Search results

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of behavioural psychology when considering the effects of legislation on senior management behaviour. Use is made of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 and the corporate failures that led to its passage.

The insights of behavioural psychology are discussed and then applied to the situation of senior management faced with reacting to new legislation.

It is found that this approach predicts that the effects on management behaviour may be greater than (and in any case will be different from) the effects resulting from using a more traditional approach of law and economics

No original research is performed. It does however show that further research using this approach has much potential.

As the paper looks at the effect of legislation on management behaviour this paper shows the value of the behavioural approach to both those who propose legislation and those who study its effects.

No original work is presented but the paper is useful in showing readers not familiar with this approach of its usefulness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of risk disclosure and the factors determining this for all listed banks in Bangladesh.

Relying on a theoretical framework based on agency theory and the creation of a risk disclosure index (RDI) based on International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 7, Basel II: market discipline, and prior literature, hand-collected data from the annual reports of all 30 banks traded on the Dhaka Stock Exchange over 2007-2012, creating 180 bank-year observations, are analysed.

The study suggests that implementation of IFRS 7 and Basel II: market discipline standards in a non-mandated environment raised the extent of risk disclosure in every category of financial institution risk (market, credit, liquidity, operational and equities). The effect can be attributed to regulatory concerns and voluntary adoption of international disclosure standards in the banking industry in Bangladesh. Specifically, whilst the determinants of disclosure vary across types of risk, the number of risk committees, leverage, company size, the existence of a risk management unit, board size and a Big4 affiliate auditor are significant determinants of at least one category of risk disclosure.

The source of risk disclosures is limited to listed banks’ annual reports.

The RDI, developed in this paper, contributes to the literature by: first, quantifying the extent of each of five types of risk disclosure; and second, identifying the factors determining them. Stakeholders, particularly depositors and investors, can use this index to select or monitor their bank of interest.

The RDI was developed according to the most relevant standards – IFRS 7 and Basel II: market discipline, plus prior scholarly literature. This type of benchmarking has not been conducted to date in previous studies. Inferences about risk disclosure are based on archival data derived from all listed banks in a virtually unregulated environment. Further, the study complements the literature by providing support for the applicability of agency theory in investigating the level of risk disclosure by banks.

This study aims to examine the relationship among corporate risk disclosure, cost of equity capital and performance within banking institutions in a developing country setting. The authors argue that corporate risk disclosure reduces the cost of capital as investors attain better information and have confidence in the business and that less risk disclosure may generate ambiguity for potential stakeholders.

This study uses the population of all 30 listed banks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh, for the years 2006 to 2012 and uses three-stage least-squares simultaneous equations to deal with endogeneity issues.

There is evidence that Bangladesh has voluntarily adopted the International Financial Reporting Standard 7 – Financial Instruments: Disclosures (IFRS 7) and Basel II: Market Discipline and that these standards enhance risk disclosure even where compliance is not compulsory. The cost of capital is found to be negatively associated with risk disclosure, which has an inverse relationship with bank performance.

This study provides a link between risk disclosure, cost of capital and performance. It fills a gap in the literature by providing a longitudinal study of risk disclosure in the banking sector of Bangladesh. This research also highlights the importance of appropriate risk disclosure for banks and suggests its importance in the process of fulfilling stakeholders’ demands.

The purposes of this paper are: firstly, to assess the disclosure related to climate change (CC) by major European banks to understand if the banks have grasped the most substantive aspects of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations and secondly, to evaluate the contribution of a non-traditional committee (i.e. corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee) to TCFD-compliant disclosure.

Using content analysis and ordinary least squares regressions on a sample of 101 European banks, this study sought to investigate completeness, tone and forward-looking orientation of CC disclosure and explore the relationships between CSR committee and previous disclosure aspects.

This study shows that European banks have been able to reach an intermediate level of adequacy of compliance in terms of completeness of information but forward-looking orientation seems to be the aspect that needs the most improvement. The existence of a CSR committee dedicated to sustainability issues seems to constitute the difference between the banks in terms of disclosure. The results highlight vulnerabilities in disclosure and board characteristics relevant for improving CC disclosure.

Firms interested in strengthening stakeholder engagement and capturing strategic opportunities involved in CC should be encouraged to establish a CSR committee and appoint female directors in financial companies. This paper should be of interest to policymakers, governance bodies and boards of directors considering the initiative of corporate sustainable governance complementary to Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial reporting by the European Commission.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study has investigated the relationship between the CSR committee and the application of the TCFD’s recommendations in the European banking industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between risk governance and bank performance in a country where disclosure of risk information is virtually voluntary.

Using 210 bank-year observations comprising hand-collected data for the period 2006-2012, the study uses regression analysis to test whether a significant relationship exists between risk governance and banks’ accounting- and market-based performance.

This paper investigates risk governance in terms of risk disclosure, number of risk committees and existence of a risk management unit, controlling for other corporate governance variables. Accounting-based performance is measured by return on equity and return on assets; market-based performance is measured by Tobin’s q and buy-and-hold returns. The results show that there is a significant relationship between risk governance and bank performance measures used in this study.

This paper complements the governance literature by incorporating agency and neo-institutional theory to provide robust evidence that risk monitoring and management are associated with bank performance, which has become extremely important following the global financial crisis (2007-2008).

Empirical evidence in this paper suggests that risk governance characteristics can be used as channels to improve bank performance. In addition, stakeholders may find these results useful in selecting their preferred bank.

The uniqueness of this paper lies in its country setting. Most studies on governance and performance involve developed countries. This paper’s contribution is to examine the association of risk governance characteristics for both accounting-based and market-based performance in a developing economy setting, with virtually voluntary compliance mechanisms in place.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which both formal and informal control, operating as a package, are implicated in responding to organisational change arising from the introduction of the Australian Federal Government’s Clean Energy Act (2011).

This investigation is based on a review of archival data, and semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 staff at different hierarchical levels within an Australian renewable energy company.

Although formal management control systems and informal control both played important roles in the organisation’s reorientation to organisational change, it was the latter form of control that predominated over the former. The influence of the prevailing organisational culture, however, was pivotal in orchestrating both formal and informal control efforts within this organisation.

This study contributes to management control theory and practice in two ways: first, it provides much needed empirical evidence about the ways in which management controls act as a package; second, it offers insights into the relative importance of the components of a management control package in the context of a particular organisational change. In addition, it responds to Laughlin’s (1991) call for empirical “flesh” to be added to the skeletal framework he advocates to make this conceptualisation of organisational change, “more meaningful”.

This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.

A content analysis of five focus groups conducted with thirty-five stakeholders involved in the implementation of a unique social procurement initiative on a major Australian construction project is reported.

Results show little collective understanding among project stakeholders for what social procurement policies can achieve, a focus on downside risk rather than upside opportunity and perceptions of distributive injustice about the way new social procurement risks are being managed. Also highlighted is the tension between the collaborative intent of social procurement requirements and the dynamic, fragmented and temporary project-based construction industry into which they are being introduced. Ironically, this can lead to opportunistic behaviours to the detriment of the vulnerable people these policies are meant to help.

The paper concludes by presenting a new conceptual framework of project risk and opportunity management from a social procurement perspective. Deficiencies in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) are also highlighted around an expanded project management role in meeting these new project management requirements.

Social procurement is becoming increasingly popular in many countries as a collaborative mechanism to ensure construction and infrastructure projects contribute positively to the communities in which they are built. This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.