No abstract

The Internet has been described as a new platform for distributing financial information. It is a platform that exhibits distinctive and attractive features that make it an effective option when compared with the traditional platform. In this context, the objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions of Malaysian chief financial officers (CFOs) on the usefulness, vis-a-vis benefits and costs, of the reporting and disclosure of financial information on the corporate Web sites. The perceptions of the controllers were solicited using a mailed questionnaire which achieved a response rate of 35.04 per cent. Taken as a whole, the findings of the study suggest that generally the benefits, both to the companies and the users of financial information, are perceived to be greater than the costs (thus, useful) of adopting the Internet as another means of disclosing and distributing corporate financial information. In addition, it has been found that firm's size and profitability are significant factors motivating the decision to have corporate Web sites and to disclose financial information on such sites. The industry effect has been found only to significantly influence companies' decision whether to either have corporate Web sites or not. Plausible implications of the findings of the study are presented and areas for future research are also proposed.

No abstract

This study examines the adoption and acceptance of information technology from the perspective of Malaysian
bankers. The results of the study indicate that majority of Malaysian bankers heavily used computer for routine
jobs such as paper work and data maintenance but rarely use the computer for advance functions such as
business analysis, planning and decision making. Malaysian bankers also rarely used professional software for
specific purposes such as statistical analysis or programming languages. The regression result of this study
appeared to suggest that perceived usefulness, management support and external computing support were found
to be the most influential factors in determining microcomputer usage among bankers in Malaysia. Overall, the
results of this study are valuable to both researchers and bank management in providing new insights about the
IT from bankers’ point of view.

External auditors are required by the auditing standards to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatements. Inability of the external auditors to detect material misstatements, particularly fraud, may expose the external auditors to litigation. The present study aims to examine the moderating effect of personality factors (that are neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness) on the relationship between the external auditors' ability to assess fraud risk and their ability to detect the likelihood of fraud. The present study utilizes an experimental approach by sending case materials to audit partners or audit managers attached to auditing firms operating in Malaysia.The result, however, shows that none of the personality factors has moderating effect on the relationship between the external auditors' ability to assess fraud risk and their ability to detect the likelihood of fraud.