Academic literature on the topic 'Voluntary disclosure index'

This article investigates the effect of voluntary corporate disclosures on the firm value from the market value perspective. Financial reporting includes disclosures as prescribed by regulators, but few companies go beyond mandatory requirements and provide additional information voluntarily. This study empirically tests the extent of such voluntary disclosures using Corporate Voluntary Disclosure Index containing 81 items of both financial and non-financial information and panel data regression to test the hypotheses. The sample for this study is the non-financial companies in the BSE 100 Index and the period is five financial years from 2010–2011 to 2014–2015. This study finds a positive association between voluntary disclosures and firm value as measured by Tobin’s Q. Especially the market gives a higher valuation for companies disclosing optional information on social and environmental, corporate governance and financial information. This finding has a significant implication for emerging economies like India and it supports various disclosure theories such as agency, stakeholders and positive accounting theories.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the voluntary disclosure practices of family and non-family listed firms and whether family firms have improved their disclosure practices following the introduction of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations in 2003 in Australia. Design/methodology/approach Voluntary disclosures are measured by constructing an index specifically for this study. Such indexes consist of corporate governance disclosure, strategic disclosure and future disclosures. They are then regressed on firm-specific variables while controlling for family and non-family firms. A total of 60 family firms and 60 non-family firms in Australia are randomly chosen from 2001 to 2006 for examining their disclosure practices. Findings The research findings show that family firms disclose information voluntarily to signal to the market regarding their growth potentials and abide by government regulations to improve their reputation. Despite the fact that compliance with the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations was not compulsory, this paper finds that the recommendation encouraged family and non-family firms to disclose more corporate governance information. Practical implications The findings from this research will help investors and regulators make more strategic decisions on investments and regulations respectively in family firms. Originality/value There has been limited empirical evidence on the disclosure practices and their determinants of family firms in Australia. The study will thus significantly contribute to the current knowledge in this regard.

Basically, the purpose of this research is to examine empirically whether the Corporate Governance is the proportion of independent commissioners, the commissioners who have accounting capabilities, and the proportion of independent auditors can influence disclosure voluntarily. Voluntary disclosure is measured through the complete disclosure of voluntary index (IPS). This index contains 37 items in disclosure in the annual report. The sample is a manufacturing company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, where the data analysis technique that will use the Multiple Regression Analysis using SPSS 23.

Purpose The study aims to examine the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary corporate governance (CG) disclosure. In addition, the authors investigate the effect of traditional ownership structure and CG mechanisms on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The authors distinctively construct Islamic values and voluntary CG disclosure indices using a sample of 75 Saudi-listed firms over a seven-year period in conducting multivariate regressions of the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. The analyses are robust to controlling for firm-level characteristics, fixed-effects, endogeneities and alternative measures. Findings The authors find that corporations that depict greater commitment towards incorporating Islamic values into their operations through high Islamic values disclosure index score engage in higher voluntary CG disclosures than those that are not. Additionally, the authors find that audit firm size, board size, government ownership, institutional ownership and the presence of a CG committee are positively associated with the level of voluntary CG disclosure, whereas block ownership is negatively associated with the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. Practical implications The study has clear practical implications for future research, practice and broader society by demonstrating empirically that corporations that voluntarily incorporate Islamic values into their operations are more likely to be transparent about their CG practices and thereby providing new crucial insights on the effect of Islamic values on voluntary CG compliance and disclosure. Originality/value This is the first empirical attempt at explicitly examining the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. The authors also offer evidence on the effect of traditional CG and ownership structures on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of country-level characteristics versus firm-level characteristics in explaining variations in firms’ voluntary strategy disclosures. Design/methodology/approach Strategy disclosure in annual reports is measured using an index of 40 items derived from the strategy literature. The sample is 204 large companies from 12 Asian and European countries in 2005. The disclosure index is subdivided into four underlying latent constructs using principal components analysis. The authors then use OLS regression to test whether total disclosure score, and the latent constructs are associated with country-level characteristics and firm-level characteristics. Findings The authors find that total strategy disclosures are more prevalent in stakeholder-oriented countries, in countries with greater levels of financial transparency, but are less prevalent in countries with a culture of secrecy, and strategy disclosures are more likely to occur in companies with greater economic incentives to disclose, with a Big 4 auditor or which are listed in New York. These findings also occur but not as consistently with the four latent constructs. Research limitations/implications The sample used in this paper comprises large public companies, so the findings may not be generalisable to all companies. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrate that both country- and firm-level variables matter in explaining voluntary strategy disclosure. Practical implications The IASB released an IFRS Practice Statement in 2010, which recommends, but does not require, disclosure of information about corporate strategy in Management Commentary statements. The findings of this paper may help inform the issue of whether regulators should make strategy disclosures mandatory. Originality/value The paper contains the first detailed examination of the roles of country-level characteristics versus firm-level characteristics in explaining variations in corporate voluntary strategy disclosures.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of voluntary disclosure in the companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. Voluntary disclosure refers to the discretionary release of financial and non-financial information which companies are not obliged to disclose by a standard-setting accounting body. In particular, this paper analyses the effect that certain determinants (leverage, firm size, sector auditor, performance and ownership concentration) could have on voluntary information disclosed by Italian listed companies. In order to do this, 203 annual reports of Italian listed companies for the year 2012 were analysed. Design/methodology/approach – To assess the extent of voluntary disclosure, an index is created and used as a dependent variable in an OLS model to understand the relationship between the above-mentioned determinants. The disclosure score is composed mainly of 38 items per firm (a total of 7,714 items were collected and analysed) regarding firm performance, general information, forward-looking information, human capital, research and development projects, stock market information, segment reporting information and other information. In order to differentiate the information presented in annual reports, a score was assigned to each item on the index (2 points if an item was reported in qualitative and quantitative terms, 1 point if the item was reported in qualitative terms, 0 points if the item was absent). The score is not weighted because all items are equally important for the research purpose. Repeated information is considered only once. Findings – According to the research findings, human resource information is the voluntary disclosure item reported with the highest frequency, and both firm size and auditors positively affect the total amount of voluntary information disclosed by Italian listed companies. Financial firms provide a lower level of voluntary disclosure than do industrial firms. Originality/value – The paper contributes in improving knowledge about Italian firms’ voluntary disclosure of firm-specific determinants, analysing a wide number of items provided in 2012 annual reports.

This study examined the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosures and the influence of firm characteristics (i.e., firm size, firm age, and firm market listing) on the level of these disclosures among Malaysian property listed companies. The check-list to measure the voluntary corporate governance disclosures was adopted from Malaysian corporate governance index 2011 by Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG). The voluntary corporate governance disclosure practices and firm specific characteristics were obtained from annual reports of property listed companies on Bursa Malaysia for the period of 2012 to 2015. The findings suggested an improving voluntary corporate governance reforms in Malaysia. However, the firm size was found as an inflicting factor in determining the level and quality of voluntary corporate governance disclosure practices. On the contrary, the results found were contradicting the hypothesis related to firm age and firm market listing, as no relation of voluntary corporate governance disclosures and firm age and firm market listing. The study has made an interesting contribution toward the disclosure and corporate governance by contributing in understanding the importance of quality disclosure and good governance practices.

This research aimed to measure the quality of voluntary web-disclosure by listed companies in Indonesia, using a voluntary web-disclosure index to capture both quality and quantity of web-disclosures. Focussing on the dimensions of web-content and the presentation of information, this study scored 44 web-disclosure items using a dichotomous score to examine the variety of information and an ordinal score to examine the depth of the disclosure. The findings revealed that on average, the quality of voluntary web-disclosure in Indonesia is relatively low. Disclosure appeared heavily centred on financial information, with information on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility being only moderately disclosed. The differences of firm size and industry type among sample companies were found to be significantly positive when matched to the web-disclosure index. This confirms postulations of the Agency Theory and Signalling Theory which suggest that companies were motivated to signal accountability and transparency through their websites. This study extends prior research on web-disclosure by demonstrating that the use of semantic properties contributes to the richness of examining voluntary web-disclosure as it offers greater insights into the transparent reporting practices by corporate entities. Keywords: agency theory, signalling theory, voluntary web-disclosure, semantic properties, firm characteristics

This is an exploratory study designed to investigate the extant and nature of corporate voluntary disclosure (CVD) in corporate annual reports of Bangladesh. Specifically, examine the relationship between board diversity and corporate voluntary disclosures. The paper is based on a sample of 106 listed non-financial companies in Dhaka Stock Exchanges (DSE) from the period 2007-2011 and all the companies are selected by Judgment Sampling. The study is used ordinary least squares regression model to examine the relationship between explanatory variables and voluntary disclosure. Using an unweighted relative disclosure index for measuring voluntary disclosure, the empirical results indicate that Percentage Female Director (PFD), Board Leadership Structure (BLS) and Total Assets (TA) are positively association with corporate voluntary disclosure (CVD). In contrast, the extent of corporate voluntary disclosure is negatively associated with a Percentage of equity owned by the insiders to all equity of the firm higher management ownership.

Corporate voluntary disclosure becomes a burning issue in the literature of accounting throughout the last two decades. The study aims to explore the most crucial determinants that influence corporate voluntary disclosure in a transition economy. A cross-sectional study based on the pharmaceutical and chemical companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange is conducted to reconnoiter the crucial determinants affecting the voluntary disclosure. Based on the agency theory, stakeholder theory, and previous literature, the determinants are selected. An unweighted disclosure index is used to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure; after that, a multivariate analysis is steered to reconnoiter the key determinants of voluntary disclosure. It is found that firm leverage and firm liquidity are the key determinants that significantly influence the corporate voluntary disclosure in a transition economy. In contrast, no significant positive association is found between voluntary disclosure and board size. In additon, it is also found that market category significantly influences voluntary disclosure with an inverse direction. This study has important implications for both the corporate people and the regulatory bodies of the transition economy. The study also helps various stakeholders of the transition economy – Bangladesh, in designing their strategies regarding the most significant determinants of voluntary disclosure. Acknowledgment We are very thankful to the Institute of Advanced Research (IAR), United International University, Bangladesh, to grant us the fund by mobilizing which we generate our required data for the study and complete this empirical study.

This study pretends, following the Legitimacy theory, to know the disclosure level of social information by Spanish listed companies, and the main factor influencing disclosure decisions. This study shows that studied companies disclose very few labour and non labour social information, and also shows the association among sector of activity, company size and the listing on international markets with the intention of disclosing social information voluntary. No association was found between ownership diffusion and voluntary disclosure.
El presente trabajo pretende conocer, siguiendo la teoría de la legitimidad, el grado de difusión existente de información social por parte de las empresas cotizadas españolas y los factores que determinan su revelación. Para ello, hemos analizado la información social que voluntariamente divulgan las empresas de la muestra como parte del informe anual. El estudio muestra que las sociedades analizadas revelan escasa información social laboral y no laboral, y muestra la relación existente entre el sector de actividad, el tamaño de la empresa y el hecho de cotizar en mercados exteriores con la decisión de revelar información social voluntariamente. No encuentra, por el contrario, ninguna relación con el grado de difusión de la propiedad, hipótesis planteada que no sido contrastada.

This thesis examines voluntary risk disclosures from 600 firm year annual reports in four countries’ (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore) manufacturing listed companies for the 2007-2009 financial years. This is an important time span to investigate risk disclosures as it encompasses those years most directly impacted by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Longitudinal and cross country analyses test the veracity of agency theory to predict the level of firms’ risk disclosures. A comprehensive risk disclosure index (RDI) checklist is created and tested to explain the extent of such communication over time. T-tests, ANOVA, correlations and regression analysis are used for the statistical testing.The findings show that overall RDI scores over the economically-challenging GFC time period is relative low averaging 33.73%. The RDI rises every year ranging from 31.46% in 2007, 34.20% in 2008, and 35.54% in 2009. There is a vast disparity of communication across the various risk elements. The RDI item “Identifying, evaluating and managing significant risks” has the highest level of communication (91.17%), while “Effects of inflation on assets quantitative’’ is the lowest RDI item with no disclosure (0 %). The highest major sub-category for RDI is business risk (46.55%) while the strategy risk category (17.21%) is the lowest communicated.Multiple regression analysis provides evidence that size, managerial ownership, board independence, and profitability are positively associated with the extent of voluntary risk disclosure. There are also clear country differences, for instance, Indonesian companies have statistically lower levels of risk disclosure compared with Malaysia. These findings are useful for self-evaluation and benchmarking of risk communication by other corporations across the global landscape. The need for mandatory regulation regarding key risks elements is advanced. Overall, varying levels of risk disclosure over time and across countries are influenced by key firm characteristics and economic drivers consistent with agency theory tenets.

In a secretive society, disclosure is an issue. This is true in Saudi Arabia, where the level of corporate voluntary disclosure is low. Saudi Arabia is trying to diversify its resources, move away from dependence on oil exports and increase foreign investment in the country. Doing so will require a higher level of corporate transparency and adequate disclosure. The current study aimed to (i) evaluate the extent of corporate voluntary disclosure before and after the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards, (ii) investigate determinants of corporate voluntary disclosure and (iii) investigate the effect of this type of disclosure on a company’s stock price. By reviewing the literature surrounding corporate voluntary disclosure, the current study identified 14 variables that were expected to wield a significant effect on corporate voluntary disclosure. These variables represent four categories: board of directors composition, ownership structure, accounting standards and corporate characteristics. Further, to explore whether investors in Saudi Arabia are interested in corporate voluntary disclosure, the study examined the association between corporate voluntary disclosure and companies’ stock prices. Data were collected from 240 annual reports of 120 non-financial companies listed on the Saudi stock exchange between 2015 (before International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS] adoption) and 2017 (after IFRS adoption). A self-constructed index, covering 72 items, was used to determine the level of corporate voluntary disclosure, through a content analysis of the annual reports. To cover the different interests of various stakeholders, the index included six categories of corporate voluntary disclosure: financial information, strategy and future expectations, governance disclosure, risk disclosure, social responsibility disclosure and human resources disclosure. To examine the association between corporate voluntary disclosure and stock prices, a modified Ohlson valuation model was used. The resulting data were analysed in a panel dataset by applying ordinary least squares regression. The results show an improvement in the level of corporate voluntary disclosure in Saudi Arabia in 2017 compared with 2015. However, corporate voluntary disclosure in Saudi Arabia remains low compared with developed countries such as Western economies. Additionally, the study results reveal various associations between the tested variables and corporate voluntary disclosure. The study found that government ownership, foreign ownership, company size, company age and profitability are statistically significant and positively associated with corporate voluntary disclosure. Conversely, there is a statistically significant but negative association between non-executive directors, chief executive officer (CEO) duality and directors’ ownership and corporate voluntary disclosure. Finally, no statistically significant association was found between corporate voluntary disclosure and stock prices. The study found that board composition, ownership structure and corporate characteristics are important determinants of corporate voluntary disclosure in Saudi Arabia. However, these determinants affect corporate voluntary disclosure categories differently. Finally, the lack of an association between corporate voluntary disclosure and stock prices indicates a low interest in corporate voluntary disclosure among investors. The current results suggest that the low level of corporate voluntary disclosure among Saudi companies could be attributed to investors’ lack of interest in corporate voluntary disclosure. The results of this study add to the collective scholarly knowledge about determinants of corporate voluntary disclosure and support the argument that the environment a company operates in, including social rules and investors’ expectations, is an important determinant of corporate voluntary disclosure. The current study makes a number of significant contributions to the topic. These include providing an extensive and holistic approach to the literature on corporate voluntary disclosure, corporate governance, accounting standards and market valuation. In addition, the study provides statistical support for theoretical arguments by empirically testing several theories, which explain corporate voluntary disclosure, its determinants and its effect on stock prices. Significantly, the study also contributes to the field by responding to many calls to differentiate between various types of corporate voluntary disclosure and determine whether they are differently valued by investors in different institutional settings. Further, this study contributes to the theoretical corpus of knowledge by empirically examining the applicability of several theories for explaining corporate voluntary disclosure and how it works in developing countries. Finally, this study is significant because it provides insights into corporate voluntary disclosure, which are useful to various stakeholders, including legislators, policy-makers, managers, investors, auditors, employees and researchers.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Contabilidade e Finanças apresentada à Faculdade de Economia
The issue of Corporate Governance has gained more and more prominence in the last two decades due to the various international financial scandals that have caused the collapse of large companies. Thus, various norms and regulations have been published with the objective of implementing good governance practices.The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the degree of compliance and disclosure of Corporate Governance of companies and investigate the relationship between this degree of compliance by Corporate Governance and the main characteristics of entities. Through reading and analyzing the Annual Reports and Accounts published by companies, the Compliance and Disclosure Index was constructed and analyzed. The main characteristics of entities were used variables related to performance, market, management and structure. For this purpose, was considered a sample of Portuguese non-financial companies, issuers of shares, and admitted to trading on the New York Stock Exchange official stock market, during the time period between 2013 and 2017. In order to achieve the defined objectives, a model was applied to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of the companies and the Compliance and Disclosure Index created.The results suggest a positive and statistically significant relationship between the size of the company and the Compliance and Disclosure Index on Corporate Governance. The results also indicate that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between the compliance rate and the following control variables: indebtedness and yield per share.
A temática do Governo das Sociedades tem ganho cada vez mais protagonismo nas duas últimas décadas devido aos vários escândalos financeiros internacionais que provocaram o colapso de grandes empresas. Deste modo, têm sido publicados várias normas e regulamentos com o objetivo de implementar práticas de bom governo.O objetivo desta dissertação consiste em analisar o grau de cumprimento e divulgação do Governo das Sociedades das empresas e investigar a relação existente entre este grau de cumprimento do Governo das Sociedades e as principais características das entidades. Através da leitura e análise dos Relatórios e Contas Anuais publicados pelas empresas, foi construído e analisado o Índice de cumprimento e divulgação. Como principais características das entidades, foram utilizadas variáveis relacionadas com o desempenho, o mercado, a administração e estrutura. Para o efeito, foi utilizada uma amostra de empresas portuguesas não financeiras, emitentes de ações, que se encontram admitidas a negociação no mercado de cotações oficiais da New York Stock Exchange, no período de 2013 a 2017. Com a finalidade de alcançar os objetivos definidos, foi aplicado um modelo, através do qual se pretende analisar a relação entre as características das sociedades e o Índice de cumprimento e divulgação criado.Os resultados sugerem uma relação positiva e estatisticamente significativa entre a dimensão da empresa e o Índice de cumprimento e divulgação sobre o Governo das Sociedades. Os resultados obtidos indicam também que existe uma relação negativa e estatisticamente significativa entre o índice de cumprimento e as seguintes variáveis de controlo: endividamento e rendimento por ação.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the level and the quality of voluntary disclosures of Intellectual Capital (IC) in the sustainability reports on a sample of Italian listed companies. The authors conducted an analysis of twelve sustainability reports for two years (2009-2010). These are related to six firms selected among the most capitalized 37 Italian listed companies. To investigate the “level of disclosure,” the authors identified the presence of IC information, while to evaluate the “IC quality,” they constructed a voluntary disclosure index based on content analysis. IC information disclosure is more likely present in sustainability reports of firms with a higher levels of application of the Global Reporting Initiative framework. The results confirm that the sustainability report can adequately represent the intellectual capital, especially in order to understand its role in the firm and the interaction with other variables present in the firm.