A matter of control or identity? Family firms' environmental reporting decisions along the corporate life cycle

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordBuilding on the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective, this study explores environmental disclosure (ED) practices in family firms and investigates whether the firm's life cycle stage plays a moderating role in these practices. We focus on two dimensions of the SEW: family control and influence and family identity. To the extent that different types of family‐controlled firms have different reporting behaviors based on their primary SEW dimension, they will undertake the ED strategies that allow them to preserve their SEW. Using a sample of listed firms from the Milan Stock Exchange, we show that family firms for which the family control and influence SEW dimension is most salient provide less environmental information than non‐family firms and that this effect is weakened along the family firm's life cycle. Our findings also indicate that middle‐aged family firms, where the family identity dimension prevails, provide more ED than do non‐family firms. Our study contributes to knowledge about how the socioemotional endowment affects family firms' reporting behavior

Creating Legitimacy for Sustainability Assurance Practices: Evidence from Sustainability Restatements

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.This study examines sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) provider use of sustainability restatements as a means to create legitimacy in the developing SRA market. In comparison to financial data, mistakes in sustainability reporting are more likely to be made and less likely to be discovered prior to reporting. A lack of clear reporting standards and ambiguous SRA guidelines create a setting where providers can use restatements in an attempt to demonstrate both a problem in sustainability reporting and assurance as the solution to that issue. Based on a sample of U.S. firms from 2010–14, we find that SRA is associated with an increased likelihood of sustainability restatements, that the association is stronger for error restatements than for restatements due to methodological updates, and that SRA is significantly associated with the disclosure of quantitatively non-material restatements. We also document differences in these relations across provider-type, with only consultant assurance significantly associated with methodological restatements and restatements of a non-material amount. Our findings support differences between sustainability report restatements and financial restatements, and provide evidence in support of our argument that assurance providers may be using restatements in an attempt to expand market share in a new professional space.We also gratefully acknowledge the 2014 Best Paper Prize awarded by the PRI Stichting Foundation at the 2nd GARI International Conference (Henley Business School) and financial support from the University of Exeter Firms, Markets and Value Research Cluster and the School of Accounting, Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University

Does Assurance on CSR Reporting Enhance Environmental Reputation? An Examination in the U.S. Context

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Highlights Just over 18 percent of our sample companies obtained outside assurance. Other factors, outside assurance is positively associated with environmental reputation scores. Positive impacts hold across different types of assurance providers

Understanding research findings and evidence on corporate reporting: An independent literature review

This is the final version. Available from the Financial Reporting Council (titled "Literature review") via the link in this recordExecutive Summary: The FRC commissioned a literature review of academic articles and research papers to determine the extent to which analyses have been undertaken which support the objectives of the Future of Corporate Reporting (FoCR) project. For the purpose of this review we agreed to define corporate reporting as financial and nonfinancial information included in annual reports, quarterly reports, restatements, earnings announcements and other ad-hoc and stand-alone reports (such as sustainability, CSR, integrated reports). We use the term financial reporting to indicate disclosure of financial information such as that contained in the financial statements, including the notes, but also the narrative discussion of corporate performance (i.e. narratives or other quantitative indicators that complement financial data, for example narrative information in the strategic report or management discussion and analysis). Non-financial reporting includes corporate social responsibility (CSR), social, environmental or sustainability reports (which are interchangeable terms), as well as other types of narrative information included in specific sections of the annual reports (such as for example, risk disclosure, or disclosures about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues) or in other corporate documents (integrated reports, intellectual capital statements, etc.). A list of questions to be addressed was discussed between the academics and the FRC and the preliminary mapping between the structure of the report and the list of questions was agreed as shown in the following table. A detailed mapping out of how this report addresses all these questions is included in the concluding section.[...]Financial Reporting Counci

Eco-efficiency assessment and food security potential of home gardening: a case study in Padua, Italy

In the expanding urban agriculture phenomenon in Europe, home gardens are a traditional form that have kept agriculture within cities, even becoming crucial in certain historical periods (e.g., war periods). However, horticultural practices in home gardens can also have negative consequences. The goal of this paper is to assess the eco-efficiency of home gardens as a type of urban agriculture. To do so, a case study in Padua (Italy) was evaluated following life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methods. A home garden of 30.6 m(2) and 21 crop cycles were evaluated. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh vegetable at the consumption point, and the ReCiPe method was employed for impact assessment. Environmental assessment indicated that organic fertilization, use of tap water, mineral fertilization and pesticides were the most contributing elements of the entire life cycle. Furthermore, the relevance of garden design and crop selection was a determinant in the eco-efficiency results. The assessed home garden could satisfy the food requirements of between 1 and 2 members of the household. Crop management and design recommendations are provided to improve eco-efficiency and food security potential of home gardens

Comparative study of three low-tech soilless systems for the cultivation of geranium (Pelargonium zonale): A commercial quality assessment

The study evaluated the feasibility of simplified hydroponics for the growth of rooted cuttings of geranium (Pelargonium zonale) for commercial purposes in local farms in Northern Italy. Tested systems included a control where soilless system on substrate (peat) (T-1), usually adopted by local farmers, was compared against an open-cycle drip system on substrate (peat) (T-2), and a Nutrient Film Technique system (T-3). For commercial features, assessed parameters included flowering degree (flowering timing, numbers of inflorescences plant−1, and number of flowers inflorescence−1), numbers of leaves plant−1, number of branches plant−1, final height of plant, and the aesthetic-commercial assessment index. Assessed parameters also included fresh and dry weight, SPAD Index, the water consumption, and the water use efficiency (WUE). The soilless systems typology significantly affected rooted cuttings growth, commercial features, and WUE. The adoption of an open-cycle drip system (T-2) resulted in a significant improvement of all the crop commercial characteristics as compared with other treatments, making plants more attractive for the market. The water consumption was higher in T-2 as compared with T-1 and T-3, but it allowed for the highest fresh weight, and therefore also the highest WUE. The results indicate that the typology of soilless system significantly enhances the commercial characteristics of geranium

Spectrum-based feature localization: A case study using ArgoUML

Feature localization (FL) is a basic activity in re-engineering legacy systems into software product lines. In this work, we explore the use of the Spectrum-based localization technique for this task. This technique is traditionally used for fault localization but with practical applications in other tasks like the dynamic FL approach that we propose. The ArgoUML SPL benchmark is used as a case study and we compare it with a previous hybrid (static and dynamic) approach from which we reuse the manual and testing execution traces of the features. We conclude that it is feasible and sound to use the Spectrum-based approach providing promising results in the benchmark metrics

Strategies for improved yield and water use efficiency of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) through simplified soilless cultivation under semi-arid climate

Simplified soilless cultivation (SSC) systems have globally spread as growing solutions for low fertility soil regions, low availability of water irrigation, small areas and polluted environments. In the present study, four independent experiments were conducted for assessing the applicability of SSC in the northeast of Brazil (NE-Brazil) and the central dry zone of Myanmar (CDZ-Myanmar). In the first two experiments, the potentiality for lettuce crop production and water use efficiency (WUE) in an SSC system compared to traditional on-soil cultivation was addressed. Then, the definition of how main crop features (cultivar, nutrient solution concentration, system orientation and crop position) within the SSC system affect productivity was evidenced. The adoption of SSC improved yield (+35% and +72%, in NE-Brazil and CDZ-Myanmar) and WUE (7.7 and 2.7 times higher, in NE-Brazil and CDZ-Myanmar) as compared to traditional on-soil cultivation. In NE-Brazil, an eastern orientation of the system enabled achievement of higher yield for some selected lettuce cultivars. Furthermore, in both the considered contexts, a lower concentration of the nutrient solution (1.2 vs. 1.8 dS m−1) and an upper plant position within the SSC system enabled achievement of higher yield and WUE. The experiments validate the applicability of SSC technologies for lettuce cultivation in tropical areas