Environmental disclosure quality and risk: the moderating effect of corporate governance

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zabihollah Rezaee ◽  
Mohammad Alipour ◽  
Omid Faraji ◽  
Mehrdad Ghanbari ◽  
Babak Jamshidinavid

Purpose The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between environmental disclosure quality (EDQ) and risk and to further examine whether corporate governance (CG) practices moderate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a set of unique, hand collected data (from 2011 to 2016) to measure EDQ for a sample of 762 firm-years Iranian listed companies. Ordinary least squares regression analysis is performed in testing hypotheses after controlling for a variety of firm, industry and year effects. Moreover, several analyses are performed to establish the robustness of the findings. Findings The results indicate a negative association between EDQ and firm risk. While board independence moderates this relationship, other CG practices such as CEO duality and board size do not show any effects on the relationship between EDQ and risk. The results remain robust after performing sensitivity tests and under various specifications, including the fixed-effects panel data and Heckman two-stage regressions. Research limitations/implications Results are from a sample of firms from one country. Practical implications The results have implications for policymakers, legislators and corporate executives, as environmental initiatives are gaining more attention worldwide. Social implications Sustainability initiatives in the areas of environmental and social performance and disclosure are gaining global attention. This study addresses the link between firm risk and EDQ. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the relationship between corporate risk-taking and EDQ in the context of a developing economy.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Mohammed Al-Masawa ◽  
Rasidah Mohd-Rashid ◽  
Hamdan Amer Al-Jaifi ◽  
Shaker Dahan Al-Duais

Purpose This study aims to investigate the link between audit committee characteristics and the liquidity of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Malaysia, which is an emerging economy in Southeast Asia. Another purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of the revised Malaysian code of corporate governance (MCCG) on the link between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity. Design/methodology/approach The final sample consists of 304 Malaysian IPOs listed in 2002–2017. This study uses ordinary least squares regression method to analyse the data. To confirm this study’s findings, a hierarchical or four-stage regression analysis is used to compare the t-values of the main and moderate regression models. Findings The findings show that audit committee characteristics (size and director independence) have a positive and significant relationship with IPO liquidity. Also, the revised MCCG positively moderates the relationship between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity. Research limitations/implications This study’s findings indicate that companies with higher audit committee independence have a more effective monitoring mechanism that mitigates information asymmetry, thus reducing adverse selection issues during share trading. Practical implications Policymakers could use the results of this study in developing policies for IPO liquidity improvements. Additionally, the findings are useful for traders and investors in their investment decision-making. For companies, the findings highlight the crucial role of the audit committee as part of the control system that monitors corporate governance. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this work is a pioneering study in the context of a developing country, specifically Malaysia that investigates the impact of audit committee characteristics on IPO liquidity. Previously, the link between corporate governance and IPO liquidity had not been investigated in Malaysia. This study also contributes to the IPO literature by providing empirical evidence regarding the moderating effect of the revised MCCG on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity.


Author(s):  
Mahfoudh Abdulkarem Al-Musali ◽  
Mohammed Helmi Qeshta ◽  
Mohamed Ali Al-Attafi ◽  
Abood Mohammad Al-Ebel

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to report on the level of audit committee (AC) effectiveness on the top capitalized firms in GCC countries and to empirically investigate the hypothesized influence of ownership types on the level of AC effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data were drawn from annual reports of 119 top listed firms in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations at the end of 2011. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was constructed to examine the relationships between ownership types and the level of AC effectiveness.FindingsThe findings revealed that family, government and institutional ownership, in addition to board independence, all have significant positive association with AC effectiveness, and they serve as a complement to AC effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study are important for policy makers and regulators as they could use them to understand the relationship between different corporate governance mechanisms and formulating best strategies that would help them to improve and adopt an optimal governance system constituted from interacting governance mechanisms.Originality/valueThis study is one of few that have examined the interaction between different corporate governance mechanisms. It provides insights about the relationship between AC effectiveness and other governance mechanisms in the GCC context.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyuan Wang ◽  
Biao Luo ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Zhengyun Wei

Purpose The paper aims to study the relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies and investigate the moderating effect of contextual factor (i.e. organizational slack) on such relations. It proposes a dualistic relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies, in which different perceptions of environmental threats will lead to corresponding innovation strategies, and dyadic organizational slack can promote such processes. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a survey with 163 valid questionnaires, which were all completed by executives. Hierarchical ordinary least-squares regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses proposed in this paper. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about that executives tend to choose exploratory innovation when they perceive environmental changes as likely loss threats, yet adopt exploitative innovation when perceiving control-reducing threats. Furthermore, unabsorbed slack (e.g. financial redundancy) positively moderates both relationships, while absorbed slack (e.g. operational redundancy) merely positively influences the relationship between the perception of control-reducing threats and exploitative innovation. Originality/value The paper bridges the gap between organizational innovation and cognitive theory by proposing a dualistic relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies. The paper further enriches innovation studies by jointly considering both subjective and objective influence factors of innovation and argues that organizational slack can moderate such dualistic relationship.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 624-639
Author(s):  
Samantha L. Viano ◽  
Seth B. Hunter

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to replicate prior findings on teacher-principal race congruence and teacher job satisfaction and extend the literature by investigating trends over time and if the relationship between race congruence and teacher job satisfaction differs by principal race and region. Design/methodology/approach The study sample comes from four waves of cross-sectional data, the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey, administered between 2000 and 2012. The analysis is conducted using ordinary least squares and school-year fixed effects with a comprehensive set of covariates. Findings The relationship between race congruence and teacher job satisfaction is attenuating over time and is likely explained by the lower job satisfaction of white teachers who work for black principals. Some evidence indicates teacher-principal race congruence has greater salience in the Southern region of the country. Find evidence that teachers with race-congruent principals report more workplace support than their non-race congruent colleagues. Research limitations/implications Future studies should investigate why racial congruence has more salience in the Southern region of the country and for white teachers who work with black principals. At the same time, results indicate that teacher-principal race congruence might no longer be a determinant of teacher job satisfaction, although further studies should continue investigating this relationship. Originality/value Findings on the changing nature of the relationship between principal-teacher race congruence and teacher job satisfaction over time as well as the differing nature of race congruence in the Southern region of the country are both novel findings in the literature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nor Farizal Mohammed ◽  
Kamran Ahmed ◽  
Xu-Dong Ji

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between accounting conservatism, corporate governance and political connection in listed firms in Malaysia where political influence plays a significant role in the capital market and in many business dealings. Design/methodology/approach By utilizing 824 firm-year observations comprising large listed companies over a period of four years from 2004, this study uses ordinary least squares regression models to investigate the relationship between accounting conservatism, corporate governance and political connections in Malaysia. Multiple measures of conservatism developed by Basu (1997) and Khan and Watts (2009) are employed. Findings The results show evidence of accounting conservatism (bad news being recognized earlier than good news) in Malaysia. Further, the results reveal that better corporate governance structure in terms of board independence is positively associated with accounting conservatism while management ownership is negatively associated with it. However, political connection has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between accounting conservatism and board independence. The results also suggest political connections have a positive association with firm’s future performance. Originality/value This study is the first in investigating the effect of political connections on accounting conservatism in Malaysian context and how political connections negatively affect the monitoring role of the corporate boards. By directly measuring political connection and controlling for various corporate governance mechanisms and firm-specific attributes, this study contributes to enhance the authors’ understanding of the political influence in financial reporting quality and firm performance in an emerging market setting.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xusen Cheng ◽  
Ying Bao ◽  
Alex Zarifis ◽  
Wankun Gong ◽  
Jian Mou

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots have brought unprecedented business potential. This study aims to explore consumers' trust and response to a text-based chatbot in e-commerce, involving the moderating effects of task complexity and chatbot identity disclosure.Design/methodology/approachA survey method with 299 useable responses was conducted in this research. This study adopted the ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the consumers' perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot positively impacts their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively moderates the relationship between empathy and consumers' trust, while it positively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Fourth, consumers' trust in the chatbot increases their reliance on the chatbot and decreases their resistance to the chatbot in future interactions.Research limitations/implicationsAdopting the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this study provides important insights on consumers' perception and response to the text-based chatbot. The findings of this research also make suggestions that can increase consumers' positive responses to text-based chatbots.Originality/valueExtant studies have investigated the effects of automated bots' attributes on consumers' perceptions. However, the boundary conditions of these effects are largely ignored. This research is one of the first attempts to provide a deep understanding of consumers' responses to a chatbot.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erhan Kilincarslan ◽  
Mohamed H. Elmagrhi ◽  
Zezeng Li

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance structures on environmental disclosure practices in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Design/methodology/approach The research model uses a panel data set of 121 publicly listed (non-financial and non-utility) firms from 11 MEA countries over the period 2010-2017, uses alternative dependent variables and regression techniques and is applied to various sub-groups to improve robustness. Findings The empirical results strongly indicate that MEA firms with high governance disclosures tend to have better environmental disclosure practices. The board characteristics of gender diversity, size, CEO/chairperson duality and audit committee size impact positively on MEA firms’ voluntary environmental disclosures, whereas board independence has a negative influence. Research limitations/implications This study advances research on the relationship between corporate governance structures and environmental disclosure practices in MEA countries, but is limited to firms for which data are available from Bloomberg. Practical implications The results have important practical implications for MEA policymakers and regulators. The positive impact of board gender diversity on firms’ environmental disclosures, policy reforms should aim to increase female directors. MEA corporations aiming to be more environmentally friendly should recruit women to top managerial positions. Originality/value This is thought to be the first study to provide insights from the efficiency and legitimation perspectives of neo-institutional theory to explain the relationship between MEA firms’ internal governance structures and environmental disclosures.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tawida Elgattani ◽  
Khaled Hussainey

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of the accounting and auditing organisation for Islamic financial institution (AAOIFI) governance disclosure on the performance of Islamic banks (IBs). Design/methodology/approach The ordinary least squares regression model was used to test the impact of AAOIFI governance disclosure on the performance of 126 IBs from 8 countries that mandatorily adopt the AAOIFI standards for three years (2013–2015). In this regression model, return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) are the dependent variables, while AAOIFI governance disclosure is the independent variable. Corporate governance mechanisms, firm characteristics, year dummy and country dummy are used as control variables. Findings This paper found an insignificant relationship between AAOIFI governance disclosure and IBs performance. Research limitations/implications This study highlighted the implication that the current research may help IBs and encourage them to disclose more information in annual reports, especially those related to AAOIFI governance standards because following good corporate governance leads to good financial performance. The major limitation of the paper is that it is only focussed on two measurements of bank performance – ROA and ROE; it would be good to use other firm performance measures, such as profit margin. Originality/value This study provides new empirical evidence on the impact of AAOIFI governance disclosure on IBs performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 814-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Manes Rossi ◽  
Giuseppe Nicolò ◽  
Paolo Tartaglia Polcini

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a new way to disclose intellectual capital (IC) in universities through their websites. Going beyond traditional tools used for intellectual capital disclosure (ICD), this study aims at identifying possible determinants of ICD via the web. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses the institutional websites of a sample of Italian universities adapting the theoretical framework developed by Low et al. (2015) to the peculiarities of the Italian university system. Moreover, the relationship between certain explanatory factors identified in previous research and the extent of online ICD represented by two disclosure indexes was tested through an ordinary least squares regression model. Findings The analysis reveals the extensive use of ICD via websites, especially regarding human and internal capital, while the disclosure of external capital through this means is still limited. Internationality and online visibility both positively affect the extent of a university’s ICD. Research limitations/implications The paper represents the first study investigating online ICD and its determinants in universities, contributing new knowledge to help answer the how and what of the matter. Practical implications The results can serve as encouragement to university managers to enhance online ICD to meet the information needs of a wider audience. Originality/value This is the first study to provide evidence about online ICD in universities and to reveal some of the possible determinants to improve this disclosure.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
PuCha Wang ◽  
Fei Che ◽  
ShanShan Fan ◽  
Chen Gu

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and also to make empirical analysis on the relationship between circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and corporate ownership governance and institutional pressures according to institutional theory and corporate governance theory. Finally, this paper provides some corresponding suggestions for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality. Design/methodology/approach – This paper constructs enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure model with Chinese characteristics. First, it takes disclosure index method to measure enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, followed by the hypotheses of this study. Then, this study employs a statistical analysis technique to empirically study the relationship between enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and ownership governance and institutional pressures, to study the ways to heighten enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in Chinese background. Findings – Ownership governance and institutional pressures mainly determine quality of circular economy accounting information disclosure. This paper draws the following conclusions: Chinese listed companies have heightened their circular economy accounting information disclosure quality due to ownership concentration, shareholding of institutional investors, mandatory disclosure, capital structure and assets size. However, the circular economy accounting information disclosure quality has low correlation with the profitability and the location of listed companies. Originality/value – Both in China and the West, few scholars or experts adopt empirical research to study the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in an institutional theory and corporate governance theory perspective based on China’s supervisory system background. This paper makes a thorough analysis of the factors that affect listed companies’ circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and provides some corresponding suggestions relevant for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality.


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