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This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance on financial risk disclosure of European companies. It analyzed the relationships between ESG factors and financial risk disclosure between 2010 and 2020.

To test their hypotheses in this study, the authors used the multivariate regression analysis on panel data using the Thomson Reuters ASSET4 database and the annual reports of 154 European companies listed in the ESG index between 2010 and 2020.

Empirical evidence shows a positive association between European companies' environmental and governance performance with financial risk disclosure, whereas social performance does not influence financial risk disclosure. Concerning the control variables, the findings demonstrate that firm size and profitability are significant factors in changing the financial risk disclosure. Nevertheless, firms’ leverage is insignificantly correlated with financial risk disclosure.

This study extends the stream of accounting literature by focusing on the financial risk disclosure, a topic that has received little attention in previous research. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first that provides ESG companies with evidence of the effect of ESG factors on financial risk disclosure in a developed market like Europe.

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of cultural conditions on the relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure.

The authors used meta-analysis technique to examine 100 effect sizes from 43 studies published between 1982 and 2023 to integrate the existing results and to detect causes contributing to variability of results across studies.

There is a significant positive relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure. Further, the authors found that cultures with long-term orientation positively moderated the relationship, whereas cultures with high uncertainty avoidance and indulgence negatively moderated it.

This study did not account for the problem of endogeneity between environmental performance and environmental disclosure because most of the already published studies included in the authors’ meta-analysis did not address this issue.

This research provides regulators and policymakers insights on the influence of cultural factors on environmental disclosure and performance, critical information to consider when adopting, or revising social and environmental policy and regulations within a country.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis study examining different cultural dimensions influencing the relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure and contributes new knowledge to the literature on determinants of environmental disclosure.

This paper aims to investigate whether risk-related information is associated with a higher level of performance disclosure (PerfD) in the annual reports during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, this paper assesses if ownership structure plays a moderating effect on the relationship between RD and PerfD.

A content analysis technique to measure the risk information and PerfD for 72 listed firms in the Abu Dhabi stock exchange and Dubai financial market for the period 2019–2021.

The authors find a significant correlation between risk disclosure and PerfD. Indeed, managers use annual reports to send a signal to the market about their abilities and skills in managing high-risk situations by disclosing more performance-related information accompanying any communicated related risk information. Besides, our results report that before the pandemic, only government ownership had a significant effect on the level of disclosure of performance-related information. However, during the pandemic, foreign ownership also played an important role to improve firm transparency. In addition, during the pandemic, Big 4 audit firms have effective quality control, and auditors would play an important role in improving the quality of disclosure. Besides, leveraged firms report more performance-related information. A high level of PerfD may play a critical role in mitigating debtholders’ concerns about firm’ ability to manage the pandemic situation and generate enough cash flows in the future to pay their debts.

This paper’s findings are highly relevant to financial reporting’ users, mainly shareholders, as they will be aware about management behaviors during the crisis and how firms are engaged in disclosure. Besides, this paper’s findings may be useful for market regulators to reinforce the role of audit quality to maintain good reporting, especially in crisis circumstances. In addition, regulators may benefit from the findings through the optimization of the ownership structure (dispersed ownership), which helps to promote transparency and disclosure.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of carbon performance on carbon disclosure among nonfinancial French-listed firms, while also considering the corporate board’s characteristics as a secondary objective.

This study uses a sample of Société des Bourses Françaises 120 Index (SBF-120) French-listed firms to investigate the effect of multiple carbon performance proxies on carbon disclosure based on random effects models for the period 2010–2021. Generalized method of moments regressions are used to encounter endogeneity problems.

Drawing on stakeholder theory, this paper finds that greater carbon performance leads to greater carbon disclosure. Given the growing societal awareness about climate-change issues, carbon-responsible firms are likely to disseminate relevant carbon-related information through disclosures to respond to the information demands of a varied stakeholder group. Coherent with signaling theory, large firms that undertake carbon-reduction initiatives tend to disclose more information about their enhanced carbon performance to equity participants to distinguish themselves and highlight their decarbonization efforts.

This study offers significant insights given that SBF-120 firms are involved in climate-change activities as a response to the growing institutional and societal pressure to perform better and disclose reliable environmental information in their sustainability reports.

In this study, the authors examine the relationships between market-based regulations and corporate carbon disclosure and carbon performance. The authors also investigate whether these relationships vary across emission-intensive and non-emission intensive industries.

The study sample consists of the world's 500 largest companies across most major industries over a recent five-year period. Country-specific random effect multiple regression analysis is used to test empirical models that predict relationships between market-based regulations and carbon disclosure and carbon performance.

Results indicate that market-based regulations significantly and positively affect corporate carbon performance. However, market-based regulations do not significantly affect corporate carbon disclosure. This study also finds that the association between regulatory pressures and carbon disclosure and carbon performance varies across emission-intensive and non-emission-intensive industries.

The findings of this study have key implications for policymakers, practitioners and future researchers in terms of understanding the factors that drive businesses to increase their carbon performance and disclosure. The study sample consists of only large firms, and future researchers can undertake similar studies with small and medium-sized firms.

The results of this study are expected to help business managers to identify the benefits of adopting market-based regulations. Regulators can use this study’s results to evaluate if market-based regulations effectively improve corporate carbon performance and disclosure. Furthermore, stakeholders may use this study to evaluate and improve their businesses' reporting of carbon disclosure and performance.

In contrast to current literature that has used command and control regulations as a proxy for regulation, this study uses market-based regulations as a proxy for climate change regulations. In addition, this study uses a more comprehensive measure of carbon disclosure and carbon performance compared to the previous studies. It also uses global multi-sector data from carbon disclosure project (CDP) in contrast to most current studies that use national data from annual reports of sample firms of specific sectors.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and the long-run share price performance of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) companies.

This study used secondary data through the content analysis of the annual reports and DataStream of 115 sampled IPOs listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2007 to 2015. The present study incorporated weighted least squares and quantile least squares to evaluate the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and IPO performance.

The results show a positive and significant relationship between the extent and quality of community disclosures and IPO performance; while the extent and quality of environment disclosures have a negative and positive relationship, respectively, with IPO performance. These results suggest that community and environmental activities can be considered an effort to enhance Malaysian IPOs.

These results suggest that Malaysian IPO companies should be involved consistently in corporate social responsibility disclosure, i.e. community and environmental activities, as they have a significant impact on the performance of Malaysian IPOs. The findings can facilitate financial institutions and regulatory agencies in driving companies to be more responsible regarding community and environmental disclosures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides new insights into the relationship between the community and environment disclosures and the performance of Malaysian IPO companies.

This paper explores how the disclosure quality, measured by the abnormal tone of environmental and social report, may determine the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of the firm. This study also investigates the impact of the moderator “board of directors” to explore the extent to which a well-balanced board of directors may affect this association within an impression management strategy.

This work uses a sample of 616 firm-year observations using a sample of French firms indexed on SBF120 index from 2010 to 2017. To test the developed hypotheses, the GLS regression is applied and to control for endogeneity issue and sample selection bias, the authors used, respectively, the two stage least square (2SLS) procedure and the Heckman model.

Findings suggest that a well-balanced board of directors moderates the relationship between the ESG performance and the disclosure quality. The positive effect of abnormal tone management on ESG is weakened by the presence of a good structure of the board, attenuating impression management initiatives.

The research provides evidence of the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting quality, in particular disclosure tone management, on the level of ESG performance in the French context. As the board of directors may have a major impact on weakening impression management strategies in particular tone management practices, in order to improve CSR report quality, the authors recommend French companies to ensure a well-balanced board of directors.

This study helps investors to comprehensively evaluate the information disclosed on CSR reports. It unveils that a strong board composition induces better quality of CSR report and brings better ESG performance. Thus, the study results point to the importance of a well-balanced board of directors and the regulation of the narrative disclosure of CSR information.

The deeper understanding of the disclosure of external and internal dynamics of family firms necessarily places the issue of sustainability as one of the most pressing needs from both a research and managerial perspective. Therefore, this perspective article contributes to the debate of sustainability performance disclosure in family firms, proposing a research agenda.

This study has organized the discussion around those elements that most significantly impact the propensity to disclose, with a specific focus on the interconnections and interrelations within them. The proposed research agenda is developed around three key elements: “how” firms disclose, “the reason why” they do it and “what” disclose of their performance(s).

To better understand “how” family firms should disclose their performance, it is suggested to engage in proactive stakeholder engagement to preserve long-term socioemotional wealth. “The reason why” for disclosure is still associated with the legitimization of family firms from an economic, social and environmental point of view. Finally, the “what” depends on several factors, such as the regulatory framework and the market involved.

This paper contains suggestions for family firm managers, consultants and policymakers that are approaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) and non-financial reporting or sustainability disclosure overall, providing an overview of relevant factors influencing this transition process.

This paper suggests a logical framework to combine these three elements of the debate as strictly interrelated to foster the sustainability performance disclosure of family firms.

This research study aims to examine the effect of the compliance with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards on the performance of Islamic banks.

The sample consists of 628 bank-year observations from eight countries that adopt the AAOIFI standards during the period 2009–2020.

The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between the overall compliance level with AAOIFI standards and the two performance measures in Islamic banks.

The findings are useful for various groups of preparers and users of Islamic banks’ annual reports, such as academics and researchers, accountants, management of Islamic banks and national and international organizations.

This research provides new empirical evidence on the effect of compliance with AAOIFI standards (accounting and governance) on Islamic banks performance. In addition, the findings reveal that the examination of compliance level should not be restricted to an overall compliance index that contains all the AAOIFI standards, but should rather take into consideration the different types of these standards (accounting and governance).

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and disclosure transparency by examining over 12,000 disclosures of financial statements extending over 20 years. The purpose is to understand how CSR ratings relate to the level of disaggregation in financial statement line items. The study considers additional factors, such as firm size and governance, that can accentuate or moderate this relation.

This study applies regression analysis, including interactions, to test the magnitude of the relation between CSR ratings and disclosure transparency. CSR is measured as a composite score that ranks firms on their reputation over numerous indicators compiled by Morgan Stanley Capital International. Disclosure transparency is measured as the level of disaggregation in financial statement line items.

The study reveals evidence consistent with the notion that firms which are more CSR conscious are also more transparent with financial statements. Evidence shows that the level of transparency is more sensitive to changes in CSR for firms less CSR conscious. Firm size is found to moderate this relation, whereas enhanced governance accentuates it.

There is limited research on the relation between CSR ratings and disclosure transparency. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical evidence on the relation between CSR ratings and the disaggregation of financial statement line items. Results from this study help us understand the drivers of disclosure transparency, which can aid regulators, investors and other stakeholders in knowing how such drivers impact managerial decisions on the disaggregation of financial statements. Accountants play a central role in producing transparent and disaggregated accounting disclosures, and their role is pivotal in effectively integrating CSR into accounting and reporting models.