PhD Dissertations

The efficient market hypothesis theorizes that current stock prices and returns reflect all relevant information. Stock prices and returns only change upon the emergence of new information. Firms must provide information to help investors make investment decisions. The concerns of owners, investors, business partners, stakeholders, and creditors about the financial position of a company calls for appropriate performance measurement tools (i.e., discriminate between investment opportunities and effect of stock volatility). Most often, they rely on publicly available accounting and market indicators. There is also a lack of financial analysis techniques on financial indicators that can discriminate between performing and underperforming companies. The extant literature is inconclusive about the impacts of accounting and market indicators on stock price and return, likely due to its implicit assumption that they are direct. An alternative perspective, one that has met with little investigation, is that the impact may be influenced by a mediator, such as stock volatility. Against these issues, this study built on past research to: 1) investigate the impact of accounting and market indicators on stock price and return; 2) evaluate company performance and distinguish companies into performing and underperforming; and 3) investigate the mediating effect of stock volatility on relationships between accounting and market indicators and stock price and return. Therefore, investors and stakeholders can predict stock validity using indicators that reflect the performance of firms’ operating activities. Additionally, they enable policymakers and market regulators to make rational decisions to enhance investment policies. The study analyzed a panel data of 63 companies constituting the Amman Stock Exchange General Index from 2008 to 2018 using ordinary and generalized least squares regression models, multiple discriminant analysis, and structural equation modelling. The findings showed that: 1) earnings per share (EPS), return on asset (ROA), market capitalization (MC), stock turnover ratio (STR), and book value per share (BPS) significantly and positively affected stock price; 2) total asset turnover (TOA), ROA, EPS, STR, and price-to-book value (PBV) significantly and positively affected stock return; 3) STR, EPS, and TOA significantly discriminated between performing and underperforming companies; 4) stock price volatility fully and positively mediated the relationship between STR and stock price; and 5) stock return volatility fully and positively mediated the relationship between MC and STR and stock return. The results were robust, and they evinced that accounting and market indicators, which are the main references of financial information, are reflected on company performance. The results are expected to provide an informative guideline to researchers to design appropriate performance evaluation models (e.g., Z-score models and mediation models); investors to choose the best investment opportunities in ASE; and financial policymakers to improve investment policies in Jordan. Investors, especially, may refer to the findings to help them make short-term investment decisions. Academics could also adopt the novel research models to evaluate company performance while accounting for stock volatility, allowing them to identify high performing firms and rank companies by performance. Future studies may consider replicating the analysis in developed and other emerging markets.

The study aims to analyze the factors of external audit quality that accountants and internal auditors believe are significant in Palestinian municipalities. Moreover, the study aims to examine the influences of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) on the links between external audit quality and its factors. These factors include auditor characteristics, audit firm attributes, and the effectiveness of municipal internal control in the municipalities. The study's data were gathered from secondary and primary sources. The secondary data was gathered from previous research as well as the annual and interim reports of the Palestinian SAIs. Furthermore, the study used a questionnaire survey that distributed to over than 309 accountants and internal auditors in 155 Palestinian municipalities who have firsthand knowledge of the financial statements under audit and are in constant contact with external auditors. SmartPLS3 software used in the statistical analysis of the data obtained from 186 survey respondents. The study found significant and positive relationships between audit quality and its determinants: auditor characteristics with dimensions of ethics, independence, and competence; audit firm attributes with dimensions of audit fees and audit firm size; and effectiveness of municipal internal control with dimensions of internal auditing, accounting basis, and laws and regulations. Furthermore, the findings revealed that supreme audit institutions moderated negatively the relationship between audit firm attributes and audit quality, but positively the relationship between auditor characteristics and audit quality, as well as the relationship between the effectiveness of municipal internal control and audit quality. This study not only contributes in expanding the literature concerning audit quality in Palestinian municipalities, it also provides meaningful guideline to the audit profession regulators and government in setting the audit standards and procedures, municipal management in hiring high-quality auditors, and audit firms in providing a high-audit quality. Finally, this study considered a few restrictions and recommendations for further investigation in new aspects of audit quality in the public sector organizations.

Corporate social responsibility is a comprehensive approach of a company that determines the amount of the organization’s contribution to society and the use of its available resources in a responsible manner. Previous studies indicate limited contributions of Palestinian-listed companies to social issues and low levels of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD). The objectives of the study are to examine the level of CSRD of Palestinian companies and the relationship between independence, size, ownership, gender diversity, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee and ethical commitment of the Board of Directors (BOD) on the level of CSRD and financial performance of Palestinian companies. In addition, the objectives of the study are to examine whether financial performance mediates the relationship between independence, size, ownership, gender diversity, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee and ethical commitment of the Board of Directors (BOD) and CSRD in Palestinian companies. The sample of this study comprises 31 companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2021. This study adopted agency theory and resource dependence theory, and OLS multiple linear regression was employed to examine the relationship between the variables. The results showed that the level of CSRD in Palestinian companies is 29.5%. Furthermore, independence, size, gender diversity, CSR committee, and ethical commitment of BOD have a positive and significant relationship with CSRD. There is also a positive and significant relationship between size, gender diversity, CSR committee and ethical commitment of BOD and financial performance. Financial performance was found to mediate the relationship of independence, size, gender diversity, CSR committee and ethical commitment of BOD and CSRD. It is suggested that the Palestinian Stock Exchange should place more efforts to highlight the importance of CSR through seminars and workshops and provide tax exemption for CSR efforts done by the companies. The Palestinian Code of Corporate Governance should also provide guidelines on specific attributes of the board of directors, such as the nature of the educational qualification and level of experience, specifying a percentage of women’s representation on BOD and ensuring BOD instil an ethical culture in their organization to enhance CSRD in Palestinian companies.

The world has seen numerous accounting scandals and widespread power abuse, which seem to be ongoing problems in business and financial industries. Over the last decade, many efforts have been taken to ensure that the Enron scandal would never be repeated. This includes integrating ethics courses in accounting programs at the universities. This research aims to examine the effectiveness of Business Ethics and Corporate Governance (BE & CG), a core course offered for undergraduate accounting students by all public universities in Malaysia, and its effect on the Islamic ethical behavior of accounting students. Using constructivist theory and the theory of reasoned action, the study examined the relationships between the teaching and learning approaches with the Islamic ethical behavior of accounting students. These relationships are mediated by a deep learning approach. This study was conducted using a survey questionnaire method, and the sample comprise of the undergraduate accounting students enrolled in BE & CG course in three universities in Malaysia that are categorized as Islamic-based universities, namely Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM). There are five hypotheses developed for this study where hypothesis 5 involved pre and post-test. The data is analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0. Overall, constructive teaching approach is dominant in this study which led to the use of a deep learning approach by the students. This study also found that even though accounting students already possess good Islamic ethical behavior prior to the ethics course, Islamic ethical behavior improved after ethics intervention which proved the significant relationship between the two variables. There are theoretical and practical implications from this study. For the theoretical implications, this study contributes to the dearth of literature especially for pedagogy in the accounting discipline. Besides, the use of deep learning approach (DLA) as a mediator and also the development of Islamic ethical behavior (IEB) index serve different research perspective on ethics especially in accounting. For the practical implications, this study provide valuable insights for various parties such as course instructors, course advisors and regulators, and researchers related to ethics and accounting education, in which can help to improved accounting curriculum in higher learning institutions.