• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.255-265
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• 2020

This study examines whether the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has increased financial statement comparability among firms and reduced undervaluation of Korean firms in the capital market by enhancing financial statement comparability. The so-called Korea Discount, which indicates an inefficient allocation of capital, has been attributed to lack of transparency and comparability of accounting information. Therefore, an efficient distribution of capital in the market was intended when IFRS was first adopted in Korea, but such progress is based on a premise of enhancement in Korean firms' accounting information comparability. This study conducts empirical analysis by using a comparability measure by De Franco et al. (2011). More specifically, it analyzes differences among comparability of domestic firms following IFRS adoption, with firms in the EU, which adopted IFRS in 2005, and with firms in the U.S., China and Japan that do not follow IFRS. The analysis of changes in domestic firms' comparability finds that their comparability improved following IFRS adoption. Meanwhile, the examination of cross-national differences in comparability demonstrates that, although there has been no significant change in comparability with firms in the U.S. and the EU across Korean industry since IFRS adoption, comparability with China has decreased while that with Japan improved.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.193-212
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• 2021

Purpose - This study investigates the effect of auditor change on client firm's accounting (financial statement) comparability. Design/methodology/approach - The comparability of accounting information is measured by the difference in accruals between the two firms. Additionally, the study uses earnings-stock return relationship as another proxy of accounting comparability. In particular, the paper examines whether there is a systematic difference between initial audit years and the other years with respect to the client firm's accounting comparability. Moreover, current study tests how changes in auditor size or industry expertise before and after the switch of auditors affect the accounting comparability. Findings - The results show that the level of accounting comparability is lower in the year of auditor change than in the other years. Furthermore, this lower level of comparability is derived by the observations that switch their auditors from non-Big4 to non-Big4 or from non-specialist to non-specialist. These results are consistent when accounting comparability is measured by different proxies. Research implications or Originality - The findings of this study provide important policy implications for the regulations related with auditor selection.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.259-281
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• 2018

Advocates of mandatory IFRS adoption claim that IFRS increase financial statement comparability, which in turn leads to greater cross-border investment(Securities and Exchange Commision, 2008). The notion is that improved financial statement comparability reduces the information acquisition costs of global investors and thereby increase their investment in foreign firms. The purpose of this study is to examine this assertion by examining whether the K-IFRS adoption rusults in improved comparability that leads to increased investment by foreign investment. We also examined whether the relation between comparability and foreign investment has strengthen after adoption of K-IFRS. To achieve the purpose of our study, we measure Korean firms comparability using stock price model, stock return model and cash flow from operation model by Barth et al.(2012). We use both foreign ownership in the end of year and average during the year for dependent variables were to reduce bias. We test our hypothesis using 1,817 firm-year observation of KOSPI firms during the period of our analysis, 2011-2015. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find K-IFRS adoption results in a greater increase in foreign investment in firms with high comparability firms. This result indicate that the adoption of K-IFRS intends to achieve the international accounting convergence as stated in the roadmap and to reduce the Korea Discount.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.141-154
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• 2014

The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the one of important issues in the recent accounting research because the change from local GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) to IFRS has a substantial effect on accounting information. Over 100 countries including Australia, China, Canada and the European Union member countries adopt IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) for financial reporting purposes, and several more including the United States and Japan are considering the adoption of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). In Korea, 61 firms voluntarily adopted Korean International Financial Reporting Standard (K-IFRS) in 2009 and 2010 and all listed firms mandatorily adopted K-IFRS (Korea-International Financial Reporting Standards) in 2011. The adoption of IFRS is expected to increase financial statement comparability, improve corporate transparency, increase the quality of financial reporting, and hence, provide benefits to investors This study investigates whether recognized accounts receivable discounting (AR discounting) under Korean International Financial Reporting Standard (K-IFRS) is more value relevant than disclosed AR discounting under Korean Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (K-GAAP). Because more rigorous standards are applied to the derecognition of AR discounting under K-IFRS(Korea-International Financial Reporting Standards), most AR discounting is recognized as a short term debt instead of being disclosed as a contingent liability unless all risks and rewards are transferred. In this research, I try to figure out industrial responses to the changes in accounting rules for the treatment of accounts receivable toward more strict standards in the recognition of sales which occurs with the adoption of Korea International Financial Reporting Standard. This study examines whether accounting information is more value-relevant, especially information on accounts receivable discounting (hereinafter, AR discounting) is value-relevant under K-IFRS (Korea-International Financial Reporting Standards). First, note that AR discounting involves the transfer of financial assets. Under Korean Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (K-GAAP), when firms discount AR to banks before the AR maturity, firms conventionally remove AR from the balance-sheet and report losses from AR discounting and disclose and explain the transactions in the footnotes. Under K-IFRS (Korea-International Financial Reporting Standards), however, most firms keep AR and add a short-term debt as same as discounted AR. This process increases the firms' leverage ratio and raises the concern to the firms about investors' reactions to worsening capital structures. Investors may experience the change in perceived risk of the firm. In the study sample, the average of AR discounting is 75.3 billion won (maximum 3.6 trillion won and minimum 18 million won), which is, on average 7.0% of assets (maximum 38.6% and minimum 0.002%), 26.2% of firms' accounts receivable (maximum 92.5% and minimum 0.003%) and 13.5% of total liabilities (maximum 69.5% and minimum 0.004%). After the adoption of K-IFRS (Korea-International Financial Reporting Standards), total liabilities increase by 13%p on average (maximum 103%p and minimum 0.004%p) attributable to AR discounting. The leverage ratio (total liabilities/total assets) increases by an average 2.4%p (maximum 16%p and minimum 0.001%p) and debt-to-equity ratio increases by average 14.6%p (maximum 134%p and minimum 0.006%) attributable to the recognition of AR discounting as a short-term debt. The structure of debts and equities of the companies engaging in factoring transactions are likely to be affected in the changes of accounting rule. I suggest that the changes in accounting provisions subsequent to Korea International Financial Reporting Standard adoption caused significant influence on the structure of firm's asset and liabilities. Due to this changes, the treatment of account receivable discounting have become critical. This paper proposes an intelligent diagnostic system for estimating negative impact on stock value with self-organizing maps and case based reasoning. To validate the usefulness of this proposed model, real data was analyzed. In order to get the significance of this proposed model, several models were compared to the research model. I found out that this proposed model provides satisfactory results with compared models.