Afzalur Rashid is an experienced Research Superviosr
He supervised PhD, DBA and Research Master students in the area of:
Business and Management not elsewhere classified ( 150399 )
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability not elsewhere classified ( 150199 )
Research Afzalur Rashid Supervised
Supervision Capacity: Associate
Summary: This research explores firms’ emergence from bankruptcy in the context of firm size, managerial ability, and firm-level political risk. It addresses the key problem of why certain firms that file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy are more vulnerable to collapse than likely to emerge from bankruptcy. Firm size is often viewed as a buffer against financial distress due to the firm’s potential resources, including the manager’s ability to navigate the bankruptcy proceedings, and dealing with firm-level political risk sentiments that are likely to be attached in support of the firm’s emergence. The main objective of this research is to understand the dynamics of the likelihood of firm emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The research’s motivation is originally derived from the breadth of economic uncertainty, arising from events such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic, through which firms have become severely distressed due to the pressure of financial conditions. However, measuring the success or lack of success of a firm’s emergence from bankruptcy is unpredictable. Thus, this research aims to predict the likelihood of firm emergence in the context of firm size, managerial ability, and firm-level political risk. The research is documented in this PhD thesis by publication, comprising three research articles on firm bankruptcy emergence. The bankruptcy data were mainly collected from the Florida–UCLA–LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database (BRD) which specifically includes firm emergence data from firms that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The research employs logistic regression, including addressing potential endogeneity concerns by using entropy balancing and instrumental variable analysis. The research findings are that firm size, managerial ability, and firm-level political risk are significantly associated with the likelihood of firm emergence from bankruptcy. These findings have specific implications for US bankruptcy courts, the US government, creditors, and firms navigating bankruptcy.
Candidate: Miftah Zikri
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2024
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: The financial services Royal Commission’s final report has resulted in significant reforms in the financial advice industry. The Hayne’s recommendations represent a challenge to advisory firms to review their current business operating models in order to enhance customer outcomes and profitability. This thesis aims to explore the impact of the Royal Commission’s recommendations on the operating model of advice businesses in terms of advice products, processes, delivery models and customer segments. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to investigate whether the Royal Commission’s outcome has accelerated the use of enhanced technology solutions within the operating model of advice entities. To identify the key challenges confronting advisory firms whilst implementing the Commissioner’s recommendations across their operational models, a qualitative research design has been adopted. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 advisers and managers engaged in the operation of financial planning services. At the same time, a thematic analysis approach has been used to interpret the qualitative data collected from the interviews. The findings of this thesis reveal that customer-centric operating models will become more prominent across the Australian financial planning industry in response to the Commissioner’s final report. The Royal Commission’s outcome has accelerated the use of advice technology solutions within the operating model of advice entities. It is found that financial advisers have started using more automated web-based advice services, which enable them to provide simple advice on a greater scale, and to accelerate the use of robo-advice models and digital delivery to mass customers in the longer term. The study identifies process and technology changes with technical and interpersonal skills development, as the critical challenges encountered by advice practices whilst implementing the Commissioner’s recommendations across their operating models.
Candidate: Mohammad Abu-Taleb
DBA Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2023
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: This thesis presents a series of investigations on the effect of corporate carbon performance (CCP) on a firm’s access to finance. In particular, these studies examine the relationships between CCP and cost of debt (COD), cost of equity (COE) and firm risk. The research uses a sample from 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region over the period 2002–2018. This thesis comprises three empirical studies. The first paper reports on the study that examined the CCP–COD relationship. The second paper reports on the investigation of the relationship between carbon risk (CRISK) and COE, while the third paper reports on the examination of the question of how and why CCP affects a firm’s total, idiosyncratic and systematic risk. All three papers also report on the examination of whether country-level governance quality moderates or strengthens these relationships. The research particularly examines whether, and to what extent, these relationships are affected by country-level governance mechanisms.
In the first paper, COD is found to be lower when a firm has higher carbon performance (CCP). We also find that CCP produces greater reductions in COD for firms in countries with poor government effectiveness, weak regulatory quality and weak rule of law. Thus, a country-level governance mechanism and debt markets are substitutes in addressing corporate carbon performance (CCP). This means that debt markets are more sensitive to the climate change issue in a weak governance setting. Next, in the second paper, we find that firms with higher CRISK have higher implied COE, with this relationship stronger in countries with strong country-level governance. Finally, in the third paper, we find that CCP is negatively associated with a firm’s total, idiosyncratic and systematic risk. We also find that CCP yields greater reductions in a firm’s total and idiosyncratic (systematic) risk in countries with strong (weak) country-level governance. This study documents that debt and equity market participants are becoming more aware of firms’ environmental performance and are paying close attention to corporate carbon performance (CCP).
This research employed unbalanced panel data and used the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model to test the hypotheses after controlling for a set of firm-level and country-level variables, in addition to the year and industry dummies. To confirm our main finding, we run a series of robustness checks to control for sample selection bias, endogeneity, heterogeneity and simultaneous causality problems using alternative model specifications. We also control for the effect of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the sensitivity to using sub-sample analysis and alternative measures.
This research contributes theoretically and empirically to the management and finance literature by studying the relationship between CCP and corporate financial performance (CFP) ii and by examining whether the findings of previous studies are robust or whether they can be generalised to another geographical scope or another time period. As previous studies have revealed mixed findings on the CCP–CFP relationship, this research aims to either support or refute the existing theoretical arguments on this relationship in a multi-country context. Although these topics are highly researched in the contexts of developed markets, we know little about whether the findings are transferrable to the Asia-Pacific context. A multi-country sample provides an additional dimension to this research; it helps us to compare countries based on the level of governance quality. Indeed, this research pioneers the study of the role of country-level governance in the CCP–CFP relationship.
Companies today are under pressure from internal and external stakeholders to take serious action regarding environmental issues and to adopt environmentally friendly strategies and activities. This research shows that managers can reduce firm risk, COD and COE by improving their carbon performance. This research has shed light on one of the indirect costs and/or benefits of green projects/carbon-intensive projects of which a manager should be aware when making an investment decision. Understanding the nature of the implications of sustainable performance is also important for diverse stakeholders. It helps a firm’s creditors and investors to conduct a better evaluation of its real market value and to realise whether carbon risk economically affects its intrinsic value and, furthermore, whether carbon risk affects its credit standing. In addition, this research helps policy makers to determine the extent to which they can rely on the market mechanism to address climate change concerns and to discover the country-level governance context in which the market mechanism could have the greatest impact.
Candidate: Eltayyeb Ali Mustafa Al-Fakir Al Rabab’a
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2022
Supervision Capacity: Associate
Summary: Substance abuse is a growing concern in the world due to its health, social and economic consequences. Much research has been conducted on its prevalence and on substance abuse prevention programs designed to mitigate health, social and economic problems associated with this issue. Despite coordinated efforts of academics and policymakers, substance abuse is still prevalent, and many prevention programs are yet to reach their full potential amongst refugee youth aged 12-24 of African, Middle Eastern, and South American origins. Even though there are few studies in this area, this thesis provides a synthesis of the existing literature. The study outlines the state of substance abuse and its prevention programs in the context of refugee youth. The study uses Behavioural Choice Theory to explain how an individual can reduce substance abuse and the application of the theory to the synthesis of the findings from the literature further enhances understanding of substance abuse and its prevention programs amongst refugee youth. The study follows the ‘Thesis by Publication’ approach to present the outcomes of the research. As such, the thesis presents two papers that explore the state of substance abuse and its prevention programs amongst refugee youth. Paper one uses a scoping review method to map out the state of substance abuse amongst refugee youth using existing literature by synthesising three specific aspects of substance abuse: (i) the state of substance abuse amongst refugee youth, (ii) the risk factors that increase the prospect of substance abuse amongst refugee youth, and (iii) the consequences they experience and how substance abuse can be mitigated. While paper two uses a systematic literature review to examine substance abuse prevention programs amongst refugee youth by identifying such programs under the following subsections: (i) different substance abuse prevention programs that are used to assist refugee youth with substance abuse, (ii) refugee youth’s attitudes toward substance abuse prevention programs, and (iii) the outcomes of substance abuse prevention programs. The findings from the two papers indicate that substance abuse is prevalent amongst refugee youth, exacerbated by pre-and post-migration risk factors. Refugee youth suffer negative consequences as a result but do not know where they could seek assistance. Findings also show a lack of focus on substance abuse prevention programs specifically related to refugee youth. As such, this research illuminates the state of substance abuse and its associated prevention programs amongst refugee youth. The findings from the study add value to the existing knowledge about the state of substance abuse amongst refugee youth. Directions for future research on substance abuse prevention programs are also indicated. The findings will assist stakeholders to better support refugee youth with substance-related issues by designing targeted interventions.
Candidate: Elijah Aleer
Master's Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2022
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: This thesis empirically investigates the role of the enterprise risk management system implementation level in capturing firm managerial incentives. This system plays an important role in understanding the association between international financial reporting standards and the capital market. Listed firms in the Australian market were used for the period 2000-2010 for this purpose, and the Australian market was chosen because it is considered to be a strong legally enforced capital market. Descriptive statistic tests were used to study the sample characteristics. In addition, panel data is analysed in two regression models to achieve the study goals by providing a reference to compare the use of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) periods in Australia, as Australia adopted IFRS as of January 1st 2005, thus enabling an analysis of their effect on firm incentives and cost of equity capital. Finally, the researcher used the results of the term ‘IFRSA*ERMIL’ in the two regression models, to capture the role of ERMIL on the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, through its indirect effect on firm incentives. The study results imply that IFRS adoption has a statistically significant negative effect on firm disclosures transparency _ with a positive effect on earning management_ when compared with GAAP adoption for the three models. Also, IFRS were found to have a statistically significant positive effect on cost of equity capital, which implies that the adoption of IFRS by Australian firms increases cost of equity capital for firm stock. Furthermore, implementing higher levels of ERM by Australian firms during the mandatory IFRS adoption period has no statistically incremental effect on the cost of equity capital, thus adopting higher level of ERM does not capture firm incentives in IFRS period. Together, implementing higher level of ERM by Australian firms in IFRS period, is not recognised by investors as a signal of more transparent disclosures nor does it encourage investors to use low discount rate to discount future cash flows, which as a result, does not have an effect on cost of equity capital. Consequently, these results suggest that the implementation of ERM by Australian firms does not reduce the contracual costs between investors and management, whilst adopting IFRS does. Future research may use other techniques and/or strategies other than ERM, to capture the firm incentives, and as a result, may have economic consequences.
Candidate: Bisan Almasri
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2020
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: This study investigates whether corporate governance mechanisms influence firm performance and efficiency in developing countries, with a specific focus on Jordan. From 880 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, for the period of 2006-2016 and by using two measures of performance (i.e., return on assets and Tobin’s Q) and two measures of agency costs (i.e., asset utilization and expense ratio), the empirical results suggest that Jordanian companies with a high percentage of outside independent directors are outperforming companies with a low percentage of outside independent directors.
A significant positive relationship among the board independence in the form of the representation of outside independent directors, return on assets and the asset utilization ratio, has been found. The empirical findings of the relationship among board gender diversity, firm performance and firm efficiency, indicate that board gender diversity in the form of the proportion of women on the board of directors, cannot explain firm performance nor firm efficiency in Jordan. In addition, the findings of relationships among CEO duality, firm performance and firm efficiency, suggest that CEO duality as a proxy for the board leadership structure, can influence the firm performance positively and firm efficiency negatively.
The differences to the findings from the previous studies, refer to the fact that corporate governance and its problems in Jordan may not be similar to other countries. Jordan’s specific characteristics in terms of the data when compared with prior studies, means that ‘one size does not fit all’, and one group of governance mechanisms may not be fitted for each country. Drawing on the empirical investigations and theoretical discussions, it is revealed that the practices of corporate governance in Jordan need to be improved. Hence, a further aim of this thesis is to help regulatory bodies in improving or framing the best practices of corporate governance for Jordanian companies. Remarkably, the majority of the earlier studies on Jordan, have looked at corporate governance issues and performance by using traditional financial measures. To revisit the corporate governance practices in a unique setting of agency relationship in the context of Jordan, this study use two measures of agency costs, namely the expense ratio and asset utilization ratio.
Therefore, this study provides a new avenue of knowledge to academics and practitioners, by providing new evidence on corporate governance practices in a little known institutional context. This study has also been conducted by using two theories, and thus contributes to agency and resource dependence theory literature, showing the suitability of these theories during a period of improvement in the Jordanian corporate governance code for shareholding companies. This study is one of the rare studies which examines firm performance and agency costs by using different measures.
Candidate: Jebreel Al-Msiedeen
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2019
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: Earnings management has captured the attention of researchers, because accounting earnings are considered to be amongst the most important indicators of the financial performance of a company, and this subject remains a fruitful area for academic research. As a result of the practice of earnings management, financial crises may occur in companies, resulting in weakening reliability and doubtful fairness of published financial statements.
Previous studies have focused on earnings management and the factors that may affect earnings management practices. Likewise, the current study explores some of these factors, such as corporate governance and corporate social responsibility, and whether they affect earnings management practices in the financial reporting of industrial companies in the public sector in Jordan, during the period 2006-2015. This period includes 2 important events in the Jordanian context: The Corporate Governance Code, introduced in 2008/2009, and the global financial crisis in 2008. The current study has taken into consideration two periods: 2006-2008 (before the introduction of the Corporate Governance Code) and 2009-2015 (after the introduction of the Corporate Governance Code), to compare the results of this study, whilst other studies have considered only before or after the introduction of the Corporate Governance Code. Therefore, this study provides an analysis of the effectiveness of the code’s introduction.
The current study has examined corporate governance mechanisms (ownership structure and audit committees) as control tools to ensure a firm’s performance effectiveness, and to provide a way to monitor the behaviour of the managers. Additionally, the current study has examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) and evaluated how it may be used as a mask to cover earnings management practices.
This study has used discretionary accruals, derived from the Modified Jones and Modified Jones with ROA models, as a proxy for measuring earnings management. An ordinary least square regression was used to investigate the association between corporate governance mechanisms, CSR, and earnings management. The data was collected from 49 Jordanian industrial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), during the period 2006-2015.
The results have revealed that institutional ownership and earnings management were positively related at significant levels, whilst insider ownership has no effect on earnings management in the Jordanian industrial sector. CSR and earnings management were found to be negatively associated at significant levels. At the same time, audit committee and earnings management were negatively but insignificantly
related.
This study makes an important contribution to both the research literature and corporate governance practice. It facilitates discussion about the link between corporate governance mechanisms, CSR disclosures, and earnings management practices. Additionally, this research informs supervisory and regulatory authorities about the influence of corporate governance mechanisms, CSR disclosures and how they may be used to help avoid earnings management. This study assists the users or beneficiaries of financial reports to understand earnings management practices, and increase their awareness about this phenomenon.
Candidate: Rula Khaled Abedalqader Almadadha
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2019
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: A vast majority of prior empirical studies exclusively investigates the determinants of capital structure and earnings management of private and public firms
in developed and developing economies, but there is a shortage of works related to private firms in least developed countries with transitional economy. This empirical study attempts to extend the existing literature and fill the gap by examining financing decision and earnings management activities of private enterprises in the transitional economy environment from a centrally-planned regime to a market-oriented economy of Laos.
This study uses previous empirical works and theoretical principles related to private and public companies in developed, developing and other transitional economies to uncover the financing decision and earnings management activities of Lao private enterprises. The works and principles are used as a fundamental framework to understand previous related works and to formulate six hypotheses of this investigation. This study relies on two capital structure theories, the Pecking-Order theory and Trade-Off theory to explain the financing decision of the firms. Agency theory is also applied to explain the earnings management activities in relation to financial leverage of the enterprises. The earnings management is measured by using the Modified Jones Model and the Performance-Augmented Model. In conjunction, this study employs multiple linear regression models to statistically test the six formulated hypotheses under three research questions. The statistical data used in this study are drawn from annual financial reports of 224 private enterprises in Laos, containing 674 observations for five-year period of 2009-2013. The financial reports were prepared under the Lao accounting manuals and instructions.
This study contributes to several findings that reflect an under-developed transitional nature of the Lao business environment to the existing knowledge. First,
the modern Pecking-Order and Trade-Off theories as well as the firm-specific determinants and industry factors of capital structure derived from the developed and developing countriesare partially portable to financing decision of private enterprises in Laos. As in other countries, larger firms in Laos can easily access to external debt than smaller counterpart, whereas profitable firms are more likely to have less leverage and their retained earnings are primary source of investment. Empirically, the financing choices of Lao private firms seem to follow a limited Pecking-Order – retained profit, and total-debt. In addition, in line with the Trade-Off theory, Lao private firms across industry sectors differently adjust their capital structure to seek for an optimum level of debt-equity ratio. Second, with regards to the main determinants of earnings management, larger enterprises in Laos are more likely to engage in earnings management than smaller firms, whereas enterprises with higher level of tangibility and profitability tend engage in less earnings management. In addition, this study finds that sole-traders enterprises with more operating cash flow engage more in earnings manipulation. Further, the influence of firm size, tangibility, profitability, total revenue, and trade receivables on earnings management vary across industry sectors. Finally, earnings manipulation has a positively significant impact on financial leverage of Lao private enterprises, implying that the firms use financial leverage as a governance mechanism to mitigate opportunistic behaviour of managers.
Candidate: Somephiane Keokhounsy
DBA Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2018
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: This study examines the relationships and interrelationships between carbon disclosure and carbon performance, and between carbon performance and financial performance. It also examines the relationship between carbon disclosure and financial performance. Additionally, it investigates the relationship between agency cost and carbon disclosure, and between agency cost and carbon performance. Finally, this research investigates the trends in improvement of carbon disclosure and carbon performance of the companies, over the study period. The interrelationships between carbon disclosure and carbon performance, and between carbon performance and financial performance, have not been investigated by any study before. Similarly, no study has yet investigated the relationship between carbon disclosure and financial performance. The relationships between carbon disclosure/carbon performance and agency cost, have not been studied either by any previous research. Whilst a couple of studies have conducted trend analysis of carbon disclosure previously, no study has yet undertaken trend analysis of carbon performance. These examinations are performed by using a cross-sectional sample of the world’s largest 500 firms, drawn from most major industry sectors, who participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire survey over the five-year period from 2011 to 2015. Both full sample and country-wise analysis have been done, to test the hypotheses of this study.
Carbon disclosure and carbon performance scores for the sample companies are taken from the CDP database. Data for financial performance indicators, agency costs and relevant control variables, are collected from Thomson Reuters Datastream database.
Findings of this study indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between a firm’s carbon disclosure, and its carbon performance. They also indicate that carbon disclosure and carbon performance of business, influence each other positively. Country-wise analysis shows that carbon disclosure is significantly positively related to carbon performance in all of the four regions of this study – namely North America, EU, UK and Asia-Pacific. Both way positive interrelationship between carbon disclosure and carbon performance, holds true in all regions except the UK.
The study also finds that carbon performance of a business is significantly negatively related to both accounting-based measure as well as market-based measure of a firm’s financial performance. It also finds that there is no significant interrelationship between carbon performance and accounting-based measure of a firm’s financial performance. However, carbon performance and market-based measure of a firm’s financial performance, influence each other negatively – this relationship might vary across industries. Carbon performance is negatively related to both accounting-based measure as well as market-based measure of a firm’s financial performance, in all regions except the UK. There is no significant and consistent interrelationship between carbon performance and any of the measures of firm financial performance, in any region.
Results of this study indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between carbon disclosure and accounting-based measure of a firm’s financial performance. However, there is no significant and consistent relationship between carbon disclosure and a firm’s market-based financial performance. There is a significant negative relationship between carbon disclosure and accounting-based measure of a firm’s financial performance, in all regions. However, there is no significant relationship between carbon disclosure and market-based measure of a firm’s financial performance in any region.
This study also finds out that there is a positive but insignificant relationship between carbon disclosure and agency cost, both when agency cost is measured by Expense Ratio or by Asset Utilization Ratio. Results also indicate that carbon performance does not significantly affect a firm’s agency cost when agency cost is measured by Expense Ratio. However, when agency cost is measured by Asset Utilization Ratio, there is a significant negative relationship between carbon performance and agency cost. Carbon disclosure and carbon performance both significantly positively affect agency cost in North America, however there is no significant and consistent relationship between agency cost and both carbon disclosure and carbon performance, in any other region.
Results of this study show that the level of carbon disclosure for the sample companies, have significantly and consistently improved during the study period. On the other hand, carbon performance did not significantly improve towards the beginning of the study period. It started improving later, but these improvements were not always consistent. Country-wise analysis shows similar patterns in all regions.
This study contributes to the literature that deals with the relationships and interrelationships between carbon disclosure, carbon performance and financial performance, by producing a number of novel findings that suggest there is a positive interrelationship between carbon disclosure and carbon performance; carbon performance and market-based measure of financial performance influence each other negatively; carbon disclosure and accounting-based measure of financial performance are negatively related and carbon performance negatively affects agency cost.
Candidate: Md Abubakar Siddique
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2018
Supervision Capacity: Associate
Summary: This research aims to explore how family farms shift their traditional financing models towards off-farm equity financing. To achieve this aim, semi-structured (in-depth) interviews were conducted with four family farms engaged in the off-farm equity process, and with fourteen farm advisors who are actively engaged in advising farms and off-farm investors in establishing off-farm equity alliances. Following the aim of the study, this thesis follows the publication1 style of Ph.D. thesis presentation. The first-person style of academic writing is used, as preferred in qualitative inquiry, in reporting the research process, evidence, and interpretation, across the whole thesis. Three different but interconnected papers reflect interpretive findings from the empirical evidence on offfarm
equity capital in the Australian family farm industry. The reflexive interaction between extant literature about off-farm equity capital in family farms and interpretive findings led to the following research questions to achieve the above overarching aim:
i. Why do family farms and off-farm equity investors differ in their views and how can these competing views be managed (Paper 1)?
ii. Why and how do family farms divert their traditional financing path into off-farm equity path (Paper 2)?
iii. How can family farms institutionalise their governance and reporting structures for accessing to off-farm equity (Paper 3)?
iences, addresses the competing views of farms and off-farm investors in the off-farm equity alliance and the mechanism through which these competing views could be minimised. Based on the interpretative thematic analysis, findings show eight pairs of opposing arguments between family farms and off-farm investors that might inhibit the flow of equity to family farms from off-farm equity investors. These competing views are: emotional vs. commercial, cost vs. profit, instinctive vs. reasoning, continuous vs. cessation, financial vs. non-financial literacy, lower vs. higher scale, traditional vs. professional, and operational vs. capital efficiency. In each pair, the first element relates to farms’ position and the second element indicates the investors’ position. Paper one also identifies two different strategic responses: investment readiness and equity structuring, which are used by family farms to minimise the competing interest. Institutional logic theory and strategic response model were inductively selected to interpret these findings.
Paper two accounts the practical experiences of family farms for off-farm equity journey. An interpretative narrative analytical framework identifies five narratives about the off-farm equity process from the stories farms shared. These narratives towards new financing mix include motivation for change, soul reflecting, right capital and right partners, professionalization, and letting go and taking on narratives. Interpreting the narratives emerged in the second paper, through path dependent, path creation process and new path creation theory, the study outlines four- steps off-farm equity accessing process for family farms. This process covers: responding triggers, searching alternatives, spotting obstacles, and getting ready. Learnings from this path creation also helped family
farms to be investment ready.
Paper three, grounded in both farms’ and advisors’ views, explores the governance process of family farms to access off-farm equity. An interpretative thematic analysis explores three elements of the governance process including governance culture, alignment and structure in the equity structuration process that lead family farms towards institutionalization. Following the institutional theory, this paper suggests a three-stage model of the governance process for family farms wishing to access off-farm equity. These three stages include transformation, formation, and intensification. Findings also suggest that a case by case governance and reporting practices, rather than a unique style of governance and reporting, seems to be more suitable for family farms wishing to access off-farm equity. In this paper, the researchers interpret off-farm investors and farm advisors together as a background institution in the off-farm equity setting, which inserts normative pressure on family farms to adopt a governance structure and reporting practices while accessing off-farm equity.
The philosophical position taken in this research was interpretive epistemology, which guided me to adapt qualitative interpretive methodology. I used the purposive and snowball sampling to select family farms and farm advisors engaged in off-farm equity accessing process, to conduct the in-depth interview. During the analytical phase, this study relied on both manual techniques and text analysis software. Analysis, findings, and interpretations of each paper were data driven.
One of the main original contributions of my thesis is to explore how family farms can shift their traditional financing models towards an innovative financing model, off-farm equity capital. Under this broader topic area, my specific contributions are three: first, this study gives empirical evidence regarding the barriers to off-farm equity alliance from the farm and investors perspectives, and how to build and sustain this off-farm equity alliance in the context of family farms. Second, my thesis demonstrates a path to off-farm equity, and how to overcome the hurdles in that new financing path for family farms. Third, my study shows how family farms can demonstrate their governance and reporting practices to off-farm investors to convince the investors that they can rely on family farms. In actualising these contributions, my research also contributed to the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological literature about farm and agricultural finance, equity alliance, family farms’ institutional path dependence, path creation and institutional process of family farms. Policy implications are also discussed and are indicated for further research while acknowledging the limitations of this project.
Candidate: Mohd Mohsin
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2018
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: This research aims to explore how family farms shift their traditional financing models towards off-farm equity financing. To achieve this aim, semi-structured (in-depth) interviews were conducted with four family farms engaged in the off-farm equity process, and with fourteen farm advisors who are actively engaged in advising farms and off-farm investors in establishing off-farm equity alliances. Following the aim of the study, this thesis follows the publication1 style of Ph.D. thesis presentation. The first-person style of academic writing is used, as preferred in qualitative inquiry, in reporting the research process, evidence, and interpretation, across the whole thesis. Three different but interconnected papers reflect interpretive findings from the empirical evidence on offfarm
equity capital in the Australian family farm industry. The reflexive interaction between extant literature about off-farm equity capital in family farms and interpretive findings led to the following research questions to achieve the above overarching aim:
i. Why do family farms and off-farm equity investors differ in their views and how can these competing views be managed (Paper 1)?
ii. Why and how do family farms divert their traditional financing path into off-farm equity path (Paper 2)?
iii. How can family farms institutionalise their governance and reporting structures for accessing to off-farm equity (Paper 3)?
iences, addresses the competing views of farms and off-farm investors in the off-farm equity alliance and the mechanism through which these competing views could be minimised. Based on the interpretative thematic analysis, findings show eight pairs of opposing arguments between family farms and off-farm investors that might inhibit the flow of equity to family farms from off-farm equity investors. These competing views are: emotional vs. commercial, cost vs. profit, instinctive vs. reasoning, continuous vs. cessation, financial vs. non-financial literacy, lower vs. higher scale, traditional vs. professional, and operational vs. capital efficiency. In each pair, the first element relates to farms’ position and the second element indicates the investors’ position. Paper one also identifies two different strategic responses: investment readiness and equity structuring, which are used by family farms to minimise the competing interest. Institutional logic theory and strategic response model were inductively selected to interpret these findings.
Paper two accounts the practical experiences of family farms for off-farm equity journey. An interpretative narrative analytical framework identifies five narratives about the off-farm equity process from the stories farms shared. These narratives towards new financing mix include motivation for change, soul reflecting, right capital and right partners, professionalization, and letting go and taking on narratives. Interpreting the narratives emerged in the second paper, through path dependent, path creation process and new path creation theory, the study outlines four- steps off-farm equity accessing process for family farms. This process covers: responding triggers, searching alternatives, spotting obstacles, and getting ready. Learnings from this path creation also helped family
farms to be investment ready.
Paper three, grounded in both farms’ and advisors’ views, explores the governance process of family farms to access off-farm equity. An interpretative thematic analysis explores three elements of the governance process including governance culture, alignment and structure in the equity structuration process that lead family farms towards institutionalization. Following the institutional theory, this paper suggests a three-stage model of the governance process for family farms wishing to access off-farm equity. These three stages include transformation, formation, and intensification. Findings also suggest that a case by case governance and reporting practices, rather than a unique style of governance and reporting, seems to be more suitable for family farms wishing to access off-farm equity. In this paper, the researchers interpret off-farm investors and farm advisors together as a background institution in the off-farm equity setting, which inserts normative pressure on family farms to adopt a governance structure and reporting practices while accessing off-farm equity.
The philosophical position taken in this research was interpretive epistemology, which guided me to adapt qualitative interpretive methodology. I used the purposive and snowball sampling to select family farms and farm advisors engaged in off-farm equity accessing process, to conduct the in-depth interview. During the analytical phase, this study relied on both manual techniques and text analysis software. Analysis, findings, and interpretations of each paper were data driven.
One of the main original contributions of my thesis is to explore how family farms can shift their traditional financing models towards an innovative financing model, off-farm equity capital. Under this broader topic area, my specific contributions are three: first, this study gives empirical evidence regarding the barriers to off-farm equity alliance from the farm and investors perspectives, and how to build and sustain this off-farm equity alliance in the context of family farms. Second, my thesis demonstrates a path to off-farm equity, and how to overcome the hurdles in that new financing path for family farms. Third, my study shows how family farms can demonstrate their governance and reporting practices to off-farm investors to convince the investors that they can rely on family farms. In actualising these contributions, my research also contributed to the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological literature about farm and agricultural finance, equity alliance, family farms’ institutional path dependence, path creation and institutional process of family farms. Policy implications are also discussed and are indicated for further research while acknowledging the limitations of this project.
Candidate: Dineshwar Ramdhony
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2017
Supervision Capacity: Principal
Summary: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is relatively a new concept to developing countries, hence it is less prevalent as compared to developed countries. There is growing consensus that CSR is highly contextual. The literature indicates that the concept and practices of CSR vary depending on the country, region, culture, management perspectives, and geographical and business systems. Accordingly, it can be concluded that existing CSR in developed countries cannot be employed in developing countries. The need for companies to be positively perceived by their stakeholders and to stay competitive has led to the necessity of companies to communicate their social responsibility initiatives. Loss of social confidence due to crises has also prompted companies to report on their CSR activities to enable consumers and investors to make informed choices and rational investment decisions. Various efforts have been undertaken to encourage companies to report on CSR activities. Nevertheless, the practise of CSR reporting in developing countries remains in embryonic form. Researchers propose corporate governance good practice should promote ethics, fairness, transparency and accountability which form the foundation of CSR practices.
Given the increasing importance attached to both corporate governance and CSR, this study primary objective is to investigate the effects of corporate governance practices on the extent of CSR reporting in Malaysia. Hypotheses are developed by reference to several theoretical constructs namely agency, resource dependence, neo-institutional sociology and stakeholder-agency theories. This study employs content analysis to examine the annual reports of 450 non-financial companies listed on Bursa Malaysia over the years 2008-2013. A self-constructed CSR checklist consisting of 51 CSR-related items categorised under six themes was used to measure the extent of CSR reporting in the annual reports. To determine the influence of corporate governance on CSR reporting, multiple regression analysis was utilised.
The results show that over time, companies are increasingly disclosing more information on CSR, suggesting that this area is increasingly gaining the attention of companies. The effective role played by government and regulators is seen as the likely reason for the increasing reporting trend. Theme wise, most companies are inclined towards reporting human resource information; demonstrating that
satisfying the needs of their workers is central to their success. Although on the whole the reported levels in Malaysia fall short of disclosure in developed countries and also several countries in the same region, the increasing trend appears promising. Given more time, CSR reporting levels may approach those reported in developed countries.
This study also looks at the influence of ownership structure and board of directors attributes on the level of CSR reporting in Malaysia. Specifically, it attempts to examine the effect of ownership by directors and institutions, board independence, board meeting frequency, board diversity and CEO duality on CSR reporting. Nevertheless, despite continuous government efforts to improve the practise of corporate governance among companies, this study failed to find any significant impact of board meeting frequency, board diversity and CEO duality on CSR reporting level. Meanwhile, the association between board independence and directors who are finance experts and CSR reporting are found to be industry-specific, suggestive that the environments in certain industries deter the board from increasing CSR. Interestingly, this study exhibits significant results for both ownership by directors and institutions. Shareholdings by directors prove to have negative bearing on CSR reporting due to the entrenchment effect. Institutional ownership while demonstrating a significant result, contributes to a lower reporting of CSR information. On the whole, the results imply that the prevalent dominant family ownership of companies in Malaysia is an impediment to the effective practise of CSR.
This study is significant because it is one of the first to provide empirical evidence on the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on CSR reporting in a developing country. This study provides feedback to regulators and policymakers on the effectiveness of their efforts in promoting accountability and transparency through increased CSR reporting. In addition, it also offers an overview of the effectiveness of corporate governance practices in Malaysia which should enable regulators to improve the system of corporate governance especially increasing CSR practices.
Candidate: Nurul Yasmin Binti Ju Ahmad
PhD Thesis, completed at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Completion Year: 2017
Supervision Capacity: Associate
Summary: In the last decades, international accounting harmonisation has become the objective of many accountants in both academic and professional fields. With increased pressure from the globalisation of businesses in financial reporting, stock exchange, and international transactions, accounting information (produced by local accounting system) is not likely to meet users’ requirements. Many countries around the world have noticed the importance of accounting harmonisation in their regional financial markets. Despite problems of reliability of accounting information, developing countries (such as North African countries) have not paid enough attention to adopting international standards.
Appropriate literature was covered in this study such as: obstacles to and benefits of harmonisation, interested bodies (historical view), uniformity of standards, harmonising accounting practices, the globalisation effects on the accounting environment, and firm characteristics effects over the accounting environment. Despite the existence of substantial literature about harmonisation around the world, there appears to be a lack of assessment of harmonisation in developing countries, also previous research is not likely to pay enough attention in testing the relationship between firm characteristics and both types of harmonisation (de jure and de facto) especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study was designed to fill these gaps.
This study attempted to answer the following questions: Has (de facto and de jure) harmonisation between North Africa’s financial reporting and International Financial Report Standards (IFRS) increased between 2005 and 2010? To what extent does de jure harmonization impact de facto harmonization? And to what extent do firm characteristics (firm size, firm age, leverage, the profitability (ROA), institutional ownership, insider ownership, sector, and language of disclosure) impact on the level of both type (de jure and de facto) of harmonisation? A variety of approaches were used to answer these questions. De facto harmonisation was measured by C index, whereas de jure harmonisation was measured by using a compliance index. In addition, the impact of firm characteristics on harmonisation was analysed by using multivariate models (regression) tests.
The result showed that overall de jure harmonisation has been increased from 46% in 2005 to 54% in 2010. Moreover, overall compliance of accounting practise (de facto) has also increased from 36% in 2005 to 50% in 2010. The results reveal that the level of compliance with IFRSs (de jure harmonisation) increases with a company size, institutional ownership, industry and language of disclosure, whereas firm age, leverage, ROA, and Insider ownership were insignificant factors. In addition, the results show that firm characteristics are insignificant in predicting the level of de facto harmonisation. The result also indicates no association between de jure harmonisation and de facto harmonisation.