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This study investigates the interaction between the compulsory and voluntary disclosures in the annual reports of Saudi Arabian companies. The sample comprises both listed and non‐listed companies. The data were analyzed by constructing three separate disclosure indices relating to mandatory disclosure, voluntary disclosure that closely relates to mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure that is not closely related to mandatory disclosure. The results reveal that there is a significant, positive correlation between mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure related to the mandatory disclosure index. The study also reports a correlation between voluntary disclosure and the other two indices is found to be weak and insignificant. These weak relationships suggest an absence of effective co‐ordination between the parties involved in preparing the annual report. The analysis also reveals no clear pattern of relationships to exist between mandatory disclosure and the types of disclosure in the different industrial sectors examined in this study. The non‐correlation between these groups of disclosure may suggest low co‐ordination between the board of directors and the management in writing parts of the annual report.

The paper aims to examine the impact of ownership structure and board composition on voluntary disclosures of listed companies in China.

Using an OLS‐regression model to test the relationship among ownership structure, board composition and the level of voluntary disclosure. The sample is based on 559 firm observations in 2002.

Higher blockholder ownership and foreign listing/shares ownership is associated with increased disclosure. However, managerial ownership, state ownership, and legal‐person ownership are not related to disclosure. An increase in independent directors increases corporate disclosure and CEO duality is associated with lower disclosure. The paper also finds that larger firms had greater disclosure, while firms with growth opportunities are reluctant to disclose information voluntarily.

Firstly, the sample is comprised of companies listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2002 and only 45.7 percent of representative firms listed in China. Secondly, the disclosure checklist does not cover all voluntary disclosure in corporations as employed and supported in several prior studies. Thirdly, the award of checklist items may be subjected to errors.

This paper indicates the relationship among ownership structure, board composition and corporate voluntary disclosure, and provides evidence for Chinese regulators to improve corporate governance and optimize ownership structure.

Distinct from prior empirical research based on disclosure behavior in developed‐western markets, this study examines the impact of ownership structure and board composition on voluntary disclosures of listed companies in the Asian setting of China.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of voluntary and timely disclosure on the cost of debt for the South African setting.

The sample of this paper consists of 20 South African listed non-financial companies for the period 2008-2011. A content analysis is used to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure. Timely disclosure is proxied by earnings reporting lag.

Results show that the extent of voluntary disclosure is negatively and significantly associated with the cost of debt. In contrast, timely disclosure exerts a trivial effect on the cost of debt. When testing for the moderating effect of timely disclosure on the association between the extent of voluntary disclosure and the cost of debt, this paper documents that this association is only negative and significant for the shorter earnings announcement lag group.

The findings of this paper have policy implications for managers in the South African setting and other developing economies similar to South Africa, given the crucial role played by debt as an important source of external financing for publicly traded companies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the auditor in enhancing the market consequences of voluntary disclosure in East Asian countries that have different reporting environments. This study also investigates the effect of quality of the reporting environment on the role of the auditor in enhancing market consequences of voluntary disclosure.

The methodology used in this research is multiple regressions using the least square method. This research uses East Asian countries context that covers India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand with cross-sectional data during 2016. This research uses four measurements of market consequences, namely, cumulative abnormal return (CAR), volatility of return, bid-ask spread and trading volume.

The results show that voluntary disclosure gives positive consequences to the capital market by increasing the CAR, volatility of return and average trading volume, and decreasing asymmetric information. The results also show that auditor plays a significant role in increasing the credibility of voluntary disclosure by increasing the market consequences of disclosure. The role of the auditor in increasing the effect of voluntary disclosure is higher in a country that adopts international best practice in financial reporting.

The findings of this study need to be interpreted with caution due to several limitations. Although the measurement of voluntary disclosure used in this study is relatively more complete compared to previous research, there are still much voluntary information disclosed that are not included in the checklist. Moreover, this study only considers voluntary disclosure in the annual report. Therefore, future studies can develop a more comprehensive measurement of voluntary disclosure and use sources of information beyond the annual report.

This study shows that in a reporting environment that is less transparent as in the conditions of countries in East Asia, voluntary disclosure and the role of the auditor in increasing value of voluntary disclosure for market participants is crucial. Companies need to increase their voluntary disclosures as they become additional provisions in improving the reporting environment and consider the result of this study when choosing the auditor. Second, audit quality is more important in increasing the credibility of voluntary disclosure in countries that adopt international best practices in financial reporting. The result of this study implies that audit quality is a complementary mechanism of the reporting environment.

This study expands the literature of the role of the auditor on the market consequences of voluntary disclosures and explores the role of the auditor in different reporting environment across countries in East Asia. This study shows that auditor increases the credibility of voluntary disclosure in the different context of accounting and auditing practices.

Disclosure and transparency are major pillars of corporate governance which need to be greatly promoted in Egypt. This research aims to understand how different kinds of institutional investors affect levels of voluntary disclosure and transparency.

The research was conducted on the most active Egyptian companies over a period of five years. A voluntary disclosure checklist was first developed to assess levels of voluntary disclosure and transparency.

Empirical results support significant positive impacts of both bank ownership and foreign ownership on voluntary disclosure and transparency. Among the four firm characteristics controlled for in the research, firm size was the only one with a highly significant positive impact on voluntary disclosure and transparency.

The results of this research may not be generalized to all companies, as it was only conducted on the most active firms on the Egyptian Exchange. Therefore, it is recommended that future researches integrate a more diversified sample.

The research provides empirical evidence that institutional investors are not a homogeneous group and that different kinds of institutional ownership impact differently on voluntary disclosure and transparency. As such, some institutional investors are more influential than others when it comes to increasing corporate voluntary disclosure and transparency and in reducing agency problems.

This research offers assistance to policy makers interested in enhancing corporate disclosure and transparency. It is particularly important during any adjustment to ownership policies in Egypt.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on stock market assessment of intangibles and voluntary disclosure about innovation.

The authors develop three regression models. The first model investigates the stock market valuation of intangible assets and disclosure about innovation. The second model desegregates earnings to assess the relevance of components related to intangibles. The third model investigates how intangible expenses and voluntary disclosure affect analysts forecast dispersion.

Results show that the value relevance of intangible assets and expenses improves with the adoption of IAS 38. Overall, results indicate a decrease in the value relevance of voluntary disclosure about innovation under IFRS. More specifically, results suggest some overlap in the information content of mandated and voluntary disclosure for stock market valuation of intangible assets under IFRS. Findings also suggest that voluntary disclosure moderates market's assessment of expensed intangibles under both Canadian GAAP and IFRS.

IAS 38 requires entities to recognize an intangible asset if certain criteria are met and to disclose specific information about it. In such a context, market participants may refer to a greater extent to financial reporting and to a lesser extent to voluntary disclosure when valuating intangibles.

Managers will have an incentive to better target their communications to ensure a degree of complementarity with financial reporting. In this sense, this study contributes to the voluntary disclosure literature.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure about intangibles and evaluate the impact of IFRS on this matter.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the approaches used by researchers in examining the influences of external factors towards voluntary disclosure in emerging countries.

The data collected in this study were collected through a review of empirical literature based on 35 articles published between 1998 and 2013. The sample articles on the link between external factors and the level of voluntary disclosure were located by searching keywords in the most relevant social science research databases such as Business Source Premier, Emerald full text, JSTOR, Science Direct, Scopus, and Social Science Research Network.

The result reveals that research in voluntary disclosure practices by companies in emerging countries remains low. The majority of studies employed content analysis to examine the extent of voluntary disclosure practices. Results from studies show that greater regulatory enforcement in the region and increase in stakeholders’ comprehension about their rights and choices with regards to business activities can influence the majority of the companies to provide voluntary disclosure. The literature revealed that social responsibility and environmental information are the popular categories of voluntary disclosure while risk and human capital/intellectual capital are the least popular categories.

The paper is limited to a review of 35 articles.

The study provides avenues for policy makers and regulators to carry out reforms on voluntary disclosure practices.

The findings may provide insights to capital market regulators when conducting effective regulation and supervision of information transparency in listed companies.

Since limited studies exist that examine voluntary disclosure in emerging countries, little is known about the implications of external factors such as a country’s policy, regulations, stakeholders, and business environment on voluntary disclosure practices. This paper contributes to filling this gap by a review of articles of empirical research on voluntary disclosure in emerging countries.

Users of annual reports require an extensive range of financial and non‐financial information, whether mandatory or voluntary, in order to assess the fair value of an investment. The extent and quality of voluntary information is dependent on company policy, and companies need to make decisions in favour of or against the disclosure of certain informative items. A survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of the compilers and the users of annual reports on the price‐informative value of voluntary disclosures in annual and interim reports. The rankings awarded by compilers and users to the various voluntarily disclosed items were compared in order to determine the significance of the differences between the perception of the two groups. Significant differences were identified and suggestions are made for the improvement of corporations’ voluntary disclosure strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the motives for providing voluntary accounting disclosures and investigate the financial differences between voluntary and non‐voluntary disclosers. The paper also examines the association between the provision of voluntary disclosures and earnings management.

The study utilises logistic regressions to test the hypothetical relations set up in the study. The categorisation of firms into those that report the minimum required by law and those that provide voluntary accounting information is based on the examination of firms' financial statements. Company categorisation is based on the construction of an index similar to the disclosure index formulated by the Center for International Financial Analysis and Research. Each sample firm obtains a score, with a higher score reflecting a more significant level of disclosure.

The findings show that voluntary disclosers exhibit higher profitability and growth and appear to be good news bearers. They also display a change in their management and a higher share trading volume. The results provide evidence that the provision of voluntary accounting disclosures is negatively associated with earnings management.

The study indicates that sound financial indicators and good news and prospects are likely to motivate firms to provide voluntary disclosures in order to attract investors' attention and communicate their managerial superiority or potential. Less information asymmetry and earnings management would lead to the disclosure of informative accounting information and would subsequently assist investors in making efficient decisions.

The contribution of the study lies in the fact that Greece is a particular case because it is a “rules‐based” code‐law country that involves high levels of standardisation and that has adopted IFRSs that are “principles‐based” and involve flexibility in financial reporting and judgment. Also, financial reporting in Greece is less restrictive in terms of disclosure requirements. The findings of the study are useful for financial analysts and investors, as they enable them to understand the financial attributes and motives of firms that provide voluntary disclosures as well as their earnings management inclination.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into the voluntary corporate governance disclosure and AC practices among Malaysian property listed companies. Along with that, the influence of AC characteristics on voluntary corporate governance disclosure was also examined.

The study used the content analysis of annual reports to extract voluntary corporate governance disclosures and audit committee (AC) practices. The relationship between voluntary corporate governance disclosures and AC characteristics was examined by using the panel data regression analysis.

Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that all three variables: AC size, AC independence and AC meetings are the factors that influence the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure among sampled companies.

This study provides an overview of voluntary corporate governance disclosures practices, which have shown an increasing trend of information disclosed by Malaysian listed property companies. Additionally, the AC structure was also found satisfactory with highly independent and higher number of meetings as required by Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance and Bursa Malaysia requirement.

By filling the gap identified in this study, investors’ confidence will boost as they will have sufficient information about the Malaysian listed property companies – resulting in strengthening competitiveness and growth by attracting local and foreign investments in the country. The influence of AC attributes over the quality of disclosure among Malaysian listed properties companies is identified, and regulators introduce more explicit rules for AC mechanism for improving the disclosure quality. The increase in the quality of information provided in the annual reports will lead toward highly efficient and transparent stock market.

This study has provided an insight into corporate governance of listed companies in Malaysia, which will contribute to the extended literature. Along with that, it will also provide an overview of corporate governance structure among Malaysian listed companies to the policy makers.