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The centrality of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporate marketing perspective serves as a point of differentiation for the field within the broader marketing discipline. Currently, there is a lack of clarity around the ‘transparency’ construct, which is an integral if ill-defined dimension of ethics and CSR in marketing. A shared understanding of the transparency construct is thus a significant gap within corporate marketing theory. Addressing that gap is the purpose of this paper.

The approach in this paper is conceptual. In developing a detailed definition of transparency, the paper draws on core papers in corporate marketing theory as well as organisational transparency.

Rawlins’ (2009) multi-layered definition of the transparency construct is identified as appropriate for adoption in the corporate marketing context. Each of the six layers of his definition is analysed to understand what is implied and what the application of the construct means for corporate marketing practice. The implications are that the application of transparency in corporate marketing requires that a positive and proactive approach to information-sharing is adopted; the default position is to share information with stakeholders; both good and bad news are shared; the criteria – accuracy, timeliness, balance and unequivocality – are applied to all information prior to releases; an organisation commits to empowering stakeholders; and there is recognition of an obligation to account to stakeholders.

The paper is conceptual in nature and does not apply the definition of the transparency construct to empirical data. It is likely that empirical research will lead to further refinements and amendments. The paper should therefore be considered as a starting point for this empirical work.

The paper provides a detailed definition of the transparency construct, which includes a discussion of what the application of the transparency construct implies and what it means for the practice of corporate marketing. The definition and its practical application are summarised in table form as a guide for both researchers and practitioners of corporate marketing. The table may serve as a guide for evaluating current organisational performance and for embedding transparency in corporate marketing practice.

This study appears to be the first paper to address the gap in the corporate marketing literature in relation to the transparency construct. This conceptual paper therefore provides a foundation for further empirical research into the application of the transparency construct in corporate marketing.

The lexicon of corporate governance has ‘transparency’ as a key imperative. Yet transparency as a management principle begs explanation. It also raises several questions: transparent to whom, how and why? Who decides? Is full transparency desirable? What are its merits and benefits? What are the risks of increased transparency? The answers may lie somewhere between the shareholder and stakeholder views of the modern corporation, with the former defending shareholder-owner primacy and firm profit-maximisation, and the latter offering a values-based approach towards balancing the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. While corporate governance broadly addresses the needs of shareholders and investors, driven by the position that companies need to be better governed for stockholder value, the ‘stakeholder’ view of the corporation has gained ground over the past 20 or so years whereby the modern corporation is accountable not only to its owners, but also society.The transparency debate has emerged in parallel, and with it, issues of privacy and/or secrecy on one hand and the notion of ‘sunlight’ on the other. Transparency’s role has been variously described as the promotion of corporate disclosure and protection of the rights of minority shareholders in the information environment (Bushman & Smith, 2003); the promotion of corporate accountability and advancement of the rights of stakeholders (Clarke, 2004; Donaldson & Preston, 1995; Hess, 2007; Mallin, 2002); a tool to limit information asymmetries (Boatright, 2008; Florini, 2007a, 2007b; Hood, 2006; Lev, 1992); a means to create a level playing field through ethics and fairness (Boatright, 2008; Oliver, 2004); the promotion of market efficiency (Bessire, 2005; Heflin, Subramanyam, & Zhang, 2003); and the prevention of abuse through stakeholder activism (Bandsuch, Pate, & Thies, 2008; Roche, 2005). Aspirations aside, there is lack of consensus as to transparency's dimensions, drivers and dilemmas in corporate behaviour. Indeed, its perceived value to stakeholders and corporations alike remains questionable. In this chapter, the author discusses the governance of corporate transparency and argues that clarity and Board policy are needed to manage transparency activism and its resultant risks.

Existing literature demonstrates the important role of information transparency in enterprise development and market surveillance. However, little empirical research has examined the information transparency effect in supply chain management. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the significant role of information transparency on supply chain financing and its mechanism, taking trade credit as the starting point.

From the data set comprising 3,880 Chinese firms with A-shares listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2020, we obtain the basic picture of information transparency and trade credit. Panel fixed effects regression is used to test the hypotheses concerning the antecedents to trade credit.

The empirical results show that: first, information transparency can significantly support corporate access to trade credit and is found to facilitate financing by mitigating perceived risk. Second, among companies with higher levels of financing constraints, weaker market power and more concentration of suppliers, information transparency promotes trade credit more markedly. Third, the outbreak of COVID-19 causes a substantial increase in uncertainty and risk in external circumstances and then the effect of information transparency is weakened. Fourth, the contribution to trade credit is likely to be stronger for disclosures containing management transparency elements compared to single financial transparency.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore the positive role of information transparency to supply chain financing, which to a certain extent makes up for the lack of information transparency research in the supply chain. It provides new ideas for enterprises to obtain trade credit financing and promote the improvement of supervision departments’ disclosure policies.

The present study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance factors and financial reporting transparency pre and post of ISIS.

A multivariate regression model was used to test the hypotheses for this purpose. The research hypotheses were tested on a sample of 35 companies listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2018 using a multivariate regression model based on panel data technique.

The results indicate a negative and significant correlation between the board independence, audit committee independence, management team stability and remuneration of the board of directors and financial reporting transparency. In contrast, there is a positive and significant correlation between the board expertise, audit committee expertise and managerial ownership, with financial reporting transparency. Moreover, ISIS has had a direct and significant impact on the correlation between the board of directors’ independence and remuneration with financial reporting transparency. The present study also tested research models using additional methods (such as feasible generalised least squares, ordinary least squares, random effects and T + 1) to obtain better results. The results of these different methods were entirely in line with the main results of the research.

The political and economic instability resulting from the entry of ISIS into Iraq has created severe problems for society’s economic, political, security and performance dimensions. Macroeconomic uncertainty driven by terrorist activities can negatively affect managers’ perceptions of firms’ future performance and result in poor judgments and estimations, significantly impacting business units' financial reporting transparency. Because no study has examined the relationship between corporate governance and financial reporting transparency on the Iraq stock exchange before and after the presence of ISIS, this study examines such a relationship. Although the economic and political situation in Iraq may not be identical to that in other nations, much of the experience in Iraq is anticipated to apply to other countries in the region.

The study aims to examine the association between corporate transparency and firm value (capital market effect) and investigate whether auditor choice moderates this relationship.

This study uses the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (2017) data set, which provides scores on anti-corruption commitment, organisational transparency and sustainability of Malaysia’s top 100 listed firms. The methodology entails an ordinary pooled least square regression method for empirical research.

The positive association between corporate transparency and firm value is more evident in anti-corruption and sustainability initiatives. More importantly, government-linked companies have higher scores. Firms with enhanced anti-corruption commitment are more likely to have higher firm value, and this relationship is more evident for politically connected firms. This study also finds that auditor choice is associated with the firm value in the sampled listed firms.

The findings provide implications for investors and regulators on the role of corporate transparency in an emerging capital market.

The study recommends that emerging market regulators continue enhancing corporate governance codes and practices to improve reporting transparency for listed firms.

This study contributes to the growing literature on sustainability disclosures by incorporating corporate reporting transparency, explicitly relating to firms’ commitment to anti-corruption, organisational transparency and sustainability.

The study aims at reviewing a synthesis of disclosure, transparency, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Prior research overwhelmingly supports that the IFRS adoption or effective implementation of IFRS will enhance high-quality financial reporting, transparency, enhance the country’s investment environment, and foreign direct investment (FDI) (Dayanandan, Donker, Ivanof, & Karahan, 2016; Gláserová, 2013; Muniandy & Ali, 2012). However, some researchers provide conflicting evidence that developing countries implementing IFRS are probably not going to encounter higher FDI inflows (Gheorghe, 2009; Lasmin, 2012). It has also been argued that the IFRS adoption decreases the management earnings in countries with high levels of financial disclosure. In general, the study indicates that the adoption of IFRS has improved the financial reporting quality. The common law countries have strong rules to protect investors, strict legal enforcement, and high levels of transparency of financial information. From the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 105 articles, and in particular, the topic-related 94 articles were analysed. All 94 articles were retrieved from a range of 59 journals. Most of the articles (77 of 94) were published 2010–2018. The top five journals based on the citations are Journal of Accounting Research (187 citations), Abacus (125 citations), European Accounting Review (107 citations), Journal of Accounting and Economics (78 citations), and Accounting and Business Research (66 citations). The most-cited authors are Daske, Hail, Leuz, and Verdi (2013); Daske and Gebhardt (2006); and Brüggemann, Hitz, and Sellhorn (2013). Surprisingly, 65 of 94 articles did not utilise the theory. In particular, four theories have been used frequently: agency theory (15), economic theory (5), signalling theory (2), and accounting theory (2). The study calls for future research on the theoretical implications and policy-related research on disclosure and transparency which may inform the local and international standard setters.

Unlike other types of corporate disclosure, corporate political disclosure (CPD), which is the disclosure of corporate political contributions and the related governing policies and oversight mechanisms, does not provide completely new information to stakeholders. Some of the information disclosed in CPD is available from other public records (e.g. the Federal Election Committee website or OpenSecrets website). Given this unique feature of CPD, it is interesting to investigate the cost and benefit tradeoff for firms of altering their CPD practice in response to policy and political uncertainty.

This study employs recently developed indexes of aggregate economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and a novel dataset of CPD transparency to examine the impact of EPU on CPD transparency and how the proprietary cost of corporate political activities moderates this association. The sample consists of S&P 500 companies from the 2012 to 2019 period.

The authors document that firms mitigate the heightened information asymmetry associated with higher aggregate EPU by increasing CPD transparency. The positive association between EPU and CPD is less pronounced for firms that are more sensitive to EPU, for firms that more actively manage EPU through corporate political contributions or lobbying activities and for firms that are followed by more analysts. The authors also find that more transparent CPD helps to mitigate the information asymmetry caused by heightened EPU. This study’s results hold when the authors control for other types of voluntary corporate disclosure.

This study contributes to the emerging literature on the determinants of CPD transparency by identifying EPU's positive impact on CPD transparency. This study also provides empirical evidence that the proprietary costs arising from the controversial nature of corporate political activities dampen firms' incentives to provide transparent CPD in response to heightened EPU, and that information on corporate political activities gathered and processed by financial analysts seems to lower the marginal benefit to companies of publicizing CPD on their own website.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance, with particular reference to the role of independent directors on boards and audit committees, and media coverage on corporate transparency and disclosure. In addition, the paper also investigates the role of the media on independent directors’ behaviours towards corporate transparency and disclosure.

The paper uses the well-developed two-step system generalised method of moments approach on a sample of 99 Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) listed financial firms over the period 2007-2012.

The empirical analysis shows that media and independent directors on audit committees play a significant positive role in line with agenda setting and agency theories in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure. On the contrary, the boards’ independent directors are risk-averse and hold the information to protect their reputation. Nevertheless, the study does not find any significant influence of media coverage on independent directors’ behaviours in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure.

The findings provide some useful insight into cost benefits analysis of media coverage towards an understanding of independent directors’ behaviours for promoting transparency and disclosure in financial sector. Moreover, the study findings can be useful for both shareholders and stakeholders in taking decisions about firm activities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that proposed and tested a multi-level framework for corporate transparency and disclosure practices. In addition, this study is also among the very few studies that use financial sectors as a sample, in particular, and media coverage, specifically, thus adding some value to the limited literature.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the research question of how stakeholder claims for transparency work as a means to support responsibility in the international supply chain.

This theoretical study analyses the relationship between stakeholder claims for corporate transparency and responsible business in the global context, and develops a conceptual model for further theoretical and empirical work.

The study finds that the call for corporate transparency is insufficient as a means to increase responsibility within international supply chains. The erroneous belief that stakeholder claims for transparency will lead to responsible behaviour is identified as the “transparency fallacy”. The fallacy emerges from the denial of opacity in organisations and the blindness to the conditions of international supply chains (including complexity, distance, and resistance) that work against attempts to increase transparency.

Acknowledging the limits of the transparency mechanism in both management theory and practice is necessary in order to advance responsible business in the international arena. Being conceptual in nature, the generic limitations of the type of research apply.

While acknowledging opacity, corporate managers and stakeholders should focus on changing the supply chain conditions to support responsible behaviour. This includes reducing complexity, distance, and resistance in the supply network.

This study contests the commonly assumed link between corporate transparency and responsibility, and sheds light on the limits and unintended consequences of stakeholder attempts to impose transparency on business organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to report the impact of the Chinese capital market split equity (SE) reform in 2005 on the corporate financial transparency of Chinese listed companies.

Using an International Financial Reporting Standards‐based checklist, the paper investigates whether the post‐reform 2005 annual reports of reformed companies improved transparency compared to pre‐reform 2004 reports. The transparency of the reformed companies was also compared to a control group of companies unreformed on December 31, 2005.

Results indicate that the SE reform increased corporate disclosures. Reformed companies had higher mandatory and voluntary disclosures in their post‐reform 2005 annual reports compared to their pre‐reform 2004 annual reports. In addition, the improvement in mandatory and voluntary disclosures for reformed companies is greater than that of the unreformed control group.

The SE reform provides a unique natural experimental setting in which to examine the impact of the SE reform, with its associated change in ownership structure and corporate governance, on corporate disclosure.

The results of this paper suggest that the SE reform has had a positive effect on corporate financial transparency in China, thereby indicating the positive response to regulation in this emerging market. Further, the results suggest that as the proportion of government ownership falls, management has increased incentive to voluntarily supply additional information to the market.

The SE reform is unique to China and this paper is the first to report on financial reporting disclosure implications of this reform.