Does Lecture Capturing Impact Student Performance and Attendance in an Introductory Accounting Course?

The study empirically examines the interplay between lecture capturing viewership, performance and attendance for students in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. The sample consists of 254 students enrolled in an introductory accounting class either in the Fall semester or in the Spring semester. We show a weak positive relationship between lecture capturing and performance, especially in the presence of other variables such as GPA, attendance, gender and seniority. However, we do not find that lecture capturing reduces attendance. Actual performance results are contrasted with students' perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of lecture capturing. Survey responses reveal that, overall, students attribute a great deal of credit to this pedagogical resource. They stated that lecture capturing clarifies concepts discussed in class, assists in studying for exams, enhances exam results and increases interest in the course. However, the majority of low-performing students believe lecture capturing to be a substitute for attending traditional lectures.Scopu

Women on boards and greenhouse gas emission disclosures

We apply institutional and board capital theory to examine whether women on boards are associated with disclosure and quality of <i>corporate greenhouse gas</i> (GHG) emissions related reporting. We examine the research problem in Australia in a period when no requirements existed for listed companies to appoint female directors or to report GHG emissions. This environment allows us to examine the association between women on boards and GHG emissions related disclosure in annual and sustainability reports in a voluntary setting. We find that companies with multiple female directors make GHG emissions related disclosures that are of higher quality

Voluntary disclosure of GHG emission information

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of Australian public companies’ voluntary environmental management disclosures for companies making disclosures about their greenhouse gas emission performance and management in the year before and the year after the introduction of Australia’s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting legislation, and to empirically test the hypothesized influence of several company characteristics on the quality of these disclosures. Design/methodology/approach The content of GHG performance and management disclosures made in annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports of 1,766 (1,853) publicly listed Australian companies in 2007 (2009) is determined using an index of quality based on GRI guidelines. The relationship among the quality of disclosures and various company characteristics taken from information asymmetry, agency, political cost and proprietary cost theories is examined using an OLS-regression model. Findings Results indicate that voluntary disclosure of GHG information is significantly related to companies requiring increased debt and having higher leverage, companies belonging to some politically sensitive industries and to the age of companies’ fixed assets. Disclosure of greenhouse gas emission information is also significantly associated with lower ROA, higher Tobin’s q and with having dual (overseas) stock exchange listings

Proprietary costs and the choice of hard and soft greenhouse gas emissions’ disclosure

We test whether proprietary costs (relating to competition) are associated withdisclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of companies in annual andstand-alone sustainability reports. We use the National Greenhouse andEnergy Reporting Act 2007 disclosure requirement to create a naturalexperiment to control for endogeneity issues. Disclosure is significantly higherwhen there are lower proprietary costs from existing rivals and higherproprietary costs from potential new entrants for hard, and soft disclosures