Family firms, as a unique organizational form, are associated with distinct finance, accounting, and tax behaviors. Prior research indicates that heterogeneity among family firms is linked to significant variation concerning these outcomes. However, the scope of dissimilarities, their empirical...

Leases are quite relevant to a large number of enterprises. Due to the fact that a lease reduces an entity's exposure to risks inherent in asset ownership, it is a widely used method of obtaining access to property, plant and equipment. At the beginning of this article sources of existence of...

In the French language, the word comptabiliteacute (accounting) first appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was used in the Royal finances and its first meaning was that of accountability. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, or thereabouts, the uses of the word evolved...

This article looks at the usefulness of measuring a company's wealth and net income using the fair value method. In this regard, the key question--is fair value relevant?--can be analysed as follows: do fair value "accounting numbers" provide a better estimate of the value of a company and the...

French accounting values, accounting and reporting system characteristics and the nature of corporate owners and financiers account for the low level of French companies' disclosure. The aim of this paper is to relate the extent of disclosure in the annual reports of a sample of 100 French...

For a number of decades now, at the instigation of Anglo-Saxon standard setters, the basis of the traditional accounting model, or the financial conventions which determine how a company’s wealth and income is measured, have been increasingly called into question. This wide-reaching movement,...

Very few countries require directors to be financially literate. This article investigates the determinants of boards' financial expertise using a sample of 95 non-financial French listed firms. We construct a measure of financial expertise based on educational and career background data for 943...

Private firms with relatively high costs of disclosure may benefit from a close relationship with a bank. Relationship lending is based on intertemporal contracting and requires the bank to acquire private information about the firm and, moreover, to keep this information private. For both...

For some privately-held firms, the costs of providing high-quality accrual-based financial statements may outweigh the benefits of accommodating the demands of their stakeholders who may rely more on cash flows or have direct access to management. For other private firms, greater stakeholder...

We examine whether chief financial officers (CFOs) with accounting backgrounds (accountant CFOs) are associated with more conservative corporate outcomes. We find that, in high-growth industries, firms with accountant CFOs invest less in research and development and capital expenditures and are...