Editorial

Citation

Chapple, E.(L). (2016), "Editorial", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 2-3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-02-2016-0015

Welcome to Issue 1 of Volume 29 of the Accounting Research Journal. The journal has moved this year to publishing four issues per year, with either five or six papers per issue. This gives us a total of 22 papers publishable this year. We have set aside one issue (Issue 2) for a special topic, hence reserving space to publish 17 general articles. The journal currently has a healthy “pipeline” of accepted papers, and I thank our authors for their support and patience.

This issue comprises a general issue, and the papers this issue present research in accounting and finance from a variety of perspectives in the South East Asian region.

Associate Professor Chee Kwong Lau, from Nottingham University Business School, together with his colleague Ooi Ki Wei present their research “A Case Study on Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Evidence from Malaysia”, in which they examine financial misreporting enforcement actions by the Malaysia Securities Commission. Using a case study approach, they report that the most common fraud relates to overstating revenue by sales. Instances of fraud are difficult for researchers to study, so this research provides some insight into how and why companies misreport in their financial statements.

Also examining dishonest conduct in Malaysia, this time among accounting students, Associate Professor Suhaiza Ismail and Assistant Professor Salwa Hana Yussof (International Islamic University Malaysia – Department of Accounting) present their paper “Cheating Behaviour Among Accounting Students: Some Malaysian Evidence”. Of interest to many academics, their study investigates the differences in the cheating behaviour between cheaters and non-cheaters (in terms of neutralization and deterrents) and provides evidence on the cheating attitude based on gender.

In a comparative study of the markets in Australia and the USA, Lin Mi from the University of Queensland Business School, together with her Professorial colleagues Karen Benson and Robert Faff, present their paper on “Further Evidence on Idiosyncratic Risk and REIT Pricing: A Cross-Country Analysis”. As the title suggests, the research examines the relation between idiosyncratic risk and real estate investment trust (REIT) returns, using five alternative models with GARCH enhancements, and using cross-country data from listed and unlisted REITs in the USA and Australia. Professors Benson and Faff serve on our editorial advisory board, and I am pleased to see that they support the journal by encouraging their early career researcher colleagues to consider the journal as an outlet for their research.

I am also pleased to publish the research of my colleagues Dr Acklesh Prasad and Professor Peter Green (Queensland University of Technology Business School) and Dr Jon Heales (University of Queensland Business School). Their paper, “Do Organisations in Developing Economies Legitimise their Level of Profit? Evidence from Fiji” investigates the readability of the information presented in the annual reports of Fijian companies, to find that firms in a developing economy respond to instances of possible violation of the implied social contract by sharing information in ways that relays news in certain ways.

The circumstances surrounding the global financial crisis and its impact on the development of intellectual capital in listed firms motivates the research submitted by Mr Abdifatah Ahmed Haji, also based in Malaysia. He holds MSc degree in accounting from the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Finally, turning the firms in Thailand, Dr Naruanard Sarapaivanich (Chiang Mai University, Thailand), together with her colleague Professor Paul G. Patterson (University of New South Wales Business School and adjunct professor at Chiang Mai University), presents for publication their paper “A Contingency Model of Client Retention in a Financial Auditing Services Context”. Their paper studies 519 small- and medium-sized enterprise clients of audit firms and confirms the main effects of trust, value and alternative attractiveness on client retention.