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The flagship traceability technology is increasing transparency, social benefit and economic value particularly after the pandemic. There has not been much research on how information quality in transparency affects information usefulness and trust. The research model is built on the framework of transparency requirements and incorporates the usefulness of traceability information and trust.

Questionnaire survey was used for data collection. To evaluate the research model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. Measurement invariance analysis was used to investigate variations in trust between groups.

The results show that transparency requirements including information relevancy, ease of manipulation and value-added information affect information usefulness. The usefulness of traceability information positively affects trust in producers. Information receivers who believe in the credibility of traceability information have a higher level of trust than those who do not.

The results have important theoretical and practical implications for academia and industry to devise strategies and policies on data-centric traceability systems.

Information transparency is an important factor in enhancing trust and promoting interfirm cooperation. By combining transaction cost theory and institutional theory, this study aims to examines whether host-country firms’ information transparency prompt multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) to choose the joint venture entry mode for outward foreign direct investment (OFDI).

Using Heckman two-stage estimation method, this study examines Chinese listed manufacturing firms for the period 2014–2019.

The findings indicate that the higher the information transparency of host-country firms, the higher the possibility of MNEs choosing the joint venture entry mode for OFDI. This study further finds that the positive relationship between host country firms’ information transparency and the possibility of choosing the joint venture entry mode is enhanced by institutional distance, but weakened by MNEs’ host-country experience.

How to choose the appropriate entry mode of OFDI in the internationalization strategy is an important issue for MNEs to consider. As the postpandemic world is characterized by increased global risks, decoupling of economies, disruption of global value chains and the retreat of globalization (Contractor and Cantwell, 2022), how to further strengthen cooperation, reduce the cost and risk of MNEs and truly realize common construction and sharing is one of the hot issues in both practice and research.

Ethiopia has enacted laws on transparency and disclosure of information in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, these laws are not strict enough, with the transparency and disclosure practices disappointing in the country. Thus, this study aims to investigate the legal framework governing transparency and disclosure in SOEs.

This study uses doctrinal, qualitative and comparative approaches. Domestic legal texts are appraised based on the organization for economic co-operation and development Guideline on Corporate Governance of State-owned Enterprises, the World Bank Toolkit on Corporate Governance of State-owned Enterprises and best national practices. This approach has been further corroborated by qualitative analysis of the basic principles of transparency and disclosure.

The finding reveals that the laws on transparency and disclosure do not comply with global practices and are inadequate to ensure transparency and discourse in SOEs. They fail to establish appropriate disclosure frameworks and practices at the SOE and state-ownership entity levels. They also indiscriminately subject enterprises to multiple auditing functions and conflicting responsibilities.

To the author’s knowledge, this study is the first legal literature on transparency and disclosure in Ethiopian SOEs. This study assists the state as owner in reforming the laws and uplifting SOEs from their current unpleasant condition. It can also become a reference for future research.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate environmental transparency (CET) on corporate financial performance under a mandatory environmental disclosure policy in China, the largest carbon-emitting country. It aims to clarify the concept of CET and investigate its short-term financial implications for key pollutant-discharging entities (KPEs).

A multidimensional model is used to construct a comprehensive CET index for KPEs in China. Empirical tests are conducted to assess the relationship between CET and corporate financial performance.

The study finds a negative relationship between CET and corporate financial performance in the short term. Increased environmental transparency necessitates higher environmental resource allocation, adversely affecting profits. The results remain unchanged from a battery of robustness tests. Despite mandatory disclosure, companies tend to provide general and vague information rather than specific and meaningful environmental data.

The findings provide rich practical implications for policymakers to improve a mandatory environmental disclosure policy. The paper also contributes to the existing knowledge by developing a measure of CET and presenting new evidence to the debate on whether corporate environmental disclosure can be regarded as transparency.

Policymakers are advised to refine mandatory environmental disclosure regulations to ensure genuine transparency and to implement policy measures that alleviate the financial burdens of companies with high CET levels, thereby encouraging sustainable practices.

This paper contributes to the existing knowledge by developing a measure of CET and providing new evidence on the debate over whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure equates to transparency. It emphasizes the complexity of transparency and the inadequacy of current environmental disclosure practices among KPEs. The study underscores the need for financial support for companies with high CET levels to alleviate short-term financial strains and promote long-term sustainability.

This study seeks to explore the intricate relationship among supply chain transparency, digitalization and idiosyncratic risk, with a specific focus on newly public firms. The objective is to determine whether supply chain transparency effectively mitigates idiosyncratic risk within this context and to understand the potential impact of digitalization on this dynamic interplay.

The study utilizes data from Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on China’s Growth Enterprise Board (ChiNext) over the last five years, sourced from the CSMAR database and firms’ annual reports. The research covers the period from 2009 to 2021, observing each firm for five years post-IPO. The final sample comprises 2,645 observations from 529 firms. The analysis employs the Hausman test, considering the panel-data structure of the sample and favoring fixed effects over random effects. Additionally, it applies the high-dimensional fixed effects (HDFE) estimator to address unobserved heterogeneity.

The analysis initially uncovered an inverted U-shaped relationship between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, indicating a delicate equilibrium where detrimental effects diminish and beneficial effects accelerate with increased transparency. Moreover, this inverted U-shaped relationship was notably more pronounced in newly public firms with a heightened level of firm digitalization. This observation implies that firm digitalization amplifies the impact of transparency on a firm’s idiosyncratic risk.

This study distinguishes itself by providing distinctive insights into supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk. Initially, we introduce and substantiate an inverted U-shaped correlation between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, challenging the conventional linear perspective. Secondly, we pioneer the connection between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, especially for newly public firms, thereby enhancing comprehension of financial implications. Lastly, we pinpoint crucial digital conditions that influence the relationship between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk management, offering a nuanced perspective on the role of technology in risk management.

Corporate digital responsibility is a challenge for companies as it recognizes that the use of technology can have a significant impact on society. In addition, a whole philosophy of nonfinancial disclosure has recently been developing and has become a priority for organizations seeking to be transparent and accountable. While some companies have already adopted this approach, practices related to information transparency in corporate digital responsibility are still in their early stages, creating a need to improve reporting and promote greater understanding in this evolving field. Based on a study analyzing the disclosure of information on digitization and taking into account that the board of directors is the body in charge of companies’ disclosure policy, the study aims to identify the factors that favor this disclosure.

As established by Ponce et al. (2022), IBEX-35 companies are Public Interest Companies subject to European and international regulations and are required to provide information on economic efficiency indicators and nonfinancial indicators. In relation to the proposed objectives, the aim is to analyze the possible factors that condition the degree of dissemination of information on digitization. To this end, a multiple linear regression of the dissemination index has been proposed following the works of Gil et al. (2018), Rodríguez-Ariza et al. (2014) and Briano-Turrent & Rodríguez-Ariza (2013). The estimation will be performed using the SPSS software (version 27).

The results show that the number of independent directors has a positive influence on the level of information disclosed by companies online. Conversely – and in line with previous studies – board size does not have a significant impact on the level of information transparency.

This study has a few limitations that adversely impact the generalizability of the results. First, the subjective problem inherent in the rating and evaluation of information collected in the annual reports of sample companies cannot be excluded. Second, the consideration that each element that constitutes the IDT has the same weight, there being no weighting criteria. Finally, the study population is limited to 35 listed companies, not considering medium and small companies. Nevertheless, despite these limitations, the results are sufficiently interesting to justify and extend the research to a larger number of companies and, of course, to other stock market indices. Another interesting future line of research would be to include more independent variables to analyze what other factors determine the degree of digital transparency of companies.

The study may be useful for organizations to take into account when identifying the corporate governance characteristics that will improve the disclosure of information on digitalization, which is still incipient and voluntary. Similar considerations could be made with respect to the competent authorities in regulating the disclosure of information by companies, insofar as they should promote policies that, in general, favor corporate transparency.

This study contributes to the literature in three main ways: 1) although there is a large body of research that has explored the impact of corporate governance dimensions on the level of nonfinancial transparency, the present study pioneers the approach to digitalization disclosure in Spanish listed companies; 2) it provides evidence that it is highly advisable to have a majority of independent directors to achieve a higher degree of digital disclosure; and 3) the results of this research show the current state of digital transparency on the websites of most of the listed companies in Spain, which could serve as a benchmark for those responsible for issuing corporate governance policies and guidelines.

Despite the increasing interest in the role of supply chain concentration (SCC) in improving performance, its influence on firms' sustainability performance remains unexplored, as do the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Drawing on resource dependence theory, the authors investigate the relationship between SCC and manufacturing firms' sustainability performance and the moderating roles of operational slack and information transparency.

The authors use secondary data from 3,581 manufacturing firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock markets from 2006 to 2020 to conduct an empirical analysis using panel data regression models.

Manufacturing firms' SCC is negatively related to sustainability performance until it reaches a certain point, where SCC positively affects sustainability performance, presenting a U-shaped relationship. In addition, operational slack represented by a quick ratio moderates the relationship between SCC and sustainability performance by flattening the curve. Operational slack represented by receivable turnover ratio moderates the relationship between SCC and sustainability performance by steepening the curve and shifting the turning point left. Information transparency strengthens the effect of SCC on the sustainability performance by steepening the curve.

This investigation provides a comprehensive view of the SCC– sustainability performance relationship.

This paper aims to investigate the trading behavior of insider investors before and after information releases, identifying information-based manipulation in the stock market and the characteristics of companies whose stock prices are manipulated.

This paper employs logit regression method and an event study approach, utilizing hand-collected data from 2010 to 2022, with information categorized into negative and positive types.

The results show no evidence of insider trading or negative information-based manipulation in both high and low transparency firms. However, in highly transparent companies, the Board of Directors (BOD) avoids direct manipulation by using relatives to evade market supervisors. In low transparency companies, both the BOD and family members (FM) exploit positive information to benefit personally by buying shares before releasing favorable news, causing a sharp stock increase, and selling afterward. Continued buying by the BOD and FM also suggests likely positive news announcements.

The characteristics of information-based manipulation in companies, as provided by this study, help individual investors avoid investing in stocks that are highly susceptible to manipulation.

Empirical research on information-based manipulation is scarce due to limited secondary data. Our study uses transaction data from insider investors in a frontier market with low transparency and high information asymmetry. This enables us to analyze information-based stock price manipulation. We identify manipulation by comparing insiders' trading behavior with their market information releases, resulting in stock price fluctuations greater than 5%.

The aim of this paper is to explain that what main characteristics financial technologies should have so that lead to improve the transparency of institutions and whether the integrated monetary banking system deployed in free-interest institutions has affected the transparency of these institutions in terms of those characteristics or not? In this study, the integrated monetary banking system will be studied subject to implementation of the Shafagh project.

Based on the literature review and the experts' opinions, the principles of the research questions were explained. Then, according to the dimensions of the research conceptual model, questions related to research questions were considered as the item for analysis in the modeling of structural equations. In the next step, 278 employees and managers of interest-free institutions were selected, by simple random sampling method, to answer the questionnaire. Data collected is analyzed by using structural equations method.

The results of the analysis indicates that the impact of the dimensions of strategic, technical, organizational and cultural factors – identified as the main characteristics of a financial system in this study – on the transparency of the transactions of the interest-free institutions is significant.

The results were obtained by focusing on the qualitative factors and also on the culture on free-interest institutions.

By investigating the issues and factors that the developers, consultants and institutions’ managers need to address and also giving a conceptual model, this study assists managers and generally financial institutions in developing an integrated banking system in a way that will be more likely to improve transparency in those organizations.

This study pioneers a comprehensive conceptual model, surpassing prior research that focused on isolated criteria. This novel approach enriches understanding of core banking systems' impact on financial transparency. This groundbreaking study uniquely focuses on free-interest institutions, traditionally presumed to be transparent but never before studied.

Using a substantial sample of U.S.-listed firms’ Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) spanning the period from 2012 to 2017, we examine the relationship between hierarchical complexity and the selection of SEO methods.

We employ multinomial logistic regression to examine the influence of hierarchical complexity on the choice among various SEO techniques. To strengthen the robustness of our results, we employ a two-stage-least-squares (2SLS) analysis and utilize propensity score matching to address potential endogeneity issues and mitigate self-selection bias, respectively.

The research indicates that companies characterized by high levels of hierarchical complexity tend to steer clear of accelerated offerings but exhibit a preference for rights offerings over firm commitment offerings. This tendency is plausibly attributed to the impact of hierarchical complexity, which diminishes information transparency and heightens information asymmetry. Furthermore, the study highlights a negative association between hierarchical complexity and firm value following SEOs.

While an expanding body of evidence establishes a connection between hierarchical complexity and various firm- or market-specific activities, to the best of our knowledge, there are no specific empirical studies that have investigated how hierarchical complexity impacts equity offering strategies. Building on the established correlation in previous research between hierarchical complexity, information transparency, and asymmetric information, and recognizing the critical role of information in the selection of SEO methods, our study reveals that hierarchical complexity may diminish information transparency, heighten information asymmetry, and hinder outside investors from fully grasping a firm’s actions and outcomes. Consequently, this influence extends to the methods of offerings chosen by listed companies.