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This paper reports an investigation into climate of an academic department of an English polytechnic. Background discussion is provided on “departmental” and climate concepts and the research approach and perspective employed for the investigation detailed. To collate and summarize “climate” data, a climate “cobweb” model is presented and then employed to examine and sum the data to form a multi‐faceted climate picture of the department.

This chapter intends to contribute to the debate on the determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their impact on performance measurement and communication systems. It aims at analyzing the relationship between the reasons why firms adopt CSR and the importance given to voluntary CSR disclosure.

Two main categories of CSR determinants have been identified: the external ones, coming from the environment outside the firm, and the internal determinants, which are linked to some specific characteristics of the enterprise and to the objectives it pursues.

The analyzed sample consists of 120 large Italian manufacturing and nonmanufacturing enterprises. The research hypotheses concerning the relationship between external and internal determinants of CSR and CSR disclosure were verified using an independent sample t-test, evaluating the equal variances of clusters using the Levene’s test.

Main results point out that in companies giving importance to CSR disclosure, the internal drivers are more relevant than the external ones in determining the attitude toward CSR. Among the internal determinants, drivers related to company and management values and ethics are quite relevant.

This study is subject to the limitations that generally apply to cross-sectional survey-based research.

Our research findings show that legitimacy theory represents the most relevant theory in explaining CSR disclosure practices of Italian large firms, as well as the operational implementation of stakeholder theory, such as stakeholder management. On the contrary, institutional theory only partially explains CSR disclosure, with respect to the pressures coming from financial markets.

This study compares those interim disclosures that managers desire to make with those they are required to make. Managers and regulators agree on the optimal degree of disclosure on growth potential and size. It appears that the less managers voluntarily disclose, the greater the firm's growth potential. This may be because managers feel that other evidence signals the good future prospects or the information indicating positive growth is too proprietary to reveal to competitors. Some differences are observed. Managers would pay more attention to the specific needs of their governance groups. Regulations would require more disclosure of variables indicating: business risk; capital structure; and growth. These differences in perceived need for disclosure highlight the importance of continued study of the optimal scope and scale of disclosure.

This paper examines the perceived usefulness and reliability of a set of twenty‐three financial disclosure items, as well as five sources of information, for investment decisions using a sample of eighty‐nine institutional and individual Investors in two Middle Eastern countries, Jordan and Kuwait. Data were collected through questionnaires and were analyzed using parametric and nonparametric statistics to test for differences between the two users groups within each country and between the two countries. The results indicate that there is a somewhat significant difference in the perceived importance of the special financial reports, as a source of information, between Institutional and individual investors in both countries (p ≤ .092). The results also indicate that there is a significant difference in the perceived usefulness of seven items out of twenty three financial items between investors in Jordan and Kuwait (p ≤ .065). However, the difference in the perceived reliability of the items was significant for somewhat different nine items (p ≤ .063).

This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate social contribution measures and investors’ reaction under the effect of corporate governance for firms listed in China, the largest emerging economy in the world. Corporate social contribution is examined from an informative perspective by using a financial indicator – social contribution value per share (SCVPS) brought up by the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2008.

Data are obtained from two channels: financial information during 2007-2015 generated from database and social accounting information manually collected from the 2007-2015 annual reports and social reports.

It is predicted that investors’ reaction toward corporate social contribution becomes stronger for companies with higher corporate governance quality.

This paper is one of the first to use Chinese SCVPS data to indicate the informativeness of social contribution toward firm value. It can serve as a valuable reference to both investors and companies in terms of the issue of social contribution.

The study highlights the importance of social contribution on firm value by using an empirical approach in the Chinese market. The study can be used as a reference for many other developing countries in the world.

The findings of this study can provide guidance to investors on how to evaluate a firm’s social performance and encourage companies to improve the transparency of their social reporting, as well as the quality of corporate governance.

In this study an attempt is made to provide empirical evidence on the usefulness of different aspects of the annual report to various Kuwaiti user groups. To do so, eight Kuwaiti user groups were surveyed through a questionnaire. The groups were individual investors; institutional investors, bank credit officers, government officials, financial analysts, academics, auditors and stock market brokers. The analyses indicate that the user groups surveyed in the study rely mainly on information made directly available by the company and do not consult intermediary sources of corporate information in order to make informative decisions. The analyses also revealed that credibility and timeliness are the most important features of useful corporate information and traditional financial statements are the most important and credible parts of corporate annual reports. Non‐financial information, however, proved to be less credible and of less importance to the Kuwaiti user groups.

This paper proposes a framework to facilitate description of national financial accounting systems. Its first element, broad aims, identifies the fundamental purpose of national financial accounting systems as being to effect a macro‐user or micro‐user orientation. From this emerges the second element, institutional environment, which describes the nature of regimes put in place to effect regulation. This influences the third element, the specific accounting rules and practices adopted. Aspects of international practice relating to each of these three elements are illustrated. The pedagogical benefits of the framework are demonstrated. The standard vocabulary and the structured format of the framework is used to describe, in capsule form, the national financial accounting systems of Korea and Indonesia. The framework seems likely to enhance understanding of the similarities and differences in national financial accounting systems and to contribute useful insights to international accounting matters.

This study examines the use and perceived importance of annual reports by accountants in Malaysia. Using a postal questionnaire survey, the study focuses on (i) the range of purposes for which respondents use financial reports; (ii) the relative position of annual reports as a source of information compared with other sources of information; and (iii) the relative importance of different parts or sections in a company's annual report. The results indicate that advising clients appears to be their main use of annual reports whereas the least cited reason is to negotiate labour contracts. In addition, advisory services, annual reports, and prospectuses are perceived to be the most important sources of information. The profit and loss statement is also perceived to be the most important part of an annual report, followed by the balance sheet and the notes to accounts. The research findings are, to some extent, consistent with the results of similar studies done in developed as well as developing countries.

This paper reports the results of an empirical study that explores how industry characteristics are associated with the design of productivity measurement systems. The responses of 114 chief executives, drawn from a wide range of New Zealand‐based manufacturing companies, to a mailed survey have been analysed using Friedman two‐way ANOVA tests. The results suggest significant variations in industry characteristics, measured by environmental uncertainty among industries. These industrial variations are associated with management’s preference for the type of productivity measurement systems.

Takes as its departure point the criticism of Guthrie and Parker by Arnold and the Tinker et al. critique of Gray et al. Following an extensive review of the corporate social reporting literature, its major theoretical preoccupations and empirical conclusions, attempts to re‐examine the theoretical tensions that exist between “classical” political economy interpretations of social disclosure and those from more “bourgeois” perspectives. Argues that political economy, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory need not be competitor theories but may, if analysed appropriately, be seen as alternative and mutually enriching theories from alternative levels of resolution. Offers evidence from 13 years of social disclosure by UK companies and attempts to interpret this from different levels of resolution. There is little doubt that social disclosure practice has changed dramatically in the period. The theoretical perspectives prove to offer different, but mutually enhancing, interpretations of these phenomena.