The Economic Relevance of Environmental Disclosure and its Impact on Corporate Legitimacy: An Empirical Investigation

In determining its environmental disclosure strategy, a firm's management faces a tension between responding to the information needs of financial markets and maintaining its legitimacy within the community. In this paper, relying on information economics and legitimacy theory, we explore how firms resolve this tension. Results show that a firm's environmental disclosure enhances the quality of analysts' information context, which ultimately allows them to make better forecasts. Moreover, financial analysts seem to be able to decipher environmental information, discounting discourses that are inconsistent with a firm's underlying environmental performance. We find also that a firm's environmental disclosure serves another purpose, as it influences how its other stakeholders (beyond financial ones) perceive its legitimacy. Such enhanced legitimacy reduces the information uncertainty faced by financial analysts. Our results suggest also that both economic‐based environmental disclosure and sustainable development and environmental disclosure are useful to analysts in making their forecasts and enhance a firm's legitimacy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

VMI在电子制造业原料库存管理中的应用

根据电子设备制造商在原材料库存管理方面的特点和所面临的挑战,提出将VMI(Vendor Managed Inventory)模式运用到原材料库存管理中的具体方法。介绍了VMI的定义和基本体系,并详细阐述了VMI在电子设备制造商原材料库存管理中应用的具体步骤以及VMI的实施价值。分析了VMI在应用中可能遇到的风险以及得到最终结论。     

Exploring the Ethical Identity of Islamic Banks via Communication in Annual Reports

Islamic Banks (IBs) are considered as having ethical identity, since the foundation of their business philosophy is closely tied to religion. In this article, we explore whether any discrepancy exists between the communicated (based on information disclosed in the annual reports) and ideal (disclosure of information deemed vital based on the Islamic ethical business framework) ethical identities and we measure this by what we have termed the Ethical Identity Index (EII). Our longitudinal survey results over a 3-year period indicate the overall mean EII of only one IB out of seven surveyed to be above average. The remaining six IBs suffer from disparity between the communicated and ideal ethical identities. We further found the largest incongruence to be related to four dimensions: commitments to society; disclosure of corporate vision and mission; contribution to and management of zakah, charity and benevolent loans; and information regarding top management. The results have important implications for communication management if IBs are to enhance their image and reputation in society as well as to remain competitive. Roszaini Haniffa is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Accounting and Finance at the Bradford University School of Management. She holds a PhD from Exeter University and has published papers in Abacus, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and other journals. Her research interests focus on social responsibility reporting, corporate governance, international accounting and the Islamic perspective of accounting. Ros has reviewed papers and is a member on the editorial board of several journals. Mohammad Hudaib is a Lecturer in Accounting at the Bradford University School of Management and holds a PhD from Essex University. He has previously taught at Exeter University and prior to his teaching career, was an auditor in Saudi Arabia. He has published papers on auditing and corporate governance in Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. His current research interests include auditing, Islamic perspective of accounting, accounting theory and ethics.     

The Role of the Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in the Social Screening of Investments

Social screening of investments calls not only for investment policy and criteria, but also for information about companies, their policies, practices and performance. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its June 2000 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines have the potential to significantly improve the usefulness and quality of information reported by companies about their environmental, social and economic impacts and performance. The GRI aims to develop a voluntary reporting framework that will elevate sustainability reporting practices to a level equivalent to that of financial reporting in rigour, comparability, auditability and general acceptance. This will be a welcome and efficient supplement to the questionnaires, interviews, press releases, media reports and other sources of information traditionally used for screening in investment decision making – social/ethical and mainstream. The Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index, the Jantzi Social Index and the Innovest EcoValue'21 analytical platform, together with the SRI community, are all likely to benefit from GRI-style sustainability reports. One of the GRI's key challenges is to accommodate the broad variety of disclosure needs and expectations of a wide range of report users and company stakeholders. To maximize the usefulness of the GRI Guidelines, report users, including the SRI community, need to be engaged in the process of developing and refining the Guidelines over time. The GRI Guidelines are emerging as an important instrument in enabling companies to communicate with their stakeholders about performance and accountability beyond just the financial bottom line.     

高校教材建设的现状分析及对策研究——以北京联合大学旅游学院为例

教材是教学工作的三大要素之一,关系到人才的培养质量。在知识更新加快与高校教学水平评估的新形势面前,对教材的选用与管理提出了更高的要求。本文通过对北京联合大学旅游学院选用教材情况进行了具体分析,并对高校教材使用的有关理论及管理问题予以探讨,提出了自己的见解。     

论我国环境会计信息披露模式的构建及制度创新

环境会计信息披露可以使广大利益相关者更加明确企业的行为对环境造成的影响.其内容包括环境会计要素的披露和环境绩效信息的披露.文章在现有研究基础上,探讨了环境会计信息披露模式的具体内容和方式,提出了环境信息披露主要领域制度创新的基本设想.     

董事会秘书与信息披露质量

2006年实施的新《公司法》从法律意义上第一次确认了董事会秘书的高管地位,董秘能否提高上市公司的信息披露质量值得深入研究。本文运用Kim和Verrecchia(2001)度量信息披露质量的方法,通过对沪深300指数成份股公司进行实证分析发现:新《公司法》实施后我国上市公司的信息披露质量得到了显著提高;董秘持股会降低信息披露质量,而董秘的年龄、任职时间、教育水平、兼任情况和相关经验等对信息披露质量没有显著影响,这说明董秘的个人特征还没有很好地发挥作用,董秘制度的实施还有待进一步完善。     

我国养老保险公司盈利模式探析——基于2010年信息披露报告的分析

截止2010年底,我国先后成立了平安养老、太平养老、长江养老、国寿养老、泰康养老等专业养老保险公司,本文以这5家养老保险公司2010年披露的年报信息为基础,通过盈利模式的构建、相关财务信息的分析,提出5种可能的盈利模式。     

中外企业社会责任报告信息披露比较

本文通过对中国石油和壳牌石油2006~2009年度社会责任报告在形式和内容上的比较,分析了中外企业社会责任报告披露的异同之处,然后对改进我国企业社会责任报告披露提出了一些重要启示:统一社会责任报告的编制框架;完善利益相关方的参与和信息反馈机制;开展社会责任报告第三方审验;社会责任报告内容要体现平衡原则;选择适当的社会责任报告披露形式以提高披露的效果。