Accounting : Enhancing the Development Agenda through Research in Accounting Practices and Education
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Edited by Dr J. M. Onumah , Dr Mohammed Amidu, Mr S.N.Y Simpson
Publisher : Woeli Publishing Services
Date of Publication : 2013
Place of Publication : Accra
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Item Adoption and Benefits of Contemporary Management Accounting Systems: Evidence from Ghanaian Manufacturing Firms(2013-12-09) Nartey, E.This paper aims at examining the level of adoption and benefits derived from contemporary management accounting practices by Ghanaian manufacturing firms. The study employed a survey strategy to solicit information from 62 manufacturing firms within the Accra-Tema industrial area of Ghana. Results show that the adoption rate of contemporary management accounting techniques compared to the traditional techniques is low. Overall, traditional management accounting techniques relating to annual budgetary practices and budgeting for controlling costs and coordinating activities were found to top the list as highly adopted. The study also establishes that there is a positive relationship between contemporary management accounting techniques and the operational activities.Item Challenges of Implementing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ghana(2013-12-09) Onumah, J.M.; Owusu, G.M.Y.The paper examines the challenges faced by Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) country-adopters. This stems from the limited studies ascertaining the challenges emerging from the implementation of MTEF, especially in Africa. The current study therefore adopted survey strategy to collect data from 27 out of a population of 38 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that have direct budgetary allocation. Results show that the state of implementation of the concept in Ghana is acceptable, but the challenges identified are widespread, limiting the concept’s achievement to some extent. Other needs by the institutions are in the form of reliable data for realistic expenditure budgeting, personnel with requisite technical abilities and skills, adequate remuneration and executive commitment to see to the success of the concept. The study provides for the Executive and policy makers, relevant data that would aid their monitoring and evaluation of the MTEF concept and which would enable them take corrective measures in reforming their implementation plans and procedures.Item Computer Technology and Teaching of Accounting by Universities in Ghana(2013-12-09) Simpson, S.N.Y.; Welbeck, E.E.The past several years have seen phenomenal efforts across the globe to adopt information and communication technology (ICT) in every aspect of education due to the several benefits it presents. The areas that seem to be attracting much attention are teaching, learning and research. Universities in Africa have not been left out in this development, but compared to other countries, regions and continents, very little seems to have been done in assessing the extent of ICT adoption in the teaching and learning of the various disciplines, including accounting. Adopting the survey strategies, this paper explores the use of ICT in the teaching of accounting in African Universities, using evidence from Ghana. Results show that ICT is used in the teaching of accounting by universities; more in public than private universities. Moreover, more accounting students in private universities are exposed to ICT resources like accounting software than the public universities. In addition, PowerPoint presentations, emails, and the internet in general, are the commonly used ICT resources in the teaching of accounting.Item Corporate Governance and Earnings Management: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.(2013-12-09) Akyeampon, D.; Amidu, M.; Abor, J.This paper examines the link between corporate governance and earnings management (EM) of firms in some selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A two-step estimation procedure using firm level data is applied. The first step employs a panel data estimation technique to analyze working capital discretionary accruals (WCDAC), a proxy for EM. Building on these results, the second stage examines the sources of EM, placing emphasis on the role of corporate governance and institutions. We find that EM of firms in Africa can be explained by the size of the board, its composition, return on assets, and debt ratio. In addition, our result reveals varying results as different corporate governance mechanisms affect EM across the various countries.Item Determinants of Intellectual Capital Disclosures (ICD): Evidence from Ghana(2013-12-09) Onumah, J.M.; Amidu, M.; Asare, N.This paper seeks to identify factors that influence the voluntary disclosure of Intellectual Capital (IC) in corporate annual reports of listed companies in Ghana. We examine the ICD of 25 listed companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) over a five-year period (2006-2010) through content analysis of their corporate annual reports. The study employs a panel regression analysis to establish the relationship between ICD levels of firms and firm-specific characteristics. While company size and industry sector determine the level of ICD of companies in corporate annual reports, corporate profitability and age cannot be used to predict such ICD levels of companies. The study was limited to selected listed companies on the GSE before 2006; a basically small capital market in Ghana. The implication of this study is that financial performance and the number of years of existence by a company does not influence ICD levels while the size of a company and industrial sector in which a company operate do impact ICD levels among listed companies. This is a pioneering paper on evidence of determinants of ICDs of Ghanaian corporate firms, one of the first to investigate the determinants of ICD in annual reports in West Africa.Item Examination of the Threats to the Auditor’s Independence in Ghana(2013-12-09) Bedi, I.; Onumah, J.M.In the wake of the recent corporate scandals/collapses in the US, Australia and elsewhere, attention has been drawn to the issues relating to auditors’ independence. This has affected to a large extent the degree of confidence that users of accounting information have in financial statement and has put the integrity of most auditors to question. This study therefore examines and ranks the threats to the auditor’s independence, tests for significant differences and assesses safeguards used in curbing these threats. Using snowball sampling technique, data were collected from thirty local audit firms in Ghana. The data was analysed to compute descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics was computed using the chi-square test. The study finds threats to auditor independence to be moderate among local firms. Also, there are no significant differences among firms based on length of existence. Continuing Professional Development programmes and personal values of accountants were found be the major source of safeguards in reducing the threats to acceptable level. The hospitality and neighbourliness imbedded in the African culture were found to be a contributory factor to the threat of familiarity. There is a need for a firm-wide policy by firms on close relationship, enforcement of ICA (Ghana) Code of Conduct and quality control reviews to check familiarity threats in Ghana.Item Internet Financial Reporting Practices of Ghanaian Listed Firms(2013-12-09) Kwakye, T.O.; Aboagye-Otchere, F.; Bekoe, R.A.Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) is a common practice in developed countries. This practice is not prevalent in developing countries as a result of several obstacles such as technology, culture, cost and other factors. Notwithstanding these obstacles, some companies disseminate financial information through the internet in some developing countries. Prior studies have established some relationship between several corporate characteristics and IFR. The few studies conducted in developing countries are however based on countries in Asia. The purpose of this study is to examine IFR practices and the resultant factors that affect these practices among Ghanaian listed companies. The study examines the IFR practices of 18 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) via the use of a disclosure index adapted from Ali’s (2010) study. Ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regressions were used to examine the relationship between firm characteristics (size, profitability, liquidity and leverage) and IFR practices. The results indicate that IFR practices by Ghanaian listed companies are low and in its early years. The study also documents a significant relationship between the liquidity (negative), firm size and profitability (positive) of firms and their IFR practices. This paper will assist policy makers and regulatory bodies on disclosure in Ghana by enlightening them on the firms who are meeting the demands of investors (both national and international) by reporting on the internet. It will also contribute to the limited knowledge and literature on disclosure and IFR in Africa and emerging economies, especially Ghana.Item Management Decision Interaction and Knowledge Sharing in the Stage-Gate Credit Decisioning Process of Banks(2013-12-09) Kuipo, R.Social network theory posits that managerial decision interaction holds benefits for improving the exploitation and sharing of private experiential knowledge acquired and residing in individual managers in a work-group network. To make a contribution to management accounting decision frameworks, this paper utilises the context of the “stage-gate” decisioning process as applied in bank credit decisions to evaluate managerial decision interaction and knowledge sharing towards enhancing the decision process. The key method used is the technique of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore quantitative measures to characterize and compare the interaction and decision consultation patterns among officers of two separate credit evaluation teams of two Ghanaian banks with distinctive reputations and performance outlooks as providers of finance to small exporting firms. The measures show clear distinctions in the relational patterns among members of the two teams, and reflecting possible differences in knowledge sharing and complementation in their decision processes of evaluating small firm finance proposals. The finding holds potential to make up for some of the limitations of conventional decision support as formulated in management accounting. Management policy reflections are highlighted for enhancing the decision process among work-group agents in certain decision contexts.Item The Research Journey: The other Aspect of the Academic Life as Seen Through a Doctoral Study(2013-12-09) Onumah, J.M.The paper examines the processes involved in doing especially a qualitative research, using the research study of this author during a doctoral research work once upon a time. The paper adds to the growing stance of qualitative-oriented researchers in accounting to defend the position of the qualitative approach in accounting research. The study adopts a case study strategy, but purely conceptual and descriptive, presenting the research procedure in the budgeting case-environment of the central government system of Ghana. The paper re-echoes the findings and recommendations of the doctoral study, which were put forward for improvement to the financial and accounting systems of the central government. It further shows the acceptability of any well researched paper, especially in accounting, devoid of any quantitatively-biased, modeling.Item Understanding the Taxpaying Behaviour of the Informal Sector of Ghana Towards Improved Public Revenue Mobilization(2013-12-09) Otieku, J.K.This paper examines the taxpaying behaviour among players in the informal sector (INFS) that accounts for their relatively low contribution to tax revenue in Ghana. The main reasons established for the hard-to-tax nature of the INFS include: predominance of cash transactions, high level of poor accounting practices and illiteracy rates among operators in the sector. It is therefore not surprising that the explanatory variables for the high tax non-compliance behaviour in the INFS include: unknowing, procedural, habitual, brokered/advised, protest/symbolic and asocial. Accounting non-compliance dominates non-compliance behaviour of the INFS. The poor response of the INFS to the tax amnesty policy initiated by the Government of Ghana in 2006 year of assessment lends credence to the low level of tax consciousness and awareness in the INFS in Ghana. Recommendations in respect of capacity building programmes in record keeping; intensive and sustained tax education programmes; simplification of tax filing procedures; etc are suggested to improve the contribution of the INFS to tax revenue in Ghana.