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This paper aims to investigate the motivations behind the publication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, and particularly the effect of information asymmetry between firms and their owners.

A natural experiment contrasting the CSR reporting of private vs public firms is used to test whether the degree of information asymmetry is a significant factor in the decision to publish CSR reports. Using a hand-collected sample of the 239 largest US private companies matched with publicly-traded firms, the effect of these inherently different information environments on CSR reporting is tested through logistic regression. Factors suggested by stakeholder and legitimacy theories are tested for their differential impact on private vs public firms’ decisions to publish a CSR report.

Results indicate that private firms are less likely to publish a CSR report than similar public firms. Public firms also follow Global Reporting Initiative guidelines more frequently, consistent with signaling report quality to dispersed investors. A subsample of private companies facing greater information asymmetry is found to be similar to public firms in their reporting behavior, reinforcing the link between information asymmetry and CSR disclosure. Further analysis suggests that non-owner stakeholders play an important role in private companies’ CSR reporting decisions.

In addition to accounting and governance scholars, the findings should interest private firm managers preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), as the evidence suggests that CSR reporting is used to communicate information to dispersed investors. The insight into reporting motivations should be useful to accountants engaged in CSR consultation and assurance.

With the growing attention paid to the CSR performance of firms, demonstrated by the growth in socially responsible investing, the study provides evidence that effective communication of CSR information to investors may play a key role in CSR-engaged firms’ disclosure strategies.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the CSR reporting decisions of a large sample of publicly-traded and privately-held firms. The results add to our understanding of what motivates firms to publish CSR reports, highlighting the importance of information asymmetry between the firm and its owners.

The UK private finance initiative (PFI) public policy is heavily criticised. PFI contracts are highly profitable leading to incentives for PFI private-sector companies to support PFI public policy. This contested nature of PFIs requires legitimation by PFI private-sector companies, by means of impression management, in terms of the attention to and framing of PFI in PFI private-sector company annual reports. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

PFI-related annual report narratives of three UK PFI private-sector companies, over seven years and across two periods of significant change in the development of the PFI public policy, are analysed using manual content analysis.

Results suggest that PFI private-sector companies use impression management to legitimise during periods of uncertainty for PFI public policy, to alleviate concerns, to provide credibility for the policy and to legitimise the private sector’s own involvement in PFI.

While based on a sizeable database, the research is limited to the study of three PFI private-sector companies.

The portrayal of public policy in annual report narratives has not been subject to prior research. The research demonstrates how managers of PFI private-sector companies present PFI narratives in support of public policy direction that, in turn, benefits PFI private-sector companies.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks the perception of public-private partnership (PPP) experts on the importance of desirable PPP information that can be voluntarily reported by the private sector; and second, it determines the extent and quality of voluntary disclosure of PPP information by private entities.

In achieving the first objective, the study uses a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed to PPP experts and 25 usable responses were received. In addressing the second objective, a content analysis procedure was utilized to analyse the 2015 annual reports of 11 construction companies. Descriptive statistics including the mean score, frequency and percentage were employed to analyse the responses of the questionnaire instrument and the annual reports disclosure.

The results of the questionnaire survey reveal that the majority of the items were rated as very important to be disclosed by the private sector in Malaysia. However, from the content analysis, it was also revealed that the extent and quality of voluntary information disclosed by the private construction companies were low.

This study is important as it contributes to the scant literature on PPP disclosure in Malaysia. The study is unique as it not only investigated the extent and quality of voluntary disclosure by private entities, but also solicited the perception of PPP experts on what voluntary items should be disclosed.

This study explores the causes of delayed mandatory annual report filings of private companies in Estonia.

The authors use an online survey targeting companies that had submitted annual reports for 2017 late (late-filers) or failed to submit these by July 2020 (non-filers). The responses of 492 late-filers and 122 non-filers are analysed with exploratory factor analysis, Mann–Whitney U-Test and logistic regression.

Annual report filing decisions of both, late-filers and non-filers, are strongly driven by administrative costs attached to the preparation and submission of reports with non-filers perceiving these to be significantly greater. The relevance of other disclosure-related costs and benefits remains similar for both late-filers and non-filers. While proprietary and privacy concerns remain rather unimportant, benefits of timely disclosure, in the form of access to financing and possibilities to continue ordinary business activities, remain important disclosure timing drivers.

Policy interventions should focus on preventive measures that hinder companies' ordinary business activities in case of non-compliance to reporting deadlines. Monetary sanctions can be used to strengthen the desired behaviour alongside broader clarification of the purpose of mandatory reporting and available exemptions.

The authors propose an empirically testable comprehensive one-period model of disclosure timing decisions of private companies differentiating late-filers and non-filers. The authors address the limitations of previous studies through a survey that allows the authors to draw direct inferences about the trade-offs between different decision drivers and the motivations behind managers' disclosure timing decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors driving greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies.

Content analysis of annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports for the year 2010 of the top 100 A‐share companies listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange was conducted to investigate the extent of greenhouse gas reporting. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors driving these companies' greenhouse gas reporting.

It was found that most Chinese companies reported neutral and good news. The results also indicate larger companies operating in an industry which has higher level of carbon dioxide emissions tend to have higher levels of greenhouse gas disclosures, consistent with the expectation of legitimacy theory. However, profitability and overseas listing were not significantly related to greenhouse gas reporting. This is consistent with the findings of previous literature. Finally, contrary to expectations, state‐owned companies report less greenhouse gas information than private companies.

The paper contributes towards theory development by testing legitimacy theory in the context of greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies and contributes to existing literature on greenhouse gas reporting by focussing on the large emerging economy of China. The practical contribution of the paper rests in the area of accounting practice. The results outline the dearth in greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies, suggesting there needs to be future development of accounting standards in this area.

Private company investors operate in unique environments. Seed equity investors, which generally include venture capitalists and angel investors, often have the particularly unusual role of becoming involved in the oversight of the investee company. This continuing involvement with the investee firm introduces conflicting interests: the desire to maximize the profit from the investment, but also the desire to maintain a positive relationship with the entrepreneur(s) (consistent with the theory of upper echelons/strategic management). We discuss in detail this unusual investment context and the role that accounting disclosures can have in this environment. We predict that accounting disclosures can influence the tradeoff between the profit motive and the relationship motive. Using 64 experienced angel investors as participants in a realistic experimental setting, we find that disclosures indicating conservatively biased accounting choice and lower account risk (variance) lead to angels increasing the valuation of the target firm and forgoing higher profits. Increasing the valuation serves to foster the relationship with the entrepreneur(s). Our findings have implications for entrepreneurs making choices about discretionary disclosures and for standard setters; we also inform theory related to overcoming anchoring.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent public listed construction firms in Malaysia disclose mandatory information on public private partnership (PPP) projects. This paper is important as the level of disclosure of PPP information reflects the extent of transparency as practiced by the companies involved in PPP projects.

In achieving the aim, a content analysis procedure was carried out to analyse the 2015 annual reports of the construction companies. Descriptive statistics including the mean score, frequency and percentage were employed to analyse the disclosure of the annual report.

The overall mean disclosure score of the sampled companies is 40 per cent, which connotes a low level of disclosure of mandatory information on PPP. The companies also tend to disclose more mandatory financial information than non-financial information.

This paper is one of the few studies that investigated the level of mandatory disclosure of PPP information, thus contributing to the scanty literature on PPP transparency not only in Malaysia but also internationally.

Differential reporting was introduced in South Africa with the enactment of the Corporate Laws Amendment Act 24 2006. Since it was urgent that the standard‐setters provide limited interest companies with interim guidance as to the preparation and presentation of financial statements, South Africa adopted the International Accounting Standards Board’s International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Mediumsized Entities in its draft form. This study looks at the development of accounting standards for small and mediumsized entities in South Africa. It also examines analyses of prior research on differential reporting and the due process of the International Accounting Standards Board on this topic, as well as the due process of the South African standard‐setter. The paper provides a contextual analysis of the unique reporting environment of South African companies and concludes that adopting the draft IFRS for SMEs may have been the best option for the standard‐setting body in providing relief for limited interest companies from the cost of complying with the International Financial Reporting Standards while still enabling auditors to express an opinion on the financial statements.

We examine how auditors' use of limited liability agreements (LLAs) impact perceptions of private company creditworthiness in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment. Ninety-three United States-based bank loan officers evaluate whether LLA clauses and the size of the company's external auditor impact lending decisions. We use signaling theory to predict, and we find that LLAs decrease perceived creditworthiness, mainly when the company engages a Non-Big4 auditor. We find no difference in perceived creditworthiness when the company employs a Big4 firm, irrespective of including an LLA clause. Supplemental analyses show that lenders perceive that LLA clauses signal higher credit risk and, in turn, decrease perceived creditworthiness. We offer insights into how lenders integrate information about privately held companies into their decisions, which could impact the cost of capital for private companies. Our study should be of interest to preparers and the varied users of financial statements and regulators.