Non-Financial Information versus Financial as a Key to the Stakeholder Engagement: A Higher Education Perspective

In light of the increased demand for greater accountability and legitimacy, new disclosure mechanisms based on non-financial transparency have emerged. Universities cannot be left behind with respect to these social demands. In addition, continuous competition in excellence is driving higher education organizations to exhibit a greater visibility of their results, necessarily incorporating more non-financial aspects to boost stakeholder engagement. The novelty of this work lies in the analysis of the real state of non-financial vs. financial information in both public and private universities and in the exploration of their influence on stakeholder online engagement. To this end, a content analysis of the universities’ web pages and Facebook profiles was conducted, and a multivariable linear regression analysis was performed. The main results show that private and larger universities that lead Webometrics for Google Scholar Citations, and those that have gradually been adopting financial reporting, are the most interested in implementing Facebook as a two-way communication strategy. It seems that stakeholders react more to financial transparency and, therefore, universities still prefer financial disclosure to improve accountability

Empirical Analysis of Non-Financial Reporting by Spanish Companies

[EN] Spain is one of the European countries that is the most strongly committed to the presentation of non-financial information. In 2017, Spain adapted its legislation to Directive 2014/95/EU through Royal Decree-Law 18/2017, which required Public Interest Entities (PIEs) to provide information in accordance with the requirements of the European Union (EU) Directive, with respect to financial years from 1 January 2017. Our research is focused on Spanish IBEX-351 listed companies and seeks to identify current trends in non-financial reporting. To our knowledge, the present paper is the first study to examine the impact made in Spain by the legislative changes. Our aim is to analyse the publication of non-financial information by Spanish listed companies whose first reports in this regard were made from early 2018. Specifically, we consider the impact of this information disclosure, determining whether the companies in question restrict themselves to meeting regulatory requirements or whether they go further and voluntarily supply additional information. Our findings show that the level of regulatory compliance produced is associated with the business sector in which the company operates. We also show that the highest rates of disclosure of non-financial information correspond to companies that provide this information in the sustainability report.This research was funded by the Generalitat Valenciana, grant number AICO/2017/092.Sierra-García, L.; García-Benau, MA.; Bollas-Araya, HM. (2018). Empirical Analysis of Non-Financial Reporting by Spanish Companies. Administrative Sciences. 8(3):1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8030029S11783Adams, C. A. (2004). The ethical, social and environmental reporting‐performance portrayal gap. 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The value added statement: bastion of social reporting or dinosaur of financial reporting?

South Africa is at present experiencing the highest incidence of publication of the value added statement reported anywhere in the world to date. In addition research investigating the predictive ability of value added information has been conducted in the USA since 1990, even though the value added statement has not been published there. The research reported in this paper sets out to establish whether the value added statement is a disclosure worth considering by companies around the world, by investigating the South African experience with the value added statement. The social accounting theories of organisational legitimacy and political costs were found to be best suited to explain why the value added statement is published. Surveys among the companies publishing the value added statement indicated that management had the employees in mind when they published this information. However, a survey among users has indicated that very little use has been made of the value added statement. The main reason for this seems to be that the unregulated nature of the value added statement allows for inconsistencies in disclosures, which eventually caused users to suspect bias in the reports. The USA evidence that the information has additional predictive power is not confirmed by a South African study, and is complicated by the limited additional information contained in the value added statement. The South African experience with the value added statement does not make a convincing case for publication. Rather, it highlights the need for unbiased and verified social disclosures that will be useful to all the stakeholders of the company. In addition, it has implications for other voluntary social and environmental disclosures

The impact of corporate characteristics on social and environmental disclosure (CSED):the case of Jordan

The corporate business environment is surrounded by strong public scrutiny from diverse stakeholder groups that are calling on businesses to accept accountability for not only their financial actions, but also the non-financial implications of their activities. Many corporate businesses are today paying attention to the needs of their stakeholders of social and environmental information. As such, in this study we examined how corporate characteristics could influence the amount of Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosure (CSED) in the manufacturing sector in Jordan. Firm size, profitability, audit firm, ownership, type of industry and financial market level are the main factors examined in this study. Drawing from Ernst and Ernst methodology, the study developed a disclosure index to measure the amount of CSED for three years (2010, 2011 and 2012). Using panel data regression, we model the relationship between disclosure amount and the key drivers of CSED via random effect estimation. The results of our model indicated that the firm size, type of audit firm and financial performance in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) are significantly associated with the amount of CSED. On the other hand, we also find that firm profitability, age, type of industry and ownership are not related to the practices of CSED

The role of voluntary disclosure in listed company: an alternative model

The aim of this paper is to propose a model of social reporting that allows improving the communication of sociability and quantify the sociability. The research approach follows a qualitative methodology, applying a single method approach. The observations are the result of an empirical analysis carried out on the Italian-Stock-Exchange listed companies that have an independent social or sustainability balance sheet. The findings of this research are based, first, on collection of data about the sample, in order to identify the strong and weak points in terms of its management and economic evaluation, and secondly on the introduction of an alternative method of social accounting, with the objective of measuring the sociability of company communication

Developments in non-mandatory disclosures in annual reports of companies: A case study

The paper investigates the extent of non-mandatory disclosure of information (NMD) in the annual reports of the 17 companies listed on the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) in Fiji, a developing country, and whether NMD by these companies has changed over time providing additional and useful information to stakeholders. The empirical data was gathered from the years 2008 to 2010 to provide a clear picture of the change in the level and extent of NMD, and its influences over the periods 2008 to 2010. It can be seen from the Fiji perspective that the mandatory requirements tend to have a financial focus. However, it would be expected that the level of company disclosures would have changed over time, with not only global market forces but through differing societal values which have increased the frequency and demand of non-mandatory reporting by companies. All companies showed some degree of NMD, and on average this demonstrates an increasing trend. The stakeholders are receiving more information about a company’s activities. The companies were analysed in light of recent developments in corporate governance by the Capital Markets Development Authority (CMDA) implementing their 10 corporate governance principles. This became a major driver of the increase in NMD levels of the disclosures in the annual reports of the listed companies. However, a large variation still exists between the level and extent of the NMD and the different listed companies. The minimum disclosure level found over the three years was 9.09 percent, which has increased to a minimum of 13.66 percent in 2010, and the maximum disclosure level over the three years was 81.82 percent. The findings for the extent of NMD was also similar where the minimum words used in NMDs was 114, increasing to 854 in 2010, and the maximum disclosure extent over the three years was 21,414 words. However, it was found that the measurement of counting words tended to fluctuate over different periods where significant events took place that affected the company. Therefore, it was established that disclosure is impacted by what happens in the reporting period, and can explain why one period may have greater disclosure than another. The paper aims to extend earlier work of Sharma & Davey (2013) on the extent of NMD in Fijian context. While Sharma & Davey (2013) considered voluntary disclosure from 1999-2005, our study reviews NMD over 2008-2010. The study has shown that corporate governance code issued in 2009 by Capital Market Development Authority has influenced the level of NMD

Corporate social responsibility and factors affecting it : an empirical evidence from the Indonesian capital market

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the influence of family ownership and profitability on corporate social responsibility disclosure with firm size as a control variable in manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Design/Approach/Methodology: Implementing a purposive sampling method, this study ended up with 32 manufacturing companies as a sample for the 2014-2018 periods (i.e., 160 observations). Findings: By using OLS regression, the findings show that profitability has a positive influence on CSR disclosure, meanwhile for family ownership does not. Moreover, firm size as a control variable influences positively on CSR disclosure. Practical Implications: With its limitation such as the relatively low number of samples, this study contributes to providing empirical evidence on factors influencing CSR disclosure in an emerging market context, i.e., Indonesia. Originality/Value: There is not a similar research using data from Indonesia neither the firm size as a control variable in the proposed model.peer-reviewe

Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations to Train Their Personnel. An Evaluation of Explanatory Variables for a Telecommunications Company

Corporate social responsibility in the field of employee-employer relation has enjoyed a growing attention in recent years. In this context, workplace training plays an essential role for the harmony of interdependence between community and company. This paper provides a top-down analysis of training effects and a model for an empirical evaluation of explanatory variables for training intensity in the case of a multinational telecommunications company. The analysis of training effects revealed that there are important motivational, social and functional benefits for the employee. Empirical results were dependent on the calculation method of training intensity. Thus, the percentage of employees from a subsidiary, which participates in a training program, is related to the degree of market development but not to the average labour productivity. Nevertheless, when training intensity is expressed as the number of hours of training compared to the total person-hours worked, there is empirical evidence that both labour productivity and market development can be accepted as explanatory variables. The examination of results has highlighted significant discrepancies in personnel training between developed countries and less developed ones.corporate social responsibility, workplace training, multinational corporations, labour productivity, development of telecommunications market

Quantity versus Quality: The Impact of Environmental Disclosures on the reputations of UK plcs

The theoretical framework of this paper integrates quality-signalling theory and the resource based view of the firm to test the differential effects of the quantity and quality of environmental disclosures on the firm’s environmental reputation. Uniquely, the study uses a quality-adjusted method of content analysis, so that sentences are not merely counted but also weighted to reflect their likely significance. Investments in research and development and diversification, as potential methods of enhancing of environmental reputation, are also considered. In doing so the paper complements and extends the work of Toms (2002). The results confirm the framework and models tested in the original paper on more recent data and also suggest that quality of environmental disclosure rather than mere quantity has a stronger effect on the creation of environmental reputation amongst executive and investor stakeholder groups. Research and development expenditure, and under certain circumstances, diversification, also add to reputation

Web-Based Corporate Environmental Reporting in Nigeria: A Study of Listed Companies

This paper basically examined the utilization of the Internet for communicating corporate environmental information by listed financial and non-financial companies in Nigeria. The sample for the study consists of 30 firms listed on the Nigerian stock exchange. While the content analysis technique was used as a basis for eliciting data from the corporate websites of the selected firms, the student t-test statistics was used to find out whether there is a significant difference in the level of web-based corporate environmental disclosure between financial and non-financial firms in Nigeria. In addition, the linear regression method of data analysis was employed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the financial performance of firms and the level of corporate environmental disclosures of the selected listed firms in Nigeria. The paper as part of its findings observed that there is no significant difference in the level of web-based corporate environmental disclosure between listed financial and non-financial firms in the Nigeria stock exchang