Research
Human Resource Disclosure: A Case Study on Listed Banking Companies in Bangladesh
As human resources (HR) are considered a strategic capital and the success of an organization highly depends on skilled manpower, it is essential to investigate HR disclosure practices. Limited research on human resource disclosure from an accounting perspective in the developing country motivates this study. The study aims to evaluate the human resources disclosure practices in the Bangladeshi banking industry. Using content analysis, the disclosure data are collected from the annual reports of 30 listed banks on the Dhaka stock exchange (DSE). 40% of the sample banks disclose the HR practices within the range of 50%-60%, indicating that the banking sector has a wide scope to improve its HR practices. The average HR disclosure practice in the banking industry in Bangladesh is 59.25%. Of which, the highest disclosure is recorded by the HR development 91.25%, while the lowest is in the health and safety, documented by only 19.45%. the highest HR practices are recorded by Prime bank ltd. Therefore, the study suggests the banks’ managers, regulatory bodies and academicians focus more on the HR disclosure issue to encourage more disclosure of information related to human resources and formulate relevant policies that might create a more favorable working environment for the HR.
Lessons Learned from European Sovereign Debt Crisis
The sovereign debt crisis has severely affected countries within the Eurozone. The widespread consequences of the crisis include economic recession and financial markets downturn. The following essay provides a detailed overview of the debt crisis and its major impacts on financial markets and institutions, and presents lessons learned following the crisis. The results presented by this essay comprise the strong interconnection within the Eurozone and the lack of efficient regulations.
Is Buying Back of Shares a Dangerous Financial Strategy?
The motives for the share repurchase is the increase in the value per share, and enhance the price-earnings (P/E) multiples, replenishment of the pool of share available for employee incentive options, prevention of hostile takeovers, and an effective way to return surplus cash to shareholders. Share repurchase programs can convince the capital structure of the company in a more direct way. Buy back stock reduces the market capitalization of a particular company, which makes the company able to strengthen capital gearing ratio as per its preference. The study found that if a company uses buying back of shares as a financial strategy, it will lead to increase in its capital gearing when financing is made for stock repurchase in the form of debt.
Executive Stock Option Contract Increases Firm Value and Performance: A Case Study on Starbucks Company
A diversified stock option plan design plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of option contracts management and elimination of the free-rider problem. The aim of this study is to examine how a company can be used stock options in risk management and solving the agency problem rewarding employees and managers. The stock options plans offered by Starbucks engage all employees and executives into the ownership providing appropriate motivation and incentive and solving the agency problem. However, the study found that, this could also trigger more risk taking on the part of the top managers.
Lobbying in Accounting Standards Setting
The paper explores the effects of lobbying on accounting standards. The study investigates the determinants of lobbying and compares the lobbying activity with application to the FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 158 and the IASB Statement of Intent issued in 1990. The research concludes that the major determinants of lobbying in the field of accounting standards are the size of lobbying corporations and the perceived effects of the regulations on the economic well-being of the enterprises. The analysis of the specific cases indicates that both firm-level, industry-level and country-level factors contribute to lobbying decisions across firms.
Environmental Accounting & Reporting Practices: Significance and Issues: A Case from Bangladeshi Companies
The present study entitling “Environmental Accounting & Reporting Practices: Significance and Issues: A Case from Bangladeshi Companies†is based on both the primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected from the total number of 40 Chief Accountants and Senior Accountants, taking one from each company. The secondary data were collected from the Annual Reports-2010 of the companies. The main findings of the study are: i) the respondents have felt the strong need for EA (Environmental Accounting) and ER (Environmental Reporting) in their Annual Reports, ii) the respondents have also been aware for EA and ER practices, iii) as regards of nature of environmental disclosure, it is observed that only qualitative disclosures in positive sense have been provided in the Annual Reports either in Chairman or Managing Director statement, Directors’ reports and a separate section “Environmental Complianceâ€, iv) Environmental disclosures in the form of xpenditure in energy, waste management, safety related measure and environment protection presented in their Annual Reports were not remarkable in the sample companies excepting expenditure in energy, v) the respondents have identified some major problems involved in EAR( Environmental Accounting and Reporting) practices as shown table -5 and also have suggested some measures as presented in table -6. From the above discussions, it is clear that EAR practices in the selected companies have been far from satisfactory and hence poor in real sense of the term. Therefore, in order to improve the EAR practices in the selected companies, the proper authority need to implement the suggestions put forward by the respondents without any further delay.
