Corporate social accountability through action: Contemporary insights from British industrial pioneers

Corporate social and environmental responsibility has become a major contemporary focus of business, government and community attention globally. With this increased attention and activity have come debates ranging across corporate authenticity, legislative necessity, and the scope of appropriate strategies. Through an historical analysis of four leading British industrialists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, this paper addresses the question of how corporate social accountability can be shaped and implemented by industrial leaders. It finds that while they may be motivated by a mix of business case agendas and their personal philosophical and religious beliefs, their accountability orientation reflects the latter. Social accountability in these cases, emerges as accountability rendered through action, reflecting organisational leaders’ moral responsibility and their connecting their personal beliefs with action for the common good. In the light of parallels between historical and contemporary global industrial environments, the study identifies resonances between historical and contemporary corporate leader social responsibility values, initiatives and accountabilities through action. This opens up the possibility of a more nuanced understanding of motivations for and manifestations of corporate social responsibility and accountability.     

XBRL’s impact on analyst forecast behavior: An empirical study

This paper investigates the benefits of mandatory adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in the U.S. Using a sample of Phase I and Phase II filers in year 2009 and 2010, we examine whether there exists a positive association between the number of analysts following a firm as well as analyst forecast accuracy and the XBRL mandate by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our empirical results demonstrate a significant positive association between mandatory XBRL adoption and both analyst following and forecast accuracy. In addition, our findings show that such an association is stronger for Phase I filers than for Phase II filers in 2010. The magnitude of the association between XBRL mandate and analyst following is also larger for Phase I filers in year two than in year one of adoption. Our findings not only support the SEC’s requirement of detailed tagging of footnotes but also show that the benefits of adopting XBRL are realized regardless of errors found and concerns raised at the early stage of adoption.     

The Influence of Governance Structure and Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Toward Sustainability Reporting Quality

Increased business complexities coupled with enhanced global transformation have propelled corporations to behave as responsible citizens to drive the sustainability agenda. Many corporations incorporate their affirmative commitment to sustainable business practices into their corporate identities and give evidence for this in their sustainability reports. This paper examines the role of the board of directors in sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) in the Asia‐Pacific region. Based on a cross‐sectional study of 113 companies from 12 countries in the region, we find that the SRQ in the region leaves much room for improvement. However, we find that the institutionalization of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in an organization provides a sound foundation for enhancing SRQ. We find that the value of CSR anchored in the vision and/ or mission statement and strategic alliances fostered with non‐governmental organizations are positively associated with SRQ. This study contributes to strengthening the understanding, promoting discussion on the state of sustainability reporting in the Asia‐Pacific context and laying a solid foundation for more aggressive efforts to enhance SRQ. The study identifies the significant drivers currently associated with SRQ. The weak role of the board of directors in upholding the sustainable development agenda through the reporting process is highlighted. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Shopping value in online auctions: Their antecedents and outcomes

Online auctions present unique characteristics in the consumer decision-making process that raise new issues related to consumer shopping behaviors in auction-based purchases. The present research examined the relationship between consumer characteristics (i.e., compulsive buying behavior, variety-seeking tendency, and price sensitivity) and shopping value (i.e., utilitarian and hedonic) in online auctions and found that both compulsive buying behavior and variety-seeking tendency are critical factors of shopping value in the online auction environment. There were no positive relationships between price sensitivity and shopping value. The results of this study also revealed that consumers’ shopping value positively influenced their preference, which, in turn, formed behavioral intentions in online auctions. While utilitarian value was found to be a significant predictor of behavioral intentions, hedonic value was not. However, hedonic value influenced intentions indirectly through preference.     

Short sales and put options: Where is the bad news first traded?

Although the literature provides strong evidence supporting the presence of informed trading in both the option and the short equity markets, it is not clear which market attracts more informed trading. Using a unique dataset that covers intraday transaction data in the option and short equity markets, we investigate informed trading in a cross-market environment by explicitly studying the lead–lag relationship between the put net trade volume and short sales of the underlying stock. Our high frequency analysis shows that in general short sales contain more information. However, put options become more informative before the release of negative earnings announcements.