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PurposeThis study explores the levels of and trends in corporate environmental disclosure (CED) among a sample of Sri Lankan listed companies from 2015 to 2019. Furthermore, this article examines the firm-level determinants of CED, including corporate governance (CG) mechanisms, in Sri Lanka from a multi-theoretical perspective.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 205 firm-year observations, this paper distinctively applies a panel quantile regression (PQR) model to examine the determinants of CED in Sri Lanka. This method was supported by estimating a two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) model to tackle any possible existence of endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe authors’ findings indicate an increasing trend in CED practice among the sampled companies (i.e. 41 firms, the only adopters of the GRI framework) in Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019. However, it is still considered at an early stage compared with other developed counterparts. Furthermore, this study suggests that board size, board independence, board meetings, industry type, profitability and firm size are positively associated with CED level. In contrast, and consistent with our expectation, CEO duality is negatively attributed to the disclosed amount of environmental information in the Sri Lankan context.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ empirical evidence reiterates the crucial need to propagate and promote further substantive CG reforms, mandating CED in Sri Lanka.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings provide much-needed insights for indigenous companies, operating across similar emerging economies, to understand how CED can be incorporated into their reporting process based on the GRI framework in order to enhance their firm value, reduce legitimacy gaps and mitigate other operational risks.

Klimatförändringar, globaliseringen och företagsskandaler har medfört att CSR fått en ökad uppmärksamhet på senare tid, något som ökat kraven på transparens i företagens rapportering. Samtidigt är CSR ett föränderligt koncept som skiljer sig mellan nationer, vilket gett upphov till varierande resultat i studier som undersökt begreppet i relation till informationsdelgivning. Den här studien har därmed undersökt hur CSR-delgivning påverkas av företagsspecifika variabler (ålder, storlek, lönsamhet och kvinnor i styrelsen) hos företag i Sverige. Utöver detta använde studien företagets verksamhetsområde som interaktionsvariabel för att undersöka hur branschens miljökänslighet påverkar företagens sociala och miljömässiga rapportering. Grundat på GRI-ramverk, tillämpades en innehållsanalys för att undersöka årsredovisningar hos 268 företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Genom en multipel regressionsanalys fann studien att företag rapporterade i högre utsträckning om CSR när verksamheten ökade i storlek. Resultaten visade även att organisationerna ökade sin miljörelaterade CSR-delgivning med åldern. Däremot kunde studien inte påvisa ett samband mellan CSR-delgivning och lönsamhet eller andel kvinnor i styrelsen. Studien kunde inte heller påvisa att branschen hade en interaktionseffekt på CSR-rapporteringen i relation till de företagsspecifika variablerna. Slutligen, indikerar resultaten att börsnoterade företag i Sverige rapporterar om CSR-aktiviteter som ett svar på samhällets påtryckningar snarare än ett engagemang som har sin utgångspunkt i företagets kultur och värdegrund. Climate change, globalization and corporate scandals have led to CSR receiving increased attention in recent times, which has increased the demand for transparency in companies' reporting. CSR is a changing concept that differs between nations. Studies previously examining social and environmental disclosure have therefore shown varying results. Thus, this study has examined how CSR disclosure is affected by firm-specific characteristics (age, size, profitability, and female directors) in Swedish companies. In addition, the study examined how the industry's environmental sensitivity affects companies' social and environmental reporting in relation to the determinants. The study was conducted and written in Swedish. Based on the GRI framework, a content analysis was applied to examine the annual reports of 268 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Through a regression analysis, this study found that the companies reported to a greater extent on CSR when the business increased in size. The results also showed that organizations increased their environmental CSR disclosure with age. On the other hand, the study could not show a relationship between CSR disclosure and profitability or female directors. Nor could the study show that the industry had an interaction effect on CSR reporting in relation to the firm-specific characteristics. Finally, the results indicate that listed companies in Sweden disclose information related to CSR activities as a response to society's pressures rather than a commitment that is based on the company's culture and values.

Various models have been created all around the world to identify enterprises that manipulate their earnings. These earnings management techniques aid businesses in enhancing their financial performance or gaining some competitive advantages. The primary goal of this article was to identify the firm-specific characteristics that affect how businesses manage their earnings using a sample of 15,716 businesses from various economic sectors in the Slovak environment during a 3 year period. The level of earnings management was measured by discretionary accruals using the Kasznik model. In this paper, a correspondence analysis using the chi-square distance measure was applied to find the dependence between the earnings management practices and firm-specific features (firm size, legal form, and sectoral classification). The results of the study indicate that aggressive (income-increasing) earnings management practices are typical of small enterprises with a public limited ownership structure, mostly in sectors R and M (using the NACE sectoral classification). Conservative (income decreasing) practices can be observed in enterprises in the sectors J or F, and they are also used by medium-sized enterprises and those with private limited ownership structure. The results revealed that large enterprises do not tend to manipulate their earnings, as well as enterprises operating in sector K. The insights of this study may provide important and useful information for shareholders and regulators in evaluating determinants that are effective in mitigating earnings management practices. Authorities, regulators, analysts, and auditors may find the importance of the discovered variances helpful in identifying various strategies and techniques for earnings manipulation that may differ among industries according to their typical characteristics.

This study contributes with an integrated understanding of SME capital structure patterns at the nexus of internal (firm-specific) and external environment determinants. The hypotheses draw on pecking order theory (POT), agency theory, and business cycle theories, and estimates are obtained from a data panel of 424 UK SMEs, over a ten-year period. Furthermore, the findings and discussion draw on both static and dynamic models of capital structure. The results between the static and the dynamic model are qualitatively similar, illustrating that firms change their capital structure over time, which is consistent with the POT and agency theory. In contrast to previous results on capital structure choices, the present study reveals that size relates to long-term debt borrowing only in the short-term, and SME growth is not positively linked with gearing ratios. The findings also offer evidence that support macroeconomic conditions as having a nonlinear, convex relationship with the gearing ratios of the sample firms.

This paper analyses the technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of China’s electronics industries from 2006 to 2010 using stochastic production frontier model. The estimates show that the mean technical efficiency scores of electronics firms in Hong Kong and Mainland China are 63% and 90%, respectively. The estimation using the technical inefficiency effects model further reveals that firm specific characteristics, namely the capital structure, profitability, firm size and regional location, are crucial determinants of firms’ efficiency. Since firm size has a positive effect on inefficiency, small and medium-sized electronic firms appear to demonstrate a higher level of efficiency than their larger counterparts. In the TFP analysis, Hong Kong firms recorded both higher TFP growth and technological progress compared to their Chinese counterparts. In contrast, Mainland Chinese firms performed better in the context of managerial and scale efficiency.

In this paper we analyse the determinants of disclosure level in the accounting for financial instruments of Portuguese listed companies. Considering the mandatory adoption of International Accounting Standards after 2005, our ultimate objective is to analyse the characteristics of companies that are closest to the requirements of IAS 32 and IAS 39. We have constructed an index of disclosure and computed the index score for each Portuguese listed company. We tested the relation between the index score and several firm-specific characteristics. We argue that the agency, the signalling and the political costs theories do not fully explain Portuguese reality, where there is a large degree of family ownership and bank-oriented financing policies. We therefore advocate that introducing variables related to specific characteristics of Portuguese companies and managers, in the context of other theoretical frameworks, notably the contingency theory, brings important insights to this type of analysis.

In an aim to assess financial reporting quality and its determining factors, this empirical research examined a randomly selected sample from food and allied sector of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Bangladesh. As a rapidly growing industry of Bangladesh, the food and allied sector of DSE grabs a significant portion of market capitalization and attentions from security analysts. To make valuable decisions in relevant domains, the financial reporting quality of this sector matters for policymakers, investors and regulators and for corporate managers also. However, the financial reporting quality (FRQ) has been measured using the popular model developed by Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney, also known as Modified Jones Model (1995). A documentary analysis of the available audited financial statements and annual reports of randomly selected sample companies for six consecutive years (2015 to 2020) has been used as the primary data sources. Popular statistical tools like correlation studies, regression analyses etc. have been applied to find the statistical significance of the explanatory variables of this research. Fourteen factors have been examined for their effects on the quality of financial reports using a classical linear regression model. This research finds firm size, firm age, foreign ownership and leverage positively significantly determine financial reporting quality while the growth and board independence negatively significantly influential. The findings recommend managers to emphasize their attention on the significant factors to improve their financial reporting quality. Security analysts shall evaluate firms’ value based on the factors found significant in determining the quality of financial reports., {"references":["Agrawal, A., & Chadha, S. (2005). Corporate Governance and Accounting Scandals. The Journal of Law & Economics, 371-406.","Ahmed, H., & Azim, M. (2015). 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