Michalis Bekiaris | University of the Aegean (original) (raw)

Papers by Michalis Bekiaris

Social Science Research Network, 2014

We examine the sustainability reporting activities of companies in controversial industries, e.g.... more We examine the sustainability reporting activities of companies in controversial industries, e.g., alcohol, firearms, for-profit prisons, gambling, tobacco, marijuana and payday loans. For each industry we identify its controversial social problemthe "elephant in the room." We then examine whether the company issued a sustainability report in the last three years and, if so, how the report dealt with the firm's controversial social issue. Compared to two non-controverisal sectorsgrocery stores and department/discount storescompanies in controversial industries publish sustainability or CSR-type reports at a lower rate (28% versus 43%). We also find significant differences in how the two groups of companies allocate space in their CSR reports. We categorize pages in the reports as dedicated to social and community efforts or environmental issues. The non-controversial companies devote significantly more of their reports to environmental issues than do controversial companies. The controversial companies have a higher ratio of their reports dedicated to social and community activities relative to environmental activities. This result is consistent with firms in controversial industries using social and community actions to attain legitimacy by taking actions that offset the social ills inherent in their core business. It also suggests that these companies believe that doing good in one arena substitutes for harm done elsewhere, This notion of offsetting harm with good deeds elsewhere becomes problematic if the people harmed are from vulnerable

Business Codes: A Financial Reporting Quality Factor or another Compliance Obligation?

I-manager's Journal on Management, Nov 15, 2008

Scientometrics, Nov 15, 2019

This paper investigates the structure of scientific collaboration in auditing research and its im... more This paper investigates the structure of scientific collaboration in auditing research and its impact on the production of published research. To this end, we model networks of authors who published auditing research papers in 12 peer-reviewed accounting and auditing journals from 1997 to 2016. The collaboration network of auditing researchers has a rightskewed degree distribution, according to which there is a small number of authors that each have many coauthors. Moreover, we find that the network of auditing researchers has small-world characteristics that imply a more integrated connectivity among researchers. The small-world phenomenon is shaped by the network stars, i.e., authors who act as intermediaries among their large number of coauthors. We also discover that the star structure affects individual research productivity. The small-world results are robust when our sample is expanded to incorporate accounting research over the same 20-year period.

Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Dec 30, 2022

Purpose: The necessity for a reliable set of international standards for the compilation of natio... more Purpose: The necessity for a reliable set of international standards for the compilation of national accounts introduced the accrual accounting framework of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). Extensive efforts are made for convergence between Government Accounts (GA) and National Accounts (NA) under accounting standards. Design/methodology/approach: This study investigated the quality of governmental NA, in the context of ESA 2010, from 1999 through 2019, using relative value relevance models of long-term government bond yields. Findings: i) The accrual accounting framework ESA2010 generates value relevant (thus qualitative) NA financial reporting in EU member states and the United Kingdom (UK); ii) The financial variables that better interpret bonds' return, thus governments' necessity to borrow money, are showcased; iii) The usefulness of the ESA2010 conceptual framework for decision and policy making process considering that the accrual accounting basis fosters the financial reporting quality, is demonstrated; iv) The quality results set the premise for further discussion for the harmonization and alignment process of accounting standardisation with the ESA2010 accrual accounting framework as a resource for policy and decision making.

Factors affecting firm performance: the role of board diversity, auditing, and corporate characteristics

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS & ECONOMICS OF THE HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY 2021, Apr 10, 2021

The Evolution of it Governance Auditing within Emerging Technology-Driven Corporate Structures

i-manager’s Journal on Management, 2007

Enterprise resource planning system reforms of European Union member states in association with central government accrual accounting and IPSAS adoption

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management

PurposeThis paper examines the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of 27 European central ... more PurposeThis paper examines the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of 27 European central governments and the governments' respective information technology (IT) reforms, facilitator role and association with accrual accounting reforms as premise of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a qualitative and content analysis of 27 European Union (EU) member states (MSs) regarding the states' IT and accounting maturity in association with accrual accounting as breeding ground for IPSAS convergence based on published surveys on behalf of Eurostat, web data and emails collected from authorized officials.FindingsThis paper has found that (1) increased accounting and IT maturity scores of central governments are associated with the establishment or upgrade of ERP systems; (2) ERP systems prove to facilitate and support accrual accounting adoption; (3) in majority, EU MSs adopt similar ERP vendors to implemen...

Examining the status of IPSAS adoption at the country level: an analysis of the OECD member states

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the adoption status of Internation... more Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the adoption status of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) within Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states at the country level and highlight the main factors impeding the process of accounting harmonisation. Design/methodology/approach This study uses factor analysis (FA) to assess the status of IPSAS adoption as the weighted average of the adoption levels of three categories: central government, sub-national governments, and country-level consolidation. Based on this assessment, the sample is classified into three levels of IPSAS adoption: high, medium, and low. Findings The findings suggest a slow trend towards accounting harmonisation and an increasing influence of IPSAS. However, evidence also suggests significant limitations in the adoption of the standards, mainly attributed to national adaptations, which undermine the ongoing efforts for standardisation. Ori...

Non-profit enterprises do not aim at achieving a maximum profit, but instead aim at earning a min... more Non-profit enterprises do not aim at achieving a maximum profit, but instead aim at earning a minimum income needed for their survival. For this reason they try to secure resources from various financing sources and seek for a favourable taxation status. Investigating the various financing sources and the tax treatment of non-profit enterprises is an important issue for their economic feasibility and for achieving their development and social role. From this examination of both those issues regarding non-profit enterprises it was made clear that there are important financing sources, which could be utilised in order for them to achieve their social mission. Of course, this could be even more enhanced if combined with a special tax treatment framework allowing tax opportunities to be used within the scope of those activities performed by non-profit enterprises.

This paper examines the effect of board characteristics on bank financial performance. Tracing th... more This paper examines the effect of board characteristics on bank financial performance. Tracing the Greek financial crisis during the period of 2008 to 2018, the paper investigates whether board size, board independence, CEO duality, female directors, and foreign directors affect banks performance. The empirical evidence shows that board structure has a significant effect on bank performance. Specifically, board size, board independence and chairman independence were found to exert a positive effect on bank performance. The effect of diversity on performance was ambiguous, since the effect of female directors was positive; but the effect of foreign directors was negative. These findings can potentially help banks improve performance by considering the features found significant in this study. Moreover, regulators can draw insight from the findings to design rules that strengthen corporate governance effectiveness. Key words: Bank corporate governance, board characteristics, financi...

Economic Crisis Impact on Corporateg Governance & Internal Audit: The Case of Greece

Mandatory disclosures and firm characteristics: evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 2014

This paper examines the association between the extent of mandatory disclosure and eight corporat... more This paper examines the association between the extent of mandatory disclosure and eight corporate characteristics: firm size, ownership dispersion, leverage, profitability, liquidity, audit firm size, board independence and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality. For this purpose, a disclosure index comprising 29 mandatory items was developed and applied on a sample of 72 annual reports of non–financial companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The relationship between the level of disclosure and the above firm characteristics was examined with the use of multiple linear regression. The results showed that the aforementioned companies listed on the ASE present an adequate degree of average compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements. As far as the relationship with firm characteristics is concerned, the level of mandatory disclosure was found to be significantly positively associated with firm size and liquidity and negatively associated with CEO duality.

International Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting, 2012

According to IASB a key prerequisite for quality in financial reporting is the adherence to the o... more According to IASB a key prerequisite for quality in financial reporting is the adherence to the objective and the qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information. Qualitative characteristics are the attributes that make financial information useful and consist of relevance, faithful representation, comparability, verifiability, timeliness and understandability. This paper aims to investigate auditor’s perceptions of the quality of financial reports based on the qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information defined by IASB in its conceptual framework. In addition, it aims to identify the key factors that influence and improve the quality of financial reports, as well as the factors that lead to poor quality. Finally, an effort is made to assess the quality of financial reporting of Greek companies according to each qualitative characteristic of financial reporting information. Results indicate that auditors perceive the qualitative characteristics of f...

The use of cost accounting systems by hotel businesses is improving the quality of decision makin... more The use of cost accounting systems by hotel businesses is improving the quality of decision making. The development of theories on costing, combined with advances in information technology, has improved the theoretical capabilities of such systems. However, two questions remain largely unanswered: a) whether these theories lead to tangible improvements; and b) what are the variables that drive the success of cost accounting systems. Our research shows that hotel managers need to be convinced about the use and performance benefits of such systems in the decision making process.

Information technologies play a key role in modern organizational structures. For example, they e... more Information technologies play a key role in modern organizational structures. For example, they enable organizations to restructure operations and company resources (by using enterprise resource planning systems) or to reshape corporate boundaries through participation in global digital marketplaces. As a result, companies face the pressure of continuously investing in IT systems of ever increasing complexity thus exposing these systems to internal and external threats. It therefore becomes imperative to have the right auditing processes in place in order to minimize exposure to these threats while safeguarding the managerial and accounting benefits of IT investments. In this article, we describe this link between new forms of corporate structures and auditing. After explaining basic terms and definitions of Corporate and IT governance, we discuss the near-standard COBIT framework of IT Governance. We then focus on business webs (b-webs), a distributed corporate structure based on I...

Internal audit is fundamental in maintaining transparency in the dissemination of information abo... more Internal audit is fundamental in maintaining transparency in the dissemination of information about a company’s financial position and performance. In this respect, the quality of internal audit is essential for effective corporate governance. We construct a composite measure of the quality of the internal audit function and explore its association with "good" corporate governance. Employing data from 45 listed companies in the Athens Stock Exchange, we discover that "good" corporate governance affects internal audit function quality, since the internal audit function is better in companies that comply with certain corporate governance guidelines. On the other hand, we find limited evidence on the effect of internal audit function quality on effective corporate governance. We also discover that internal audit’s active role in corporate governance is shaped by company-wide characteristics such as size, internationalization and CEO duality.

Financial Reporting Quality in Greece: A Case Study of Auditor’s Qualifications

complex and volatile environment created by the economic turmoil. We use as a proxy for the exami... more complex and volatile environment created by the economic turmoil. We use as a proxy for the examination of financial reporting quality the concept of audit quality as this is depicted in auditor qualifications.Design/ methodology/ approach - The paper used a case study approach in order to examine auditor qualifications among three companies (A,B,C) with differences in their size, operations and structure. Semi structured interviews were conducted with the auditors that performed the audit of annual financial statement and with the chief financial officers of each company.Findings - A common qualification for all entities, irrespective from their characteristics, is the qualification of unaudited tax years. Companies A and C were severely affected by the economic crisis, a negative impact depicted in the adjusted misstatements of these companies that relate to revenue and accounts receivables. Moreover, they face serious liquidity problems which, in the case of company A are due to ...

Employees' fraudulent behaviour: a social cognitive analysis

International Journal of Critical Accounting