We draw upon the critical accounting literature to theorise what we see here as an accounting mobilisation and functioning in context. The manifestation entails ostensibly a progressive transparency and accountability and merits critical attention vis-à-vis concerns to better link accounting with the common good. We here find Gallhofer et al. (2015) and Gallhofer & Haslam (2017 (or less) useful framing, especially if, informed by critical studies that have problematised dimensions of transparency and accountability systems, their notions of the complex and multifaceted ambivalence of accounting systems are elaborated more explicitly vis-à-vis transparency and accountability. We focus upon the UK of Ch EU A D and the equivalent Transparency Directive provisions), which is ostensibly progressive legislation prescribing Reports on Payments to Governments. Our empirical study indicates both progressive and problematic dimensions of the accounting and its dynamics in context, extending theoretical appreciation including for praxis.

This paper examines the relationship between sentiment‐apt investors and UK stock returns at industry level over the period January 1988 to December 2017. Using two new sentiment proxies (laggards to leaders and growth opportunity index) for 10 discrete sector groupings, we provide novel evidence on how returns in the UK stock market react to the activities of sentiment‐disposed investors. First, using threshold nonlinear regression, we document a significant relationship between the laggards to leaders sentiment proxy and sectoral returns. Our findings reveal that aggregate returns in the sector are affected by activities of investors who embark on profit‐taking when there is an increase in the proportion of lagging to leading stocks beyond the threshold value. Secondly, when using the growth opportunity sentiment proxy, we report that the increase in growth above the growth threshold value has a significant impact on sector returns. This study further confirms significant impact of non‐threshold variables on sector groupings. Our findings are robust, having been subjected to a range of robustness checks.

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The study investigates why the value for money (VfM) audit,

Despite the increasing attention on the role of internationalization in firms' capital structure decisions, and the increasing adoption of zero leverage policies by multinationals, no study attempts to explain the effect of multi-nationality on the zero leverage decision. This study explores the relationship between the level of internationalization and zero leverage using a large panel of UK companies, while controlling for various company-related factors. We find strong evidence that multi-nationality affects the propensity of firms to have zero leverage and that this decision is affected by industry specificities. JEL classification: G32