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The sport industry, due to the great importance of intangible assets, represents a field of particular interest for the analysis of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD). However, this sector is still underexplored in the academic literature. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the level of intellectual capital (IC) information disclosed by the most important basketball clubs on their website and the factors capable of influencing the dissemination of such information. Specifically, it examines the impact of social media visibility – in terms of number of social networks, number of posts, number of followers and internet visibility – on the ICD level.

Firstly, this study performs a manual content analysis of the websites of the top 80 European and US basketball clubs aimed at analysing the ICD level. Secondly, it provides for a regression analysis to test the impact of social media visibility on the amount of IC information disclosed.

Empirical results show a low level of ICD among the basketball clubs examined. They also demonstrate the positive impact of number of posts, number of followers and internet visibility on the amount of IC information disclosed online.

This study extends the analysis of the ICD to the sport industry, still little examined by the academic literature. In this regards, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the ICD in the basketball industry.

This study aims to add empirical evidence to the intellectual capital (IC) literature by enhancing understanding of voluntary online IC disclosure (ICD) practices in knowledge-based institutions such as universities from an international standpoint. The ultimate purpose of this study is to examine how different variables related to size, internet visibility and certain corporate governance attributes (i.e. board size and board gender diversity) affect the extent to which universities from different world’s countries convey ICD through websites.

This study investigates a sample of 100 international universities selected according to the QS World University Rankings 2020 to examine the level of ICD provided through their official websites. It uses a content analysis to measure the actual amount of IC information disclosed by these universities and a regression model to test the impact of the explanatory variables.

Empirical results demonstrate a negative impact of the board size and a positive effect of board gender diversity and internet visibility on the level of IC information disclosed by international universities on their website. They also demonstrate a non-significant effect of university size.

This study contributes to enriching the academic literature in different ways. In the first place, it extends the field of application of the stakeholder theory. In the second place, this study sheds light on the actual ICD level of international universities. In the third place, it examines the ICD through a channel – websites – which are still little explored by the academic literature. Finally, this study increases knowledge about the factors that can influence the ICD disclosure of international universities.

Social media are emerging as the ideal channel for building one-to-many communication and disseminating intellectual capital (IC) information. Their rise is bringing out new research challenges to investigate the implications of their use. However, there needs to be more research contributions relating to the financial benefits of using social media for IC disclosure (ICD). This study aims to bridge this gap by analyzing, under the lens of signaling theory, the effect of ICD through Twitter on firm value.

This study is based on a content analysis of tweets disseminated by 262 companies aimed at examining the amount of IC information disclosed and on a regression analysis aimed at analyzing the impact of this type of information on firm value.

Empirical results show that a large ICD via Twitter favors an increase in firm value. They also demonstrate that disclosing information relating to the three IC dimensions positively affects the firm value. These findings suggest that actively and comprehensively communicating IC information via Twitter can help improve the perception and evaluation of the company by investors and other stakeholders.

This study offers empirical evidence about the financial benefits associated with using social media as disclosure tools by companies. It also enriches the literature on the relationship between ICD and firm value and consolidates the goodness of the signaling theory as an ideal theoretical perspective to frame the relationship between IC information and firm value.

This study offers important managerial implications for firms and investors. In light of the significant financial benefits, firms should use social media to disclose IC information and should seek to increase their visibility on such platforms to convey the information to a greater number of users. Investors should also heed social media when gathering IC information, combining the analysis of these platforms with that of traditional corporate documents.

This study enriches the limited literature on ICD via social media and extends knowledge about the relationship between IC information and firm value. In this regard, the originality also lies in the individual analysis of the impact of the three IC dimensions on firm value.

Digitalization is an element capable of improving companies’ financial performance. Despite the relevance of the topic, the financial effects associated with extensive transparency in digitalization choices have rarely been explored in extant literature. This study aims to close this important gap by examining the effect of digitalization-related information on the cost of equity capital.

This study uses manual content analysis on a sample of 122 international listed firms to measure the level of transparency in digitalization choices and a regression model to test the effect of this transparency on the cost of equity capital.

The results show that broad transparency allows firms to benefit from a lower cost of equity capital. From this perspective, disseminating information about digitalization choices in a signaling theory key represents the signal that companies send to investors.

This study extends the knowledge about the potential of transparency to facilitate access to finance by examining the effect of another type of information, namely, those relating to digitalization choices, on the cost of equity capital.

Understanding the determinants of a corporate initial public offering (IPO) success is essential for reducing investors' valuation uncertainty when participating in share offerings. In this sense, this study contributes to the existing debate by examining IPO prospectus readability. The authors specifically investigate how clear and more informative insights into pure corporate key financial numbers can lead to a higher valuation for the company after the listing process.

Through a sample of European IPOs, the authors employ a cross-sectional regression to test the relationship between prospectus readability through the Flesch reading ease (FRE) score and companies' market-to-book ratio at the period end date after the listing process.

The study findings show a positive impact of higher readability on the post-IPO market-to-book ratio. Thus, clear and more informative communication results in stocks being traded at a premium to their book value. This study presents a concrete call for firms to increase corporate documents’ readability to mitigate the risk of withdrawing or spoiling corporate market access. Specifically, enhanced clarity and transparency increase investors' confidence, facilitating a better understanding of companies' intrinsic value and the overall IPO process. The authors conducted several tests to validate the results.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first works to explore the relationship between the readability of corporate prospectus and the sustained IPO success in the European context.

Crowdfunding is a relatively new alternative method of raising capital for new ventures. In recent years, crowdfunding has also gained prominence within the food industry. On the basis of signaling theory, this study aims to analyze the success factors of vegan crowdfunding campaigns, which remains unexplored in academia.

This study employs a logistic regression analysis on a sample of 200 vegan crowdfunding campaigns launched in Europe between 2014 and 2021 on the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

The results show that the number of images, comments and updates as well as the readability of project descriptions positively impact the success rate of vegan crowdfunding campaigns. Furthermore, the length of the project description has a negative effect, whereas the number of videos has no bearing on the success of vegan crowdfunding campaigns.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study pioneers examining the success factors of vegan crowdfunding campaigns. This study enriches the literature in several ways. First, this study contributes to an open debate on the success factors of crowdfunding. Second, this study provides knowledge about the factors that can favor the success of vegan initiatives. Third, this study confirms the usefulness of signaling theory as a theoretical framework for understanding vegan crowdfunding.

This paper aims to systematically analyse the publications in the field of integrated reporting (IR) and to present an overview of the current publication trends in IR based on the data obtained from the Scopus database.

Selected bibliometric indicators and bibliometrix R-packages are used in examining metrics like annual publication trends, authors with the most produced work, papers that are often cited, top productive countries, top productive affiliations, frequently mentioned journals, frequently mentioned keywords, analysis of co-citation, analysis of collaboration and analysis of co-word.

The findings from the bibliometric review indicated that the trend of IR literature had increased from 2017 to 2020, specifically from 2017 to 2019. The findings also indicated that several publications on IR entailed several authors’ collaboration and were published in various languages. Moreover, around 148 institution-affiliated researchers from 40 institutions in 20 countries contributed to the IR publication.

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of the current development in IR. It is useful to help emerging scholars identify and understand current trends in IR based on different countries, authors and languages.

This paper contributes to the literature on IR by highlighting the trends of IR publications from the Scopus database using bibliometric analysis.

Purpose: This chapter aims to identify and evaluate the various components of business model disclosures in an Integrated Report and ascertain how the notion of business model is perceived among practitioners.

Need for the Study: According to previous research, the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) objective of improving corporate reporting by encouraging organisations to disclose their business model has not found the desired recognition. Therefore, the study elaborates on the various components of business model reporting and their implications on corporate reporting in general.

Methodology: A review of literature was conducted to identify and analyse research based on business models and their disclosures in integrated reporting. A narrative review was undertaken for selected literature.

Findings: The findings suggest that most large-sized organisations use integrated reporting for impression management and are not inclined to disclose too much about their business models for fear of competition. There is still a lack of clear understanding of what a business model should entail.

Practical Implication: This study adds to the research on business model disclosures in integrated reporting. Voluntary disclosure and a better understanding of such disclosures will prepare organisations of all sizes and industries for an event when Integrated Reporting becomes statutory.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on almost all sectors, but the airline industry has been globally most affected. Although recent years have witnessed an increase in attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, the disclosure within the airline sector has been historically limited. This paper aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social and environmental reporting and financial performance of airlines operating in the UK.

The paper applies content, textual and financial analysis to 16 company-year observations covering two fiscal years, 2018 and 2020, of eight airlines operating in the UK. A coding structure is based on the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. NVivo is used for textual comparative analysis.

The research reveals that social disclosures exceeded environmental disclosures in the period before and during COVID-19. However, the pandemic has shown a significant increase in environmental rather than social disclosures. The study evidences the dominating themes of social and environmental disclosure, showing changes between 2018 and 2020. The study finds the extent of negative impact of COVID-19 on airlines’ financial performance. A period of crisis prompts companies to release more information, with a positive correlation between higher debt levels and increased disclosure.

The findings complement the emerging empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on CSR reporting and demonstrate how challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis affect the disclosure practices in the airline industry.