Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review

During the recent years, the accounting scandals have multiplied (Enron, Worldcom, Xerox,). Several factors have contributed to these scandals. Among these factors we find the quality of audit. This paper examines the impact of audit quality on earnings quality. Audit quality is measured by financial statements audited by one of Big 4 auditing firms. Earning quality is measured by the predictability power of time series of earnings for firm financial statement audited by one of Big 4 auditing firm and those audited by non Big 4 auditing firms. Based on a sample of around 4030 firm-year observations in the French and US market during ten years (2004-2013), we document evidence that earnings quality is better when financial statements are audited by one of Big 4 auditing firms. Nevertheless, earnings quality of US companies are more associated with audit quality than those of French companies.

The purpose of this paper is effectively resolving the issue of simplification and assignment evaluation index system on business costs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Shanghai. We try to use factor analysis to interpret the data on indicators and considering objective empowerment with entropy method. We show that combination factor analysis and entropy method to evaluate business cost for SMEs has advantages. We make an empirical analysis using of a sample of 36 SMEs in shanghai. Finally, we show that Factor-Entropy analysis method is an objective evaluation method, which indicators can reflect and explain scientific phenomena. We find that proposals to help developing of SMEs and manage business costs.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and present that separate capabilities of knowledge management (KM) are identified and classified as sequential capability. These KM capabilities are utilized to affect organizational performance with a KM-cyclic view. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a literature review research, through which KM capability and performance are identified, synthesized, from related books, literature and other research studies. Using key-word search in electronic databases, we generated a fairly exhaustive list of the articles dealing with the topic of KM capability in the period of 1979 to 2010 as well as various sources were extended from searching results. A total of 60 articles were identified for KM capability and 30 articles for performance measurement. Findings: The results of the research suggest two main aspects: 1) The KM capabilities were organized as four categories with cyclic view: acquisition/creation, conversion, sharing, and application. 2) The KM performance measurements were classified as two categories: non-financial and financial measurements. Research limitations/implications: There is a need to undertake empirical research and in-depth case studies of knowledge management practices using a KM cyclic view as a framework with which to interpret findings. Originality/value: The KM cyclic view is used to make some recommendations on appropriate research approaches to further our understanding of relationship of KM capability and performance in research. This also provides future researchers with useful means to assess the KM performance in different KM capability and to realize the benefits of a knowledge-based economy.

The aim of this study was to explore if culture traits and their imbalance had influence on employee job satisfaction and turnover intentions. It was expected that the overall culture and the traits oriented towards the two contrasts of external adaption and internal integration on one hand, and change and stability on the other, would all have positive and negative associations with job satisfaction and turnover intentions respectively. It was further expected that the imbalance of traits would significantly influence job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The study was based on the survey of all employees in a manufacturing company in Lesotho. There were generally positive and negative associations between culture and job satisfaction and turnover intentions respectively. Though the measure of the imbalance of traits was positively and significantly related to turnover intentions at 99 percent confidence level, it was only negatively related to job satisfaction at 90 percent confidence level. The post hoc tests indicated that the imbalance between flexibility (change) and stability traits were responsible for the positive effects on turnover intentions. The results, managerial implications and prospects for future research are discussed.

Older persons are a particularly vulnerable group of people, due to a decline in their physical, mental and consequently economic powers. In Nigeria, westernization and urbanization is also eroding away the traditional extended family kinship system which hitherto took care of the elderly. Social security systems that have been in evolution right from the colonial era have not been very effective owing in the main, to administrative negligence, poor planning and poor policy implementation. To stem this tide, the Nigerian government introduced the pensions reform in 2004. This paper seeks to examine the evolution of pension fund administration in Nigeria, the problems associated with the scheme, and suggests ways in which the scheme may be improved to better the lot of retirees.