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Reporting human and intellectual capital and its effects on corporate profitability has become a global issue following the introduction of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. This study was conducted to examine the effect of human and intellectual capital reporting on the profitability of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The ex-post facto research design was adopted involving the application of content analysis to extract required data from published financial reports of 23 sampled industrial and natural resources manufacturing companies selected purposively from 2009 to 2018. The Returns on Assets (ROA) was the proxy for profitability while the computed index values for human and intellectual capital reporting were the independent variables. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics from the multiple regression analysis models. Results showed that human and intellectual capital reporting has a significant positive effect on ROA with an R2 value of 13.8%, Fcal9.735, a-value HCR 0.187 and ICR 0.323; tcal value HCR 2.518, ICR 5.009 and Pvalue < 0.05. It was concluded that despite the fact listed manufacturing companies are yet to fully embrace human and intellectual capitals reporting, these categories of capitals have a significant positive effect on the profitability of manufacturing firms in Nigeria within the study period and companies should invest more in acquisition and enhancement of operational capability of these assets particularly in the phase of digital and knowledge economy that has pervaded the business landscape.

Keywords: Returns on Assets (ROA), Human Capital Reporting, Intellectual Capital Reporting, Digital Economy.

The purpose of this study is twofold. It investigates the relationship between business taxpayers’ return filing compliance (TRFC) and three important variables: taxable sales, tax penalty, and licensing experience. It also seeks to present new insight into the association between licensing experience and TRFC. The study sample consists of 150 business firms with service tax adjustment. Data are sourced from tax audit reports and a supporting database over the period of 2010 to 2012. The hypotheses are tested using multiple regression and ANOVA analysis. The results show that taxable sales and licensing experience are positively related to TRFC, whereas proportional penalty is significantly negative. There is a significant difference among the tax experience groups. The highest mean of tax returns is reached at 12-15 years of experience. The findings of this paper indicate that business TRFC is likely to improve with higher penalties and longer tax experience. Some taxpayers who file returns regularly and ‘on time’ may fail to file correct taxable sales. The study contributes to knowledge of tax research and would ultimately assist tax administration to enhance taxpayers’ filing compliance and audit planning.

Keywords: Filingcompliance, licensing experience, penalty, sales.

JEL Code: H32; K42; M4.

The environmental concerns of the world have increased over time. With the increased pressure from the public and other stakeholders, organizations report on their environmental activities and the associated impacts. Businesses are driven by the rule that ‘corporates have a responsibility beyond its basic responsibility to its shareholders’ and accordingly, they are held accountable for their actions on society and environment in ways of communicating environmental related information to the interested stakeholders. Accordingly, this study is designed to investigate the level of extent, quality and nature of environmental disclosures of Sri Lankan property development companies and concurrently judges whether the disclosures are inline with either of the two concepts ‘accountability’ and ‘legitimacy.’

The study has adopted a quantitative approach, followed by a content analysis with the application of Clarkson et al. (2008) and Tilt and Symes (2000) indexes. Out of (31) property development/real estate companies who were listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, a sample of 20 companies were selected for the study. The study’s findings revealed that property development companies’ environmental disclosures are more towards exercising accountability than practicing legitimacy. The study will provide valuable insights for corporations and business personnel to further develop environmental disclosures towards long-term sustainability.

Keywords: Environmental Disclosures, Accountability, Legitimacy, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI).

Academic dishonesty has been a matter of great concern in higher education during the last few decades. The problems of academic dishonesty have caused some significant concerns due to their intensity and their possibility to lead to the degradation of academic quality for both students and institutions. Furthermore, some researchers argued that academic dishonesty will affect one’s professional career. Knowing how accounting students feel about academic dishonesty is important. This study aimed to examine the perceptions of accounting students in Saudi Arabia’s universities on academic dishonesty, the prevalence of this phenomenon, as well as the reasons that motivate students to indulge in it. The study used a questionnaire survey to get information about this phenomenon in Saudi universities. The findings of the study revealed that accounting students in Saudi universities are aware of the behaviors that are considered academic dishonesty. The findings also revealed that academic dishonesty is a prevalent phenomenon among accounting students in Saudi universities. With respect to the reasons that lead students to academic dishonesty, the findings revealed that the most important reasons were: students’ desire to get a high GPA, students’ perception that their friends are engaging in academic dishonesty and as a result get high grades, time pressure, student’s desire to help friends to obtain even the lowest grade for passing the course and students’ perception that there is no punishment for these behaviors.

Keywords: Academic Dishonesty, Accounting Students, Universities, Saudi Arabia

The objective of this paper is to analyse if adopting Agile auditing improves audit efficiency. The study focuses on using Scrum and Kanban methodologies while going Agile. The research gap is identified in three areas, namely, absence of available literature on the given topic; respondents’ lack of knowledge on the given topic; and the scope of Agile methodologies. A quantitative method approach is followed, which includes an online survey questionnaire to collect data. A purposive sampling technique is used and 44 responses are received (33.6%). The data is analysed using SPSS 24.0. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is used to test the consistency of the survey questionnaire. The descriptive and nonparametric statistical methods (Mann Whitney U Test) are used to analyse the results. Using Agile methods improve communication, team engagement, transparency and autonomy. There is also a need for Agile auditing (90.9%) for increasing audit efficiency in companies. It is significant for the internal auditors to see the need for adopting Agile methodologies in their organization due to the longer audit cycle and disruption of the audits due to the changes in accounting and auditing standards. This paper contributes to the unexplored sector of the internal audit literature and includes evidence for the need of Agile auditing for improving audit efficiency. This study is also inclined to assist internal auditors who are seeking efficiency in their current audit models/processes by informing them about few widely used agility models. The findings include implications for audit practitioners in the transformation from traditional auditing to Agile auditing.

Keywords: Agile, Agile auditing, Scrum, Kanban, sprints, internal auditors, internal audit, traditional internal auditing, improved performance, efficient internal audit, valuable insights, audit cycle, COVID-19