محمدعلی باقرپور ولاشانی

The study aims to investigate and comparatively identify the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on fraudulent reporting motives in three emerging markets, namely Iran, Iraq, and Egypt. The present research method is a descriptive survey. The statistical population consists of independent auditors in three countries, and field methods and questionnaires have been used to collect data. The results indicate that COVID-19 pandemic affects management motives for committing fraud. They include respectively: sudden personal financial needs, need to receive financial resources for firm, pressure from owners in family companies, tax incentives, greed, government pressure in state-owned firms, concealing financial distress, avoidance of exclusion or deterioration in stock market, trust and self-esteem, tendency to increase compensation/payment of the management, pressure due to threats and compulsion, concealment of personal and illegal exploitation of assets, implementation or going beyond analysts’ forecasts, high levels of market competition, revenge, manager’s culture and values, management ideology or beliefs, and comparison of social status. This is the first study to investigate and compare the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fraudulent reporting incentives in emerging markets. Further, this study was conducted in three countries of Iran, Iraq, and Egypt, which have different contextual conditions (political, economic, cultural, etc.), indicating the impact of environmental conditions on the effects of Covid outbreaks. It can help stakeholders, including legislators,  capital market regulators and auditors in other markets, especially emerging markets, to deal with the risk of fraudulent reporting during the COVID -19 and other similar crises.

Purpose- The present study aims to figure out whether audit market competition and large shareholders and auditor’s interlock(Interlocking) is associated with the quality of financial reporting or not. Design/Methodology/Approach - The auditor’s concentration is used for audit market competition for this study's purpose. The absolute value of accruals is employed for measuring the financial reporting quality. The required information is collected from 112 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2012-2018 and analyzed using the pooled regression model. Findings - The study results show that auditor’s competition is associated positively with accruals and negatively and significantly with financial reporting quality. The findings also indicate that the quality of financial reporting goes up by declining competition in the audit market and increasing the auditors' interlock and large shareholders. Originality/value - In contrast to the conducted studies on different types of interlock, this paper has focused on the interlock of large shareholders and auditors in an emerging market with increased competition

This research study is aimed to investigate barriers and problems of establishment process of integrated accounting information systems (IAIS) in the universities of an emerging market (Iran) in order to facilitate their establishment. The research population includes Iranian state universities’ CFO and his/her deputy, as well as IT specialists involved in the process of establishment of IAIS in those universities in 2016 and 2017.  The required data was collection using a questionnaire designed and developed by the researchers in accordance with the     literature (there was no standard questionnaire).The collected data was analyzed at three levels "Total population (Population) ", "CFO or Deputy" (Managers) and "IT Specialists"(Specialists). The results at “Population " level show that the most important problem is related to” design and establishment of the IAIS" and problems related to “project analysis and risk” and “plan” are the least important. Other problems are “employees“, “culture”, “managers”, “and level of information technology and information systems in the university”. From the Managers and Specialists’ point of view problems related to "design and establishment of IAIS” have the most importance. This case study would be of value to regulators, senior managers, system analysts, university authorities especially CFOs and IT managers, and researcher especially in developing and emerging markets.