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This paper aims to test whether a change in the reporting location of income, and other comprehensive income (OCI) components, in a statement of comprehensive income (SoCI) under International Financial Reporting Standards affects their value-relevance and use by financial analysts.

The study tests the associations between CI, OCI, share returns and financial analyst forecast revisions.

Results show that comprehensive income is less value-relevant than net income, regardless of reporting location. Changing the reporting location of OCI components to the SoCI does not provide incremental improvement for financial analysts or stock prices. Finally, the paper finds that analysts use OCI components to revise forecasts.

The paper addresses the question of which OCI components should be reported, and the importance of reporting location. The paper extends the examination of OCI components to financial analysts as expert financial report users.

This paper aims to examine the differences in quality and quantity of disclosures dealing with greenhouse gas emissions among companies with a relatively large or small carbon footprint. It also considers whether disclosures are being included in the primary report to stakeholders (an integrated report) or in a secondary source (a sustainability report).

A comprehensive carbon disclosure checklist was constructed based on professional and academic literature to identify and categorise carbon disclosures. Quality is gauged according to a multi-dimensional assessment derived from prior research based on density of reporting, disclosure attributes, management orientation, integration of information, ease of analysis, reporting on strategy, use of independent assurance and repetition. A content analysis is used to gauge the quantity and quality of carbon disclosures of 50 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Differences in the quantity and quality scores of high- and low-carbon companies are tested using a Mann–Whitney U test.

Carbon disclosures are used as part of a legitimacy management exercise. This involves not just the use of additional environmental disclosure to placate stakeholders as environmental impact grows. The quality of reporting and location of disclosures are, perhaps, more important for understanding how companies are responding to stakeholder expectations for reporting on carbon emissions and climate change.

Despite mounting scientific evidence on the risks posed by climate changes, companies remain reluctant to commit to high-quality reporting on specific steps being taken to reduce carbon emissions. Even when disclosures are being targeted at key stakeholders, the possibility of impression management remains. It may, therefore, be necessary to have carbon reporting regulated and independently assured. More guidance on how companies should be managing and reporting on carbon emissions and climate change may also be required.

Despite mounting scientific evidence on the risks posed by climate changes, companies remain reluctant to commit to high-quality reporting on specific steps being taken to reduce carbon emissions. Even when disclosures are being targeted at key stakeholders, the possibility of impression management remains. It may, therefore, be necessary to have carbon reporting regulated and independently assured. More guidance on how companies should be managing and reporting on carbon emissions and climate change may also be required.

The study merges the traditional approach of focusing on the quantity of disclosures to illustrate the application of legitimacy theory in a sustainability/integrated reporting setting with less-seldom-studied quality and location of reporting. This result provides a more nuanced perspective of how carbon disclosures are being used to manage stakeholders’ reporting expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the key outage‐cost‐influencing applications (fault location and network restoration, fault reporting, field crew management, and reconfiguration) of the distribution management system (DMS) and analyzes the benefits provided by them. The objective of the study is an evaluation of their influence on outage costs deriving from the adoption of automatic equipment in managing distribution systems.

Cost and benefit calculations in this paper are made for a typical North European rural medium‐voltage network. The benefits are calculated in terms of outage costs for each of the above‐presented applications and compared with the investment cost, including the annual cost of maintenance, of the DMS. The empirical results and validation of the theoretical calculations are performed by an electric utility, where the DMS benefit evaluation is taking place.

By capitalizing the applications of the DMS, it is possible to acquire considerable benefits in outage costs. It is shown that the greatest cost‐based benefits are obtained from the fault location and field crew management applications. The case study further shows that the DMS can reduce the operation costs of utilities.

The calculations are based on network expert assumptions about System Average Interruption Duration (SAIDI), carried out for a specific overhead‐line network operating in a specific European rural medium‐voltage environment. Sharing of utilities' de facto SAIDI results as a basis for calculations would decrease the need for subjective expert assumptions in the future analyses.

Application of the proposed framework for decision making and lessons learned can support electric utilities when planning for unbundling and strategic target‐setting in the unbundled business model.

There are few reports available on similar actual DMS‐application‐based cost benefits due to the nature of private utility information that is preferably not disclosed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the biodiversity and threatened species reporting of the top 150 Fortune Global companies. The paper has two main objectives: to explore the extent to which the top 150 Fortune Global companies disclose information about their biodiversity and species conservation practices, and to explore the effects of biodiversity partners and industry on companies’ biodiversity and threatened species reporting.

The study’s sample is the top 150 Fortune Global companies. Each company’s fiscal year ending 2014 annual report, its 2014 sustainability report, and its company website were content analyzed for evidence of biodiversity and threatened species reporting. This content analysis is supplemented by a detailed analysis that focusses on the sample’s top five reporters, including a phone interview with a senior sustainability manager working at one of these companies. Finally, a regression analysis was conducted to examine the associations between companies’ biodiversity and threatened species reporting and the presence/absence of biodiversity partners and a company’s industry F&C Asset Management industry category.

The reporting on biodiversity and threatened species by the top 150 Fortune Global companies is quite limited. Few companies (less than 15) are providing any substantial reporting. It was further observed that even among the high scoring companies there is a lack of consistent reporting across all index items. A subsequent empirical examination of these companies’ disclosures on biodiversity and threatened species showed a statistically positive association between the amount of reporting and companies’ holding of biodiversity partnerships. It was also observed that firms categorized as red- and green-zone companies made more disclosures on biodiversity and threatened species than amber-zone companies.

This is the first study to systematically analyze corporate disclosures related to threatened species and habitats. While some prior studies have included the concept of biodiversity when analyzing organizations’ environmental disclosures, they have done so by examining it as one general category out of many further categories for investigating organizations’ environmental reporting. In the present study, the focus is on the specific contents of biodiversity disclosures. As such, this study has the twin research objectives of seeking to illuminate the current state of biodiversity and threatened species reporting by the world’s largest multinationals and provide an appreciation for how certain organizational and industry variables serve to influence these reporting practices. These multiple insights offer companies, and potentially regulators, understanding about how to include (or extend) disclosures on biodiversity loss and species under threat of extinction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of greater reporting prominence of translation results following Accounting Standard Update (ASU) 2011-05 on net investment (NI) hedging practice. The authors investigate the role of increased transparency on the decision to engage in NI hedging (participation), the degree of NI hedging (level) and the hedging vehicle choice.

This paper uses the Heckman two-stage procedure (Heckman, 1979) in the hedging choice analysis. In the first stage, the authors model the participation decision as a function of reporting transparency, translation results and other control variables. In the second stage, the authors include the Inverse Mills ratio from the first stage Probit to examine both the level and vehicle choice decisions.

When translation is reported more prominently, the authors find an increase in the level of NI hedging and a greater likelihood of debt as the hedging vehicle, but no evidence firms are more likely to hedge. Regardless of where translation results are reported, firms facing ongoing translation losses are more likely to hedge.

This paper examines S&P 500 firms in the years surrounding the effective date of ASU 2011-05. The findings suggest managers respond to the increase in reporting transparency by increasing hedging for long-term risk management purposes, supporting accounting authorities’ efforts to promote other comprehensive income information transparency. The results should hold for comparable firms with similar currency exposure, size and visibility, but may not apply to smaller firms with limited translation exposure. As only about a quarter of firms with translation exposure engage in NI hedging, the primary results are based on a relatively limited number of firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines NI hedging behavior changes following ASU-2011-05. Second, the authors are the first to explore why firms are almost equally split between derivatives and debt as their exclusive hedging vehicle.

The recent European Union Directive 95/2014 enforced a radical shift from voluntary to mandatory disclosure of non-financial information. Given radical changes in reporting practices, there is an urgent need to assess the firms’ attitude to disclose non-financial information regarding the new requirement. This paper aims to investigate whether the quantity and quality of non-financial information, voluntarily disclosed in the years before the directive came into force, were linked to the level of compliance.

Selecting a sample of 60 Italian companies from the obliged entities, the authors carried out a manual content analysis on corporate reports and developed some research hypotheses to explore if their sustainability practices can affect non-financial disclosures required by the Italian adoption of the European directive (i.e. Legislative Decree 254/2016).

Evidence showed that prior skills and competencies in non-financial reporting made a significant contribution especially regarding to the presence of business model, but further efforts are expected to improve the quality of non-financial reports.

This study yields an initial assessment of the implementation of the European directive in Italy. It may, therefore, help policymakers to identify ways to improve the harmonization of reporting practices. Preparers can also be supported in choosing different positioning of reporting on non-financial information.

This research provides interesting insights into the ex ante and ex post adoption of the European directive by investigating how Italian companies are reacting to regulatory and institutional requirements. One of the main problems remains the lack of a shared understanding of the term “non-financial”, which can make the communication process difficult and unclear.

Effective Emergency Response Management (ERM) system evaluation is vital to the process of continual improvement within emergency response organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if an entire ERM system can be captured and encoded within a standardized framework.

Employing an exploratory approach the authors apply a mixed methods case study design and inductive reasoning to analyse documentary evidence provided during the inquest into the London Bombings 2005. The authors use content analysis to investigate the nature of ERM system data availability and apply principals of Network Theory to iteratively develop a framework within which data can be encoded.

The authors find that complex ERM system data can be captured and stored within a standardized framework. The authors present a conceptual framework and multi-stage mixed methods process, the Standardized Emergency Response Incident Evaluation System (SERIES) model, to support data collection, storage and interpretation. The findings demonstrate that ERM system evaluation can benefit from the adoption of a standardized mixed-methods approach employing data transformation and triangulation. The authors also demonstrate the potential of the proposed standardized model, by integrating qualitative and quantitative data, to support interpretation and reporting through the use of appropriate data visualization.

The SERIES model provides a practical tool and procedural guidelines to capture and share vital ERM system data and information across all emergency services. It also presents an opportunity to develop a large comprehensive multi-incident dataset to support academic inquiry and partnership between academics and practitioners.

This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in the annual report by banking companies in Bangladesh, identify the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting and examine whether there is any relationship between the extent of CSR reporting and bank characteristics. CSR movement and CSR reporting practices by financial sector have gathered great momentum in recent years. Banking sector is in the leading position in discharging CSR reporting.

The sample composed of all the 30 banking companies enlisted in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), and the study used content analysis approach for systematic categorization and analysis of the contents reported in the annual report. A total of 97 CSR items classified into seven classes were selected through a relevant literature review, as the expected items and average, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, percentage and correlation, etc. were used as the tools of analysis. SPSS software version 19.0 was used to analyze the data. An ordinary least square (OLS) regression model is fitted to the data for assessing the effect of independent variables on total CSR reporting score.

The study found that the extent of CSR reporting in banking companies in Bangladesh varies from 27.84 to 65.98 per cent, and on an average, they report 47.39 per cent of the expected CSR items in annual report. It is also observed that banking companies in Bangladesh emphasized on linguistic or written form than charts, graphs or pictures in reporting CSR activities to their stakeholders, and the study found no significant influence of the selected bank characteristics on the extent of CSR reporting. Moreover, the study observed significant impact of regulatory change on nature and extent of CSR reporting.

The study considered all the listed commercial banking companies in Bangladesh, and the annual report of 2011 was taken as the main source of data.

Among others, the implications of the study include the following. Banking companies are expected to get a real scenario of CSR reporting of the banking sector in Bangladesh and banking companies with poor CSR contribution expected to be motivated for contributing more in CSR activities. Government and other regulatory bodies can also get detailed information regarding CSR reporting practices for formulating guidelines in this regard.

This empirical study on the determinants of extent of CSR reporting using a larger number of expected CSR items contributes toward a better understanding of the CSR reporting practices of the banking companies in Bangladesh. The study used a new independent variable “CSR Expenditure” in justifying its influence on CSR reporting and identified the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting. The study expects contributing in the enactment of more regulatory requirements for bringing the CSR reporting into a certain framework and encouraging in more CSR reporting in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between “political competition” and “environmental reporting” by New Zealand local governments.

The research method includes a longitudinal analysis of environmental reporting by New Zealand local governments in their annual reports for the financial years 2005-2006 to 2009-2010. “Content analysis” was used to attach scores to the extent of environmental reporting. The “number of candidates divided by the number of available positions at the previous election” was used as the proxy for “political competition”.

The study reports a positive relationship between “political competition” and “environmental reporting” in 2007-2008. The number of local governments reporting voluntary environmental information increased in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 compared to 2005-2006, followed by a reduction in such numbers following the 2007-2008 financial year. This trend in disclosure can be attributed to the local government elections in October 2007. This finding is consistent with the expectation of “agency theory” and provides insight into the pattern of perceived agency costs. The study also finds a dearth in reporting “monetary” and “bad” news.

The study contributes towards the previous literature on environmental reporting by concentrating on the public sector and New Zealand, together with investigating the relationship of such reporting with “political competition” through a longitudinal analysis. The theoretical contribution of this study is the adoption of “agency theory” in the context of public sector voluntary reporting and investigating the significance attached by agents to environmental reporting to minimise agency cost. The practical contribution of the study is in the area of future development of reporting standards in regards to environmental reporting.

Using a quasi‐experimental design methodology, this paper reports the results from a controlled field evaluation of the ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Redwood City, California. Results from this field test indicate that overall, the ShotSpotter system was able to annunciate (detect) gunshots in 81 percent of the field trial events (N = 25 of 31 shooting events) and triangulate (locate) gunshots in 84 percent of the field trial events (N = 26 of 31 shooting events) within an average margin of error of 41ft. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the policy implications associated with using gunshot detection technology as a problem‐solving tool to detect, reduce and prevent incidences of random gunfire.