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This study aims to assess the effect of material internal control weaknesses (MICW) on the relationship between ownership structures and future-oriented disclosure.

A total number of 197 firms were assessed in this study during 2014–2021. Two measures were used for MICW. First, the number of existing MICW was assessed in independent auditors’ reports. In Iran, the maximum number of weaknesses is 13. Second, the scoring (0 or 1) method was used as a dummy variable, 1 for a firm with MICW and otherwise 0. Moreover, the scoring (0 or 1) method was used to measure the level of future-oriented disclosure of 13 indicators.

The findings showed that institutional ownership and managerial ownership have a significant positive effect on future-oriented disclosure, whereas the MICW have a significant negative effect on future-oriented disclosure. In addition, MICW played a moderator role in the relationship between ownership structures and future-oriented disclosure. The robustness checks confirmed the results.

As the studies conducted on future-oriented disclosure and the contributing factors are limited, and also the effect of MICW on future-oriented disclosure is not explored, the present findings can show the importance of the study, and fill the gap in this field. This study offers theoretical and practical implications to drive policymakers and managers to the effectiveness of internal control and future-oriented transparency.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of future‐oriented information in UK annual report narrative sections. The paper also investigates the association between corporate dividend policy and levels of future‐oriented information, as a proxy for information asymmetry.

A computer‐based‐content analysis is used to measure levels of future‐oriented information. Tobit and logit regressions are then applied in order to examine the impact of firm characteristics, and corporate governance characteristics on future‐oriented disclosure. In further tests, Tobit and logit regression models are used to investigate the association between corporate dividend policy and levels of future‐oriented information.

The authors find that firm size is the main factor affecting the firms’ levels of future‐oriented information. This variable is statistically significant in five regression models. In addition, the authors find that profitability, outsider directorships, and insider ownerships affect the levels of future‐oriented information. However, the significance of these variables depends on whether fixed effects or random effects models are used and whether year dummies are included or excluded in the analyses. Finally, the authors find a positive association between corporate dividend policy and information asymmetry (measured by the levels of future‐oriented information).

This paper contributes to the existing disclosure studies in two crucial ways. First, it offers the first evidence that levels of future‐oriented information are driven by some firm characteristics, and some corporate governance mechanisms. Second, it offers the first UK evidence of the association between corporate dividend policy and information asymmetry. The results show that dividends and information asymmetry are negatively associated.

Kuwait has taken significant steps to reform its corporate governance (CG) by introducing the New Company Law (NCL) in 2013. This study investigates how this reform of CG mechanisms affects the disclosure of future-oriented information. Likewise, it explores how CG mechanisms affect the informativeness of this disclosure.

The sample comprises the nonfinancial firms listed on the Boursa Kuwait from 2014 to 2018. The study uses an automated textual analysis to measure the level of future-oriented disclosure in the annual reports of these firms. The informativeness of disclosure is proxied by firm value at three months of the date of the annual report.

The study finds that Kuwaiti firms with larger board sizes and substantial ownership by institutional investors are less likely to disseminate future-oriented information. Conversely, firms with more independent directors and larger audit committees are more inclined to provide future-oriented disclosure. Furthermore, the disclosure of future-oriented information carries contents that enhance investors' valuations of Kuwaiti firms, especially in firms with fewer institutional ownership and more prominent audit committees.

It focuses on management decisions to disclose information in the annual reports. Examining other channels of disseminating information, such as social media disclosure, provides avenues for future research.

Policy setters in Kuwait should consider the importance of some CG mechanisms to improve the transparency of Kuwaiti firms, as suggested by the NCL. Likewise, investors should rely on such specific CG mechanisms to build their prospects about the firm's value.

Apart from developed countries, the current study is the first evidence on how CG mechanisms could affect the informativeness of future-oriented disclosure in a developing economy. It is also the first to investigate the new CG mechanism introduced by Kuwait NCL in 2013.

Integrated reporting (IR) promotes the disclosure of future-oriented information to enable financial stakeholders to make better-informed decisions. However, the downside to this type of disclosure is the risk to management of disclosing such future-oriented information. This paper aims to explore how IR preparers manage the risk of disclosing future-oriented information in companies’ integrated reports.

This study represents an exploratory interpretative thematic analysis of 33 semi-structured interviews with managers involved in IR in eight Sri Lankan companies representing various industries. The thematic analysis is informed by the research literature and prior studies on IR.

This paper provides evidence of various strategies to manage the risk associated with the disclosure of future-oriented information in integrated reports. These strategies include making non-specific predictions; increasing the accuracy of the predictions; linking performance management to disclosed targets, thus ensuring individual responsibility for target achievement; disclosing ex post explanations for not achieving previously disclosed targets; and linking disclosed targets to the company’s risk management procedures. However, these strategies can cause managers to provide conservative future-oriented information, rather than “best estimate” future-oriented information.

The study describes the strategies that managers use to mitigate the risks involved in disclosing future-oriented information. These strategies can provide support or raise concerns, for managers in deciding how to deal with such risks. Regulators tasked with investor protection, as well as stock exchanges interested in the transparency and accountability of listed companies’ activities should be aware of these strategies. Furthermore, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) should be interested in the implications of this study because some of the identified strategies could undermine the usefulness of integrated reports to stakeholders. This is a significant concern given that the IIRC envisages integrated reporting and thinking as vehicles that could align capital allocation and corporate behaviour with wider sustainable development goals.

The trend of future-oriented information moving from being used only in organisations’ internal management systems to being externally reported in integrated reports has implications for stakeholder groups interested in the reported targets. This study reveals management strategies that could affect future-oriented information reliability and reduce their usefulness for users of integrated reports.

This study provides unique insights into the emerging area of how managers deal with the risks involved in disclosing future-oriented IR information.

The purpose of this article is to investigate data, information and knowledge in regional innovation networks. Emphasis has been put recently on regional innovation systems, where various actors are involved in innovative processes. The article responds to the need to study matters related to knowledge management and information quality in such environments.

Regional innovation networks and data, information and knowledge as well as research on them are discussed at a theoretical level. An existing innovation network of the Lahti region, Finland, was utilised as a pilot environment when building the knowledge management framework that is introduced. The framework is based on established knowledge management literature and practice.

The results confirm that the aspects of data, information and knowledge need to be addressed systematically in regional innovation networks. They are intertwined with knowledge management and network management. The knowledge management framework introduced incorporates, apart from information quality considerations, future‐oriented self‐transcending knowledge as well as knowledge vision and knowledge assets. Considerations of absorptive capacity and information brokerage in the regional knowledge environment are emphasised.

The limitations of the framework will be assessed in future studies. This will also improve understanding of practical implications. Research implications are related to data, information and knowledge quality – as well as absorptive capacity between the two subsystems of the regional innovation system.

The article combines in a novel way research fields that have previously barely been combined – information quality, knowledge management and regional innovation networks. It provides new insights into a societally important theme and shows possible avenues of further research.

Compressing project timelines represents a prevalent temporal tactic aimed at accelerating the innovation process. However, empirical evidence on the impact of such time constraints on innovation remains inconclusive. This study aims to investigate the relationship between a prevalent organizational time mechanism—Performance Appraisal Interval (PAI)—and employee exploratory innovation behavior. Additionally, we explore the boundary conditions that may influence this relationship: the moderating effects of future work self salience and supervisory developmental feedback.

Using online survey data collected in two waves from 426 employees working in hi-tech companies in China, we tested all the hypotheses.

(1) PAI demonstrates an inverted U-shaped influence on employees exploratory innovation behavior; (2) Employees’ future work self salience serves as a moderator that enhances the positive nature of this inverted U-shaped relationship; (3) Supervisory developmental feedback amplifies the moderating role of future work self salience, and the synergistic effect of PAI, future work self salience, and supervisory developmental feedback significantly enhances exploratory innovation behavior.

By providing insights that are attuned to the temporal aspects of performance appraisal, this study aids organizations in making more informed, strategic decisions that enhance both the effectiveness of performance assessments and the cultivation of an environment that encourages exploratory innovation. Additionally, it is recommended that organizational leaders incorporate future-oriented interventions and developmental feedback into their management practices to further promote employees' engagement in exploratory innovation.

Drawing on the interactive theory of performance, this study introduces a novel perspective on how an organizational temporal mechanism influences exploratory innovation and advances our understanding of the non-linear link between time constraints and employees' innovative behaviors.

The study investigates how firm-level governance (FL_G) affects the disclosure of voluntary risk information. Likewise, it explores the influence of FL_G on the informativeness of voluntary risk disclosure (VRD). Specifically, it examines how FL_G shapes the nexus between VRD and firm value.

It uses a sample of non-financial firms from the FTSE350 index listed on the London Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2018. The authors utilise an automated textual analysis technique to code the VRD in the annual reports of these firms. The firm value, adjusted for the industry median, is a proxy for investor response to VRD.

The results suggest that UK firms with significant board independence and larger audit committees disclose more risk information voluntarily. Nevertheless, firms with larger boards of directors and higher managerial ownership disseminate less voluntary risk information. Besides, VRD contains relevant information that enhances investors' valuation of UK firms. These results are more pronounced in firms with higher independent directors, lower managerial ownership and large audit committees.

The study rationalises the ongoing debate on the effect of FL_G on VRD. The findings are helpful to UK policy-setters in reconsidering the guidelines that regulate UK VRD and to the UK investors in considering risk disclosure in their price decisions and thus enhancing their corporate valuations.

It contributes to the risk reporting literature in the UK by presenting the first evidence on the effect of a comprehensive set of FL_G on VRD. Besides, it enriches the existing research by shedding light on the role of FL_G on the informativeness of discretionary risk information in the UK.

The purpose of this paper is to update and re‐examine the role of corporate narrative reporting in improving investors' ability to better forecast future earnings change. The paper also aims to construct a risk factor for disclosure quality (DQ) and test whether such a factor is useful in explaining the time‐series variation of UK stock returns.

The paper uses the return‐future earnings regression model to update and re‐examine the value relevance of DQ for investors. It also constructs a DQ factor and adds it to Fama‐French three‐factor model. This is undertaken in order to investigate the usefulness of such a factor in explaining the time‐series variation of UK portfolio returns over and above the role of the original Fama‐French factors.

The paper contributes to the market‐based accounting research in three crucial ways. First, it offers updated evidence on the usefulness of corporate narrative reporting to investors. Second, it offers evidence that the DQ factor is a significant risk factor in the UK. Third, and finally, it finds that the Fama‐French factors might contain DQ‐related information.

The results suggest that narrative reporting contains value‐relevant information for the stock market. Therefore, regulators should think about asking companies to produce compulsory narrative sections (i.e. operating and financial reviews) in their annual reports.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to construct and add the DQ factor in the original Fama‐French factors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practice of integrated reporting (IR) assurance from the auditors’ point of view, including the main challenges to be addressed and insights on evolution and potential new assurance approaches.

Based on an exploratory research design, the paper conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 expert auditors, accounting assurance providers and non-accounting assurance providers, in the Italian context, combining an open coding approach with an axial coding approach, and using a three-stage process to organize data.

Respondents confirmed that current IR practices do not represent a real paradigm shift and that the need for in-depth changes in the assurance approach will depend on how these practices evolve. The main challenges highlighted are the absence of suitable criteria, the difficulty of assuring narratives and future-oriented information, and the low level of maturity of internal systems and processes of companies and stakeholders. Proposals for overcoming these challenges are framed mainly within current assurance models, although some respondents pointed out the need for a shift towards new assurance approaches.

The paper relies on a small sample of well-informed subjects active in Italy; thus, the results may not represent the views of all auditors.

The findings identify areas that practitioners and assurance provider firms should focus on, looking to IR assurance and its growing importance and application as a future business area. They may be useful to standard setters and regulators to better understand limits and opportunities of requiring IR assurance on specific information not strictly related to financial information, and for the development of guidance or standards for IR assurance.

This research contributes to the currently underexplored area of IR assurance. Relatively few studies have investigated this topic from an empirical point of view, and no study involving auditors has been carried out in the Italian context.

The Need for Future‐Oriented Research and Information. Intranational and international crises and conflicts will increase sharply during the next several decades unless we manage socioeconomic development competently. Crises within nation‐states will lead to and spill over into conflicts between nations as the resources needed to cope with domestic situations are sought elsewhere in a highly competitive international market. Human resources and natural resources are not distributed equally; some of the most developed countries are poor in resources and some of the least developed are rich in natural resources. Similarly, population densities and growth rates are unevenly distributed, with population pressures emanating from the less developed nations, and technologic‐economic pressures coming from the more developed ones. In the world as a whole, population growth will outrun resource availability if current growth rates and rates of resource exploitation and use are maintained. Should present trends continue unchanged, major crises could precipitate worldwide conflicts within the next decade or two.