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正确答案：
(b) Increased information disclosure benefits users by reducing the likelihood that they will misallocate their capital. This is
obviously a direct benefit to individual users of corporate reports. The disclosure reduces the risk of misallocation of capital
by enabling users to improve their assessments of a company’s prospects. This creates three important results.
(i) Users use information disclosed to increase their investment returns and by definition support the most profitable
companies which are likely to be those that contribute most to economic growth. Thus, an important benefit of
information disclosure is that it improves the effectiveness of the investment process.
(ii) The second result lies in the effect on the liquidity of the capital markets. A more liquid market assists the effective
allocation of capital by allowing users to reallocate their capital quickly. The degree of information asymmetry between
the buyer and seller and the degree of uncertainty of the buyer and the seller will affect the liquidity of the market as
lower asymmetry and less uncertainty will increase the number of transactions and make the market more liquid.
Disclosure will affect uncertainty and information asymmetry.
(iii) Information disclosure helps users understand the risk of a prospective investment. Without any information, the user
has no way of assessing a company’s prospects. Information disclosure helps investors predict a company’s prospects.
Getting a better understanding of the true risk could lower the price of capital for the company. It is difficult to prove
however that the average cost of capital is lowered by information disclosure, even though it is logically and practically
impossible to assess a company’s risk without relevant information. Lower capital costs promote investment, which can
stimulate productivity and economic growth.
However although increased information can benefit users, there are problems of understandability and information overload.
Information disclosure provides a degree of protection to users. The benefit is fairness to users and is part of corporate
accountability to society as a whole.
The main costs to the preparer of financial statements are as follows:
(i) the cost of developing and disseminating information,
(ii) the cost of possible litigation attributable to information disclosure,
(iii) the cost of competitive disadvantage attributable to disclosure.
The costs of developing and disseminating the information include those of gathering, creating and auditing the information.
Additional costs to the preparers include training costs, changes to systems (for example on moving to IFRS), and the more
complex and the greater the information provided, the more it will cost the company.
Although litigation costs are known to arise from information disclosure, it does not follow that all information disclosure leads
to litigation costs. Cases can arise from insufficient disclosure and misleading disclosure. Only the latter is normally prompted
by the presentation of information disclosure. Fuller disclosure could lead to lower costs of litigation as the stock market would
have more realistic expectations of the company’s prospects and the discrepancy between the valuation implicit in the market
price and the valuation based on a company’s financial statements would be lower. However, litigation costs do not
necessarily increase with the extent of the disclosure. Increased disclosure could reduce litigation costs.
Disclosure could weaken a company’s ability to generate future cash flows by aiding its competitors. The effect of disclosure
on competitiveness involves benefits as well as costs. Competitive disadvantage could be created if disclosure is made relating
to strategies, plans, (for example, planned product development, new market targeting) or information about operations (for
example, production-cost figures). There is a significant difference between the purpose of disclosure to users and
competitors. The purpose of disclosure to users is to help them to estimate the amount, timing, and certainty of future cash
flows. Competitors are not trying to predict a company’s future cash flows, and information of use in that context is not
necessarily of use in obtaining competitive advantage. Overlap between information designed to meet users’ needs and
information designed to further the purposes of a competitor is often coincidental. Every company that could suffer competitive
disadvantage from disclosure could gain competitive advantage from comparable disclosure by competitors. Published figures
are often aggregated with little use to competitors.
Companies bargain with suppliers and with customers, and information disclosure could give those parties an advantage in
negotiations. In such cases, the advantage would be a cost for the disclosing entity. However, the cost would be offset
whenever information disclosure was presented by both parties, each would receive an advantage and a disadvantage.
There are other criteria to consider such as whether the information to be disclosed is about the company. This is both a
benefit and a cost criterion. Users of corporate reports need company-specific data, and it is typically more costly to obtain
and present information about matters external to the company. Additionally, consideration must be given as to whether the
company is the best source for the information. It could be inefficient for a company to obtain or develop data that other, more
expert parties could develop and present or do develop at present.
There are many benefits to information disclosure and users have unmet information needs. It cannot be known with any
certainty what the optimal disclosure level is for companies. Some companies through voluntary disclosure may have
achieved their optimal level. There are no quantitative measures of how levels of disclosure stand with respect to optimal
levels. Standard setters have to make such estimates as best they can, guided by prudence, and by what evidence of benefits
and costs they can obtain.

正确答案：
(ii) Factors affecting the need for internal audit and controls
(Based partly on Turnbull guidance)
The nature of operations within the organisation arising from its sector, strategic positioning and main activities.
The scale and size of operations including factors such as the number of employees. It is generally assumed that larger
and more complex organisations have a greater need for internal controls and audit than smaller ones owing to the
number of activities occurring that give rise to potential problems.
Cost/benefit considerations. Management must weigh the benefits of instituting internal control and audit systems
against the costs of doing so. This is likely to be an issue for medium-sized companies or companies experiencing
growth.
Internal or external changes affecting activities, structures or risks. Changes arising from new products or internal
activities can change the need for internal audit and so can external changes such as PESTEL factors.
Problems with existing systems, products and/or procedures including any increase in unexplained events. Repeated or
persistent problems can signify the need for internal control and audit.
The need to comply with external requirements from relevant stock market regulations or laws. This appears to be a
relevant factor at Gluck & Goodman.

正确答案：B

A is incorrect as internal auditors are not required to be members of any professional body. C is incorrect as external auditors report to shareholders rather than those charged with governance. D is incorrect as internal auditors can be independent of the company, if, for example, the internal audit function has been outsourced.

正确答案：
4 (a) Stakeholders
Definition
There are a number of definitions of a stakeholder. Freeman (1984), for example, defined a stakeholder in terms of any
organisation or person that can affect or be affected by the policies or activities of an entity. Hence stakeholding can result
from one of two directions: being able to affect and possibly influence an organisation or, conversely, being influenced by it.
Any engagement with an organisation in whom a stake is held may be voluntary or involuntary in nature.
Tutorial note: any definition of a stakeholder that identifies bi-directional influence will be equally valid.
Importance of identifying all stakeholders
Knowledge of the stakeholders in the stadium project is important for a number of reasons. This will involve surveying
stakeholders that can either affect or be affected by the building of the stadium. In some cases, stakeholders will be
bi-directional in their stakeholding (claim) upon the stadium project. Stakeholders in the stadium project include the local
government authority, the local residents, the wildlife centre, the local school and the football club’s fans.
Stakeholder identification is necessary to gain an understanding of the sources of risks and disruption. Some external
stakeholders, such as the local government authority, offer a risk to the project and knowledge of the nature of the claim made
upon the football club by the stakeholder will be important in risk assessment.
Stakeholder identification is important in terms of assessing the sources of influence over the objectives and outcomes for the
project (such as identified in the Mendelow model). In strategic analysis, stakeholder influence is assessed in terms of each
stakeholder’s power and interest, with higher power and higher interest combining to generate the highest influence. In the
case, it is likely that the fans are more influential on the club’s objectives than, say, the local wildlife centre, as they have
more economic power over the club.
It is necessary in order to identify areas of conflict and tension between stakeholders, especially relevant when it is likely that
stakeholders of influence will be in disagreement over the outcomes for the project. In this case, for example, the claims of
the football club board and the local residents are in conflict.
There is a moral case for knowledge of how decisions affect people both inside the organisation or (as is the case with the
stadium project) externally.