Acknowledgements

I would first like to acknowledge the contribution of my supervisors， Dr Fergal O’Brien and James Ryan， for their expertise， advice and encouragement throughout my research at the University of Limerick.

I started doctoral research in February 2009. After part of the draft of the thesis was completed， I convened the Irish conference on accounting and finance， from May 6th–7th， 2010. I learnt a lot from many of the conference and workshop participants， particularly when I disagreed with them. I would also like to thank Dr David McAree for their excellent support to make the conference and workshop possible.

Among those who helped read the draft， Defen Peng and Stephen Kinsella gave us detailed comments. I would like to thank them for their critiques and suggestions， which lead to many improvements.

I have to thank the University of Limerick Kemmy Business School and later the School of Economics ＆ Management at Nanchang University for their financial assistance over the years for fees， travel， data and publications. I also want to thank many individuals who have generously supported us during the entire process of research， including but not limited to： Linna Chen， Shengbao Hong， Peng Jiang， Rui Wang， Xin Zhang， Sarah Milne， Sean McKillen， Anthony Carroll， Maeve O’Sullivan， Saeed Alshahrani.