Timeliness of Reporting and Earnings Information Transfers

This study examines earnings timeliness and its effect on earnings information transfers. Empirical analyses focus on a sample of approximately fifteen hundred earnings reports and nearly four thousand information transfers. The principal findings are: (1) earlier earnings releases yield negative information transfers, (2) earnings releases yield negative (nominal) information transfers to firms that previously (subsequently) release their earnings reports, and (3) earlier earnings releases yield negative information transfers to firms that have not yet disclosed earnings. These findings show that the timing of earnings reports has significant and far-reaching economic consequences.     

The Timeliness of Restatement Disclosures and Financial Reporting Credibility

This study investigates whether prompt discovery and disclosure of earnings restatements is associated with greater post‐restatement financial reporting credibility. We measure the timeliness of restatement detection by the length of time between the end of the misstated period and the subsequent restatement announcement. We document that shorter detection periods are significantly associated with high‐quality corporate governance characteristics and executive and/or auditor turnover, but not with characteristics of restatements. We also find that firms with shorter detection periods exhibit a more moderate decline in the information content of earnings following restatement announcements relative to firms with longer detection periods, and that detection period length has an incremental effect on the information content of earnings relative to executive and/or auditor turnover alone. In addition, we find that restatement disclosures are more timely following the implementation of the SOX‐era reforms, and that only firms with shorter detection periods experience more moderate post‐restatement declines in the information content of earnings following the implementation of the SOX‐era reforms. The results from this study suggest that the timeliness of restatement detection and disclosure is associated with greater financial reporting credibility following restatements.     

Corporate Financial Reporting in Nigeria

This paper reports on the extent of financial reporting by a sample of publicly quoted companies in Nigeria. Rather than examine the disclosure of specific items of information, the paper deals with the entire contents of the corporate annual report and highlights its different parts. The index of disclosure methodology is used to describe the trend of reporting practices between 1982 and 1986.     

Raising Finance and Firms' Corporate Reporting Policies

The major purpose of a corporate annual report is to convey information about the company's affairs to outside parties. The information can be used both to monitor agency relationships (Jensen and Meckling [25]; Watts [32]) and to provide inputs into user decision models (e.g. Altman [3]). Until recently, however, very little research had been conducted into annual reports in the U.K. and hence little was known about their effectiveness. This has been remedied, to some extent, in the last few years and there is now a growing body of literature relating to annual reports. For example, the major professional British accounting bodies commissioned a study to examine'the scope and aims of published financial reports in the light of modern needs and conditions'. This resulted in the publication of The Corporate Report (ASSC [1]), a document which recommended a number of radical changes. Other studies have investigated the degree of understanding of annual reports by private shareholders (Lee and Tweedie [26]), the degree of consensus about the usefulness of annual report data (Firth [21]), the actual degree of disclosure by British companies (Firth [22, 23]), and the impact of accounting information on share prices (see Firth [20]).¹ The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature by reporting the results of an empirical study which examined one aspect of the corporate reporting policies of British firms, namely the changes in the quality and extent of voluntary financial disclosure when raising finance in the stock market.     

环境管制、行业属性与企业环保投资

政府环境管制如何影响企业的环保投资行为?企业环保投资行为是否具有行业差异?对上述问题的回答有助于更好地了解企业环保投资活动的特点、明确政府环境管制与行业管制的有效性。基于中国A股上市公司的经验数据,本文研究发现:我国上市公司普遍存在环保投资额不足的现象,环保投资对企业来说是一种"被动"行为;政府环境管制强度与企业环保投资规模之间呈"U"型关系,即环境管制对企业环保投资行为的影响存在"门槛效应",企业环保投资行为更多地体现出"被动"迎合政府环境管制需要的特征;重污染行业企业比非重污染行业企业投入了更大规模的环保资金。本文的研究成果既拓展了企业投资研究的视野,又丰富了环境管理会计方面的学术文献。     

The Challenge of Risk Reporting: Regulatory and Corporate Responses

Corporate collapses such as those of Ansett Australia, Centaur Mining, Enron, HIH and One. Tel have rekindled regulators' concerns about the lack of transparency in financial reporting on risks and uncertainties. This paper examines the broad conceptual issues and regulatory responses so far in leading jurisdictions and investigates risk reporting of Australian entities operating in the mining sector. The limited and uneven level of reporting on risk found, in this study, if replicated in other industries and jurisdictions, provides justification for standard-setters considering more explicit requirements than the existing piecemeal rules of restricted scope.     

Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note

This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the EU. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters.     

Corporate Social Reporting: A Rebuttal of Legitimacy Theory

Various rationales have been advanced to explain the phenomenon of corporate social reporting. Among these has been legitimacy theory which posits that corporate disclosures are made as reactions to environmental factors and in order to legitimise corporate actions. This paper reports the results of an historical analysis of social disclosures in 100 years of annual reporting by a dominant corporation in the Australian mining/manufacturing industry. A variable but significant pattern of social reporting is identified and compared with an earlier study of social reporting by US Steel. The results of this study fail to confirm legitimacy theory as the primary explanation for social reporting in the Australian case.     

Corporate Reporting on the Internet in Australia: An Exploratory Study

This paper documents a research study on corporate reporting on the Internet by Australian companies. The findings suggest that while corporate reporting on the Internet is emerging in Australia, current practice does not utilise the full potential of the Internet to disclose information to stakeholders. Only limited evidence was found of changes in the reporting practices of companies resulting from opportunities for innovation in information dissemination offered by this technology.     

Corporate Reporting in Central and Eastern Europe: Issues,Challenges and Research Opportunities

The purpose of this paper, building upon the papers included in this special section of Accounting in Europe on Corporate reporting in CEE countries and on our knowledge of the region, is to broaden out and open up dialogue and debate about how local institutions are evolving and impact the corporate reporting practices in this under-researched region. We begin by discussing the institutional context for conducting research on corporate reporting by entities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), within the broader context of emerging, transitional economies. We also reflect on how research conducted on CEE countries can make a relevant contribution to the international literature, and exemplify by summarizing the research questions and findings of the papers included in the special section. A future research agenda emerges, given the gaps in the international literature and the future research implications suggested in the papers constituting the special section.     

基于可持续发展理念的企业整合报告研究

在强调社会责任和可持续发展的环境下,企业传统财务报告已无法满足信息使用者的需求,对其深化改革并尝试发布整合财务、环境、社会责任和公司治理信息的报告已成为未来的发展趋势.基于以上背景,国际会计界提出了“整合报告”的新概念,并于2010年8月成立了一个致力于发展整合报告框架及编制标准的国际整合报告委员会(IIRC).然而,目前企业整合报告的理论和实践还处于初创阶段,本文在关注IIRC和世界各国研究动态的基础上,通过理论探索和实证检验,首创性地提出了FESG四维报告作为企业整合报告基本形式的观点,并运用问卷调查和AHP层次分析法构建了FESG报告的初步框架,建议企业更为关注可持续发展和价值创造能力等战略问题.     

Corporate governance and disclosures on the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards

For reporting periods ending on or after 30 June 2004, Australian companies were required to disclose the expected impact of applying Australian equivalents of International Financial Reporting Standards effective from 1 January 2005. The objective of this paper is to examine the association between the level of disclosure and corporate governance quality. Using a sample of listed companies with 30 June balance dates, we find that the quantity of disclosure was positively related to some aspects of superior corporate governance, such as the frequency of board and audit committee meetings and the choice of auditor.     

严格遵守会计准则提供高质量财务报告认真履行社会责任

财务报告具有决策有用和受托责任双重目标以及公共产品的特征,属于企业对社会承担的法律责任,因此高质量的财务报告意义重大。本文基于上市公司和各类非上市企业执行财会[2009]16号文件的背景,从财务报告的编报、内控规范的落实、会计师事务所的整合以及加强财务报告的监督检查等几个方面,对企业遵守会计准则、提高财务报告质量和履行社会责任提出个人看法。