Audit committee is one of the corporate governance mechanisms, and there is little evidence in its role and CHARACTERISTICS in risk monitoring and governance in companies. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of audit committee’ s CHARACTERISTICS on corporate risk. In this study, the impact of two CHARACTERISTICS of audit committee, consisting of accounting expertise and independence, on the risk of companies was examined, using data from the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange in the years 2013 to 2015, and the pooled data model. The risk was measured by stock returns volatility and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model. Results showed that accounting expertise and independence of audit committee have positive impacts on stock returns volatility as corporate risk.

Barth et al. [1] and Bao and Bao [5] Shows that increasing earnings firms have higher price- earnings multiple (P/E). This study investigates the applicability of their results to Tahran's Stock Market (TSM), which has different Institutional and investor CHARACTERISTICS. Results show that earnings of increasing earning firms have higher persistence than those of other firms. Analaysis of variauce (ANOVA) is also performed to examine the differences in firms CHARACTERISTICS. Increasing earnings firms tend to have higher net income to total assets, operating income to total assets market value of equity to total debts, and long term debts to total assets ratios.

Improving participation in voluntary activities in Iran is important because increasing productivity among young people, given the country's young population, contributes to community sustainability. Therefore, a better understanding of volunteer motivation in Iranian youth is needed. The Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) for assessing volunteer motivations has good psychometric properties and is adapted to several languages, but no validated Iranian translation yet exists. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric CHARACTERISTICS of voluntary functions inventory in members of Iranian Red Crescent Society. Sample size was 595 members of Youth Organization of Iranian Red Crescent Society from 31 provinces and 175 cities of Iran that were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and responded to voluntary functions inventory. Data were collected using a demographic sample and voluntary functions inventory (VFI). Confirmatory factor analysis using principal components method was used for data analysis. The results of the present study showed that the voluntary functions inventory had validity and reliability. Also, the factor structure showed that 29 items and 6 factors well assess people's attitudes to volunteering, and the structure of this inventory was well-fitted and confirmed all goodness of fit models. The present study provides the use of the Iranian translation of the Voluntary Functions Inventory (6 scales and 29 items) to assess volunteer motivation among young Iranian volunteers.

Background and Aim: Job enrichment is a method that has been used to increase employee satisfaction and work motivation. The Hackman and Oldham job CHARACTERISTICS model (1976) has served as the foundation for many job enrichment efforts. In particular, a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the study of the job CHARACTERISTICS-job satisfaction relations. Te purpose of this study was to statistically determine the relation between job CHARACTERISTICS and job satisfaction among employees of hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in 2007. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional one, including 6 TUMS-affiliated hospitals-Emam, Shariati, Baharlo, Ziaeian, Madaen and Azadi. The sample size was 400, consisting of 200 administrative employees (50%), 151 nurses (38%) and 49 physicians (12%). The random sampling and stratified proportional sampling methods were used to select the hospitals and interviewees, respectively. Two questionnaires were developed and used to identify job CHARACTERISTICS and job satisfaction: 1) job diagnostics surveys (JDS) and 2) Hertzberg's job satisfaction questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaires was ascertained by test-retest using the Pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.88). Linear-by-linear association and ordinal logistics regression analysis were used for analyzing the data gathered.Results:The relations between the Motivational Potential Score (MPS) and job CHARACTERISTICS (except for feedback) with job satisfaction were statistically significant (p<0.05). Task identity was the most effective determinant of job satisfaction. Conclusion: It appears that all the job CHARACTERISTICS (except feedback) are important determinants of job satisfaction of the hospital employees. Although the work environment is in need of restructuring, it is important to note, from a positive perspective, that the job CHARACTERISTICS discussed in this study are readily amenable to change job satisfaction at the organizational level.

The present study aims at investigating the impact of the presence of audit committee and its CHARACTERISTICS on the corporate information environment. These CHARACTERISTICS include independence, financial expertise, size, and the gender of the audit committee. Although several methods have been discussed for measuring information environment in the accounting and finance literature, this research is pioneer in developing a comprehensive index using mathematical method to measure information environment. Given this fact, the impact of the presence of audit committee on information environment during 2008-2015, which was the period before and after the approval of the internal control guidelines, was investigated. The results of analyzing the data collected from 41 firms using panel data technique point to a positive relationship between the presence of audit committee and information environment. In addition, the impact of the audit committee CHARACTERISTICS on information environment during 2012-2015 and after the approval of guidelines was examined. The results of analyzing 121 firms using panel data technique indicate that independence and financial expertise are positively associated with information environment. However, no significant relationship was found between other CHARACTERISTICS and information environment.

Considering the importance of cash holding and financial statements comparability in the capital market, this research seeks to investigate the impact of firm CHARACTERISTICS on the relation between financial statements comparability and cash holdings. Firm CHARACTERISTICS include financing limitations, financial reporting quality and ownership concentration. In order to achieve the research goals, the period of 2012 to 2016 is tested. This research uses multiple linear regression and panel data methods. The results indicate that there is a significant relation between financial statements comparability and cash holdings. Findings show that ownership concentration and financial reporting quality have a negative and significant effect on the relation between comparability of financial statements and cash holdings. Meanwhile, the financing limitations have no significant effect on the relation between comparability of financial statements and cash holdings.

Sustainable growth involves a situation where growth is witnessed with no increase in assets, equity issuance and liabilities. An effective corporate governance mechanism, especially the audit committee, is needed to achieve an optimum sustainable growth rate. The influence of audit committee CHARACTERISTICS on the manufacturing firms’,sustainable growth during the financial crisis cannot be overemphasized. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate the influence of audit committee CHARACTERISTICS on the sustainable growth rate of non-financial firms in Nigeria. The study population was listed as manufacturing companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). A sample size of 60 manufacturing firms was selected using a purposive sampling technique and content analysis, covering ten financial years (2011 to 2020). The results showed that audit committee size, audit committee independence and audit committee financial expertise were positively and significantly associated with sustainable growth rate. The study was anchored on agency theory because it showed that effective audit committee CHARACTERISTICS greatly contributed to the overall companies’,goal congruence. From the foregoing, the study recommended that an audit committee should be large, with a great sense of independence and professionalism to make non-financial companies attain sustainable growth.