Do Corporate Governance Characteristics Affect Non-Financial Risk Disclosure in Government-owned Companies? The Italian Experience

2014 ◽  
pp. 5-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Allini ◽  
Francesca Manes Rossi ◽  
Riccardo Macchioni

While a considerable amount of research has already been carried out into the corporate governance determinants of non-financial risk disclosure in companies in the private sector, such determinants in the annual reports of listed Governmentowned Companies (LGCs) have yet to be investigated fully. This study attempts to complete the picture. Italian LGCs have been selected for analysis and agency theory has been applied in the public sector under the accountability paradigm. The research investigates whether non-financial risk disclosure provided in the Management Commentary (MC) of Italian LGCs may be affected by ownership concentration, corporate governance mechanisms and company-specific features. The issue is of particular importance in a country where Government intervention has significantly affected its economic development since the nineteenth century. Our findings show that there is a relationship between the level of non-financial risk disclosure and Board diversity, leverage and sector. Our findings also reveal some useful insights concerning policy makers and standard setters.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rokibul Kabir ◽  
Farid A. Sobhani ◽  
Normah Omar ◽  
Norazida Mohamad

Corporate governance provides a fundamental framework to oversee corporate conduct and ensures transparency of institutions like banks. In case of Islamic banks, it adds additional importance as the profit sharing (with the depositors) system enhances the chance of agency problem for such institutions. Again, risks are inherent in institutions like Islamic banks, which necessitate the investors to get proper information about the risk encountered by the banks in which they invest. Thus, corporate governance and risk disclosures bear utmost importance. Since Malaysian banking industry has already experienced a favorable growth of Islamic banking and Bangladesh is observing a rapid growth of popularity of Islamic banking, a comparative study has been undertaken between Malaysian and Bangladeshi Islamic banks regarding corporate governance and risk disclosures in annual reports. Content analysis technique has been applied to facilitate the comparison. Both quantity and quality of risk reporting of the sample companies have been evaluated. A corporate governance disclosure index has been developed by following the guidelines provided by Bangladesh Security and Exchange Commission (BSEC) and the principles laid down in the ‘Guidelines on Corporate Governance for Licensed Islamic Banks in Malaysia’ to explore and compare the degree of good corporate governance and relevant disclosures in the annual reports. It is hypothesized that corporate governance and risk disclosure will vary between Malaysian and Bangladeshi Islamic Banks. It is also argued that the corporate risk disclosures will be positively associated with the quality of the firm’s corporate governance mechanisms. Results are generally supportive of hypotheses. At the end, implications for theory and practices are discussed in the study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Issal Haj Salem ◽  
Salma Damak Ayadi ◽  
Khaled Hussainey

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential influence of corporate governance mechanisms on risk disclosure quality in Tunisia. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine 152 annual reports of Tunisian non-financial-listed firms during 2008–2013, and use the manual content analysis method to measure the risk disclosure quality. Findings The authors find that the quality of risk disclosure in Tunisian companies is relatively low, and also find that the quality of risk disclosure is positively associated with institutional ownership, board independence, the presence of women on the board, the presence of family members on the board and the independence of audit committee. Managerial ownership has a negative effect on risk disclosure quality. Finally, the authors find that the revolution decreases the influence of concentration ownership, government ownership, family ownership and audit committee size on risk disclosure quality. Originality/value Using a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms and a new measure for risk disclosure quality in Tunisia, the authors provide the first empirical evidence on the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on risk disclosure quality in a developing country. The study has theoretical and practical implications for both developed and developing countries.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azrul Bin Abdullah ◽  
Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail

This study examines the extent of information about hedging activities disclosures within the annual reports of Main Market companies listed on Bursa Malaysia. The extent of hedging activities disclosures is captured through a 32-item-template, which consists of a mandatory and voluntary disclosure scores. The results of this study indicate that the extent of information on hedging activities disclosure is still insufficient among the sampled companies even though the disclosure scored is quite high. This study also examines the relationship between the existence of risk management committee (RMC), its characteristics and the extent of information on hedging activities disclosure in two separate statistical models. The regression results imply that the existence of RMC is positive but does not significantly influence the extent of information on hedging activities disclosure. However its characteristics (i.e. RMC independence and RMC meeting) have a significant influence. The findings may provide some meaningful insights to regulators, policymakers and researchers, towards the establishment of RMC as a part of the internal corporate governance mechanisms. In addition to its existence, the effectiveness of RMC also needs to be emphasised.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Mejbel Al-Saidi

The study investigated the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the corporate capital structure of the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE). Specifically, this study linked five corporate governance mechanisms—large shareholder ownership concentration, government ownership concentration, board size, board independence, and family directors—with capital structure for 81 non-financial listed firms between 2017 and 2018. The data indicated that only government ownership concentration and family directors affect capital structure.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Kostyuk ◽  
Yaroslav Mozghovyi ◽  
Dmytro Govorun

This manuscript is aimed at highlighting the most recent trends in corporate governance, ownership and control based on the manuscripts presented at the international conference “Corporate Governance, Ownership and Control” that took place in Rome on February 27, 2018. We have also used reputable papers published in the relevant academic journals in the past to support the arguments stated by the authors of the papers, presented at the conference. This paper covers a wide range of corporate governance topics in corporate ownership and control toward corporate governance mechanisms, such as board of directors, the board diversity, directors’ remuneration, firm performance, auditing and accounting, etc. We saw a growing interest of researchers to widen the scope of their major research to link it to corporate ownership and control issues. Currently, corporate governance research follows two major routs: classical empirical corporate governance research and multidisciplinary research aimed at findings non-conventional methods to solution of existing problems.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poh-Ling Ho ◽  
Gregory Tower

This paper examines the impact of ownership structure on the voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of Malaysian listed firms. The result shows that there is an increase in the extent of voluntary disclosure in Malaysian listed firms over the eleven-year period from 1996 to 2006. Ownership concentration consistently shows positive association with voluntary disclosure. Firms with higher foreign and institutional ownership have a significantly positive association with voluntary disclosure levels while firms with family ownership exhibit lower voluntary disclosure. Consistent with agency theory, different ownership structures have varied monitoring effects on agency costs and clearly influence firm’s disclosure practices. The findings provide insights to policy makers and regulators in their desire to increase transparency and accountability amidst the continual enhancement of corporate governance. The findings provide evidence that optimized ownership structure in any jurisdiction should be considered in any regulatory process that seeks to improve transparency.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1161-1184
Author(s):  
Josimar Pires Da Silva ◽  
Mariana Pereira Bonfim ◽  
Rafael Martins Noriller ◽  
Carlos Vicente Berner

AbstractThe objective of this research is to verify the level of relationship between the mechanisms of corporate governance and the performance of the companies of the public subsector, listed on BM&FBovespa. The research was based on the financial statements from 2010 to 2014, obtained on the BM&FBovespa website, resulting in a sample of 63 companies with 315 observations. In order to calculate the performance proxy of the company, the ROA was used, and for the calculation of the proxies of the corporate governance mechanisms were used for the quality of the audit, the concentration of ownership in common shares and preferred shares, participation in the levels of governance of BM&FBovespa, number of shares held by the government and number of directors in the Board, adapted from the Mollah and Zaman (2015) survey. Convergence with national and international research, the findings of the study showed that such variables as quality of profit, concentration of ownership in preferred shares, participation in governance levels and size of the Board are positively related to the performance of the company; already a concentration of ownership in common shares and number of shares held by the government are negatively related to performance. For future reference, it is recommended to expand other sectors of the market as well as to use other mechanisms of corporate governance, presented in the literature.Keywords: Corporate Governance. Performance. Public Subsector.Mecanismos de governança corporativa e desempenho: análise das companhias do subsetor de utilidade pública listadas na BM&FBovespa Resumo O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de verificar o nível de relação entre os mecanismos de governança corporativa e o desempenho das empresas do subsetor de utilidade pública, listadas na BM&FBovespa. A pesquisa teve como base os dados das demonstrações financeiras de 2010 a 2014, obtidas no sítio eletrônico da BM&FBovespa, resultando assim, em uma amostra de 63 empresas, com 315 observações. Para o cálculo da proxy de desempenho da empresa foi utilizado o ROA, e para o cálculo das proxies dos mecanismos de governança corporativa foram utilizadas a qualidade da auditoria, concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança da BM&FBovespa, número de ações mantidas pelo governo e número de diretores no Conselho, adaptado da pesquisa de Mollah e Zaman (2015). Convergente com pesquisas nacionais e internacionais, os achados desse estudo evidenciaram que as variáveis qualidade do lucro, concentração de propriedade em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança e tamanho do Conselho são positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da empresa; já a concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e o número de ações mantidas pelo governo são negativamente relacionadas com o desempenho. Para pesquisas futuras, recomenda-se ampliar a outros setores do mercado bem como utilizar outros mecanismos de governança corporativa, presentes na literatura.Palavras-chave: Governança Corporativa. Desempenho. Utilidade Pública.


Author(s):  
Helmut K. Anheier ◽  
Christoph M. Abels

Traditionally, corporate governance is about agency problems caused by the division of ownership and control. This chapter moves beyond this understanding. Starting with a theoretical overview, the chapter reviews different approaches to corporate governance and discusses shareholder primacy in light of the increasing demand for corporate social responsibility. Afterwards, a brief history of the development of corporate governance codes is given, followed by the role of corporate governance during the global financial crisis. Different corporate governance mechanisms, such as independent directors, board composition, and member diversity, as well as executive remuneration are subsequently discussed. Problems specific to corporate governance of technology companies are also highlighted, as well as the lessons Germany’s co-determination law can teach for the understanding of board diversity. The chapter concludes with a brief reflection on shareholder primacy, a diversifying corporate world, and the future of corporate governance codes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 578-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil Al-Najjar ◽  
Suzan Abed

Purpose – This paper aims to witness the importance of corporate governance mechanisms and investigates the relationship between the quality of disclosure of forward-looking information in the narrative sections of annual reports and the governance mechanisms for non-financial UK companies. Design/methodology/approach – Computerized content analysis using QSR NVivo 8 is used to measure the extent of forward-looking information in the narratives of the annual reports for 238 companies listed in the London Stock Exchange. Cross-sectional regression analysis is used to examine the impact of the corporate governance mechanisms on forward-looking information. Findings – The results show that board size and the independence of the audit committee are associated with the level of voluntary disclosure of forward-looking information. Research limitations/implication – One limitation of this study is that in controls for the effect of the financial crisis period, by selecting a representative year for a five-year period, 2006. The authors argument in using this year is based on the fact that the main variables of interest do not vary significantly with time, the cross-sectional analysis of the selected period will provide a fair view of the last five year-period. Practical implications – The authors report the importance of some governance practices in the UK, such as the role of the board members as well as the importance of audit committee independence. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by using computerized content analysis to examine the relation between corporate governance mechanism and disclosure quality of forward-looking information using sample of companies before financial crisis period. The authors also examine governance mechanisms that are under-researched in the field of forward-looking disclosure.


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