Accounting & Marketing

Recent tendency of businesses towards voluntary disclosure has improved the quality of financial reporting. High-quality financial reporting helps users of financial information trust the business, and thus, creates value for the business. The present study divided voluntary disclosure in two groups of financial and non-financial information and investigated the effects of fundamentals on voluntary disclosure by businesses. The population was composed of 65 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2012. The hypothesis testing results showed that firm size, business complexity, earnings volatility, and firm value had a significant and positive impact on voluntary disclosure whereas financial leverage had a significant and negative impact on voluntary disclosure, while no relationship was observed between voluntary disclosure and financial performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of country-of-origin image on the purchase intention of domestic and foreign products in Ethiopia in order to pin point the key determinant factors based on which managerial recommendations are forwarded. Design/methodology/approach: to accomplish the objectives, a set of questionnaire were developed and dispatched to the respondents as self administered survey. 200 questionnaires were distributed to the randomly selected Bahir Dar University instructors of which 189 filled questionnaires qualified for analysis using structural equation modeling with AMOS 18 version software. Findings: It was determined that country of origin image plays a significant role in predicting purchase intentions towards domestically produced goods and products from European country. The results indicated that the effect of country of origin image is significant in the case of domestic and foreign products in Ethiopia.

Based on the CGE model and according to Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) 1380, this study simulates the impact of electricity price adjustment on demand for electricity, and the simulation results show the range of electricity elasticity of different consumers. The elasticity of Residential sector is relatively larger. However, the absolute values of the price elasticity are less than one. Furthermore, this paper quantitatively analyses the price elasticity of different categories of users, which are classified to Resident, Agriculture, Industry and Services. The elasticity absolute value of Residents is around (1.02- 0.87), that of Agriculture is around (0.013-0.015), that of Industry is around (0,013-0.032) and that of Services is around (0.02-0.031) in different scenarios. The analytical results of this paper can provide corresponding support for the formulation of electricity pricing mechanisms for Iran.

Consistent, comparable and understandable financial information is the lifeblood of commerce and making investment. The idea of global harmonization of accounting standards stems from lack of comparability of financial statements across the country. Increasing cross border investing and proliferation of financial products have posed a challenge to companies as they faced multiple standards. Harmonization and convergence with IFRS can greatly contribute to the efforts to build global financial reporting infrastructure. This resulted in international initiative of convergence of Accounting Standards to a common standard viz. the International Accounting Standards/ International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). In India, the ICAI formulates the accounting standards on various issues. But since last few years, the aim has been following the IFRS to the extent possible. Henceforth, while issuing accounting standards, IFRS need to be adopted suitably. However, deviations from IFRS have been noted due to some unavoidable reasons like legal and regulatory requirements, economic environment, level of preparedness, conceptual differences etc. Thus, it can be argued that even if there has been a lot of deliberation on convergence of Indian accounting standards with IFRS, it is difficult to adopt IFRS considering the indigenous problems. In order to resolve this problem, the ICAI has given a roadmap through which, IFRS can be adopted in India in a phased manner. This analytical Paper deals with concept, objective and benefits of convergence with IFRS and explores the way how we converge the Indian GAAP with IFRS. Problems and challenges faced in the process of convergence in Indian perspective have been thoroughly discussed. This paper also focuses on IFRS prospects in Indian scenario. This paper puts forward a view point that convergence will bring forth galore benefits to investors, industry, professionals and the economy as a whole.

During the last decade, the advancement in production and management systems has revolutionized the automobile industry. The industry has witnessed the opening up and growth of several emerging markets. The automotive industry is now facing new and pressing challenges. Globalization, digitalization and increasing competition in the market are changing the face of the industry. Size of the organization is no longer a guarantee of success. Only those companies that find new innovative techniques to create value can prosper in the future. The purpose of this paper is to present a short overview of the automotive industry today and highlight challenges that are faced the industry. We are also going to overview Toyota’s dominance in the US market, strategies used by them and how they were able to overcome the challenges and competition they faced in a foreign market, and how upcoming automobile companies can use Toyota’s strategies to grow in the current market.

With the increase in number of household computers and fast spreading internet connections, especially broadband connections, India have been experiencing an exponential growth in number of internet users in last decade or so. Conversions with significant Compound Annual Growth Rate of those online users into online buyers resulted in a huge Indian ecommerce market including online retailing market. This paper is mainly focused to analyze why the status of Indian ecommerce and E-tailing market is not very rosy till date since inception, why E-tailing has not reached the desired goal which includes the financial gain achieved by Indian online retailers though there are huge growth observed regarding the Internet usage and more inclinations of online Indian users towards online shopping in recent times. The Study is then aimed at behavioral trend of Indian online consumers so far. This study investigates the positive and negative influencers or variables which have been driving Indian users to search and buy online or stops them to shop in the virtual world in Indian socio-cultural scenarios. Finally a set of constructive solutions would be found to encourage and attract larger number Indian online users to shop through internet and would be proved beneficial for Indian e-tailors implementations wise and for future researchers who will work on this topic as well.

Several factors (positive word-of-mouth (PWOM), perceived risk toward store brands (SBs) and store image) have been underlined to explain store brand purchase intention in the context of an emerging market (IRAN). Data were collected from a consumer survey with 204 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The result show that PWOM influence significantly store image. But there is no effect of PWOM, store image and perceived risk toward SBs on SB purchase intention. These findings are discussed and future research is proposed.

The Capital Market Supervisory Agency in Indonesia and subsequently, the Indonesian Stock Exchange introduced the requirement of appointing at least 30% commissioners as independent, in the Board of Commissioners, in all public companies by December 31, 2001. The present study documents the extent of compliance of this new requirement and investigates whether the capital market can recognize the IPO firms that are in compliance from those that are not, using a sample of 72 IPO firms in Indonesia over the period 2002 through 2007. Results from the multivariate analysis indicate that IPO firms that are in compliance do experience significant less underpricing compared to those that are not. Furthermore, a positive, but insignificant, relationship between compliance and post- IPO firm valuation is reported in the present study. The results documented in this study should be comforting to the policy makers in Indonesia, as well as other developing countries, in that governance reform measures do work without necessarily having a pre-existing strong legal system.