Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the relative importance of audit-team and audit-firm attributes in perceptions of audit quality by two groups of users of audit services: audit committee chairs/members (“insiders”) and financial analysts/fund managers (“outsiders”)....

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the relationship between firm characteristics and incentives for the voluntary formation of audit committees by non-top 500 firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Design/methodology/approach – Data are obtained from a random sample of 224...

Increasingly demanding markets, changes in technology and greater international competition have made the effective management of product R&D together with its associated costs essential. The magnitude of R&D costs are of concern to many companies, potentially inhibiting organizations from...

Mounting evidence indicates that capital markets often apply short-term pressure on firms to gain short-term results by focusing primarily on reported financial performance. As a result of short termism, it has been argued that companies are likely to cut expenditure on R&D which might otherwise...