Corporate governance and the quality of voluntary disclosure: Evidence from medium-sized listed firms

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Satta ◽  
Francesco Parola ◽  
Giorgia Profumo ◽  
Lara Penco
2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poh-Ling Ho ◽  
Gregory Tower ◽  
Dulacha G. Barako

Significant changes and reforms have been initiated around the world and in a Malaysian context with the aim of enhancing corporate governance and transparency. The nature of these regulatory reforms clearly impacted on firm management’s incentives to disclose information voluntarily. This study empirically examines the influence of corporate governance structure on voluntary disclosure practices of Malaysian listed firms from 1996 to 2001. This important timeframe encompasses the time period before the Asian Financial Crisis and the aftermath of regulatory reforms such as the revamped KLSE Listing Requirement released in 2001, widely recognized as a major milestone in Malaysian corporate governance reform through the enhanced corporate disclosure. Our findings show that the extent of voluntary communication is generally low, albeit showing an increase from 1996 to 2001. There is an increase in the number of corporate governance characteristics adopted by firms, suggesting firms exhibiting an improvement in the corporate governance structure. While corporate governance structure is not a significant explanatory variable in 1996, our results suggest that a firm’s corporate governance structure has a significantly positive impact on voluntary disclosure in 2001. Large companies voluntarily disclose more information in both years. The implications are that a greater focus on corporate governance is resulting in an increase in transparency in the Malaysian setting. Corporate change is generating better corporate communication


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos P. Barros ◽  
Sabri Boubaker ◽  
Amal Hamrouni

This paper investigates the effect of corporate governance practices on the extent of voluntary disclosure in France. Using a panel of 206 non-financial French listed firms during the period 20062009, we find evidence that voluntary disclosure in annual reports increases with managerial ownership, board and audit committee independence, board meeting frequency, and external audit quality. We also find that frequency of audit committee meetings and diligence of board and auditing are associated with decreased disclosure. Additional findings show that larger, more profitable, and less indebted firms have greater voluntary disclosure.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmi A. Boshnak

Purpose This paper aims to examine firm characteristics and ownership structure determinants of corporate social and environmental voluntary disclosure (CSEVD) practices in Saudi Arabia to address the paucity of research in this field for Saudi listed firms. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses manual content and regression analyses for online annual report data for Saudi non-financial listed firms over the period 2016–2018 using CSEVD items drawing on global reporting initiative-G4 guidelines. Findings Models show that Saudi firm CSEVD has increased over time compared to previous studies to an average of 68% disclosure due to new corporate governance regulations and IFRS implementation. The models show that firm size, leverage, manufacturing industry type and government ownership are positive determinants of CSEVD, while family ownership is the negative driver of CSEVD. However, firm profitability, audit firm size, firm age and institutional ownership have no impact on the level of CSEVD. Originality/value Using legitimacy and stakeholder theories, the paper determines the influence of firm characteristics and ownership structure on CSEVD, identifying implications for firm stakeholders and providing some evidence on the impact of corporate governance regulation and IFRS implementation on such disclosure. The paper provides additional evidence on progress towards Saudi’s Vision 2030.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6460
Author(s):  
Jaehong Lee ◽  
Eunjoo Cho ◽  
Jong Sung Park

This study explored the effect of corporate governance on disclosure transparency, coming from the changes of the largest shareholder and the designation as an unfaithful disclosure firm. In addition, the study verified whether this designation on a firm increases voluntary disclosure level the following year. According to results of analyzing nonfinancial firms listed in the Korea stock market from 2009 to 2017, the more frequently the largest shareholder changed in the recent three years, the significantly higher the possibility of the firm in being designated as an unfaithful disclosure firm. For firms that were designated as unfaithful disclosure firms, voluntary disclosure significantly increased the following year. These results were strengthened by the addition of several more analyses including quality of management forecasts, consideration of fixed-effects regression and the mediation modeling. These results imply the necessity for the supervision of authorities to take caution, while it shows the effectiveness of the unfaithful disclosure designation regulation in improving disclosure transparency.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sulaiman Mouselli ◽  
Riad Abdulraouf ◽  
Aziz Jaafar

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the most significant governance provision in enhancing the financial information quality of UK listed firms. In addition, it investigates the influence of this governance provision in explaining stock returns of 20 UK industry portfolios. Design/methodology/approach – To identify the main governance provision in enhancing the accruals quality, the paper runs regressions of accruals quality variable on the total governance variable, on the governance provisions individually, and on the governance provisions taken together with and without integrating control variables. Next, Asset Pricing tests are employed to examine the capacity of the audit provision, as proved the most influential governance provision on accruals quality, to explain stock returns. The quantitative approach used in the paper enables to investigate the relationship between corporate governance, accruals quality, and stock returns. Findings – Results indicate that audit provision is the most important governance mechanism affecting accruals quality. In addition, this mechanism is comparable with the book-to-market factor in explaining the time-series variation in portfolios returns. Furthermore, the introduction of the Audit factor to Fama-French model reduces the significance of the size factor and the book-to-market factor in explaining stock returns. This suggests that size and the book-to-market factors contain information related to the audit provision. Research limitations/implications – The findings of the paper carry implications for investors as they do not need to equally weight all corporate governance provisions in their resource allocation decisions. The significant influence of audit provision on accruals quality needs to be taken into consideration when investment decisions are made. Audit factor is important in predicting future returns. It is also found to be as good as book-to-market factor in explaining portfolios returns. Also, the findings have many implications for regulatory bodies in their efforts to enhance financial information quality. Establishing roles for best governance in reducing information risk should focus, among other things, on the significant elements of corporate governance in improving accruals quality. The main limitation of the study is the restricted variation in the Audit governance factor which comes from the source of corporate governance data, i.e. CGQ. Firms in the sample do not exhibit diversified levels of Audit scores. Accordingly, when constructing audit risk factor it was found that firms could only be split into two portfolios according to their Audit scores instead of five. Originality/value – This study identifies audit provision as the most significant governance mechanism in enhancing the financial information quality of UK listed firms. In addition, a factor representing audit provision is constructed to investigate the influence of this provision on stock returns. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines the capacity of the audit provision to explain stock returns in an asset pricing framework.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safia Nosheen ◽  
Naveed-Ul-Haq Naveed-Ul-Haq ◽  
Muhammad Faisal Sajjad

The link between disclosure of corporate information and the cost of equity in firms is one of the most important issues in finance. This paper aims to examine the connection between corporate governance, disclosure quality of information, and the cost of equity in Pakistani-listed (PSX-listed) firms. Using the Generalized Methods of Movements (Sys-GMM) model, a sample of 167 non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the period of 2011-2015was analyzed. Sys-GMM estimation was applied to overcome the problem of endogeneity among corporate governance variables. To test the robustness of GMM estimations, we compared the results of pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed-effect estimations and found they did not overcome the problem of endogeneity, providing spurious results. We found a negative association between cost of equity and disclosure quality of financial statements. The findings suggested that the board size, concentrated ownership and CEO duality, are found as significant factors in reducing the cost of equity of PSX-listed firms. Audit committee independence and audit quality of the firm showed a positive relationship with the firm’s cost of equity. Our findings suggest that employing a high-quality auditor and independent director’s results in increased cost of equity for PSX-listed firms. Furthermore, no significant relationship between independence of the boards and duration of the authorizations of financial statements by the board of directors is found. The results also revealed the investors demand more return on their investments if inadequate and incomplete information is disclosed in the annual reports of the firms. This study provides useful insights for Pakistani corporate governance regulators, the executive management of Pakistani firms, and their investors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Naser - Abdelkarim ◽  
Mohammed T. Abusharbeh

<p>This study seeks to achieve two objectives; (1) to examine the degree of compliance with corporate governance requirements in Palestine and Jordan by listed firms, and (2) to investigate the impact of corporate governance on quality of disclosure for Palestinian and Jordanian listed firms. A sample of 15 Palestinian listed companies and 30 Jordanian listed companies that fully disclosed their financial data in year 2007 and 2014 was used. This research employs multiple regression model and one sample t-test in order to analyze data variables and to test the research hypotheses.The research reveals that there are no statistically significant differences between Jordan and Palestinian listed firms in applying the respective codes of corporate governance, but these two countries are relatively still modest in observing corporate governance rules. This study also concludes that boards of director’s characteristics have no significant impact on quality of disclosure in Palestine and Jordan. This indicates that corporate governance practices didn’t have any significant effect on quality of disclosurefor Palestinian and Jordanian listed firms.</p>


Author(s):  
Mondher Kouki ◽  
Bilel Ben Attia

This research paper examines how corporate governance is related to the quality of financial disclosures for a sample of French listed firms during the period 2003-2009. We find that the level of financial reporting is positively influenced by corporate governance score. Managers and blockholders are more likely to disclose less information. These results are consistent with the belief that effective corporate governance is associated with higher financial disclosure quality while entrenched insiders do not improve this effect.    


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