation and the moderating role of venture capital. Using GMM-IV estimation of panel data from 140 countries covering the period of 2007-2016, we find that terrorism has negative impact on innovation. Interesting results emerge when we separated the developed countries from others. The results show that the impact of terrorism on innovation is lower in developed countries. This is due to the fact that strong institutional settings in developed countries makes the investors confident by providing support and incentives. Better institutional settings in developed countries also helps to reduce uncertainty which maximize innovation and minimize terrorism risk. We also find that venture capital positively moderates the terrorism and innovation relationship. This implies that by providing sufficient fund for technological development, venture capital may help to reduce terrorism risk. These results may guide the policy makers to find a business solution instead of lengthy political solution to mitigate terrorism risk in emerging countries. Overall, this paper will provide the basis for improving the counter-terrorism approaches from innovation perspective.

The main aim of this study is to separate the origins of “selling, general, and administrative costs (SG&A)” and “cost of goods sold (COGS)” stickiness, and investigate their sources effects on earnings forecast accuracy (EFA). In previous research, various micro and macro factors have been shown to affect asymmetric cost behavior. These factors are rooted in the industry and firm-specific characteristics or specific events, which may occur each year at national or international scales. In this study, in the first step, a new methodology is presented to separate the sources of cost stickiness, including a novel method for calculating cost stickiness for each firm-year. In the second step, we investigated the effect of each firm-year stickiness and each source of stickiness on the EFA. The statistical population of the study consisted of all companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, from which 1080 observations in 2014-2018 period were selected and reviewed. Our results indicated that EFA has a negative and significant relationship with SG&A and COGS stickiness, stickiness of each year and each company, but no significant relationship was found with stickiness of each industry. Our results demonstrated that the stickiness of SG&A to COGS has a greater effect on the EFA. The findings suggest that the events of each year and the intra-organizational events of each company have a greater impact on cost behavior. Hence, it is necessary for managers and financial analysts to take into account each source of cost stickiness, especially year-specific events and firm-specific characteristics, and consider their effects in earnings forecast to improve their EFA.

Purpose – After graduation, many female accountants tend to ordinarily have professional work experience to obtain an ideal position in the career; but under the influence of both internal (in profession) and external (in life) adverse conditions, the application of their potential talent would be failed and they cannot utilize their abilities to progress in the career. Relevant studies in this field are in developed countries with minimal attention to females in other countries. This study contributes to the literature by examining the case in a developing country-Iran. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method study was undertaken to gather data by a postal questionnaire distributed in 2016-2017 and structured interviews with females who assuredly have working experience in the corporate finance department of firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Findings – It is concluded that the primary issue affecting the career vision of women is to achieve a better working environment. This issue admittedly can be considered as a reason for women to change their employer. The salaries and benefits are also the least important to them. Most women prefer to work in the educational part because of flexible working hours and they broadly obtain almost no desire to work in the field of tax and cost accounting. Research limitations/implications – When answering the questionnaire or during the interviews, women are supposed to think about events that happened in the past, so it is recognized that they may selectively remember such events and interpret them with reference to the intervening events and the values that they hold at the time of the data collection. Moreover, all selected respondents may be naturally influenced by a desire to provide socially acceptable answers. Accordingly, the inherent limitations of the results are acknowledged. However, the prime focus of this paper is to consider and give voice to the female experience, which may or may not replicate t

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. The relationship between R&D and firm performance is highly dependent on the external environment. Therefore, this paper examined the effects of country level investor protection (safeguards) and governance mechanisms (systems) on the relationship between R&D and firm performance. Using GMM estimation and elasticity testing of panel data for 423 firms from 12 emerging countries, we find that a country's safeguards tend to moderate the relationship between R&D and firm performance more than the system of a country. The results indicate that safeguarding is relatively more important for the relationship between R&D and firm performance than other country level governance mechanisms, as the former can easily attract outside capital when it is strong. These results have significant implications for innovation policy. In particular, managers may wish to strengthen investor protection to promote high R&D investment in order to increase firm performance.

While the benefits and advantages of using renewable energies are remarkable, and their prices have been decreasing dramatically and are expected to fall further, the diffusion and adoption of renewable energies still lag behind fossil energies. This paper improves our understanding regarding the role of the interrelationship among businesses (as an example of B2B networking amongst parent and subsidiary firms). Furthermore, it demonstrates the way/s that such interrelationships can contribute to the diffusion and adoption of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies. This study describes four diffusion channels in the interrelated firms which can help with promoting and using renewable and sustainable energies. The paper also reports the actual share of each diffusion channel contributing to implementing sustainable energy-efficient technologies in practice. The findings suggest that parent organisations enforce the majority (over 50%) of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies implemented in a B2B environment. In comparison, inter-subsidiary relationships are responsible for less than 30% of the implemented sustainable and energy-efficient technologies in organisations. The findings are in line with the forced perspective theory. They could, to some degree, explain the differences in the levels of implementation of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies in practice. These findings can help practitioners prioritise the diffusion channels when they want to facilitate the implementation of new technologies in their organisations. While some organisations may expect a more successful implementation of innovations initiated by subsidiaries than those enforced by parent organisations, the levels of success of the adoption of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies are not examined in this study. Further research is recommended to investigate the extent of association between different diffusion channels and the levels of success in terms of the ad

According to the Auditing Standards, the entity may attempt to disclosing financial and non-financial information about its operation, and the auditor is required to evaluate this information. Social responsibility performance is typically included in this regard, and the independent auditor should attention to such specific information in adequately assessing audit risk. The primary purpose of this academic paper is to promptly investigate the possible relationship between social responsibility disclosure and audit risk in the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this regard, the content analysis method is used to measure social responsibility disclosure, and audit risk is calculated by the audit fees. To examine the hypotheses, Based on a sample of 93 firms data are gathered covering the period 2012–2019 applies ordinary least squares regression (OLS). We subsequently observe a direct association between social responsibility disclosure and audit risk. This relationship is confirmed in a sensitivity analysis employing panel methods with random effects as well as generalized least squares. Expanding the disclosure of social responsibility may end in the higher audit risk; hence, audit fees increase. This issue warns users of financial statements, including investors, that attention to not only the positive aspects of social responsibility disclosure in Iran forgetting social responsibility disclosure can be used as a mechanism to conceal poor performance.

Special Issue: Preface

This chapter aims to critically reflect on the available literature on leadership style and innovation, and especially to assess the linkages between these variables. It starts with an overview of leadership studies, tracing the historical emergence and development of leadership theories, from the Great Man theory, trait theory and leader behaviour theory to situational and contingency theories of leadership. It then delves deeply into the transformational theory, owing to the vast amount of research focus that appears to be dedicated to this theory. The chapter critically analyses the scope of transformational theory, and explores the gaps that may need refinement in order for the theory to remain relevant in the current, 21st Century, business environment. The chapter also discusses innovation theory and literature related to different perspectives on innovations, including the radical and disruptive views, the ambidextrous perspective, design thinking, open, lean and horizontal models, and their impacts on organizational performance. The chapter then turns to explore the linkages between managing innovation, leadership style and organizational performance. The review in this chapter adds to the existing literature and provides support for the contention that innovation impacts organizational performance, while leadership has a moderating impact on this relationship.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how state regulations become ineffective in holding corporations accountable for environmental degradation in an emerging economy context, with a specific focus on oil and gas and cement industry in Nigeria Design Methodology: The study draws on capture theory to bring out the factors that have rendered redundant the state intervention to make corporations accountable for their environmental activities. The research setting is the oil and gas and cement industry in Nigeria. Data for the study are derived from both documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews and analysed using a thematic technique. Findings: The findings of the paper demonstrate a regulatory failure to hold corporations to account for their environmental activities. A lack of political will, outdated regulations and the manipulation of the regulators, all have played a part in preventing corporations from being accountable for their activities. In addition, the widespread elite corruption in the country has provided corporations with leeway to manipulate their environmental accountability practices. The study emphasises the need for continuous review of the regulations and efforts to reduce corruption in order to promote corporations' environmental accountability in Nigeria. Originality value: The study adds to the debate on corporate environmental accountability practices engendering insights from the Nigerian oil and gas and cement industry. The paper demonstrates how companies in emerging economies can capture state regulations and how rendering environmental accountability becomes more of a rhetoric than a reality with little impacts on the welfare of people and society.

Purpose- The purpose of the paper is to investigate the extent to which a model based on financial and non-financial variables predicts auditors' decisions to issue qualified audit reports in the case of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Design/methodology/approach- The authors utilized data from the financial statements of 96 Iranian firms as the sample over a period of five years (2012-2016). A total of 480 observations were analysed using a probit model through 11 primary financial ratios accompanying non-financial variables, including the type of audit firm, auditor turnover and corporate performance, which affect the issuance of audit reports. Findings- The results demonstrated high explanatory power of financial ratios and type of audit firm (the national audit organization vs. other local audit firms) in explaining qualifications through audit reports. The predictive accuracy of the estimated model is evaluated using a regression model for the probabilities of qualified and clean opinions. The model is reliable, with 72.9 percent accuracy in classifying the total sample correctly to explain changes in the auditor's opinion. Practical implications- The paper has practical implications and can assist auditors in identifying factors motivating audit report qualifications, mainly in emerging economies. Originality/value- The paper contributes to auditing research, since very little is known about the determinants of audit opinion in emerging markets including Iran; it also constitutes an addition to previous knowledge about audit opinion in the context of TSE. The paper is one of the rare studies predicting auditor opinions using both financial variables and non-financial metrics.

A range of management accounting innovations (MAIs) have emerged in responding to the increasing changes in technology through the proliferation of globalization. Researchers have offered alternative views concerning these MAIs. These views range from rational-economic perspectives to the social-organizational process perspectives that explore how MAIs are adopted and implemented in different organizational settings. This paper contributes to the implementation impact by discussing the network view and subsidiaries’ capabilities, both absorptive and combinative, in the diffusion of MAIs in group organizations. The paper identifies four possible sources of diffusion of MAIs that have not been discussed in the literature.

With suitable optimization criteria, hybrid models have proven to be efficient for preparing portfolios in capital markets of developed countries. This study adapts and investigates these methods for a developing country, so providing a novel approach to the application of banking and finance. Our specific objectives are to employ a stochastic dominance criterion to evaluate the performances of over-the-counter (OTC) companies in a developing country and to analyse them with a hybrid model involving particle swarm optimization and artificial neural networks. In order to achieve these aims, we conduct a case study of OTC companies in Iran. Weekly and daily returns of 36 companies listed in this market are calculated for one year during 2014-2015. The hybrid model is particularly interesting and our results identify first, second and third-order stochastic dominances among these companies. Our chosen model uses the best performing combination of activation functions in our analysis, corresponding to TPT where T represents hyperbolic tangent transfers and P represents linear transfers. Our portfolios are based on the shares of companies ranked with respect to the stochastic dominance criterion. Considering the minimum and maximum numbers of shares to be 2 and 10 for each portfolio, an eight-share portfolio is determined to be optimal. Compared with the index of Iran OTC during the research period of this study, our selected portfolio achieves a significantly better performance. Moreover, the methods used in this analysis are shown to be as efficient as they were in the capital markets of developed countries.

This paper examines the financing behaviour of research and development (R&D) investments in emerging markets. Drawing on institutional theory and using panel data of generalized methods of moment estimation for a sample of 302 firms from 20 countries during the period 2003–2015, we find that emerging market firms tend to use internal funds for financing R&D investments. Interesting results emerged when the sample was divided as alliance and non-alliance firms, and bank-based and market-based financial systems. The results show that R&D financing behaves differently for alliance and non-alliance firms. Alliance firms use both internal and external funds for R&D investments, while non-alliance firms do not use external funds. We also document that a country's financial system influences the choice of available sources of finance. Firms from countries that follow a bank-based financial system tend to rely on external funds while firms from countries that follow a market-based financial system depend more on internal funds for financing R&D investments. This study is important as it provides new evidence on financing R&D investments in emerging countries taking into account the institutional arguments of financing choices, and so should guide stakeholders about appropriate sources of R&D financing.

© 2018 Academic Research Centre of Canada The purpose of this paper is to explore the shortcomings of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a performance measurement tool, and to examine the extent of association between its diffusion and the characteristics of its adopters in practice. This study uses a survey approach and targets registered members of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Australia. The results show that ignoring the risks, environmental and sustainability factors as well as neglecting the concerns/rights of relevant stakeholders are the key shortcomings of the BSC in practice. The findings further confirm that it is vital to distinguish between the diffusion of the BSC as a practice (one single tool) and as a process (a chain of different activities). Because some attributes of adopters are only associated with the initial decisions to adopt (or not) the BSC (as a practice) but not with the sequential implementation stages of its adoption (as a process) and vice versa.

© 2017, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature. Marketing managers are often in a dilemma about which pricing index to rely on while calculating the annual increase in the prices for their product. To provide insights that can reduce this dilemma, a critical comparison of the Producer Price index and consumer price index is called for. In this study, the relation between the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) was investigated through a comparison between Turkey and UK. Unlike many other previous studies, this study tried to determine the dominant pricing approach in an economy by examining the relation between the producer and consumer prices. In this context, VAR, impulse-response, variance decomposition, and Granger causality tests were used for the analyses of time series data. The results of study showed that there was bidirectional causality between the producer and consumer prices in both countries. Therefore, it was asserted that businesses in both countries generally apply mixed pricing approach. The results thus provide some interesting insights that can aid marketing managers in their pricing decisions.

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Institutional environment of a country plays an important role for innovation activities. Our results confirm that external environment of emerging countries influence the R&D investment. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation of panel data for 664 firms from selected 20 emerging markets during the period of 2006–2013, we find that institutional quality has significant impact on R&D investment. The results show that government effectiveness, rule of law, and regularity quality have positive impact, while corruption and political instability have negative impact on R&D investment in the emerging markets. We also performed elasticity test to compare among the institutional factors. The results show that among the institutional determinants, corruption of a particular emerging country is found to be most important in influencing R&D investment followed by regularity quality, government effectiveness, rule of law, and political instability. These results would be helpful to investors and policy makers to assess the requirements of sustainable development. The results of this study clearly demonstrate that to attract more R&D investment as a source of sustainable development, government should ensure a sound and stable institutional environment along with strengthening other firm level factors as institutional factors are more important to explain the variation over the time and also cost effective in terms of implementation.

This article employs data from 155 companies from 27 different industries listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for the period from 2000 to 2009 to examine the direction of causality between cash flow and earnings after taking consideration of stationarity and co-integration. The results indicate that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between cash flow and earnings at the level of all individual companies, so that cash flow variables caused earning variables and vice versa. However, at the level of industrial sectors, causality exists only between earning before interest and taxation (EBIT) and cash flow from operating activities (CFOA).