Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alessandra Allini Author-Name: Francesca Manes Rossi Author-Name: Riccardo Macchioni Title: Do Corporate Governance Characteristics Affect Non-Financial Risk Disclosure in Government-owned Companies? The Italian Experience Abstract: While a considerable amount of research has already been carried out into the corporate governance determinants of non-financial risk disclosure in companies in the private sector, such determinants in the annual reports of listed Governmentowned Companies (LGCs) have yet to be investigated fully. This study attempts to complete the picture. Italian LGCs have been selected for analysis and agency theory has been applied in the public sector under the accountability paradigm. The research investigates whether non-financial risk disclosure provided in the Management Commentary (MC) of Italian LGCs may be affected by ownership concentration, corporate governance mechanisms and company-specific features. The issue is of particular importance in a country where Government intervention has significantly affected its economic development since the nineteenth century. Our findings show that there is a relationship between the level of non-financial risk disclosure and Board diversity, leverage and sector. Our findings also reveal some useful insights concerning policy makers and standard setters. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:5-31 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51804&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001001 Number: 1 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=51804 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Riccardo Cimini Author-Name: Alessandro Gaetano Author-Name: Alessandra Pagani Title: The relation between R&D accounting treatment and the risk of the firm: Evidence from the Italian market Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the relation between the different accounting treatments of R&D expenditures and the risk of the entity in order to identify under which treatment insiders are more likely to carry out earnings management. By analysing the R&D investment strategies of a sample of 137 listed Italian entities that complied with the requirements of IAS 38 during fiscal year 2009, following Lantz and Sahut (2005), we calculate several indexes that show the preferences of insiders to account R&D expenditures as costs or capital assets, and we study the relation of such preferences with the risk of the entity, which we measure with the unlevered beta. We hypothesize that the entities, which considered the R&D investments as costs, are the riskiest ones due to the higher probability that insiders carried out earnings management. Our results confirm such hypothesis. This paper could have implications for academics and standard setters that could learn that behind accounting discretion, insiders could opportunistically behave against outsiders. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:33-54 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51805&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001002 Number: 2 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=51805 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tatiana Mazza Author-Name: Stefano Azzali Title: The Severity of Internal Controls over Financial Reporting Deficiencies: Differences among Types and Industries Abstract: This study analyzes the severity of Internal Control over Financial Reporting deficiencies (Deficiencies, Significant Deficiencies and Material Weaknesses) in a sample of Italian listed companies, in the period 2007- 2012. Using proprietary data the severity of the deficiencies is tested for account-specific, entity level and information technology controls and for industries (manufacturing and services vs finance industries). The results on ICD severity is compared with one of the most frequent ICD (Acc_Period End/Accounting Policies): for account-specific, ICD in revenues, purchase, fixed assets and intangible, loans and insurance are more severe while ICD in Inventory are less severe. Differences in ICD severity have been found in the characteristic account: ICD in loan and insurance for finance industry and ICD in revenue, purchase for manufacturing and service industry are more severe. Finally, we found that ICD in entity level and information technology controls are less severe than account specific ICD in all industries. However, the results on entity level and information technology deficiencies could also mean that the importance of these types of control are under-evaluated by the manufacturing and service companies. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:55-77 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51806&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001003 Number: 3 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=51806 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ales Novak Title: Business Model Literature Overview Abstract: The term ?business model' has recently attracted increased attention in the context of financial reporting and was formally introduced into the IFRS literature when IFRS 9 Financial Instruments was published in November 2009. However, IFRS 9 did not fully define the term ?business model?. Furthermore, the literature on business models is quite diverse. It has been conducted in largely isolated fashion; therefore, no generally accepted definition of ?business model' has emerged. Therefore, a better understanding of the notion itself should be developed before further investigating its potential role within financial reporting. The aim of this paper is to highlight some of the perceived key themes and to identify other bases for grouping/organizing the literature based on business models. The contributions this paper makes to the literature are twofold: first, it complements previous review papers on business models; second, it contains a clear position on the distinction between the notions of the business model and strategy, which many authors identify as a key element in better explaining and communicating the notion of the business model. In this author?s opinion, the term ?strategy? is a dynamic and forward-looking notion, a sort of directional roadmap for future courses of action, whereas, ?business model? is a more static notion, reflecting the conceptualisation of the company?s underlying core business logic. The conclusion contains the author?s thoughts on the role of the business model in financial reporting. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:79-130 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51807&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001004 Number: 4 X-File-Ref: http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/References.ashx?idArticolo=51807 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Raffaele Fiume Author-Name: Tiziano Onesti Author-Name: Giuseppe Sannino Title: Dialogue with standard setters. Removing ?reliability? from the IAS/IFRS framework. The EFRAG?s viewpoint Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:131-138 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51808&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001005 Number: 5 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: David Monciardini Title: Book Review Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:139-146 Volume: 2014/1 Year: 2014 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51809&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:Frfrfr:v:html10.3280/FR2014-001006 Number: 6