Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contemplate the degree to which technical expertise in Malaysian Big 4 auditing practice survives periods of material regulatory inflexion sufficiently to underpin quality financial reporting outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The adoption of...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide evidence relating to the potential for and extent of opportunistic exercise of discretion by large Australian and New Zealand reporting entities undertaking goodwill impairment testing pursuant to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contemplate the degree to which Singaporean firms comply with the highly technical disclosure requirements required under International Accounting Standards (IAS) IAS 36 specific to goodwill impairment testing. Design/methodology/approach – The...

In this paper we question the relevance, and assess the implications, of the practice in banking to use a uniform hurdle rate based on the cost of equity for the purposes of pricing and performance measurement. We examine three perspectives on this issue. First, we point to the potential...

The issue of hybrid instruments by firms is often justified on the grounds that these instruments allow issuers to achieve a lower cost of capital than would be the case under issues of straight debt and equity. In order to assess the validity of such claims it is necessary to examine the...

The past few years have seen high levels of growth in the use of hybrid financial securities by Australian corporations. The conventional explanation for this phenomenon has been that hybrid securities represent a highly flexible tool capable of deployment towards the end of reducing overall...