Acknowledgements Acknowledgements

I would like to express my special appreciation to all the individuals and organisations who have helped in producing this thesis, although it seems impossible to mention all of them by name. I would like to extend many thanks to Professor Robin Limmack who initially introduced me to such an interesting research area even though he was finally unable to provide supervision due to his il health. I am especially indebted to Dr Kevin Campbell who was wiling to provide supervision during the absence of Professor Robin Limmack and finally became my principal supervisor throughout my PhD studies. Many thanks again for being patient while reading many drafts of the thesis and helping me to improve its grammatical quality. Very special gratitude goes to Professor Alan Goodacre who has acted not only as my supervising professor starting in the second year of my PhD but also as my mentor, providing many valuable comments to help me develop research skils. His encouragenient and support to achieve a high quality of work really made my research life very interesting. Special thanks also to Professor Bil McInnes for giving very constructive comments on my initial PhD proposal and 'earnings management J chapters