College Number
(Bottom Left of College Card) 100744209
Year: 3
Course Code MN3045
Course Tutor: Prof Jane Davison
Assignment No.: 1
Degree Title: Management with Accounting
Question No. & Title: Select a non-UK company and obtain its latest annual financial reporting documents. Introduction
Company’s annual financial reporting is an important tool to translate and transfer information of organization’s financial performance to shareholders and users. This report will choose Volkswagen AG’s 2014 annual financial reporting as the example to examine how the company to show its accounting works.
In this report, it firstly will attempts to examine the external and culture influences on the annual financial reporting. After that, the
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These differences dimensions of culture have complex impacts the behavior of accountants such as preparers, auditors, regulation-makers, and as well as on the accounting practices users (Gray, 1988). For examples in the Table 1, it outlines some effects of culture on accounting and financial statements.
Cultures Effects on accounting behaviors
High uncertainty avoidance and low individualism. Conservative measurement of income, limit disclosure.
Uncertainty avoidance decreased. Transparency increased.
Table 1.
However, it is difficult to find out specific evidences on the effects of culture on the company’s financial reporting within a large international firm due to some limitations. Firstly, the cultural data is not reliable in an accounting context (Nobes and Parker, 2012). For example, UK and Germany use different legal and accounting systems despite both of them are European countries. German companies are in operating under their own laws and policies. Secondly, compared with the measurement of direct relevant elements of the external environment of accounting such as legal systems or equity markets, the measurements of cultural influences within a company accounting system are vague and indirect (Nobes and parker, 2012). Culture measurement is complex, Hofstede’s theory doesn’t consider about the people which come from other countries and minority population that may have different cultural attributes
The purpose of this paper is to define accounting, and identify the four basic financial statements. The paper also explains how the different financial statements are interrelated to each other and why they are useful to managers, investors, creditors, and employees.
financial statements” (Waxman, 2013, p. xiii). It is the purpose of this paper to discuss some of
* Cultural differences across countries and regions of the world have complicated efforts to develop a common set of international accounting and auditing standards.
Gray identified four widely recognised accounting values that can be used to understand a nation’s accounting practices, which are professionalism, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy (Doupnik & Perera, 2015, p. 37). Professionalism verses statutory control is understood to be the difference between a nation’s preference for either individual professional judgement and self-regulation
An organizational leader, one with familiarity of financial statements and their impact on the business as a whole, has an opportunity to play a vital role in his or her position. The purpose of this paper is to collect, sort, and report on the financial data of publicly traded company. This is much like that which is performed by a Certified Public Accountant. In the case of this exercise, the information is presented from the perspective of a student and future business leader. A summary of both the company’s business and financial health is also included in this paper. Without further ado, let’s delve in to the company chosen for this assignment.
This paper will scrutinizes the actual impact of culture on financial management. Before I proceed to what I believe to be not only a factually inept argument of cultural influence on economics but also a grossly delusional and rather prejudiced view as well, I must first set some sort of context to what I am alluding to. The assignment stipulates for me to, address if the framework of financial management can apply to any country or culture. The simple and short answer to this is “no”, financial management is different depending on the country and or culture. For example Germans don’t buy into the same type of capital structure that North Americans do, nor do Muslims have the same type of financial system to that of the west. Simply put
Brazil, as a country, is teetering on the brink of prosperity while still firmly anchored in its turbulent past. Economically, Brazil poses to become a powerful force in the global marketplace. However, the cultural impacts of their society are evident in their accounting system and business practices. When compared with the United States, Brazil ranks much higher in power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. This leads business people in Brazil to maintain a higher level of secrecy, though not as high as countries like Japan. Additionally, Conservatism remains strong in Brazil, as well as uniformity; it is no surprise that the Brazilian accounting system closely resembles the rules prescribed by IFRS.
Ball, R. / Kothari, S. / Robin, A. (2000): The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 29, (2000) pp. 1-51.
Unlike here in the United States., financial statements of foreign companies are not always readily accessible. Most importantly, it is often not in English. However, an analyst or any interested party can always obtain a convenience translation of financial statements either through pay-database-services or by requesting it directly from the companies. Of course, different currency is also a concern. Yet, it can easily overcome by converting and translating previous years’ balances as well as current year’s balances (and line items) at current year currency exchange rate; this helps eliminating distortion and translation adjustments. Nevertheless, some other serious concerns such as terminologies discrepancies, general accepted accounting principles (GAAP) differences, and financial ratio analysis may still arise when analyzing “translated” foreign financial statements (Doupnik & Perera, 2012) .
The company’s annual report is important because it gives the shareholders a clear picture and understanding about how the company is doing financially. The annual reports provide thorough information on very significant section of the accounts, such as the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. The information presented in the annual report would also be essential to potential investor, employee, and any other people that may have interest in financial aspect of the business.
The purpose of this report is analysing and comparing financial data of five companies in one industry sector, which are listed in the U.K London Stock Exchange (LSE). By doing these, the business models employed are identified and evaluated, which consequently implies that the report is reinforcing our current knowledge in accounting and in the current market. Moreover this report is assessing how could a potential investor invest 50 million pounds among these five companies.
Abstract: The significance of cultural influence on business has been widely recognized in both academic and business circles. A number of authors suggest that an anthropological approach is the most appropriate way to study cultural factors and assess their impact on an organizational environment. This investigation draws attention to several important cultural issues in business utilizing an anthropological perspective. It probes the relationship between culture and human behavior,
The traditional financial report is established on the basis of historical cost ignoring the influence and lacking of social contribution. For this reason, it is accepted that the reflection and information from the traditional financial report is not complete (Blair, 1995). Meanwhile, the timely efficiency and forecasting of financial report is lack (Wallman, 1996). For instance, the soft assets including human resource and talent capital are not confirmed and evaluated properly. For this reason, the financial report should have more flexible modes in order to satisfy the shareholders’ requirements. Furthermore, the traditional financial report is shortage of social responsibility in enterprise’s exposure.
From the large, multi-national corporation down to the corner beauty salon, every business transaction will have an effect on a company's financial position. The financial position of a company is measured by the following items:
Understanding the influence of culture in business practices and managerial decision-making requires explaining the differences between cultures. This is why, Hofstede (appendix 1) presents a well-known model based on four dimensions of culture: