Long‐term economic consequences of corporate environmental responsibility: Evidence from heavily polluting listed companies in China

In this study, we aim to investigate the long‐term economic consequences of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) by companies from the perspective of earnings persistence and investors' response. Based on firm‐level data of 1,010 heavily polluting listed companies in China, the empirical results are as follows. First, the CER of China's heavily polluting listed companies has significantly improved their earnings persistence, that is, earnings quality. Second, the positive long‐term economic effect of CER has been achieved through two paths: improving companies' operational efficiency and reducing their credit costs. Third, CER increases investors' response to heavily polluting companies' accounting earnings. Moreover, state‐owned listed companies achieve more significant positive long‐term economic effects from CER than others. The results suggest that heavily polluting companies should correctly identify the long‐term value of CER rather than pay excessive attention to the impact of CER on their current costs and benefits.     

内部控制质量、产权性质与盈余持续性

通过对沪深两市A股主板上市公司2009—2013年间数据样本的实证检验，探寻上市公司内部控制质量的提高是否伴随着公司盈余持续性的提高，比较分析国有控股和民营控股公司内部控制质量的变化对盈余持续性的影响差异，同时为了进一步探究内部控制对盈余持续性的影响，将其划分为应计持续性和现金流持续性。研究结果表明：内部控制质量的提高与盈余持续性的提高存在显著的正相关关系；将盈余持续性细分后仍然可以得到内部控制质量提高，应计持续性与现金流持续性也相应提高的结论。通过国有控股和民营控股公司的对比，发现在国有控股公司中，内部控制质量越高，盈余持续性也越高，但当内部控制质量提高时，盈余持续性并没有显著改善；而在民营控股公司中，内部控制质量与盈余持续性的相关性有所减弱，但当内部控制质量提高时，盈余持续性明显提高。     

持续盈余与盈余质量的相关性研究——来自中国股票市场的经验证据

持续盈余是指公司的会计盈余在较长时期内保持连续增长的特殊表现形式。本文选取上市公司中连续5年盈余增长的样本为研究对象,以盈余持续性和盈余反应系数作为盈余质量的测度,结果发现,盈余持续增长的公司具有更高的盈余质量,而当盈余持续增长主要来源于主营业务收入持续增长时,盈余质量更高。     

公司治理和注册会计师审计对盈余质量的影响

上市公司盈余质量是评价企业价值的重要因素,也是利益相关者关注的重点。选取2009--2011年上市公司数据作为研究样本,采用扩展的Jones模型计量盈余质量,运用回归模型实证研究公司治理和注册会计师审计对盈余质量的联合影响,结果表明：公司治理结构的完善和注册会计师审计水平的提高能够增强上市公司盈余质量的真实性和可靠性,完善的公司治理有利于提高注册会计师审计效果,提高上市公司的盈余质量。     

Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence

The environmental implications of corporate economic activities have led to growing demands for firms and their boards to adopt sustainable strategies and to disseminate more useful information about their activities and impacts on environment. This paper investigates the impact of board's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and orientation on the quantity and quality of environmental sustainability disclosure in UK listed firms. We find that effective board CSR strategy and CSR‐oriented directors have a positive and significant impact on the quality of environmental sustainability disclosure, but not on the quantity. Our findings also suggest that the existence of a CSR committee and issuance of a stand‐alone CSR report are positively and significantly related to environmental sustainability disclosure. When we distinguish between firms with high and low environmental risk, we find that the board CSR/sustainability practices that affect the quantity (quality) of environmental sustainability disclosure appear to be driven more by highly (lowly) environmentally sensitive firms. These results suggest that the board CSR/sustainability practices play an important role in ensuring a firm's legitimacy and accountability towards stakeholders. Our findings shed new light on this under‐researched area and could be of interest to companies, policy‐makers and other stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

上市公司信息披露质量解释能力研究——基于收益透明度视角

本文以深市341家上市公司的数据为基础,运用回归分析的方法,研究了收益透明度指标体系对我国上市公司信息披露质量的解释能力。结果表明,收益透明度对信息披露质量有一定的解释能力,其中收益激进度和收益平滑度指标的联合解释能力优于单指标变量。通过对收益透明度指标体系进行相应调整,与原指标体系进行对比,验证了调整后的指标体系在我国有更好的适用性。     

A Comparitive Study of the Use of Financial Graphs in the Corporate Annual Reports of Major U.S. and U.K. Companies

The use of graphs to disclose information in corporate annual reports represents a significant dimension in financial disclosure management. Surprisingly, no inter-country comparative analysis of this area of voluntary disclosure has been conducted. This study compares the graphical reporting practices in the 1990 annual reports of 176 leading U.S. and U.K. industrial companies. Ninety-two per cent of U.S. companies use graphs compared with 80% of U.K. companies; the mean number of graphs per company being 13.0 and 7.7, respectively. Sales, an earnings measure, earnings per share and dividends per share are the four most frequently graphed aggregate financial performance variables in both countries. Significant differences in several of the variables graphed are found and explained in terms of environmental factors. In both countries, evidence of graphical information manipulation exists in the form of selectivity, measurement distortion, and presentational enhancement. Moderate evidence supports the hypothesis that U.K. companies are more likely than U.S. companies to adopt interpretative shading. Regulators need to clarify the responsibilities of directors and auditors by setting graphical guidelines.     

The Persistence and Forecast Accuracy of Earnings Components in the USA and Japan

Not all components of earnings are expected to provide similar information regarding future earnings. For example, basic financial statement analysis indicates that the persistence of ordinary income should be greater than the persistence of special, extraordinary, or discontinued operations. Because the market assigns higher multiples to earnings components that are more persistent, differentiating earnings components on the basis of relative persistence would appear to be useful. A focus on relative predictive value is consistent with research findings and user recommendations on separating earnings components that are persistent or permanent from those that are transitory or temporary. This paper examines the persistence and forecast accuracy of earnings components for retail and manufacturing companies listed in the world's two largest equity markets; the USA and Japan. We find the forecast accuracy of earnings in both the USA and Japan increases with greater disaggregation of earnings components. The results further indicate that the improvements in forecast accuracy due to earnings disaggregation are greater in the USA than in Japan. The greater emphasis and more detailed guidelines for reporting earnings components in the USA produce a better differentiation in the persistence of earnings components resulting in greater forecast improvements from earnings disaggregation.     

股份回购中每股收益信息披露失真之浅议

当上市公司签订的股份回购合同中所规定的股票回购价格高于当期普通股平均市场价格时,应当计算稀释每股收益。但由此所造成的每股收益信息披露失真,会使信息使用者无法正确评价上市公司的经营业绩。因此,为避免每股收益信息披露失真所带来的信息误导,上市公司应当在充分考虑管理层的筹资意图的前提下,对从基本每股收益分子、分母到稀释每股收益分子、分母的调整过程加以改进,从而更好地满足信息使用者的需要。     

Climate change mitigation: Carbon assurance and reporting integrity

Concern about climate change has increased the pressure on firms to be accountable for social impact and to report on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Focusing on the view that sustainability-oriented firms are likely to consider wider stakeholder interests and pursue high financial reporting integrity, this paper examines the association between carbon assurance and earnings management. Using a sample of firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange, we find voluntary adoption of carbon assurance (level), carbon disclosure and gender diverse boards are negatively associated with earnings management. Additional tests using different components of carbon assurance (percent and verification) confirm our main results. Our results suggest that firms that voluntarily invest in carbon assurance, carbon disclosure and gender diverse boards are less likely to engage in earnings management and thus have higher reporting integrity. This aligns with the view that firms' ethical concerns translate into higher quality reporting.     

Board structures,liberal countries,and developed market economies. Do they matter in environmental reporting? An international outlook

Previous empirical evidence has shown the effect of most corporate governance mechanisms on corporate social responsibility and environmental disclosure. However, there is scant empirical evidence that examines the influence of liberal countries, developed market economies, and board structures on environmental disclosure. Thus, this research aims to explore how liberal and developed countries and board structures affect environmental reporting. We hypothesise a linear and positive association between companies located in countries with liberal and developed market economies and environmental reporting. Moreover, we hypothesise that one‐tier board structures negatively affect environmental disclosure. Focusing on 13,100 companies domiciled in 39 different countries from 2005 to 2015, it is established that those companies located in liberal and developed economies are more likely to disclose environmental information, whereas one‐tier boards have a negative effect.     

Corporate climate-related voluntary disclosures: Does potential greenwash exist among Australian high emitters reports?

This study examines the issue of greenwashing among corporate high emitters subject to government scrutiny. To do so, we investigate the relationship between the actual environmental performance, measured as carbon emissions, of companies subject to the Australian National Greenhouse Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER) and their climate-related voluntary disclosures. To measure climate-related disclosure, we construct a climate-related disclosure index based on four prominent frameworks and score corporate report content against that Index. Using a sample of 150 companies with NGER emissions data for Years 2016 and 2017, a period that precedes the issuance of recommendations for disclosure by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), our regression results show a disappointingly low level of climate-related disclosure by most companies. We also find a negative relationship between climate-related disclosure and 1-year lagged environmental performance among companies exhibiting a year-on-year rise in carbon emissions. That is, our findings provide evidence of potential greenwashing by poor environmental performers, presumably to change negative perceptions by stakeholders, as predicted by socio-political theories. In contrast, we find no evidence of greenwashing among companies experiencing a year-on-year decrease in emissions.     

企业竞争力、盈余持续性与不对称性

以我国沪深两市上市公司为研究样本,实证分析企业会计特征和竞争力特征对盈余持续性的影响后发现,上述特征显著影响会计盈余的持续性。此外,实证结果揭示了持续性高的盈余向资本市场传递更多正面的信息,提高公司的市场反应;如果资本市场未能反映盈余持续性的信息,投资者据此制定的交易策略就能获得超额收益。     

Voluntary Adopters of Integrated Reporting – Evidence on Forecast Accuracy and Firm Value

This study investigates how integrated reporting (IR) creates value for investors. It examines how providers of financial capital benefit from an improved firm information environment provided by IR. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of voluntary IR disclosure on analyst earnings forecast accuracy as well as on firm value. To do so, we use an international sample of 167 listed companies that voluntarily publish an integrated report. Our analysis shows no significant effect of a voluntary IR publication on analyst earnings forecast accuracy and no significant effect on firm value. We thus do not find evidence for the fulfillment of IR's promises regarding improved information environment and value creation of voluntary adopters. We conclude that such companies might already have a relatively high level of transparency leading to an absent additional effect of IR disclosure. Positive effects of IR appear to be more relevant in environments where IR is mandatory.     

Factors influencing the quality of corporate environmental disclosure

Many firms choose to communicate their environmental strategies through voluntary environmental disclosures. This paper examines patterns in the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures made by a sample of around 450 large UK companies drawn from a diverse range of industrial sectors. The analysis distinguishes between five facets of quality, including the disclosure of group‐wide environmental policies, environmental impact targets and an environmental audit. We examine how the decisions firms face regarding each facet of quality are determined by firm and industry characteristics, and find the quality of disclosure to be determined by a firm's size and the nature of its business activities. Specifically, we find high quality disclosure to be primarily associated with larger firms and those in sectors most closely related to environmental concerns. In contrast to several recent contributions, we find that the media exposure of companies plays no role in stimulating voluntary disclosures. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Does Size Matter? Evaluating Corporate Environmental Disclosure in the Australian Mining and Metal Industry: A Combined Approach of Quantity and Quality Measurement

There are an increasing number of companies in the mining and metals sector disclosing environmental sustainability information in their annual reports, sustainability reports and corporate internet web pages. However, there is ongoing debate about the relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure. That is, does an increase in number equate to an increase in quality? This study investigates the relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure reports. Using content analysis, we examine the environmental disclosure of 55 Australian mining and metal companies which are listed among the Australian Securities Exchange's (ASX) Top 100 mining and metal sector companies. We find that the size of firms influences both the quantity and the quality of corporate environmental disclosure. That is, we find that market capitalization is positively and significantly correlated to the quantity (number of words) and the quality of disclosure. We also confirm that there is a very highly significant, positive correlation between quantity (number of words) and quality of environmental disclosure. In order to investigate any differences between the top performing group and the bottom performing group in terms of environmental disclosure quality, further analysis also confirms that there is a positive relationship between the quantity and the quality of environmental disclosure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Non-financial strategy disclosure and environmental,social and governance score: Insight from a configurational approach

Evaluating the determinants of environmental, social and governance (ESG) score is significant for topic for academics and regulators and companies. Despite its importance, little attention has been paid to non-financial strategy disclosure and how to communicate non-financial information. However, in the recent years, attention to the topic has considerably increased as demonstrated, in the European context, by the introduction of the non-financial reporting directive in 2014. Therefore, it is important to analyse how the quantity and quality of disclosure influence the ESG score. To explore this relationship, a configurational analysis aimed at 31 Italian listed companies was studied by fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results showed that there were three path types driving the ESG score and that integrated reporting played a highly significant role in promoting a high ESG score. Specifically, we show the importance of assessing the combinations of quality and quantity disclosures for ESG score through configurational thinking. These results provide a first theoretical basis for the effectiveness of disclosure measurements on ESG score, charting the future direction for environmental management studies.     

内部控制与业绩快报质量

以2009—2015年中小板和创业板上市公司的年度业绩快报为样本，研究内部控制对业绩快报质量的影响。研究发现，高质量的内部控制降低了业绩快报重大错报的可能性，同时降低了业绩快报误差，且这种效应在非国有上市公司表现更显著。进一步地，对于不存在内部控制重大缺陷的公司来说，发生业绩快报重大错报的概率较低，业绩快报误差也较小。内部控制信息披露质量高的公司，业绩快报质量也相应较高。研究结果表明，高质量的内部控制有助于提升业绩快报质量，且基于业绩快报的角度为内部控制改善会计信息质量提供了证据。     

内部控制信息披露对盈余价值相关性的影响——来自A股上市公司2007—2011年度的经验数据

利用2007—2011年A股上市公司为样本,实证检验了自愿披露的内部控制自我评价报告和鉴证报告均能够为信息使用者所辨别和利用,增强了对会计盈余数据的信任和理性应用,最终体现在对盈余价值相关性的正面影响上,且内部控制鉴证报告信息的信号传递效力强于内部控制自我评价信息。     

业绩预告、业绩“变脸”与审计治理效应

研究发现,注册会计师审计能提高上市公司业绩披露的质量,是会计信息的把关者,注册会计师审计是促使上市公司业绩预告"变脸"发生的重要原因。但同时也发现可能存在上市公司与注册会计师串通的情况,证券监管部门应加强对上市公司业绩预告制度执行情况的检查。