The objective of this paper is to identify the determinants of sovereign credit rating. This study including 53 countries in the study covers from year 2000 to 2011. This study examines nine macroeconomic variables and extended by using three qualitative variables, i.e., history of default, economic development and economic freedom. The results are consistent with previous studies that some macroeconomics variables are determinants of rating. Furthermore, the economic freedom variable serves as a vital factor in determining sovereign credit rating that has been overlooked by the previous studies. This study has added new findings and indicates that the economic freedom of country is decisive factor in assessment.

The insurance industry plays the roles of intermediary, provider of financial services and risk transferor. These important roles have created strong demand for insurance products. Strong financial fundamentals combined with industry strength are vital for insurance-based companies to continuously do well in their business. This paper analyses the Earnings Response Coefficients (ERCs) and the financial performance of insurance-based companies in Malaysia. This analysis covers a period of 5 years from the year 2007 to the year 2011.This study also investigates the relationship between growth opportunity for the insurance industry in Malaysia and earned premium income, net investment income, net claims incurred, commissions paid, total assets and total liabilities as the specific factors of an insurance firm. As discovered in other studies, ERCs are found to be significant. In addition, among the six variables, only commission paid shows a significant result in affecting growth opportunities. A significant negative relationship is found between commissions paid and growth opportunities for the insurance industry in Malaysia. The significant relationship suggests that insurance companies should adequately implement or administer arrangements in their commissions paid policy.

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This study aim to investigate the effect of voluntary disclosures on earnings response and company performance in Malaysian listed companies control for profitability, leverage and size.. In the study using disclosure index adopted by Botosan (1997) to measure the scope of voluntary disclosure index; earnings response coefficient (ERC) is measure the regression of abnormal return and unexpected earnings; and company performance such as profitability, leverage and size of company are used in the measurement. The results concluded that voluntary disclosure has positive effect on earning response coefficient (ERC). And the unexpected earnings also have a significant positive effect on earnings response coefficient (ERC). On the other hand, it can explain that expected voluntary disclosure affect to investor reaction.

Brazil, India, and China have been emerged as the new markets for multinational corporations (MNCs).The opportunities for Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in other emerging markets are infinite, but before a MNC decides to invest, there are some questions that they should be asked by themselves about IT infrastructure, cultural issues, distribution networks and business model. With considering the large middle class, vast resources, privatization and economic reforms, these countries now offer a great deal of investment opportunities. This paper has quantitative analysis that studies the difference between local market from cultural issues and IT infrastructure of these emerging markets from the prospect for investing American companies in the countries. For Distinguishing between low, medium and high IT infrastructure of the countries, we used the number of fixed line, mobile phone subscribers and internet users. According to the results, Brazil is the best choice for American multinational firms from local market and IT infrastructure point of view, India is lowest class and China is the middle class emerging market between these host countries.