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This study explores the relationship between gender diversity in South African audit committees and financial reporting quality (FRQ) of non-financial companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 2020 to 2024. A quantitative approach was employed to investigate these relationships, utilising an ex post facto design to collect data from the Osiris database and integrated annual reports. Gender diversity within audit committees was assessed using several measures: dummy variables indicating whether an audit committee had one female director (ACFD1) or two or more female directors (ACFD2), as well as the proportion of females on the committee (ACGD) and its square (ACGD²). FRQ was assessed using earnings management (EM), evaluated through accrual earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM). The study applied both linear and curvilinear models, using fixed-effects models and Two-Stage Least Squares to test the hypotheses. The regression results revealed that ACFD1 had an insignificant negative impact on AEM and an insignificant positive impact on REM. In contrast, ACFD2 showed a significant negative impact on both AEM and REM. Additionally, ACGD had a significant positive impact on AEM, while ACGD² exhibited a significant negative impact. For REM, ACGD also had a significant positive effect, whereas ACGD² demonstrated a significant negative impact. These results indicate that audit committee gender diversity has an inverted U-shaped effect on both AEM and REM. The study's inverted U-shaped results align with critical mass theory, which suggests that a balanced representation of female directors (between 40% and 60%) can reduce earnings manipulation and enhance FRQ. Furthermore, these results provide a strong business case for increasing female representation to critical-mass levels, thereby minimising EM. Theoretically, this research underscores the importance of critical mass and collective action when examining the economic benefits of gender diversity in audit committees. Regulators are encouraged to consider audit committee gender diversity beyond mere numbers.

The study investigates governance challenges in South Africa’s state-owned entities (SOEs) by assessing disclosures provided in SOEs’ annual reports and financial statements regarding fraud, unauthorised expenditure, irregular expenditure, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure between 2022 and 2024, in line with section 55 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) No. 1 of 1999. Adopting an interpretivist research philosophy, the study utilizes qualitative methods through a content analysis of the annual reports and financial statements of the five sampled SOEs. The analysis revealed that, although the selected SOEs demonstrated partial compliance with Section 55 of the PFMA, significant governance and reporting shortcomings persist. While most SOEs maintained records and produced financial statements, none provided evidence of submitting these reports within the required timeframes, and one entity had not produced its 2024 reports by the cut-off date of 10 October 2025. The financial statements frequently lacked a fair and accurate reflection of each SOE’s financial position and performance. Disclosures related to financial misconduct were particularly weak and inconsistent, with irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure reported more often than cases of fraud or unauthorised expenditure, which were largely omitted. These disclosure shortcomings suggest that compliance among SOEs remains superficial and procedural rather than substantive, undermining accountability, transparency and the overall integrity of financial reporting.

This study examines how formal and informal institutional pressures influence public sector financial reporting quality in Ghana. Despite ongoing public financial management reforms, challenges such as weak enforcement of standards, inconsistent disclosures, and limited transparency continue to undermine reporting quality. Existing research has largely emphasised technical and administrative determinants, with limited attention to the role of institutional pressures in shaping reporting behaviour. Grounded in Institutional Theory, the study adopts a quantitative approach and collects data from 344 senior finance officers across ministries, departments, and agencies in Ghana. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is employed to analyse the relationships between regulatory environment, government structure, societal expectations, stakeholder expectations, and financial reporting quality. The results indicate that government structure and societal expectations significantly enhance financial reporting quality, while the regulatory environment and stakeholder expectations have no significant direct effects. The study contributes to institutional theory by demonstrating that formal and informal pressures exert unequal influence in a developing-country public sector context. It also extends public sector accounting literature by providing large-sample empirical evidence from Ghana. The findings suggest that improving reporting quality requires strengthening governance structures, enhancing civic accountability mechanisms, and improving enforcement capacity.

This study investigates the impact of financial and pension factors, including funding ratios, pension accounting modifications, and anticipated future cash flows, on disclosure practices in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Although previous studies have provided significant insights into the correlation among pension variables, corporate attributes, and disclosure levels, empirical information in IFRS jurisdictions is still few. To rectify this deficiency, we examine the factors influencing key actuarial estimate (CAE) disclosures and the actual variations in discount rates and anticipated asset returns, utilising panel data from 173 German companies (DAX, MDAX, SDAX), encompassing 1,057 and 1,352 firm-year observations, respectively. Employing the deferred remuneration theory as a framework, the findings reveal that greater firm size and regulatory status enhance the sensitivity of discount rates and anticipated returns, whereas extensive litigation disclosures diminish both. Profitability is positively correlated with sensitivity, whereas a weaker financed status exerts a mitigating influence. The correlations are most robust and consistent among DAX and MDAX companies, but less so among SDAX companies. The model exhibits a high overall fit, with R² values between 0.38 and 0.72. The results indicate that management of larger, regulated enterprises must be particularly vigilant about the formulation and dissemination of pension-related assumptions, as disclosure decisions can significantly affect market reactions. This study enhances comprehension of the factors and implications of pension assumption disclosures by presenting comparative evidence from significant German indices, thereby proposing practical recommendations for company policy and regulatory supervision. This work theoretically expands the deferred remuneration theory (DRT) by illustrating that the intensity and orientation of compensation–disclosure interactions differ systematically based on firm size, governance structure, and financial attributes. This indicates that the amount and direction of the relationship between remuneration and disclosure are not consistent, contrary to DRT's assumption. Instead, they exhibit consistent variation based on firm size, governance frameworks, and critical financial performance metrics.