上市公司分部信息披露动因与约束

分部信息的披露主体主要是上市公司.公司出于竞争投资者有限的资金等目的有自愿披露分部信息的动因.由于分部信息披露存在成本,在没有管制的情况下,企业出于自身利益最大化考虑,将通过对收益和成本的权衡来决定分部信息披露.由于分部信息披露的外部性、分部信息分布的不对称性等,不能完全依赖于自愿披露,必须对分部信息披露进行适度的管制,强制公司披露分部信息.     

Private disclosure and financial reporting

This article describes how large UK companies communicate with their institutional shareholders, and investigates how this private disclosure process relates to financial reporting. The article draws from case studies based on interviews with senior executives in 33 UK companies. Four insights into corporate disclosure arise from this case data. Firstly, a private disclosure process to institutional shareholders is outlined. Secondly, the private disclosure activity is recognised as a significant part of a larger corporate decision concerning public versus private voluntary disclosure. Thirdly, a range of factors are identified as encouraging private disclosure. These include the perceived limitations of financial reports (annual reports and interims), both as a disclosure mechanism in their own right and by comparison with private disclosure channels. Finally, despite these limitations, financial reports are recognised as a central component of a larger corporate disclosure system. The article therefore provides a novel insight in the role of financial reports in the larger corporate disclosure process, and ends by exploring new directions for research in financial reporting, including how the wider corporate disclosure system can be reformed in a systematic manner.     

Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension

This paper is concerned with the attempts to explain the disclosure of social and environmental information in the annual reports of large companies by reference to observable characteristics of those companies. An extensive literature has sought to establish whether variables such as corporate size, profit and industry segments can explain corporations' disclosure practices. The results from that predominantly North American and Australasian literature are largely inconclusive. This paper provides an extension of that literature by considering a more disaggregated specification of social and environmental disclosure and by employing a detailed time-series data set. By so doing, the paper tests two possible explanations for the inconclusiveness of prior research: namely that any relationships between corporate characteristics and disclosure are dependent upon the type of disclosure and that any such relationships are not stable through time. The results provide support for these explanations as sufficient, if not necessary, conditions for explaining the inconsistency in prior results.     

Capital market liberalisation and voluntary corporate social responsibility disclosure: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

This paper investigates the impact of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) scheme on voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design, we find that companies that participate in the SHSC scheme are more inclined to voluntarily issue CSR reports. This effect is more pronounced for companies that have limited access to international markets and those with weak corporate governance. Additional analyses show that SHSC-connected firms also produce higher quality CSR reports and achieve a better CSR performance. Our findings imply that capital market liberalisation promotes voluntary corporate disclosure for investors.     

Corporate Climate Change‐Related Governance Practices and Related Disclosures: Evidence from Australia

This paper investigates the climate change‐related corporate governance disclosure practices of five major Australian energy‐intensive companies over a 16‐year period. In doing so, a content analysis instrument is developed to identify disclosures made in relation to various policies and procedures the organisations have in place for addressing the issues associated with climate change. This instrument is applied to the respective companies’ annual reports and sustainability reports. An increasing trend is found in companies’ climate change‐related corporate governance disclosures over time; however, in many instances the disclosures provide limited insights into the climate change‐related risks and opportunities confronting the sample companies.     

Shareholder Requirements for Compulsory Environmental Information in Annual Reports and on Websites

Growing general concern regarding the natural environment may cause shareholders to require more accountability for environmental issues from the companies in which they invest. We do a survey of shareholders in three major Anglophone countries (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to determine whether they require compulsory environmental disclosure and where they would prefer companies to disclose such information. In all three countries, shareholders prefer compulsory environmental disclosure in annual reports (preferably in a separate section addressing the issue), as well as disclosure on websites, whereas separate environmental reports are less popular as a disclosure medium. Overall, legislation is preferred as a method to mandate environmental disclosure, with accounting standards more popular among American shareholders. The implication is that regulators may have to reconsider their current stance regarding corporate environmental disclosure.     

Transparency,Value Creation,and Financial Crises

This article reports the findings of the authors' recent study of the impact of the level of corporate transparency on shareholder value creation during periods of financial crisis. Their sample consists of the companies comprising Spain's IBEX 35 stock index during the ten‐year period 2000–2010. The study uses three different measures of earnings management (EM) as inverse indicators of the quality of disclosure and carries out fixed effects regressions that adjust for firm and industry characteristics, two periods of financial crises, and the passage of time. The main findings of the study are that (1) companies with lower disclosure quality have generated less value for their shareholders over long time periods and that (2) the shareholders of companies that were more aggressive in managing their earnings experienced greater wealth destruction during the two financial crises of the last decade. Given the still unfolding impact of the recent global financial crisis, as reflected in the current debt crisis in Western European countries, the authors' study reinforces the importance of the current debate over the benefits and costs of increasing the regulation of financial markets, especially in the areas of transparency and disclosure requirements.     

舆论监督、政府监管与企业环境信息披露

本文基于政治学的合法性理论,并借助新闻学的议程设置概念,在企业与社会的关系背景下研究企业披露环境信息的动机。本文以我国重污染行业上市公司为研究样本,分析舆论监督和政府监管对企业环境信息披露的作用,以及政府监管对舆论监督作用的影响。研究发现:(1)媒体有关企业环境表现的报道能显著促进企业环境信息披露水平;(2)地方政府对企业环境信息披露的监管能显著提高企业的环境信息披露水平并增强舆论监督的作用。本文的研究发现为认识企业环境信息披露的合法性动机、以及舆论监督和政府监管对企业环境信息披露的影响提供了新的视角和证据,同时也为信息披露的非经济性动机研究做出了文献上的贡献。     

A multinational test of determinants of corporate disclosure

This paper develops a model of cultural, national, and corporate factors that influence the financial disclosure of corporations. This model is then tested empirically using a sample of companies from 33 countries. The paper extends the literature on disclosure by considering a larger number of variables that represent determinants of disclosure and by empirically testing the model using a larger number of countries than prior studies. The model is tested using disclosure scores included in International Accounting and Auditing Trends. The model considers the influence of culture, national political and economic systems, and corporate financial and operating systems on the amount of corporate financial disclosure. The results of the regression model indicate that disclosure is influenced by culture, national systems, and corporate systems. The model developed is shown to provide a reasonably good explanation of the disclosure decision. Differences among the components of the model help explain differences in observed financial disclosure between companies in different countries and between companies within the same country. The results indicate that the financial-disclosure decision for a company is complex and influenced by many national and corporate factors.     

Underlying Problems in Discounted Cash Flow Appraisal

This paper analyses the environmental disclosure practices of Australian corporate entities. The paper documents three separate but related investigations. First, in a review of a sample of annual reports for the 1991 financial year, it is apparent that environmental disclosure practices adopted by the sample are self-laudatory, with companies promoting positive aspects of their environmental performance, but failing to disclose negative aspects. Second, in a review of corporate disclosure practices in the period 1980 to 1991, environmental disclosure made by the sample significantly increases across time. This change is linked to an apparent increase in societal concern relating to environmental issues. Finally, using a questionnaire administered to environmental lobby groups, it appears that the extent of corporate environmental disclosure is positively associated with the environmental lobby groups' concern about the environmental performance of companies within particular industries.     

Determinants of Corporate Social Disclosure in Developing Countries: The Case of Qatar

In this study, an attempt is made to test the validity of theories employed in the literature to explain variation in the extent of corporate voluntary disclosure within the corporate social disclosure context. The annual reports of 21 out of the 22 companies listed on the Doha Stock Exchange in Qatar were used as a basis for the study. Variations in corporate social disclosure by the sampled Qatari companies are found to be associated with firm size measured by the firm's market capitalisation, business risk measured by leverage and corporate growth. The outcome of the study lends partial support to agency theory, political economy theory, legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory as well as the accountability approach.     

Introducing International Accounting Standards to an emerging capital market: relative familiarity and language effect in Egypt

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of relative familiarity and language accessibility on the International Accounting Standards (IASs) disclosures when IASs are first introduced in an emerging capital market. The study focuses on the annual reports of listed non-financial companies in Egypt when IASs were first introduced. The method used applies a disclosure index measurement to a sample of listed company annual reports and evaluates relative compliance with IASs in relation to corporate characteristics. The results show that for relatively less familiar requirements of IASs, the extent of compliance is related to the type of audit firm used and to the presence of a specific statement of compliance with IASs. A lower degree of compliance with less familiar IASs disclosure is observed consistently across a range of company characteristics. Consideration of agency theory and capital need theory would lead to prior expectation of a distinction in disclosure practices between different categories of companies. The results were, therefore, counterintuitive to expectations where the regulations were unfamiliar or not available in the native language, indicating that new variables have to be considered and additional theoretical explanations have to be found in future disclosure studies on emerging capital markets.     

A CEO with many messages: Comparing the ideological representations provided by different corporate reports

This study analyzes how corporate reporting can be used to reinforce particular worldviews in the ongoing discursive debate over sustainability. The use of language is compared in CEO letters from two types of disclosures: the annual and sustainability reports of two Finnish companies during 2000–2009. The analysis is based on Thompson's (1990) schema regarding the modes of ideology. Significant differences are noted; the CEO letters in the annual reports prominently use the economic discourse of growth and profitability, but they rely on the ‘well-being’ discourse in the sustainability reports. Despite the difference in discourse, by using different forms of ideological strategies, both types of disclosure serve the dominant social paradigm. The findings presented in this study highlight the need to further develop corporate sustainability reporting practices.     

Voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of an emerging country: The case of Qatar

This study sets out to examine empirically the determinants of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of 25 listed firms of Doha Securities Market (DSM) in Qatar forming approximately 86% of the total firms incorporated in DSM. It also reports the results of the association between company-specific characteristics and voluntary disclosure of the sample companies. A disclosure checklist consisting of 44 voluntary items of information is developed and statistical analysis is performed using multiple regression analysis. The findings indicate that age, size, complexity, and assets-in-place are significant and other variable profitability is insignificant in explaining the level of voluntary disclosure. However, this paper has contributed to the academic literature that firms in the Middle East provide voluntary corporate information which builds a confidence to the investors in general and Qatar in particular.     

The effect of audit committee shareholding,financial expertise and size on interim financial disclosures

In recent years, corporate failures and accounting irregularities have led to concerns about the effectiveness of audit committees in the financial reporting process. In response, corporate governance committees in different countries have made specific recommendations designed to enhance the role of the audit committee in executing its financial reporting oversight duties. We investigate in this study, the effect of some of these recommendations by empirically examining the relationship between selected audit committee characteristics and the level of disclosure in interim reports of a sample of 262 UK listed companies. Specifically, the audit committee characteristics examined are shareholding of audit committee members (as a proxy for audit committee independence), audit committee size and audit committee financial expertise. Employing both a weighted and unweighted index to measure interim disclosure, the results indicate a significant negative association between shareholding of audit committee members and interim disclosure. Our results provide evidence of a significant positive association between interim disclosure and audit committee financial expertise. We find no significant relationship between audit committee size and the extent of disclosure in interim reports. Overall, however, our results suggest that audit committee characteristics have an impact on its monitoring effectiveness of the financial reporting process. These results have important implications for corporate governance policy-makers who have a responsibility to prescribe appropriate corporate governance structures to ensure that shareholders are protected.     

资本市场开放能否提高企业信息披露质量？——基于“沪港通”和年报文本挖掘的分析

提高信息披露质量对于改善上市公司治理结构和保护股东权益具有重要意义。本文利用2014年开通的“沪港通”机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放是否提高了企业的信息披露质量。从2010-2019年A股上市公司年报文本中提炼可读性指标衡量信息披露质量,使用匹配和双重差分方法进行实证研究,发现“沪港通”机制实施以后,标的公司(纳入“沪港通”的A股上市公司)的信息披露质量显著提高。这一结论对不同的估计方法、样本区间及控制变量组均保持稳健。异质性分析表明,对于盈余操纵水平较高、股价信息含量较低的企业,资本市场开放能够更好地改善其信息披露质量。本文丰富了资本市场开放对企业行为和绩效影响的实证研究,为继续推进资本市场开放政策提供了理论依据。     

Disclosure Practices by Family Firms: Evidence from Swedish Publicly Listed Firms

Abstract

I investigate the effect of family ownership on firms’ disclosure practices in their annual reports. In specific, I study Swedish publicly listed firms, which are typically characterized by controlling owners that have a strong influence in the corporate governance decisions of the firm, including corporate disclosures. To measure disclosure, I construct a comprehensive disclosure index covering information on (1) corporate governance, (2) strategic and financial targets and (3) notes to the financial statements. The results reveal that overall, family firms provide less disclosure in annual reports than non-family firms do. The finding is consistent with the premise that through their management positions, family owners can directly monitor managers and avoid costly public disclosures. Overall, the results suggest that ownership structure of firms is important to consider in understanding firms’ disclosure incentives, particularly in settings where controlling owners play a significant role in the governance of the firm.     

Country-specific risks and geographic disclosure aggregation: Voluntary disclosure behaviour by British multinationals

Country-by-country reporting can promote accountability and corporate transparency by highlighting the activities of multinational firms in different countries. We examine the voluntary disclosure behaviour of leading British multinational firms in respect of country-specific risks. Specifically, we consider whether British multinationals' engagement in geographic disclosure aggregation/disaggregation of their country-by-country operations is associated with the country-specific business, economic, and political risks faced by their principal operating subsidiaries. We study the information disclosed in two key sections of corporate annual reports: segment information, and principal uncertainties and risks. Our findings show that British multinationals are less likely to voluntarily report their segment and risk information on a disaggregated geographic country-by-country basis if they are engaged in operations in countries associated with higher levels of country-specific risks. Country-specific risk disclosures are an important case, consistent with voluntary disclosure theory, where costs tend to outweigh benefits from the perspective of what is perceived to be in a multinational firm's best interests.     

Do significant risk warnings in annual reports increase corporate bond credit spreads? Evidence from China

Based on listed companies issuing bonds on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2007 to 2017, this study analyzes the relationship between significant risk warnings in Chinese companies’ annual reports and corporate bond credit spreads. The main findings are as follows. First, in the Chinese market, “substantial warnings of significant risks” can significantly improve corporate bond credit spreads, reflecting the risk-warning effect; second, state-owned property rights weaken this effect, which only pertains to listed companies with poor risk management and low information quality; third, significant risk warnings increase investors’ heterogeneous beliefs, also affecting credit spreads; and fourth, through textual analysis, it is found that the corporate bond credit spread is greater when the disclosed risk factors are more pessimistic and less similar to those of the previous year. The findings of this paper help to enrich the literature on credit spreads and risk disclosure.     

Does Effective Corporate Governance Facilitate Continuous Market Disclosure?

The focus of this study is the role of corporate governance in ensuring exchange listed companies meet their continuous disclosure (CD) obligations. In doing so it attempts to address a deficiency in the generic corporate disclosure literature by investigating the ability of corporate governance to ensure quality corporate disclosure. Despite acknowledging that disclosure is adversely affected by agency conflict and that corporate governance is an effective control of that conflict, few studies have attempted to provide empirical evidence of a link between corporate governance and corporate disclosure quality. The results of this study show that a company's corporate governance does impact on its CD performance. In particular, it provides evidence that the likelihood of a company failing its CD obligations decreases as the proportion of independent directors on the board increases. This likelihood also decreases for firms that segregate the roles of CEO and board chair. In addition, the study also shows that declining company profitability increases the risk of CD failure. These results provide an important link between the corporate governance literature and the disclosure literature. The results of this study should provide regulators and company stakeholders with evidence to continue to demand corporate governance improvements as an important tool in improving market efficiencies.