The Association between Board Composition and Different Types of Voluntary Disclosure

Abstract

This study examines the association between board composition and voluntary disclosure in annual reports. In particular, it addresses the incentives within the agency theory framework for both inside and independent directors to disclosure additional information voluntarily. Further, it provides evidence on the relation between the overall total voluntary disclosure and the components of voluntary disclosure, such as forward looking, strategic, non-financial and historical financial disclosures and board composition. Our sample is based on 181 Australian companies. We have developed and hand-collected 67 items from annual reports to develop the total voluntary disclosure index and the sub-indices of voluntary disclosure. Using two-stage multivariate analyses, our results provide some important insights. First, we find that there is a positive association between board composition and the voluntary disclosure of information in annual reports. Second, we also find that independent boards provide more voluntary disclosure of forward looking information and strategic information. However, board structure has no bearing on the voluntary disclosure of non-financial and historical financial information. Our findings are enhanced by different empirical specifications and sensitivity tests.     

Private Equity Investments and Disclosure Policy

In the current study, we dynamically analyze unlisted firms' voluntary disclosure decisions around private equity (PE) participation. First, we disentangle the role of disclosure in attracting PE investments. In addition, we examine the extent to which a firm's disclosure policy is affected by the changing corporate setting and intensified corporate governance after having received PE. We find no evidence that firms would employ increased disclosure to signal their quality in the years preceding the PE financing. However, we document a significant switch to increased financial disclosure from the PE investment year onwards, consistent with the hypothesis that PE investor presence positively affects portfolio firms' disclosure decisions. Further, we show that the proportional PE ownership stake is positively related to increased disclosure, but only at very high ownership levels. We explain these results in that both internal and external information demands call for higher public disclosure in PE firms. We conclude that the changing information environment resulting from a PE investment stimulates increased public financial disclosure. Our results contribute to illustrate how an indisputable change in governance resulting from a PE investment affects inter-temporal corporate disclosure decisions in unlisted firms.     

台湾企业信息透明度与债券发行资金成本关系实证研究——蒙地卡罗模拟法之运用

本文探讨了企业信息透明度与债券资金成本间的关系。研究样本涵盖1996年至2001年间,共103家发行公司债的台湾上市公司,对其年报自愿性披露水平进行了分析。结果发现,企业发行公司债增额举债成本与其年报自愿性披露水平间呈显着负相关,显示信息的充分披露能获得较低的举债成本。而依市场风险高低所作的分组测试,则显示具有高市场风险的企业,披露水平与债券发行资金成本间关联性并未较低市场风险的企业密切,且高市场风险组的企业,年报中所披露的策略性信息,与债券发行资金成本间的关系并未达显着水平,此也反映出投资人评估企业信息披露是"质"、"量"并重的。     

On the Relationship between Voluntary Disclosure,Earnings Smoothing and the Value-Relevance of Earnings: The Case of Switzerland

Abstract

This paper examines whether voluntary disclosure by Swiss firms constrains the use of discretionary accruals to smooth earnings, and explores the effect of voluntary disclosure on the value relevance of earnings. We focus on Swiss firms because Switzerland's financial reporting system provides managers with extensive discretion in corporate disclosure, and there are important variations in the level of information provided in their annual reports. We consider that managers can choose two different ways to voluntarily convey information, either through the quality and quantity of annual report disclosure or, through compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Relying on a simultaneous equations approach, our results suggest that Swiss firms use discretionary accruals to smooth earnings. However, this relation is reduced for firms that voluntarily disclose more information in their annual report or comply with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP. Moreover, we show that discretionary accruals of high disclosers or of firms voluntarily complying with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP receive a lower valuation weight.     

Corporate carbon risk,voluntary disclosure,and cost of capital: South African evidence

The study examines the interplay among corporate carbon risk, voluntary disclosure, and cost of capital within the context of South Africa, a “rising power” in the climate policy debate. We develop a system of simultaneous equations models and analyze data drawn from firms traded on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), for the period 2010 to 2015, using the three‐stage least squares procedure. We find that voluntary carbon disclosure is associated with lower overall (and equity) cost of capital, after controlling for corporate carbon risk. We also find that firms with higher carbon risk tend to provide better quality carbon disclosure and signal the possibility of high carbon risk to avoid negative market reactions resulting from concealing carbon information. Although the capital market does not appear to incorporate individual firm's carbon risk exposure into the required cost of capital, we find that it generally requires higher returns for companies operating in carbon‐intensive sectors. These findings suggest that firms could exploit the virtues of voluntary carbon disclosure to reduce their overall (and equity) cost of capital. Our findings also imply that regulators and policymakers could point to the cost of capital reducing role of voluntary disclosure to lure firms into voluntarily providing superior quality carbon disclosures.     

董事会特征与企业自愿信息披露

董事会作为公司治理结构的重要组成部分,是公司内部重要的决策机构,不同董事会特征对自愿信息披露的影响程度不同.本文对董事会特征与上市公司自愿信息披露水平之间的相关关系进行了实证研究.研究结果表明,董事会规模、董事会中独立董事的比例、独立董事亲自参加董事会的频率、董事会会议频率等都与自愿信息披露水平显著正相关,而董事长与CEO是否两职合一、董事会成员持股比例与自愿信息披露水平相关关系不明显.     

上市公司自愿性信息披露行为动因的经济学分析

本文运用交易成本理论、有效市场理论、投资行为理论、比较优势理论、信号传递模型、声誉机制模型、“深口袋”理论、代理契约理论等为上市公司自愿性信息披露行为动因构建了一个理论解释框架,同时在管理当局与投资者之间进行了博弈分析,并得出结论:应大力倡导上市公司自愿性信息披露,构建以适度的强制性信息披露为主,自愿性信息披露作为重要补充的信息披露机制才是治理上市公司虚假信息披露的根本之策。     

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.     

Voluntary Disclosure by State-owned Enterprises Listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong

This study examines the impact of international capital market pressures on the voluntary disclosure of three types of information (strategic, financial, and non-financial) in the annual reports of former wholly state-owned People's Republic of China (PRC) enterprises, listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). Consistent with a cost­benefit framework, we find that PRC H-Share firms disclose significantly more strategic and financial information than other SEHK firms. Additional analysis of disclosures in their home listings on the PRC exchanges, however, suggests an alternative explanation. The fact that these firms have been selected for "showcasing" in international capital markets may also play a role in our findings. While H-Share firm disclosures in the PRC also appear sensitive to management's assessment of the associated costs, the magnitude of differences across listing locations suggests that disclosure practices on the SEHK may also reflect the effects of state-encouraged disclosure policies. Our findings contribute to the understanding of disclosure behavior among former wholly state-owned enterprises and to the emerging literature on the efficacy of the privatization process.     

Investor relations: a comprehensive overview

This paper reviews the existing literature on investor relations. The purpose of investor relations is consistently to provide market participants with decision-relevant information as a result of either mandatory or voluntary information-disclosure policies. A causation chain between investor relations and stock prices is established through the liquidity hypothesis with respect to the depth of analyst coverage. Though a positive association is documented, it is not perfectly linear. After presenting the taxonomy of corporate disclosures, we elaborate on how well the full-disclosure and the discretionary disclosure models fit into reality. In addition, the extant theoretical and empirical literature reports that investor relations policies vary over time, across firms and jurisdictions.     

Do voluntary disclosures of bad news improve liquidity?

Can managers improve market liquidity and lower the cost of capital by providing voluntary earnings guidance? This study examines the impact of profit warnings on market liquidity and finds that voluntary disclosure of bad news actually improves market liquidity. By conducting an empirical study over the period 1995–2010 on NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX listed firms, we find that firms that issue profit warnings show enhanced market liquidity during the post-announcement period. We show that profit warnings reduce information asymmetry and lower bid-ask spreads and increase trading volumes. These results are invariant to daily (short run) and monthly (long run) data after controlling for firm specific attributes. The results have major corporate policy implications. By voluntarily disclosing negative earnings guidance by managers, firms will experience significant improvement in market liquidity, thereby lowering the cost of capital. Our results are even more profound for firms that release bad news with extremely negative stock market impact. In other words, voluntary disclosure of bad news is good for market liquidity.     

Litigation Risk and Corporate Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence from Two Quasi-Natural Experiments

Abstract

We examine the effect of litigation risk on corporate voluntary disclosure using two quasi-natural experiments, which have substantial and opposing impacts on the litigation risk of firms headquartered in the Ninth Circuit. We find that firms in the Ninth Circuit decrease (increase) the quantity and quality of their voluntary disclosure, relative to control firms, when their litigation risk is lowered (elevated). The pre-treatment test shows an indistinguishable trend between treatment and control firms. A battery of robustness checks indicates that our results are not driven by alternative explanations. We hypothesize and find that the impact of litigation risk is more pronounced when firms have bad news and that firms are more likely to preempt bad news through voluntary disclosures when litigation risk is elevated. Overall, results from both experiments suggest that litigation risk causally increases corporate voluntary disclosure.     

Corporate voluntary greenhouse gas reporting: Stakeholder pressure and the mediating role of the chief executive officer

The study sheds light on the extent to which various stakeholder pressures influence voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and how the impact is explained and moderated chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics of 215 FTSE 350 listed U.K. companies for the year 2011. The study developed a classification of GHG emission disclosure based on the guidelines of GHG Protocol, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure using content analysis. Evidence from the study suggests that some stakeholder pressure (regulatory, creditor, supplier, customer, and board control) positively impacts on GHG disclosure information by firms. We found that stakeholder pressure in the form of regulatory, mimetic, and shareholders pressure positively influenced the disclosure of GHG information. We also found that creditor pressure also had a significant negative relationship with GHG disclosure. Although CEO age had a direct negative effect on GHG voluntary disclosure, its moderation effect on stakeholder pressure influence on GHG disclosure was only significant on regulatory pressure.     

食品企业社会责任信息披露影响因素研究

针对近年来不断出现的食品安全事件,结合企业社会责任理论和食品行业披露的社会责任信息,对中国食品企业社会责任信息披露的主要影响因素进行了实证分析。文章选取了2006～2010年食品行业的A股公司作为研究样本,通过对企业年报、社会责任报告的内容分析,测算了公司社会责任信息披露指数。研究发现:规模越大、独立董事比例越高的公司披露的社会责任信息越多;公司财务杠杆和企业社会责任信息披露负相关;企业性质对企业社会责任信息披露无显著影响。论文从实证结果出发,提出了食品企业建立社会责任信息披露制度的建议。     

预约披露、信号显示与审计意见

本文主要探寻年报预约披露日期所隐藏的信息内涵。研究发现，本年年报披露晚、上年年报披露晚、本年年报预约披露晚、本年年报披露比上年年报披露或比本年年报预约披露晚（年报披露迟滞时间长）的上市公司年报被出具非标准审计意见的可能性大。这意味着上市公司年报的预约披露时间以及执行情况有助于对年报的审计意见类型的判断。对市场和投资者而言，年报预约披露制度是一个很好的信号显示机制。     

The Effect of Board Independence on Information Asymmetry

Boards have an important role in ensuring that investors’ interests are protected. Our paper first examines whether the independence of a firm's board affects information asymmetry among investors. We provide evidence that greater board independence leads to lower information asymmetry. Next, we provide evidence that more voluntary disclosure and greater analyst coverage are two underlying mechanisms via which greater board independence reduces information asymmetry. Of the two mechanisms, we find that analyst coverage is more significant in influencing how board independence affects information asymmetry. Overall, our paper contributes to a better understanding of the effect of board independence on information asymmetry.     

代理成本与内部控制自我评价报告的自愿披露——基于2010年沪市A股上市公司数据

使用2010年沪市A股公司数据,对代理成本与内部控制自我评价报告自愿披露的关系进行实证分析,结果表明内部控制自我评价报告的自愿披露水平与管理费用率负相关,与总资产周转率显著正相关。此外,公司的规模显著正向影响自愿披露水平,资产负债率与公司上市年限显著负向影响自愿披露水平。因此,监管部门有必要强制要求上市公司披露内部控制自我评价报告。     

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.     

Environmental and Social Policy and Earning Persistence

In recent years, the effect of disclosure on environmental and social information has been the subject of much research in an Anglo‐Saxon context. The European field, and especially the French companies, have not been sufficiently discussed. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between social and environmental disclosure and earning persistence (as a proxy of earning quality). We use the content analysis method with annual reports as a measure of social and environmental disclosure; the empirical validation is applied to the companies listed in the SBF 250 French stock market index over the 2005–2010 period. To measure earning persistence we opt for a regression of a time‐series model on panel data. The findings show that French companies are characterized by a high level of social and environmental reporting; this situation may affect positively the quality of earnings such as more persistent earnings. This means that companies with a higher level of social and environmental commitment are more likely to take benefits and to communicate more persistent earnings and be desirable to investors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Integrated reporting and capital markets in an international setting: The role of financial analysts

This study investigates the interplay between integrated reporting (IR) and capital markets. In particular, building on voluntary disclosure and information processing theories, we hypothesize and empirically find that IR adoption improves analysts' ability to make accurate earnings forecasts. Whereas previous studies focus on the South African context, we rely on an international sample that also allows us to study the moderating effect of the corporate governance regime (shareholder or stakeholder oriented). The results suggest that IR improves analysts' ability to make accurate predictions to a larger extent in North America than in Europe, and we derive interesting insights on the much‐debated nature of IR. This study offers valuable insights to policy makers interested in improving disclosure practices in the financial market.