National and international financial reporting standard convergence and the relevance for non-participants in capital markets : a preparer perspective

This study presents some implications of recent policy moves to enhance the harmonization of financial reporting and disclosure by adopting international financial reporting standards. In particular the impact on small organizations that do not participate in capital markets is considered. The results of a survey of practitioners indicate a perception that the non-capital market sector is likely to be significantly affected by additional reporting burden that convergence with international financial reporting standards imposes. On the whole the results show there was concern that the traditional users of the financial reports of organizations who do not participate in capital markets, would have limited if any, use for financial reports that conformed to international financial reporting standards, The results of this study have implications for nations such as Malaysia and New Zealand, which are currently engaging in the differential reporting debate.

The role of reflexive capability in relation to intellectual capital on multi international partnerships

This paper reports the results of an analysis of five Malaysian firms who have worked successfully on multi international partnerships and/or megaprojects. A case study methodology was employed to examine the barriers and successful strategies the firms used in decision making in various international markets. A common characteristic across the firms was the ability to self reflect and adapt their practices to different international conditions despite numerous differences between countries including cultural, social, project governance structures, regulatory, terminology and codes. A reflexive capability model developed from the social sciences theory of individual agent reflexivity was developed to explain the way in which firms as an entity can develop awareness, responsiveness and adaptability for long term success in diverse international markets. This paper builds upon an initial Australian study which developed the model grounded in empirical observations of internationalising design construction firms by presenting the results of a second study of Malaysian firms. Results indicate that the model of reflexivity capability is a useful way to interpret practices that are undertaken in multi partner relationships on larger more complex projects. Successful Malaysian firms within joint venture relationships display an ability to self reflect and adapt. This transformation process is critiqued in relation to the relationships between social, cultural and intellectual capital. Reflexive capability is a characteristic of the successful case study firms working within global models of practice. The reflexive capability model is explained in relation to common themes identified in relation to the management of intellectual capital in successful multi international partnerships and megaprojects.

Has international borrowing or lending driven Australia's net capital inflow?

Over the recent decades the most significant global imbalances have been between Asia-Pacific economies, with most attention directed to the imbalances of the largest economies, China, Japan and the United States. In contrast, this paper examines how external account imbalances and real long term interest rates are determined in smaller open economies. It first derives the proposition that external imbalances and long term interest rates move together whenever saving-investment shocks are predominantly domestically sourced, but move oppositely when saving-investment shocks mainly emanate abroad. It then shows that in the case of Australia, an Asia-Pacific economy that has borrowed heavily from abroad since the mid 1980's, rising net capital inflow has had a statistically significant negative impact on domestic real interest rates. This suggests that over that time net international lending rather than net foreign borrowing was mainly responsible for the variation in its external imbalance and real interest rates.

Understanding the symbolic capital of intercultural interactions: a case study of international students in Australia

Intercultural interaction plays an important role in contributing to international students’ learning and wellbeing in the host country. While research on international students’ intercultural interactions reveals multifaceted aspects of personal and social factors, there is a tendency to consider language barrier and cultural differences as individual factors that constrain their interactions with the institutional community. Drawing on 105 interviews with international students in Australian vocational education and training and dual sector institutions, this paper examines international students’ intercultural interactions in host institutions and the factors that act as enablers or inhibitors for intercultural interactions. It highlights the social and structural conditions in creating symbolic capital of elitist Anglo-Australian culture and English language, and social differentiation. This paper offers insights into understanding the legitimacy of such elitism, in hope that future conceptualisation, research and practices of intercultural interactions may locate international students within their cultural diversity.

International education, the formation of capital and graduate employment : Chinese accounting graduates’ experiences of the Australian labour market

Since the late 1970s, international education has steadily gained in popularity in China.An emerging middle class seeks to strengthen its position in China’s rapidly stratifyingsociety under its socialist market economy with the shift from wealth creation for all towealth concentration for a few. Previously, a foreign qualification was considered apassport to success in either the host or home country’s labour market. But the growingpopularity of overseas study, coupled with the massification of the Chinese highereducation, means Chinese international students are seeking to distinguish themselvesin an increasingly competitive global labour market. This longitudinal study of internationalgraduates, backgrounded by Australian employer perceptions, examines thejourneys of 13 Chinese accounting graduates as they attempt to transition from anAustralian university into the Australian labour market. Bourdieu’s thinking tools offield, capital, disposition and habitus are utilised to consider how different cultural,social and linguistic capitals inform employer understandings of ‘employability’ meantChinese accounting graduates significantly adjusted their life goals.

International competitiveness and the macroeconomics of capital account opening

Includes bibliography

International tax cooperation and capital mobility

Includes bibliography

Financing of economic development; recent governmental measures affecting the international flow of private capital.

At head of title: United Nations. Economic and Social Council. 20th session. Item 6.

Introducing international accounting standards to an emerging capital market: relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets.

Introducing International Accounting Standards to an emerging capital market:Relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.