Revista de Gestão, Finanças e Contabilidade

30-56

Authors: Nuno Miguel Teixeira, Elves Rodrigues

This paper aims to analyze the financial sustentability versus social impact of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa region. The sample consisted of 246 microfinance institutions present in this region that have their results published in the database of the organization MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange) in 2009, which is the most complete source of information of the sector. For the study, we considered various social and financial indicators that are a reference for specialized entities in evaluating the performance of microfinance institutions (as in the case of MIX and Planet Rating) and are typically used in similar research. In accordance with the results obtained institutions with lower amounts of loans to GDP per capita of the respective country in which they perform the activity can have a far social reaching, because they concede smaller borrows, whose target are customers with less income and cover a greater number of women in their financial operations. It was evident, too, the existence of trade-off between social impact and financial performance, in other words, the institutions that had the poor as its target, showed economic and financial indicators less positive. Generally, it was found that institutions with greater focus on the poorest obtained lower profitability’s, although offered higher interest rates and had better efficiency indicators in the activity. Regarding financial structure, it was found that these institutions do not have much capacity to attract deposits and present a higher financial autonomy against other, possibly because access to more donations or grants, once the average results generated in the activity are negative and by itself does not guarantee financial sustainability. Finally, we studied the constraints of the financial performance of microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa region and it was found that it is mainly the size and efficiency that affect the profitability of the activity.

75-93

Authors: Francisca Soraia Ferreira Leite, Hugo Santana de Figueirêdo Junior, Vicente Lima Crisóstomo

With the changes in the business environment, intangible assets, potentially generated by the intellectual capital, have become more relevant. This study aimed to analyze and test the applicability of an alternative business performance metric: profit per employee (PE). An exploratory research was conducted through case studies of three companies listed in BM&FBOVESPA in the period 2006-2009. From the firms’ financial reports, firms' performance were measured using ROA, ROE, and the PE. Share prices were used as proxy for value creation. An empirical study showed that the correlation between PE and share prices was higher and more significant than the correlation with traditional metrics for the firm most intensive in intellectual capital. For the other firms, traditional metrics presented higher correlation. Hence, the PE seems to be relevant for companies intensive on intellectual capital. This finding highlights that this business performance metric, which includes the effect of the intellectual workforce, is an important contribution to the literature on intangibles.

114-129

Authors: Ahmed Sameer El Khatib, Samir Sayed

This paper presents the differences between the accounting conceptual structures of two institutions: the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI). In Accounting Theory, the conceptual frameworks adopted are the closest manifestation of theory to practice, due to the definition of goals and great concepts. Through qualitative approach sought by means of literature and documents a comparison both in terms of structure and semantics of the terms of their conceptual documents in order to verify the differences between these and if it is necessary a specific standard for finance products Islamic by the IASB. Being Islamic transactions different from their conventional and western counterparts, this article concludes that the IASB should issue specific standards for Islamic finance products, given the observance of relevant differences between documents, especially the objectives of financial statements, users of accounting information and the concept of legal form and economic substance of the transactions.

148-169

Authors: Fernando Saulo Pinheiro do Nascimento, André Aroldo Freitas de Moura, Márcia Martins Mendes De Luca, Alessandra Carvalho de Vasconcelos

Considering the relevance of the board as an agent of corporate governance, the research aims at investigating the practices of boards disclosed by companies listed on New Market of the BM&FBovespa, according to the recommendations of the Code of IBGC. The research brings together 109 companies from the New Market, in October 2010, and is based on information obtained from reports and other sources provided by companies. The instrument, developed from the recommendations of IBGC, has 10 categories of study, divided into 56 subcategories. The study also relates the governance practices with the time of adherence to New Market and analyzes them by sector. Content analysis and correspondence analysis were used to analyze qualitative and quantitative data. It was found that companies do not have a high level of disclosure of governance practices of the board and that most reached level 'average' in relation to recommending IBGC. There was no association between time spent in New Market and disclosure of governance practices of the respective boards. The analysis of average score of disclosure practices of the board by sector showed uniformity among them.