Disclosure quality is a matter of great importance in the accounting literature. This study examines the effect of audit fees, audit firm size and audit opinion on the quality of disclosures. It focuses on a sample of low-quality financial statements in Jordan that have been reported as breaches by the Jordanian Securities Commission (JSC). Data were collected from the financial statements of the manufacturing and services companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2009 to 2016. The logistic regression results suggest that audit fees have a positive significant effect, while audit opinion has a negative significant effect on actual violations. However, audit firm size was found to be insignificant in relation to the level of violations.

While the effect of ownership structure on the level of cash holdings has been widely examined, that of government ownership has been understudied. Using a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on the panel data of 107 Jordanian firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, this research adds to the limited literature on the relationship between government ownership and the level of corporate cash holdings. Consistent with agency theory, the findings reveal that firms with government ownership hold higher levels of cash and that such ownership creates agency problems. Other types of ownership, namely individual, foreign, and block holders, were found to be insignificant. The results provide an important implication for policy makers in Jordan: in order to reduce agency problems associated with government ownership, the government should revise its ownership policy and ensure it specifies clear purposes and expectations of business ownership and how it intends to exercise its rights as owner.

This study offers new insights to help improve our understanding of the impact of female representation on firm performance, as measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) and using non-financial institution data from Jordan. The study utilizes a lagged dependent variable in the regression models by employing the generalized method of moments (GMM) for dynamic panel analysis of the panel data of 77 companies over the period 2008-2018. The results of the regression analysis reveal that leverage, board size, and firm size were positive and statistically significant, while the age of the firm was statistically significant but had a negative effect, which indicates the existence of a relationship between these variables and the performance of Jordanian companies. However, the results fail to show any effect of the impact of female representation on firm performance as measured by return on assets and return on equity. This finding might be attributed to the low representation of females on non financial institution boards, which was only 3.63%, a very low figure compared to that of males on Jordanian boards. Therefore, our results are valid only for Jordanian firms and cannot be generalized to ones in other countries, which might have different cultural and legal perspectives.

This paper proposes new tests for financing constraints on R&D investment by directly examining the role played by working capital in smoothing the R&D expenditures of firms listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. It emphasizes the importance of working capital, not only for use but also as a source of funds. The findings offer new evidence for why levels of liquidity are important for R&Dintensive firms. Working capital alleviates the effects of transient finance shocks on the level of R&D, thereby averting the high adjustment costs that accompany changes in R&D.

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of low-quality financial statements; that is, disclosure violations reported by the Securities Exchange Commission related to the level of cash holdings (CH) of firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Design/methodology/approach Using panel data from 107 ASE-listed companies from 2009 to 2018, the study uses generalized method of moment estimation to examine the research hypothesis. This study hypothesize that disclosure violations can affect the level of CH and control for several variables that affect this level. Findings The results show that disclosure violations significantly affect the level of CH and that cash flow, capital expenditure and debt issues have a significantly positive impact on corporate CH. On the other hand, the market to book ratio and sales growth were found to be insignificant. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the research include the fact that information on research and development and equity issues were not available, so were not included in the examination. Practical implications It is recommended that managers enhance the quality of disclosures since this allows them to hold lower levels of cash and exploit more investment opportunities. Policymakers are recommended to supervise firm disclosures closely and create ratings for disclosure quality. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical research on the association between proven low-quality disclosures and the level of corporate CH among Jordanian listed companies.