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Stakeholders' uncertainty about firms' value drives their urge to get information, as well as managerial disclosure choices. In this study, the authors examine whether and how an important source of uncertainty – the recent COVID-19 pandemic's effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure – is beyond managerial and stakeholders' control.

The authors develop a novel construct for daily CSR disclosure by employing computer-aided text analysis (CATA) on the press releases issued by 125 New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) listed from 28 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. To capture COVID-19 intensity, the authors use the growth rate of the population-adjusted cumulative sum of confirmed cases in New Zealand on a specific day. To examine the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and companies' CSR disclosure, the authors employed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression by clustering standard error at the firm level.

The authors find a one standard deviation increase in the COVID-19 outbreak leads to a 28% increase in such disclosures. These results remained robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continue to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. In the channel analysis, the study demonstrates that the positive relationship between COVID-19 and CSR disclosure is more pronounced in the presence of a well-structured board (i.e. a large, more independent board and with a higher proportion of women on it). In further analysis, the authors find the documented relationship varies over the pandemic's life cycle and is moderated by government stringency response, peer CSR pressure and media coverage.

This paper is the first study that contributes to the scant literature examining the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on CSR disclosure. Prior research either investigates the relationship of the CSR-stock return during the COVID-19 market crisis or examines the relationship between corporate characteristics including the quality of financial information and the reactions of stock returns during COVID-19. The authors extend such studies by providing empirical evidence that managers respond to COVID-19 by increasing CSR disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance, with particular reference to the role of independent directors on boards and audit committees, and media coverage on corporate transparency and disclosure. In addition, the paper also investigates the role of the media on independent directors’ behaviours towards corporate transparency and disclosure.

The paper uses the well-developed two-step system generalised method of moments approach on a sample of 99 Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) listed financial firms over the period 2007-2012.

The empirical analysis shows that media and independent directors on audit committees play a significant positive role in line with agenda setting and agency theories in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure. On the contrary, the boards’ independent directors are risk-averse and hold the information to protect their reputation. Nevertheless, the study does not find any significant influence of media coverage on independent directors’ behaviours in promoting corporate transparency and disclosure.

The findings provide some useful insight into cost benefits analysis of media coverage towards an understanding of independent directors’ behaviours for promoting transparency and disclosure in financial sector. Moreover, the study findings can be useful for both shareholders and stakeholders in taking decisions about firm activities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that proposed and tested a multi-level framework for corporate transparency and disclosure practices. In addition, this study is also among the very few studies that use financial sectors as a sample, in particular, and media coverage, specifically, thus adding some value to the limited literature.

This study aims to examine whether the adoption of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRC Framework) influences the extent of forward-looking disclosures provided by reporters.

This study captures forward-looking disclosures of Australian and New Zealand-based reporters by analysing integrated and annual reports over a period of 10 years from 2010 to 2019 using a machine learning algorithm. This study uses signalling theory to frame the analysis.

This study finds that the adoption of the IIRC Framework has a significant positive impact on the extent of forward-looking disclosures provided by reporting entities. The primary evidence suggests that while listing status alone negatively influences the extent of forward-looking disclosures, the additional analysis reveals that the acceptance of the IIRC Framework by listed entities is positively associated with an increase in forward-looking information. These results remain valid when subjected to a variety of robustness (alternative variables and country fixed effect) and endogeneity (system generalised method of moments and entropy balancing estimations) tests.

The findings have practical implications as regulatory agencies (including stock exchanges and standard setters), seeking to promote greater forward-looking disclosures, may want to encourage the adoption of the IIRC Framework.

The IIRC’s Framework promotes greater forward-looking disclosures benefiting stakeholders who gain a better understanding of the reporters’ future risks and opportunities (including social, economic and environmental risks) and how these are being managed/addressed.

This study provides novel evidence by highlighting the role played by the IIRC Framework in promoting forward-looking disclosures.

This paper aims to evaluate the extent of materiality assessment disclosures in sustainability reports and their determinants. The study examines the disclosure practices of listed companies based in the member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, colloquially referred to as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

First, the materiality assessment disclosures were scored through a content analysis of sustainability reports published by listed GCC companies during a five-year period from 2013 to 2017. Second, a fixed effect ordered logic regression was used to examine the determinants of materiality assessment disclosures.

While sustainability reporting rates improved across the sample period, a significant majority of listed GCC companies do not engage in sustainability reporting. The use of internationally recognised standards has also declined. While reporters provide more information on their materiality assessment, the number of sustainability reports that offer information on how the reporter identifies material issues has declined. These trends potentially indicate the existence of managerial capture. Materiality assessment disclosure scores are positively influenced by higher financial performance (Return on Assets), lower leverage and better corporate governance. However, company size and market-to-book ratio do not influence materiality assessment disclosures.

The findings may prove useful to managers responsible for preparing sustainability reports who can benefit from the examples of materiality assessment disclosures. An evaluation of the materiality assessment should be included in the scope of assurance engagements and practitioners can use the examples of best practice when evaluating sustainability reports. Stock exchanges may consider developing improved corporate governance guidelines as these will lead to materiality assessment disclosures.

The findings may assist in improving sustainability reporting quality, through better materiality assessment disclosures. This will allow corporate stakeholders to evaluate the reporting entities underlying processes, which leads to transparency and corporate accountability. Improved corporate sustainability reporting supports the GCC commitment to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and transition to sustainable development.

This study addresses the call for greater research examining materiality within a sustainability reporting context. This is the first paper to examine sustainability reporting quality in the GCC region, focussing particularly on materiality assessment disclosures.

This article conducts a thorough review and synthesis of the empirical research on the antecedents of stock price crash risk to ascertain the macro-, meso- and micro-level determinants contributing to stock price crashes.

The authors systematically reviewed 85 empirical papers published in ABS-ranked journals to assess the macro-, meso- and micro-level determinants causing stock price crashes.

The findings indicate that macroeconomic factors such as corporate governance, political and legal factors, socioeconomic indicators and religious beliefs have an effect on firm-level corporate behavior contributing to stock price crash risk. At a meso-level customer concentration, industry-level characteristics, media coverage, structural features of ownership and behavioral factors have a substantial effect on stock price crash risk. Finally, micro-level variables influencing stock market crash risk include CEO qualities and compensation, business policies, earnings management, financial transparency, managerial characteristics and firm-specific variables.

Based on our analysis we identify priority areas for future research.

This is a seminal work using a multilevel framework to categorize the determinants of stock price crashes into micro-, meso- and macro-level factors.