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The purpose of this paper is to give a comprehensive review and synthesis of automated textual analysis of corporate disclosure to show how the accuracy of disclosure tone has been incremented with the evolution of developed automated methods that have been used to calculate tone in prior studies.

This study have conducted the survey on “automated textual analysis of corporate disclosure and its impact” by searching at Google Scholar and Scopus research database after the year 2000 to prepare the list of papers. After classifying the prior literature into a dictionary-based and machine learning-based approach, this study have again sub-classified those papers according to two other dimensions, namely, information sources of disclosure and the impact of tone on the market.

This study found literature on how value relevance of tone is varied with the use of different automated methods and using different information sources. This study also found literature on the impact of such tone on market. These are contributing to help investor’s decision-making and earnings and returns prediction by researchers. The literature survey shows that the research gap lies in the development of methodologies toward the calculation of tone more accurately. This study also mention how different information sources and methodologies can influence the change in disclosure tone for the same firm, which, in turn, may change market performance. The research gap also lies in finding the determinants of disclosure tone with large scale data.

After reviewing some papers based on automated textual analysis of corporate disclosure, this study shows how the accuracy of the result is incrementing according to the evolution of automated methodology. Apart from the methodological research gaps, this study also identify some other research gaps related to determinants (corporate governance, firm-level, macroeconomic factors, etc.) and transparency or credibility of disclosure which could stimulate new research agendas in the areas of automated textual analysis of corporate disclosure.

This paper aims to explore any potential link between the corporate issue of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) with a changed environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting focus as part of a complementary communicative legitimation strategy.

A longitudinal content analysis of the annual reports of three sample Australian corporations was undertaken, measuring changes in ESG disclosure levels and disclosure focus around the time a SLAPP was issued by each sample firm.

This paper provides support for the contention that both the number of ESG disclosures and the type of ESG disclosures changed after the sample firms issued SLAPPs.

A number of limitations are identified within the paper, including difficulties identifying when SLAPPs are initiated.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first investigation of the relationship between SLAPPs and ESG reporting, and this study helps open up a new area of research into how ESG reporting is used by corporations in a strategic manner.

In this paper, the authors analyze the use of content analysis in disclosing voluntarily information on intangible assets, the intangible assets disclosures (IAD). The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured literature review (SLR) that assesses the possibilities and limitations of content analysis.

To that end, the authors analyze the existing literature on the topic in the main international databases. In all, 74 empirical articles utilizing content analysis as a research methodology for IAD were reviewed. Regarding the selection of sources, the authors should indicate that the SLR performed includes academic studies published in journals or presented at conferences and that are always subject to a double process of anonymous review.

The obtained results indicate that despite the frequent use of content analysis in studies on IAD, its use does not meet all expectations.

The study synthesizes the research on content analysis for the case of information on intangible assets, offering an updated and global framework for future researchers through the SLR.

Among other problems, the authors found its excessive emphasis on the amount disclosed in the annual report, ignoring other reports in which more information regarding intangible assets is available, such as in the case of the sustainability reports. Furthermore, the use of very different coding systems and its exclusive use without being combined with other methodologies are detected. These aspects affect the quality problems of the sources used, which directly results in the utility of the evidenced findings.

These conclusions allow the authors to conclude on the need to open different lines of study that review the use of content analysis in this topic.

The work focuses on the quality of disclosures more so than on the quantity, offering a critical view that summarizes the utility of the employment of content analysis for this type of disclosure and its implications for future research on this topic. Despite previous studies, the authors highlight the new insights revealed from IAD research, especially since the seminal paper of Dumay and Cai (2014).

This paper aims to develop a holistic measure for analysing impression management and for detecting bias introduced into corporate narratives as a result of impression management.

Prior research on the seven impression management methods in the literature is summarised. Four of the less‐researched methods are described in detail, and are illustrated with examples from UK annual results' press releases (ARPRs). A method of computing a holistic composite impression management score based on these four impression management methods is developed, based on both quantitative and qualitative data in corporate narrative disclosures. An impression management bias score is devised to capture the extent to which impression management introduces bias into corporate narratives. An example of the application of the composite impression management score and impression management bias score methodology is provided.

While not amounting to systematic evidence, the 21 illustrative examples suggest that impression management is pervasive in corporate financial communications using multiple impression management methods, such that positive information is exaggerated, while negative information is either ignored or is underplayed.

Four impression management methods are described in detail, illustrated by 21 examples. These four methods are examined together. New impression management methods are studied in this paper for the first time. This paper extends prior impression management measures in two ways. First, a composite impression management score based on four impression management techniques is articulated. Second, the composite impression management score methodology is extended to capture a measure for bias, in the form of an impression management bias score. This is the first time outside the USA that narrative disclosures in press releases have been studied.

This paper aims to investigate empirically the common alternative methods of measuring annual report narratives. Five alternative methods are employed, a weighted and un-weighted disclosure index and three textual coding systems, measuring the amount of space devoted to relevant disclosures.

The authors investigate the forward-looking voluntary disclosures of 30 UK non-financial companies. They employ descriptive analysis, correlation matrix, mean comparison t-test, rankings and multiple regression analysis of disclosure measures against determinants of corporate voluntary reporting.

The results reveal that while the alternative methods of forward-looking voluntary disclosure are highly correlated, important significant differences do nevertheless emerge. In particular, it appears important to measure volume rather than simply the existence or non-existence of each type of disclosure. Overall, we detect that the optimal method is content analysis by text-unit rather than by sentence.

This paper contributes to the extant literature in forward-looking disclosure by reporting important differences among alternative content analyses. However, the decision regarding whether this should be a computerised or a manual content analysis appears not to be driven by differences in the resulting measures. Rather, the choice is the outcome of a trade-off between the time involved in setting up coding rules for computerised analysis versus the time saved undertaking the analysis itself.

This study suggests an alternative to confirmatory content analysis (CA) and empirically demonstrates that explorative CA enables new insights into the mechanism of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure. In so doing, this research contributes to both methodological and empirical advancements in IC disclosure research.

Employing the assumptions of positive accounting theory and taking book value of intangible assets as a reference, our research design utilizes well-established text-mining (TM) tools based on a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. We assume that the degree of cohesion between officially disclosed and evaluated intangible assets on balance sheets and those contextually delivered in narrative form may affect how IC is ultimately disclosed in annual reports.

Our main finding is in line with the results and criticism of previous studies. We show that companies do not extensively disclose IC in their annual reports. However, some narrative forms for IC disclosure are identified and confirmed by several robustness checks.

First, the findings provide internal validity only for large US enterprises. These firms have similar, well-structured reporting requirements. This analysis might be enriched by an examination and a comparison of different institutional contexts, such as emerging countries. Second, following previous studies, annual reports serve as the source of data. Consequently, the findings are relevant only for mandatory and voluntary disclosure of IC, mitigating the relevance of this study for contexts of involuntary disclosure.

This study makes two contributions. First, we add to the empirical literature by offering one more piece of evidence on whether and, if so, the extent to which companies disclose IC in their annual reports. Second, we provide further examination of confirmatory CA by proposing a number of statistically validated codes and tokens that are indicators of IC communication by companies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of intellectual capital (IC) disclosures in annual reports (mandatory and voluntary) and draw attention to the specific issues related to the methodology used i.e. content analysis. The focus is to incorporate all forms of IC disclosure – narratives, numbers, and visual images – into the analysis as well as highlight the need to study both quantity (extent) and quality of disclosure.

Using content analysis, this paper analyzes 30 of Malaysia's largest public‐listed companies from the IC disclosure of 2008 annual reports. The results are used to discuss specific methodological issues such as the usage of an IC index, choice of unit of analysis, quantity versus quality, presence/absence versus multiple disclosures, and the usage of narratives, numbers, and visual images.

This paper proposes that themes are the most appropriate recording and counting unit to analyze IC information combining narratives, numbers, and visual images. The discussion finds, among others, that while quantity and quality are highly related, quality of disclosure provides the most insights into the disclosure behavior adopted by companies.

This paper provides methodological guidelines to future IC researchers interested in analyzing the quantity and quality of IC disclosure.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, so far there are no studies published that provide a detailed discussion on ways to capture the quantity and quality of IC information disclosed in annual reports using all three forms of disclosure – narratives, numbers, and visual images.

As an essential component of Islamic governance for ensuring religious compliance, Shari’ah annual reports (SARs) play an important role in providing communication between Shari’ah board (SB) members and stakeholders. This paper aims to determine the ethical disclosure in SARs to identify how close the Shari’ah disclosure to the standards set by AAOIFI and also substantive morality of Islam. The research also aims to examine the factors determining disclosure performance.

Two disclosure indices are developed to generate data from the SARs: the AAOIFI standards for Shari’ah governance index for form related approach, an Islamic ethicality augmented index reflecting on substantive morality approach. The sample consists of 41 Islamic banks from 15 different countries for the period of 2007–2014. Sampled 305 SARs were examined through disclosure analysis in line with the two indices developed for this study. The econometric analysis was run to identify the factors determining disclosure performance.

The findings suggest that AAOIFI guidelines have an influence on the level of disclosure, even if Islamic banks have not adopted them. However, the level of disclosure for the ethically augmented index is found to be very limited with reliance on general statements in most of the cases. As part of determining factors, the popularity of Shari’ah scholars is significant for both indices, while the existence of an internal Shari’ah auditing department holds some explanatory power. The adoption of AAOIFI standards at the country level, the regulatory quality and the duration of Sharīʿah-compliance are particularly deterministic factors in terms of complying with AAOIFI standards for SARs.

Although SB is the most crucial division of corporate governance in Islamic banks in terms of securing the “Islamic” identity of these institutions, their most important communication instrument, namely, SAR, has not been explored sufficiently, alongside an insufficient attempt to constitute Islamic corporate governance. Initially, this study attempted to constitute an Islamic corporate governance framework as a theoretical construct, which provides context for the empirical part of the research and this should be considered a novel approach. Second, the empirical part of the research aims to fill the gap observed in the literature such as small sample size and index construction-related matters. This research is conducted with a larger sample size as compared to the available studies in the literature and it has developed two indices for disclosure analysis along with developing an Islamic morality-based index beside an index based on AAOIFI standards.

This study contributes to intellectual capital (IC) disclosure research. Focussing on reducing the information asymmetry associated with agency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which managers and owners disclose IC in initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses. In particular, it examines the influence on post-issue stock performance based on the IPOs of technology companies listing on the NASDAQ from 2002 to 2013. Parallels are drawn to integrated reporting (<IR>), which was developed after the global financial crisis (GFC) because of the perceived shortcomings of regulated forms of financial reporting.

The authors apply a two-stage methodology, using content analysis of prospectuses to determine the extent of IC disclosure, then combining this data with market data using regression analysis to determine the influence of IC disclosure in IPO prospectuses on post-issue stock performance.

According to the content analysis results, these IPO prospectuses contain significant amounts of IC disclosure for the subsequent analysis. The authors find that after the GFC technology companies disclose more IC information. The econometric analysis also reveals that IC disclosure has a higher influence on post-issue stock performance after the GFC than before.

The research shows how IPO prospectuses are a valid form of disclosure to investigate the impact of reducing IC information asymmetry because they contain significant amounts of forward-looking non-financial information about the company’s development. Additionally, the results are relevant to discussions about the impact of <IR>. If IC and non-financial disclosures contained in an integrated report are forward-looking and reduce information asymmetry then <IR> may have value relevance to a firm.

The research confirms that more IC disclosure information in prospectuses may positively influence companies’ post-issue stock performance, especially in the long run. However, the authors caution that disclosing IC information to investors is not the panacea for increased post-IPO share performance.

This paper is novel because it shows the value relevance of IC disclosures to reduce information asymmetry through its focus on prospectuses, which helps to understand of the potential impact of <IR>.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the reporting practices on intangible assets from the perspective of a post-transition economy. The chapter explores the significance of intangibles and the content of the disclosures provided by companies in annual reports.

The analysis is qualitative in nature. Annual reports of selected Slovene publicly traded companies are analysed. The research is based on the analysis of required disclosures by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and an analysis of voluntary disclosures provided by companies for the 2007–2011 financial years.

The results indicate that intangibles are less significant in comparison with publicly traded companies from traditionally developed economies. The analysis of disclosures reveals that companies provide almost exclusively the disclosures required by IFRS, while voluntary disclosures are not provided. Furthermore, results indicate deficiencies in financial reporting practices related to required disclosures.

The analysis is conducted on a small sample of companies. This is a consequence of the fact that a limited number of companies is trading on Ljubljana Stock Exchange. In the primary and standard quotation of shares, only 25 companies are present.

Since a growing stream of research emphasises the importance of intangibles for companies’ performance, the findings indicate possibilities for improvement of financial reporting.

The research findings contribute to existing research in the field of accounting for intangibles from the perspective of a post-transition economy. More studies of this kind in transition and post-transition economies using IFRS have yet to be performed.