Search

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study explores the relationship between sustainability reporting, investor sentiments, and firm reputation in the Chinese stock market. Utilizing panel data from 2018 to 2023 on non‐financial A‐share firms in China, this study employs OLS regression and advanced techniques to ensure robustness, including tests for heteroskedasticity and addressing endogeneity concerns through 2SLS, and potentially the two‐step GMM approach. Analysis exhibits a positive relationship between sustainability reporting, investor sentiments, and firm reputation. Strong sustainability practices correlate with more positive investor sentiment and enhanced firm reputation, aligning with sustainable development principles. Limitations include the restricted data timeframe, suggesting broader insights could be gained by extending the analysis period. Additionally, the study's focus on brand equity as a metric for reputation may overlook other facets. Future research could explore alternative reputation metrics and measurement methods. Integrating environmental, social, and governance reporting into corporate strategies can drive long‐term value creation and sustainable development, offering actionable insights for policymakers, investors, and corporate decision‐makers. This study contributes unique insights into how sustainability reporting influences investor sentiment and firm reputation within the Chinese stock market context, leveraging the SR framework and focusing on firms in China, thus providing valuable perspectives on a dynamic market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies on the relationship between shareholder litigation and corporate disclosure obtain mixed results. We develop an economic model to capture the endogeneity between disclosure and litigation. Equilibrium disclosure is determined by two countervailing effects of litigation, a deterrence effect and an insurance effect. We derive four key results. (i) Decreasing litigation risk leads to less disclosure of very bad news, due to a weakening of the deterrence effect, but to more disclosure of weakly bad news, due to a weakening of the insurance effect. (ii) Given a sufficiently large information asymmetry, litigation risk dampens (boosts) overall disclosure of bad news for low (high) litigation risk firms. (iii) Capital markets respond more to the disclosure of bad news than of good news if the deterrence effect is strong, which arises if both insiders' penalties and litigation risk are high. (iv) In an extension, we highlight real effects of litigation on corporate innovation and establish that innovation first decreases and then increases (strictly decreases) with litigation risk if insiders' penalties are small (large). We reconcile our findings with results from a large set of U.S.-based empirical studies and make several novel predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a method to identify the informativeness of a future scheduled announcement at the daily level, exploiting the discontinuity it creates in the term structure of option volatility. We implement the strategy in a panel data model to estimate the relation between prior signals and the future announcement. This method allows us to separate substitutes from complements, it can isolate multiple signals within the same quarter, and it can condition on the timing and signal characteristics. We find that analyst forecasts substitute earnings announcement information and that recommendations do not provide extra information on top of forecasts. Moreover, our evidence suggests that insiders sell to avoid uncertainty when the announcement is far away but pull forward earnings information when they trade one month before. This paper was accepted by Eric So, accounting. Funding: This publication is part of the project "Eliciting the properties of private signals" (with project number VI.Veni.201E.029 of the research program VENI SGW, which is (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4970. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article seeks to investigate the impact of ESG disclosure in its three dimensions, both collectively and individually, on the market value of Jordanian-listed companies from 2012 to 2019. Using a sample of 173 companies listed in ASE, 1,384 observations were collected. The findings indicate that environmental and social disclosure maximize companies' market value, and the ESG disclosure collectively has positively affected the market value. At the same time, the results do not show any important role in governance. This indicates that companies pay close attention to various stakeholders, particularly external stakeholders, and wish to increase trust and transparency by disclosing their ESG performance. As a result, companies' confidence in the capital markets is reinforced, and improved disclosure practices positively affect market value. This study adds an empirical contribution to the literature by investigating the influence of sustainability reporting on companies' market value in the context of emerging economic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether and how variations in country‐level institutional factors explain the intensity, diversity and informativeness of corporate disclosures around the world. Using a comprehensive corporate disclosure dataset containing more than 100 types of disclosures from firms domiciled in 35 countries, we examine the effect of four core country‐level institutional factors—legal system, creditor/investor rights, political process and societal characteristics—on corporate disclosures. Our results suggest that the country‐level institutional factor, which is likely to capture the legal system of a country, is negatively associated with the intensity, diversity and informativeness of disclosure. Moreover, our results suggest that the level of creditor/investor rights protection, political process and societal characteristics can also consistently affect the production, diversity and informativeness of disclosures. Overall, our evidence broadens our collective understanding of how core institutional factors at the society and country levels systematically explain corporate disclosures and their associated informativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance affects the informativeness of their earnings conference calls. Controlling for confounding information from earnings releases, we find a positive association between CSR performance and the magnitude of market reactions to conference calls. This association persists after controlling for systematic differences between firms with strong and weak CSR performance. A structural equation model further demonstrates that this positive association is due to firms with strong CSR performance providing a greater amount of information, whereas no evidence suggests that the positive association is attributable to the market perceiving the information to be more credible. We also find incremental effects of managers' tone and firms' possession of future unfavorable information on the positive association between CSR performance and the market reactions to the calls. Moreover, CSR performance is associated with reductions in financial analysts' forecast dispersion. Overall, these results are consistent with the idea that the ethical standards associated with CSR performance promote informative disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activist investors in a firm often voluntarily release information about their governance intentions to the public. Voluntary disclosure theory suggests that an activist investor will disclose when she expects other investors to respond positively and support her in upcoming corporate control contests. We find that activists' disclosures are accompanied by positive abnormal returns, reductions in bid-ask spreads, and increases in future earnings relative to similar targets without voluntary activist disclosures. Disclosures by activists who demand a board seat (the most common demand) have the highest announcement returns, and disclosers also win proxy contests and directorships more frequently than non-disclosers. These findings suggest that the activist's beliefs about investor response in both pricing and voting are an important driver of her disclosure choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines strategic pronoun usage in the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) section of annual reports. Through automated textual analysis of a large sample of MD&As, we find that managers of firms with higher earnings growth tend to use more self-inclusive pronouns(e.g., “we,” “us,” and “our”) and fewer self-exclusive words (e.g., “the company”). This self-referential language pattern is associated with a higher likelihood of future financial restatements. Our findings contribute to the literature on corporate narrative disclosures and identify a potential new indicator of financial misstatements. The results have implications for investors, analysts, auditors, and regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its 20 years of operation, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has been enormously successful as a private governor of corporate climate risk disclosure. Despite an influx of potentially competitive government‐led disclosure initiatives and interventions, the use of CDP's platform has nonetheless accelerated. To explain this outcome, we argue that public interventions augment the value of private governance for firms when the costs of compliance overlap, benefits of compliance with private rules are undiminished, and normalization helps kickstart positive feedback effects. These conditions of complementarity are made possible by private governors leveraging authority, access, and adaptability as public responses materialize. We illustrate our argument with two cases: the Non‐Financial Reporting Directive in the European Union and the G20's Task Force for Climate‐Related Financial Disclosures. In elaborating the conditions for complementarity beyond a functional division of governing labor, our study helps clarify how public and private governance co‐evolve in a mutually reinforcing manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In business landscape, companies attempt to meet stakeholders’ expectations by publishing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in specific reports. In fact, CSR reports encompass a set of information related to companies’ sustainable actions, approaches, and motivations. CSR reporting readability is an important issue to handle at the corporate level in order to leverage companies’ sustainable disclosure. This article investigates CSR reporting to identify specific categorizations and structures related to published CSR information of listed stocks. Mixed research methods are applied to a sample of 58 Moroccan companies that have the CSR label. First, content analysis was conducted for each organization’s CSR annual report. Second, multiple correspondence analysis was conducted to detect specific associations and structures in CSR reporting. Our findings highlight that companies communicate more concisely and completely when they perform social actions based on a value creation approach and under normative motivations. The results shed light on companies’ awareness of integrating CSR dimensions into their corporate disclosure. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the extent to which CSR reporting structures could be used as indicators of the complexity and readability quality of companies’ sustainability reporting. It could serve as a tool to assess companies’ social and environmental engagement and reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether and when corporate disclosures about a firm's exposure to climate risks matter to financial analysts. More specifically, we investigate the association between climate risk disclosure (CRD) and two properties of financial analysts' earnings forecasts (accuracy and dispersion). We predict that climate risk financial materiality at the industry level moderates this association. Using a sample of 2184 US nonfinancial firm‐year observations over the period 2010–2016, we show that CRD is associated with higher forecast precision and lower dispersion only when climate risks are perceived by investors as being financially material at the industry level. We also find that while corporate disclosures about transition risks are not associated with financial analyst forecast properties, 10‐K disclosures about climate‐related material physical risks reduce analyst forecast error and dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human capital (HC) is increasingly important to corporate value creation. Unlike other assets, however, HC is not currently subject to well-defined measurement or disclosure rules. We use a machine learning algorithm (word2vec) trained on a confirmed set of HC disclosures to develop a comprehensive list of HC-related keywords classified into five subcategories (DEI; health and safety; labor relations and culture; compensation and benefits; and demographics and other) that capture the multidimensional nature of HC management. We share our lexicon, corporate HC disclosures, and the Python code used to develop the lexicon, and we provide detailed examples of using our data and code, including for fine-tuning a BERT model. Researchers can use our HC lexicon (or modify the code to capture another construct of interest) with their samples of corporate communications to address pertinent HC questions. We close with a discussion of future research opportunities related to HC management and disclosure. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: B40; C80; M14; M41; M54. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics remains almost entirely voluntary, resulting in incomplete and unstandardized data that makes it difficult for stakeholders to collectively compare firms and assess their impact. To align reporting, in 2020 the World Economic Forum (WEF) proposed a framework consisting of metrics it asserted were already commonly used by firms. But little data supports this claim, as there is no comprehensive evaluation on firms’ disclosure rates on these metrics. This project aims to fill this gap. We selected 300 of the largest U.S. public companies from the Fortune 200 and S&P 500 lists because they’re high-revenue firms and have a substantial impact on global social and environmental trajectories. And these firms have more resources to devote to reporting ESG metrics. Under four pillars — Governance, Planet, People, and Prosperity — WEF describes 21 core metrics and 34 expanded metrics. This research focuses on these 300 companies’ disclosure related to the 21 core metrics, many of which have multiple subparts. For this analysis, we divide the 21 core metrics into 74 submetrics. We source data primarily from the text of sustainability reports (54.9%), firms’ websites, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) public filings (37.5%) or the Compustat database, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) (7.6%).

Stakeholders require transparency that companies are conducting business sustainably, which can be provided through non‐financial disclosures. Businesses that act on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters can attain a competitive advantage. ESG has become necessary in the agricultural sector as agribusinesses are considered high‐impact companies. The lack of uniformity in reporting guidelines leads to inconsistent and overloading of information. The objective of this paper is to conduct an evaluation and comparison of the current ESG reporting practices of listed agribusinesses in South Africa, Australia, and Chile. To support the quality and quantity of reporting, the concept of materiality is addressed by recognising what is material to be disclosed to stakeholders. The study evaluates how agribusinesses have incorporated the proposed material topics of the new GRI 13 sector standard into their current reporting practices. A qualitative content analysis was done to identify the presence or absence of the 34 proposed material topics in their reports. The findings indicate a distinct lack of harmonisation in the agri‐food sector disclosures. Topics hardly mentioned included the rights of indigenous people, living income, and climate adaptation. Low disclosures of the keywords Climate adaptation with 3.3% and Climate resilience with 7.0% on average, for all three countries, were reported. It is recommended that the newly proposed GRI 13 sector standard must be implemented as companies can seize this opportunity for increased transparency and gain a strategic advantage. Emphasis on the materiality concept is needed as it connects with the stakeholder theory to disclose only important information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In business landscape, companies attempt to meet stakeholders’ expectations by publishing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in specific reports. In fact, CSR reports encompass a set of information related to companies’ sustainable actions, approaches, and motivations. CSR reporting readability is an important issue to handle at the corporate level in order to leverage companies’ sustainable disclosure. This article investigates CSR reporting to identify specific categorizations and structures related to published CSR information of listed stocks. Mixed research methods are applied to a sample of 58 Moroccan companies that have the CSR label. First, content analysis was conducted for each organization’s CSR annual report. Second, multiple correspondence analysis was conducted to detect specific associations and structures in CSR reporting. Our findings highlight that companies communicate more concisely and completely when they perform social actions based on a value creation approach and under normative motivations. The results shed light on companies’ awareness of integrating CSR dimensions into their corporate disclosure. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the extent to which CSR reporting structures could be used as indicators of the complexity and readability quality of companies’ sustainability reporting. It could serve as a tool to assess companies’ social and environmental engagement and reputation.

Different from studies that use rough proxies for aggregate accounting information quality to investigate its impact on investment efficiency, we construct a project-level measure of disclosures pertaining specifically to firms' ongoing and future investments, using a large sample of Chinese listed firms. We first validate this measurement of project-level investment disclosure, finding that more detailed investment disclosures are associated with stronger market reactions, particularly among strong-governance firms. Furthermore, we find that project-level disclosure is associated with higher future investment efficiency for strong-governance firms, but not for weak-governance firms. Investigations into underlying channels reveal that well-governed firms with more investment disclosures face less financial constraints and are more likely to abandon poorly performing investments. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that project-level disclosure and governance play a more important role in settings where firms have stronger incentives for opportunistic disclosure. Overall, our evidence indicates that project-level disclosure interacts with corporate governance to impact investment efficiency. The results have implications for disclosure regulation and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research has explored the relationship between firm value and corporate disclosure, but little is known about this association during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. This study investigates whether firm value influences corporate disclosure in the Vietnamese stock market in 2021, the second year of the pandemic. Using Tobin's Q as a measure of firm value and COVID-19-related disclosure as a proxy for corporate disclosure, a regression model is employed. Control variables capturing the firm's profile and internal corporate governance are included. The sample consists of the top 100 Vietnamese listed firms by market capitalization in 2021. The findings reveal a negative impact of firm value on corporate disclosure, indicating that a firm's market evaluation can influence its decision to disclose information during a pandemic-induced economic crisis.

The paper intended to evaluate the extent of corporate disclosure compliance and its effect on the financial performance of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies listed on the DSE during a twelveyear period, from 2007 to 2020. The study explored the affinity between the Corporate Governance Disclosure Index (CGDI) and firm financial performance employing econometric techniques, such as fixed effect and random effect models. The study calculated the disclosure scores as a percentage of a given firm's overall score to the probable score it could achieve. The CGDI of the sample companies showed a positive and substantial effect on company performance as an accounting measure ROA and an insignificant effect as a market measure Tobin’s Q. The study also revealed that sample firms followed the BSEC guidelines partially. These findings have implications for companies that fail to comply with the full disclosure principle, which holds that a company must disclose all material information in its financial statements in order to touch the reader's comprehension of those statements. In addition, these results imply that the code of CG requires a thorough examination to make essential modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, to solve the problems related to sustainability, there is an increasing need for a transition from linear production and consumption systems to new models oriented toward reusing, reducing and recycling. In the academic field, several scholars have turned their attention to the adoption by companies of the new circular economy (CE) models. Due to the interest of a large number of stakeholders in issues related to the CE, several scholars have begun to explore the CE disclosure (CED) practices of companies. Despite this, studies on the topic are still limited. This study, under the lens of communication and stakeholder theories, aims, first, to examine the level of CE information disseminated by companies via Twitter and, second, to explore the impact of some firm characteristics on the level of CED. The econometric analysis, conducted on a sample of 141 companies belonging to the S&P 500 index, shows that the most profitable and most indebted companies disclose a greater amount of CE information through their official Twitter accounts. Furthermore, it demonstrates a lower propensity by energy companies to disclose CE information via Twitter compared to firms operating in other highly polluting sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Competitividade e Sustentabilidade - ComSus is the property of Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research aims to broaden the understanding of the determinants of climate change disclosure, where the study analyzes the impact of corporate business strategy and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) overconfidence on the level of climate change disclosure. The study followed a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques to comprehensively examine the relationships used by the content analysis method to analyze the annual reports of a sample of Saudi companies for the period from 2019 to 2022 to measure the level of disclosure of practices related to climate change. The results of the study show that the companies that tend to adopt the initiative strategy provide more information about climate change than the defending companies do, while the CEO's overconfidence does not affect the level of climate change disclosure. The results of the study indicate that the nature of the strategic direction adopted by the company is more important in determining the motives for disclosing climate change information than the personal characteristics of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, attention to the circular economy (CE) has grown considerably and it is now recognised as a model capable of overtaking the current linear economy of unsustainable production and consumption. Organisations have started to implement circular practices to transition towards this sustainable business model and to disclose CE performance to their stakeholders. In this context, the integrated report serves as a suitable tool to provide a holistic representation of how CE could impact the companies' ability to create value over time. The relevance of this model has prompted various scholars to examine CE disclosure. However, only some studies have investigated this topic in the integrated reporting (IR) context. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no studies have examined how corporate governance mechanisms can affect the amount of CE information disseminated through the integrated reports. By applying the lens of stakeholder‐agency theory, this study aims to fill this important gap by analysing the effect of the characteristics of the corporate governance mechanisms on the level of CE disclosure within the integrated reports. The analysis, conducted using a sample of 124 European companies, indicates a positive impact of the board size, board gender diversity and the presence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee on the level of CE disclosure within the integrated reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the relationship between ownership structures and the level of corporate disclosure (LCD) among Tanzanian listed companies. Relationships between director, government, institutional and foreign ownership and LCD were examined. The 105 firm-year observations for 21 listed companies were examined from 2016 to 2020. The agency theory was used. An explanatory research design was employed. Data were gathered through balanced panel data using a survey method. Descriptive and inferential analysis using Ordinary Least Square was used. Descriptive and inferential analysis using Ordinary Least Square was used. The study found that director, government, and foreign ownership positively affect the LCD, while institutional ownership negatively affects it. This implied that in Tanzania, ownership structures were very important in determining LCD. The study concluded that Tanzania's LCD is moderate, and companies should disclose director ownership, establish independent oversight mechanisms, collaborate with foreign investors, and engage with institutional investors to align corporate governance practices with international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the relationship between board characteristics and Level of corporate Disclosure (LCD) among Tanzanian listed companies. Relationships between board size, board independence; directors' remuneration and LCD were examined. The 105 firm-year observations for 21 listed companies in Tanzania from 2016 to 2020 were used. The study used the agency theory. An explanatory research design was employed. Balanced panel data for analysis were gathered using a survey method. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Regression analysis was used in testing hypotheses. Findings showed that board size, board independence, directors' remuneration were positively related to LCD. It was recommended that listed companies should appoint a higher proportion of independent directors to their boards. Independent directors can provide impartial oversight and are more likely to prioritize transparency and disclosure. Companies are adviced to optimize board size aim for a board size that is appropriate for their specific needs and industry. Moreover, listed companies should adopt transparent and fair director remuneration practices. This includes disclosing the structure of director compensation, including; salaries, bonuses, stock options, and other benefits. Policymakers and regulators should consider implementing or strengthening regulations related to board composition, independence, and disclosure practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether and how collusive and coercive forms of corporate corruption influence firm value. Our identification strategy exploits (i) the exogenous criminal prosecutions of regional government officials as part of China's anti-corruption campaign as demand-side shocks and (ii) the unique reporting of entertainment and travel costs by Chinese firms as supply-side disclosure of corruption-related spending. Among firms for which corruption is likely to be perceived as collusive (coercive) by investors, we find that exposure to corruption-related political risk measured by abnormal entertainment and travel costs has a significantly negative (positive) relation with market reactions to the anti-corruption prosecutions. These findings are consistent with investors' anticipation of a future decline in potential benefits (costs) arising from rent-sharing collusion (rent-extracting coercion). We also find that the collusion (coercion) effect is more pronounced for firms in regions with greater government economic intervention (in industries with stronger business competition). Furthermore, we provide evidence that the ex ante market reactions corroborate with the direction of changes in ex post operating performance of firms. Overall, our results suggest that investors can recognize differences in the economic consequences between collusive and coercive corruption and that the disclosure of corruption-related spending could help investors assess a firm's exposure to corruption-related risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether politically connected firms play a role in disseminating political information via their management guidance. Using campaign financing activity or the presence of a government affairs office to proxy for firms' access to political information, we find that politically connected firms are more likely to issue management guidance, and their guidance is more likely to discuss government policies. Further, these relations are attenuated for firms facing high proprietary costs of disclosure. To provide evidence on the source of the political information disclosed through guidance, we examine the timing of when guidance is issued. We find that politically connected firms are more likely to issue guidance and change their government policy–related disclosures prior to the public revelation of government policy decisions. Collectively, these findings suggest that the privileged information firms obtain through their political connections is shared with investors through voluntary disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using influenza epidemic data, we examine how constraints on corporate information production affect disclosure policies. We find that firms in areas with higher flu activity are less likely to issue short‐run earnings forecasts and more likely to issue long‐run earnings forecasts. These results are more pronounced when the information production process is more complex, when managers face a greater reputational loss for issuing low‐quality short‐run forecasts, and when firms' costs of switching the forecast horizon are lower. Further analysis implies that the effect of flu activity on these forecast issuance decisions is not driven by firm performance or information uncertainty. Our results suggest that managers do not simply avoid issuing forecasts in response to information production constraints. Instead, they shift the forecast horizon from short‐run to long‐run, appearing to balance the costs of issuing low‐quality forecasts with those of not issuing forecasts at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this research is to design and empirically test a model for determining instances of disclosure in the management commentary (MC) in Iran. To the best of its author’s knowledge, this study can be characterized as a practical one for the first time in the world.Methods: This piece of research adopted a mixed research method (a combination of qualitative and quantitative data). First, the research model’s disclosure instances were identified qualitatively. Then, they were tested quantitatively. In the qualitative part, appropriate disclosure instances regarding the six content elements of MC were identified using qualitative content analysis via conducting a review of the extant reporting guidelines and frameworks, MC of companies, and the latest findings of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. In the quantitative part, to localize disclosure instances based on the information needs of the financial reports’ main users, the relevant data were collected through a survey method using a questionnaire from the view of investors and creditors. The investors were individual investors and investment experts working in investment companies, investment funds, portfolio management companies, and brokerages, in 2021. The creditors included lenders to the companies. In this research, the opinions of credit experts of Iranian banks familiar with the MC and also involved in the financing of companies were obtained. In the following, descriptive statistics, demographic variables, and the Kolomogorov-Smirnov test were used. The one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test and Friedman's test were next used to determine the final disclosure instances and to rank them, respectively. Also, the confirmatory factor analysis technique, based on SEM-PLS, was used to verify the disclosure instances and to evaluate the research model. Consequently, the final research model was presented.Results: Based on the findings of the qualitative part of the research, 88 disclosure instances were identified. Then, following the quantitative part of the research’s tests, the number of disclosure instances of the proposed model of MC in Iran was reduced to 74 disclosure instances. These disclosure instances were classified into six content elements: 1. "business model" with six disclosure instances, 2. "strategy and objectives" with 14 disclosure instances, 3. "resources and relationships" with 15 disclosure instances, 4. "risks and risk management" with 14 disclosure instances, 5. "external environment" with six disclosure instances, and 6. "position and performance" with 19 disclosure instances. Moreover, the disclosure instances of each of these six content elements were ranked based on their relative importance using the Friedman test.Conclusion: Considering the disclosure instances’ comprehensiveness provided by the proposed model, as well as its locality and appropriateness to Iran's environmental conditions, the proposed model by this study can act as an effective guide for regulators including the Iranian Audit Organization and the Iranian Securities & Exchange Organization. These organizations can use the aforementioned model in establishing regulations and guidelines relevant to the MC’s preparation. Furthermore, these disclosure instances help companies in presenting and disclosing more useful information in the form of voluntary disclosure and also help them in preparing an efficient and effective MC.

Purpose: Companies documents such as annual reports incorporate narratives of repetitive rhetorical strategies as effective mechanisms adopted by companies' boardrooms to promote strategic change and strategic choices. These mechanisms can be viewed as persuasive appeals to facilitate boardrooms' discourses. Despite the contribution of previous research through narrative analysis domains, conceptualization of narrative practices remains a relatively neglected area in the extant accounting literature. Design/methodology/approach: The analytical framework is rooted in Aristotle's three pillars of rhetorical proofs: ethos (credibility/trustworthiness), pathos (emotion/identification through cultural domains) and logos (reason/rationale) in investigating narrative extracts regarding persuasive appeals adopted by Carillion's board through annual reports that facilitate discourse regarding Carillion's strategic choices. Further, the authors emphasis on repetitive rhetorical slogan strategies embedded in the annual reports regarding Carillion's acquisitions strategy. We viewed acquisitions narratives as rhetorical communication artefacts and analyzed the repetitive rhetoric slogans in these corporate documents. Findings: Findings of this study show how persuasive strategies and repetitive slogans trigger the discourses of Carillion's annual reports by drawing on perspectives from upper echelon theory, impression management and communication patterns. Findings reveal that Carillion' board strategically use repetitive rhetoric slogans to shape optimistic corporate future performance which might be different from the feasible reality. Finally, the authors argue that corporate executives are striving to construct an alternative reality stem from their initial unrealistic aspiration to lead their sector of less controlled market share. Findings of this study have theoretical and managerial implications. Research limitations/implications: The key limitation of this study lies with the case study as the research methodology. Subjectivity remains inherent in interpreting the findings of this study. Future studies may adopt or adapt the authors' analytical framework to examine other domains underpinning corporate reporting practices. Practical implications: The findings of this study have practical implications for boardrooms and policymakers. Findings of this study have theoretical and managerial implications. The level of optimism has its impact on the mood of financial decision-makers, and when there is a high level of optimism, managers may consider making more investment decisions and therefore making many acquisitions. Managerial overconfidence has been widely documented in the literature. Overconfident managers systematically overestimate the probability of good outcomes (and correspondingly underestimate the probability of bad outcomes) resulting from their actions. Social implications: Managerial overconfidence refers to overestimation of managers' own abilities and outcomes relating to actions which are under their control. Executives believed that they have ultimate control over outcomes, which leads them to underestimate the probability of failure generally. According to self-attribution bias, many people tend to excessively credit their own skills for good results and overly credit external factors for bad outcomes. Originality/value: The study explores the repetitive rhetorical slogan strategies embedded in the annual reports regarding Carillion's acquisitions strategy. Further, the study reveals how Carillion's board engaged through the early report with discourse and repetitive slogans to maintain their legitimacy. Findings reveal that Carillion's board strategically uses repetitive rhetoric slogans to shape optimistic corporate future performance, which might be different from the feasible reality. Finally, the authors argue that corporate executives are striving to construct an alternative reality stem from their initial unrealistic aspiration to lead their sector of less controlled market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Business Law Journal / Administração de Empresas em Revista is the property of Administracao de Empresas em Revista and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We provide new causal evidence for the impact of equity financing incentive on firms' voluntary disclosure decisions by exploring the 2008 seasoned equity offering deregulation, which exogenously facilitates small firms' access to public equity financing and increases their equity issuance incentives without changing their business and information environments. We argue that the heightened equity financing incentive due to the deregulation can motivate a firm to increase disclosures even in the period without actual equity issuance, because such disclosures, by signaling a commitment to disclosure, could reduce the cost of equity in case the firm issues equity in the future. Consistent with this argument, we find that, benchmarking against control firms that are not affected by the deregulation, an average treatment firm that is affected by the deregulation but does not issue equity provides more management earnings forecasts in the post-deregulation period. The effect is mainly driven by repeated forecasters and is more pronounced for firms with greater equity financing needs and firms with higher information asymmetry in the equity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]