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Research Questions/Issues: Using insights from agency and signaling theories, we examine the effect on companies' market‐based performance of a unique monitoring mechanism of compliance with a corporate governance (CG) code, that is, independent certification of compliance with a CG code and type of certification provider. Furthermore, we examine the impact of two boundary conditions, family company status and company‐level information asymmetry, influencing the effect of independent CG compliance certification and type of certification provider on the market‐based performance of companies. Research Findings/Insights: Based on 1110 Bangladeshi company‐year observations from 2006 to 2017, we firstly find that independent CG compliance certification is positively associated with companies' market‐based performance. Secondly, we show that CG compliance certification by a chartered secretarial firm is related to higher market‐based performance. Thirdly, we document that family companies attenuate both these associations. Finally, we find that, while company‐level information asymmetry reinforces the association between CG compliance certification and market‐based performance, it weakens the relationship between certification by a chartered secretarial firm and companies' market‐based performance. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our findings are consistent with the agency and signaling theory that independent certification of CG compliance and this certification by a chartered secretarial firm reduce information asymmetry between managers and external investors by signaling enhanced credibility of reported CG compliance information. However, the roles of CG compliance certification and certification by a chartered secretarial firm to reduce agency conflict and provide credible signals are conditional on two boundary conditions: family company status and company‐level information asymmetry. Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study's findings highlight the economic implications of a unique mechanism for monitoring compliance with an adopted CG code. The findings have significant implications for policy makers and regulators in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (hereafter IFRS) complexity on analyst forecast properties including forecast errors, forecast dispersion and forecast revision. Because high‐quality audit is likely to moderate the effect of complexity on analyst forecast properties, Industry Specialization (ISP) as a proxy for high quality audit is introduced as a moderating variable in this paper. The complexity of individual IFRS standards is measured based on IFRS reconciliation statements capturing the adjustments on accounts affected by the changes in accounting standards. We analyze 322 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Our results suggest that all IFRS standards are not equally complex. A few standards are relatively more complex. These standards have a positive effect on analyst forecast errors, forecast dispersion and forecast revision. In addition, we find that high quality audit (proxied by city‐level industry specialist auditors) can mitigate the adverse impact of IFRS complexity on analyst forecast errors but not on forecast dispersion and revision. More interestingly, the mitigating effect of high quality audit is restricted to only a group of companies exposed to a higher level of aggregate IFRS complexity. The findings of our study contribute to the IFRS literature by identifying the most complex accounting standards. Secondly, this study provides an ex‐ante experiment in IFRS adoption, which can be used by adopting countries to understand the impact of IFRS on the analyst forecasts. Finally, our study helps regulators to understand the effects of the complexity of accounting standards on users of financial statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of IFRS adoption on Chinese listed companies. More specifically, this study shows the empirical evidence of the effect of a new set of Chinese accounting standards (CAS) introduced in 2007 on firms' performance. Analyzing 7020 firm-year observations, this study finds that, compared to pre-IFRS adoption regime, firms' performance significantly improves after IFRS adoption. A set of sensitivity analysis provides consistent findings about the impact of new CAS on firms' profitability. As for the implication of international accounting standards, these findings suggest that adoption of global accounting standards is bringing positive change in the capital market through firms' development in terms of profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a meta‐analysis of the determinants of audit report lag, defined as the period between a company's fiscal year end and the audit report date. We group the meta‐analyzed studies into three categories: (a) audit and audit‐related determinants, (b) corporate governance‐related determinants, and (c) firm‐specific determinants. We find that audit opinion and audit season variables increase audit report lag, whereas Big 4 affiliation, nonaudit services, and auditor tenure decrease audit report lag. Among the corporate governance determinants, the existence of a financial expert member on an audit committee, and ownership concentration, reduce audit report lag. Finally, an examination of firm‐level characteristics reveals that firm complexity increases audit report lag, whereas profitability reduces it. We employ a meta‐regression technique and identify publication bias. Although we find some evidence of journal quality as a contributor to publication bias, the extent of publication bias from this source is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]