This Obscure Thing Called Transparency

Transparency is the metaphor of our time. Whether in government or corporate governance, finance, technology, health or the media – it is ubiquitous today, and there is hardly a current debate that does not call for more transparency. But what does this word actually stand for and what are the consequences for the life of individuals? Can knowledge from the arts, and its play of visibility and invisibility, tell us something about the paradoxical logics of transparency and mediation? This Obscure Thing Called Transparency gathers contributions by international experts who critically assess the promises and perils of transparency today.

This Obscure Thing Called Transparency

Transparency is the metaphor of our time. Whether in government or corporate governance, finance, technology, health or the media – it is ubiquitous today, and there is hardly a current debate that does not call for more transparency. But what does this word actually stand for and what are the consequences for the life of individuals? Can knowledge from the arts, and its play of visibility and invisibility, tell us something about the paradoxical logics of transparency and mediation? This Obscure Thing Called Transparency gathers contributions by international experts who critically assess the promises and perils of transparency today.

Governance Mechanism, Intell ectual Capita l Disclosure, a nd Firm Value

This study entitled the influence of corporate governance mechanism on firm value with intellectual capital disclosure as an intervening variable. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effect of board size, gender diversity, educational background, block holder ownership, and foreign ownership both simultaneously and partially on intellectual capital disclosure and firm value. This study examines the mediating effect of intellectual capital disclosure in the relationship between corporate governance mechanism and firm value. This study used the companies included in intellectual capital intensive industries in Indonesia Stock Exchange as the sample for 2017-2019. The sampling technique used in this study was purposive sampling, with 243 data from 81 companies. Analysis techniques used in this study were statistic descriptive, multiple regression, and path analysis used SPSS 23 for windows. The hypothesis testing results show that corporate governance mechanisms simultaneously influence intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and firm value. Partially, only board size influences both ICD and substantial value, and educational background only influences strong value. The Sobel test shows that ICD doesn't mediate the effect of all variables related to corporate governance mechanism on firm value.

A Descriptive Analysis on Effect of Corporate Governance on Investor’s Decision

Purpose: The article studies the impact of internal factors and external factors influencing an investor’s investment decision. Design/Methodology: The information for the study was obtained from secondary sources like journal papers, magazines and books. Findings: Human psychology has an internal role in investing choice, whereas corporate governance is an external influence. Corporate governance plays a major role in the investment decision-making process by revealing all elements of business information, but investors understand the information according to their own assessments and assumptions based on their psychology. As a result, a firm’s transparency hardly impacts in investment decisions, and it only works to a limited extent; the rest of the investment selection process is dominated by human behaviour. However, the firm is transparent, there is no guarantee that the investor will always act rationally when making a choice for investment. Originality/Value: Every investor should make rational decisions about their investments. Therefore, it is an investor’s responsibility to follow the information provided by the firm, although some investors fail to do so. As a result of investor psychology, investors’ investment decisions are beyond the reach of business transparency. The study implies that a behavioural survey will be useful in determining the factor influencing investors’ investing decisions. Type of Paper: Conceptual Paper

Corporate governance and the quality of CSR disclosure: lessons from an emerging economy

Purpose This paper is motivated by the absence of rules that govern the practice of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate governance factors that impact the quality of CSRD. This study further examines the moderating role of family ownership and educational qualifications of female directors on the relation between board gender diversity and CSRD quality. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a sample of 94 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange to collect data on CSRD based on a checklist of 41 items for seven years from 2010–2016. The quality of CSRD is measured using a four-dimensional method that encompasses relative quantity, disclosure intensity, degree of accuracy and management outlook. Findings This study finds that CSRD quality is far from satisfactory in Jordan. The results also suggest that board size, auditor type, company size and profitability are positively associated with CSRD quality. On the other hand, factors such as chief executive officer duality, board diversity, ownership concentration and financial leverage are negatively associated with CSRD quality. In addition, the results of the empirical analysis suggest that the negative relationship between the quality of CSRD and the presence of female board members is stronger for family-owned companies. By contrast, the negative relationship between the quality of CSRD and the presence of female board members is weakened when the company has more educated, skilled and qualified female directors. Originality/value The originality of this study is manifested in the development of a quantitative measurement of CSRD quality.