Disclosure Policy Research Articles

Disclosure of mangrove conservation policies in SEA: Bibliometric content perspectives

As a result of damage since the 2010s, mangrove forests require conservation efforts, such as reforestation, business permits in coastal areas, rearrangement of coastal spatial planning, and law enforcement regulated by the government in environmental policies. This study aims to assess the evolution and identify knowledge related to mangrove conservation policies in Southeast Asian (SEA) countries using in-depth bibliometric and content analysis. This paper describes mangrove restoration and conservation policies in SEA countries . The results of the study show that as many as 220 articles about mangroves in SEA have been published, this shows that there is an increasing interest in disclosing mangrove restoration policies, included in SEA countries. Globally, there are similarities in regulations between countries: the difference lies in the application of the rules. Changes in land use are one of the drivers of mangrove damage in SEA countries . However, only a few researchers have discussed institutional arrangements and coastal development policies. Mangroves in Indonesia are protected by 22 laws and regulated by at least 18 institutions. Their administration in Thailand is governed by at least 20 laws and overseen by 7 ministries and departments. In the Philippines, 28 laws relate to the conservation of mangroves for cultivation. Additionally, we discuss the main findings, deficiencies, and directions for future research.

The influence of lazy information disclosure on stock price crash risk: Empirical evidence from China.

Information disclosure is an important way for investors to obtain information, the annual report text carries a lot of information, lazy information disclosure is an important form of information disclosure of the annual report text. This paper takes China's A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022 as the research sample, takes the annual report text information disclosure form as the entry point, uses the computer text analysis technology to measure the text similarity of the annual report to measure the lazy information disclosure, and explores its impact on stock price crash risk. The results show that there is a positive correlation between the similarity of annual report text and the risk of stock price crash, that is, when the information of annual report text is presented in the form of lazy information disclosure, the risk of stock price crash increases. For companies audited by key auditing institutions, the positive correlation between the similarity of their annual reports and the risk of stock price crash is not significant, indicating that key auditing institutions will weaken the positive correlation between lazy information disclosure and the risk of stock price crash. Further, through external attention and analysis of the time delay of annual report disclosure, it is concluded that the management lacks the opportunity and time to hide the bad news, so it is clear that the lazy information disclosure comes from the business situation "the fact is so". The research conclusion of this paper provides evidence support for the influence of lazy information disclosure on stock price crash risk, and also provides useful reference for regulators to improve information disclosure policies and effectively prevents and resolves stock price crash risk.

Peranan Dewan Komisaris Terhadap Risk Disclosure Pada Perbankan Umum Di Indonesia

Risk Disclosure in annual reports is needed for third parties to get a complete picture of the annual report and the company. One of those who play a role in the risk disclosure policy is the Board of Commissioners. This study aims to analyze the effect of the size of the Board of Commissioners, Independent Commissioners and Board of Commissioners Meetings on risk disclosure in public banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2017 – 2021. The research methodology used in this study is a quantitative method. Sampling using purposive sampling method. Valid data is 159 data from 35 general banking companies. Data were processed using multiple regression analysis using IBM SPSS version 25 software. The results showed that the size of the Board of Commissioners, Independent Commissioners, and Board of Commissioners Meetings had a positive effect on Risk Disclosure. The implication of this study is the role of shareholders in selecting and appointing members of the board of commissioners who have competency compatibility with the company's business so that they can provide clear information to stakeholders, as well as minimize the occurrence of information asymmetry between management and shareholders. In addition, investors can also use risk disclosure information to consider the company's business in the future.

Profitabilitas, Leverage, Kepemilikan Publik, dan Pengungkapan Corporate Social Responsibility

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the effect of profitability, leverage, and public ownership on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of SRI-KEHATI indexed companies. The causal relationship quantitative approach was carried out with secondary data sources originating from 85 sample company reports which were then analyzed through multiple linear regression. The research found that the results of leverage and public ownership have a positive effect on disclosure of corporate social responsibility, while profitability has a negative effect on disclosure of corporate social responsibility. The results of the research can contribute to the company's CSR disclosure policy by considering the factors that can influence CSR disclosure policies.Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure; Profitability; leverage; Public Ownership

Private disclosure with multiple agents

This study examines a mechanism design problem where the principal can affect the agents' knowledge of a payoff-relevant state, namely, the principal designs and commits to an information disclosure policy that generates agent-specific private signals, while the principal directly observes neither the state nor the signal profile. We solve this problem by constructing a novel class of disclosure policies that exhibit individually uninformative, aggregately revealing, and immune to unilateral misreporting properties and show that the principal achieves the same payoff as if she could directly observe the state and implement state-contingent allocation rules. Moreover, we prove that our disclosure policy is robust to information-sharing among a certain number of agents and remains optimal in various settings.

The Effect of Loss Preference on Queueing with Information Disclosure Policy

The Effect of Loss Preference on Queueing with Information Disclosure Policy

Institutional Drivers of Voluntary Carbon Reduction Target Setting—Evidence from Poland and Hungary

Governments worldwide have launched climate policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). These policies aim to enhance businesses to be active actors in the process of decarbonisation. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to identify the drivers of voluntary corporate decarbonisation illustrated by climate target-setting practices. In particular, this paper aims at diagnosing whether European Union (EU)-wide and country-level policies foster material corporate commitment to mitigating the carbon footprint in two countries that are exceptionally heavily dependent on fossil fuels: Poland and Hungary, which are characterised by a specific political-economic situation. This analysis focuses on policies related to the EU sustainable finance initiative that enhances companies to voluntarily reduce their GHG emissions: (1) sustainable financial sector, (2) corporate disclosure, and (3) corporate governance policy. At the country level, the national policies for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are analysed. The empirical research is conducted based on the financial and economic data for a group of Polish and Hungarian publicly listed companies exposed to these regulations. The exposure to certain policies is approximated through selected corporate characteristics. Logistic regression analysis is applied to firm-level data gathered from Refinitive and corporate reports. The dataset covers the period 2014 to 2021, with 214 data-points. The response variable is a binary indicator of whether a company sets emission targets. The empirical research proved that state ownership, belonging to the financial sector, and performance-oriented corporate governance factors have a significantly negative impact on the probability of a company setting target emissions. On the other hand, the company’s size and leverage have a strong positive impact on the probability of setting emission targets. Also, it was confirmed that after 2020 the frequency of corporate target-setting in Poland and Hungary increased. Additionally, it was observed that Polish firms are more willing to set climate targets than Hungarian ones. Therefore, from the analysed policies, only the corporate sustainability disclosure policy proved to have a positive impact on the practices of setting climate targets in Polish and Hungarian firms. The policies related to the sustainable financial sector and to state-owned enterprises proved to have a negative impact on the probability of setting climate targets, while for the corporate governance policy, the results are mixed. In this vein, it was shown that, by a majority, policies to stimulate voluntary corporate commitment to decarbonisation are counter-effective in countries characterised by exceptional fossil fuel dependence and particular institutional features. The original value of this study stems from the applied methodology focusing on a mix of policies addressing the deep decarbonisation process in the specific country settings. The presented research contributes to an on-going debate on the drivers of voluntary corporate decarbonisation, in particular the impact that policy mixes framed under the sustainable finance agenda may have on material commitments to GHG emission reduction targets. In this context, the main findings are important for policymakers who are responsible for creating and implementing policy measures devoted to the deep decarbonisation process. It is recommended that policymakers should consider national specificities while designing policies for a Europe-wide net-zero transition and account for potential tensions arising from different goals as they may have impact on the effectiveness of the decarbonisation process. Future research may focus on the verification of the observed relationships between variables on a larger sample of the European firms to identify the key drivers of deep corporate decarbonisation.

Corporate social and environmental reporting in the mining sector: seeking pragmatic and moral forms of legitimacy?

PurposeThe study examines the social and environmental responsibility indicators disclosed by three International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) corporate mining members in their social and environmental reporting (SER) from 2006 to 2014. To achieve this aim, the author limits the data two years before (i.e. from 2006 to 2007) and six years after (i.e. from 2009 to 2014) the implementation of the Sustainable Development Framework in the mining sector in 2008.Design/methodology/approachUsing the techniques of content analysis and interpretive textual analysis, this study examines 27 social and environmental responsibility reports published between 2006 and 2014 by three ICMM corporate mining members. The study develops a disclosure index based on the earlier work of Hackston and Milne (1996), together with other disclosure items suggested in the extant literature and considered appropriate for this work. The disclosure index for this study comprised six disclosure categories (“employee”, “environment”, “community involvement”, “energy”, “governance” and “general”). In each of the six disclosure categories, only 10 disclosure items were chosen and that results in 60 disclosure items.FindingsA total of 830 out of a maximum of 1,620 social and environmental responsibility indicators, representing 51% (168 employees, 151 environmental, 145 community involvement, 128 energy, 127 governance and 111 general) were identified and examined in company SER. The study showed that the sample companies relied on multiple strategies for managing pragmatic legitimacy and moral legitimacy via disclosures. Such practices raise questions regarding company-specific disclosure policies and their possible links to the quality/quantity of their disclosures. The findings suggest that managers of mining companies may opt for “cherry-picking” and/or capitalise on events for reporting purposes as well as refocus on company-specific issues of priority in their disclosures. While such practices may appear appropriate and/or timely to meet stakeholders’ needs and interests, they may work against the development of comprehensive reports due to the multiple strategies adopted to manage pragmatic and moral legitimacy.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this research is that the author relied on self-reported corporate disclosures, as opposed to verifying the activities associated with the claims by the sample mining companies.Practical implicationsThe findings from this research will help future social and environmental accounting researchers to operationalise Suchman’s typology of legitimacy in other contexts.Social implicationsWith growing large-scale mining activity, potential social and environmental footprints are obviously far from being socially acceptable. Powerful and legitimacy-conferring stakeholders are likely to disapprove such mining activity and reconsider their support, which may threaten the survival of the mining company and also create a legitimacy threat for the whole mining industry.Originality/valueThis study innovates by focusing on Suchman’s (1995) typology of legitimacy framework to interpret SER in an industry characterised by potential social and environmental footprints – the mining industry.

Non-Financial Disclosure Policies and Their Influence on the Investor Behavior in NYSE-Listed Financial Firms

A country’s accounting and disclosure system is part of its financial system and more generally its institutional infrastructure. Economic theory suggests that, in well-functioning economies, the elements of the institutional infrastructure evolve to fit and reinforce each other. Thus, the accounting system is likely to be geared towards the informational and contracting needs of the key parties in the economy. Due to the existence of private information channels, financial statements are less important in terms of monitoring economic performance and assume other roles, such as determining dividends. However, for this reason, arm’s length or outside investors relying primarily on public disclosures are not as well informed in the German system as they are in Anglo-American economies. Since 2005, listed German groups have been required to prepare their consolidated accounts under International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRSs. The study was a literature based which sought to empirically assess the effect of voluntary non-financial disclosure on performance of financial firms listed on NYSE, United States. The study established that Non-financial reporting by German companies has long been a voluntary matter. As of fiscal year 2017, the CSR Directive Implementation Act makes it mandatory for some 500 large German companies. Non-financial reporting by German companies has long been a voluntary matter. Since the early 2000s, German companies have published non-financial information mostly as CSR or sustainability reports. Publishing comprehensive non-financial information will be mandatory as of fiscal year 2017 for some large German companies as a result of the CSR Directive Implementation Act. The CSR Directive Implementation Act obliges large companies of public interest, in particular, capital market-oriented companies, credit institutions, and insurance companies to publish non-financial information. The study concluded that since stock volatility is linked to information asymmetries and to a higher risk of a company, this analysis implies certain practical implications for both managers and regulators regarding the importance of specific disclosure strategy in capital markets. The study also concluded that the level of disclosed information, the interpretation and the effectiveness of forward-looking information depends on the reputation of a company. Companies disclosing nonfinancial information through sustainability reporting practices provide markets with data on their social, environmental, and governance performance. The study recommended that there is need to have a proper execution of regulatory framework which in turn increases the proper governance disclosures leading to an effective management system. Keywords: Voluntary, non-financial disclosure, performance, financial firms, listed NYSE, United States.

Carbon media legitimacy in UK companies: actions or words?

PurposeThis study investigates whether carbon media legitimacy is influenced by carbon performance and/or carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy in UK context.Design/methodology/approachTo test this study's hypotheses, the authors employ Tobit regression analysis of 95 UK companies listed in FTSE350. The authors use balanced panel data (475 observations in total) to reduces the noise introduced by unit heterogeneity.FindingsThe authors find that while corporate carbon performance is not reflected in carbon media legitimacy, carbon media legitimacy is positively and significantly affected by voluntary carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality). Thus, voluntary carbon disclosure is shown to be an effective tool in legitimising corporate activities.Research limitations/implicationsThe results show a certain degree of naivety on the part of the media in assessing corporate carbon behaviour, since it values carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality) more than carbon performance. Such media behaviour may hinder future improvement in carbon performance of firms.Practical implicationsThis study's results indicate that the existing UK carbon disclosure policy does not address the heart of climate change and global warming. Thus, tougher regulations should be considered by policy-makers in relation to voluntary carbon disclosure in the UK.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether carbon media legitimacy is associated with both carbon performance and carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy, and to use the UK context when addressing this association. It also examines the effectiveness of quality of carbon disclosure as legitimation tool.

Implementation of Law Number 14 of 2008 on Public Information Transparency in the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI)

Purpose: The House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR-RI) is an institution that is mandated and represents the voice of the people who have directly voted through general elections. This representation function can be effective and have a real impact if the DPR is open to providing information to the public. However, in reality, the parliament's commitment to public information disclosure is still questioned by many elements of society. Many incidents have caused the public to doubt the DPR's commitment to public information disclosure, such as information and documents related to the revision of the KPK Law, the Omnibus Law Bill, and the Job Creation Bill, among others. This study aims to analyze the implementation of public information disclosure policies in the DPR-RI.
 Methodology: The research method used in this study is descriptive qualitative, where primary and secondary data are obtained through in-depth interviews with predetermined key informants and literature studies related to the research topic.
 Result: The research findings indicate that the implementation of the Public Information Disclosure Law in the DPR-RI is still not optimal, particularly in the utilization of information disclosure media and information resources.
 Contribution: This research will contribute to expanding theoretical and practical knowledge regarding the implementation of public information disclosure policies in legislative institutions as part of communication policy studies.

Insider Horizon and Disclosure Policies

ABSTRACT We investigate the relationship between insider horizon and disclosure policy. First, we develop and analyze a rational expectations model assuming insiders are able to commit to a disclosure policy. Insiders with a short horizon prefer more disclosure and are willing to bear costs of disclosure to reduce information asymmetries among capital market participants. We then empirically test our predictions in the setting of newly public firms and firms where the CEO is approaching retirement. We find that firms with insiders that have a shorter horizon disclose more and experience lower information asymmetry. Our study contributes to the understanding of firms’ disclosure choices by suggesting that the horizon of insiders shapes a firm’s disclosure policy. JEL Classifications: G14; G32; D83.

Empirical Assessment of Carbon Reduction and Energy Transition Targets of European Companies

Abstract The paper presents an analysis of the carbon reduction and energy transition targets set by all companies included in the STOXX All Europe 100 index. This is an emerging topic, and the scientific literature is scarce. We employ a quantitative research method, as we extract by hand the targets from various sources: corporate annual reports, Refinitiv Database, Science Based Targets etc. The research question is: Which are the directions of corporate European strategies regarding carbon emissions and reduction targets? The total number of emissions reduction targets in the sample is 427, while renewable energy targets are 89, efficiency targets are 33, and electric vehicle adoption targets are 29. The analysis reveals that most of the targets are set for a short or medium time frame. Also, most of them are expressed in absolute terms and some of them have already been achieved. The research has implications for policy setting, as we show that the regulations should be an incentive for companies to strive to achieve meaningful targets. Thus, the results show that longer term targets are more difficult to track, and progress is less disclosed in the annual reports. The countries in which the sample companies are headquartered are not yet on track to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, which means that environmental and disclosure policies need to be improved.

The Journal of Urology® Home Study Course 2023 Volume 209/210.

The Journal of Urology® Home Study Course 2023 Volume 209/210.

Divergence and Convergence on Police Transparency: Comparing Officers’ and Citizens’ Preferences on Body-Worn Camera Footage Release

The adoption of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by law enforcement agencies is commonly viewed as a means of enhancing police transparency, holding officers accountable, and building trust with the communities they serve. The effectiveness of BWCs in promoting police transparency, however, is still debatable, with many jurisdictions still lacking clear BWC footage disclosure policies. Following a mixed-method design, this article investigates the perspectives of officers and citizens on police transparency and, more specifically, the divergences and convergences in their expectations regarding BWC footage release. The data were collected from 78 police officers (through interviews and focus groups) and 1,609 citizens from the province of Quebec (through phone surveys). The two groups share the belief that the public release of BWC footage is significant in promoting police transparency. Yet they hold differing views on its use to reach accurate assessments of police interventions. While citizens expressed worries about the integrity of BWC footage, officers appeared more concerned about the potential misunderstanding of events following the release of BWC footage. The variations in expectations between officers and the public highlight the multifaceted nature of police transparency, which should serve to inform future BWC footage disclosure policies.

Towards a Greater Understanding of Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Policy Documents

Bug bounty programmes and vulnerability disclosure programmes, collectively referred to as Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) programmes, open up an organisation’s assets to the inquisitive gaze of (often eager) white-hat hackers. Motivated by the question What information do organisations convey to hackers through public CVD policy documents? , we aim to better understand the information available to hackers wishing to participate in the search for vulnerabilities. As such, in this article we consider three key issues. First, to address the differences in the legal language communicated to hackers, it is necessary to understand the formal constraints by which hackers must abide. Second, it is beneficial to understand the variation that exists in the informal constraints that are communicated to hackers through a variety of institutional elements. Third, for organisations wishing to better understand the commonplace elements that form current policy documents, we offer broad analysis of the components frequently included therein and identify gaps in programme policies. We report the results of a quantitative study, leveraging deep learning based natural language processing models, providing insights into the policy documents that accompany the CVD programmes of thousands of organisations, covering both stand-alone programmes and those hosted on 13 bug bounty programmes. We found that organisations often inadequately convey the formal constraints that are applicable to hackers, requiring hackers to have a deep understanding of the laws that underpin safe and legal security research. Furthermore, a lack of standardisation across similar policy components is prevalent, and may lead to a decreased understanding of the informal constraints placed upon hackers when searching for and disclosing vulnerabilities. Analysis of the institutional elements included in the policy documents of organisations reveals insufficient inclusion of many key components. Namely, legal information and information pertaining to restrictions on the backgrounds of hackers is found to be absent in a majority of policies analysed. Finally, to assist ongoing research, we provide novel annotated policy datasets that include human-labelled annotations at both the sentence and paragraph level, covering a broad range of CVD programme backgrounds.

Conflict of interest policies at Australian medical schools.

Pharmaceutical industry exposure is widespread during medical training and may affect education and clinical decision-making. Medical faculties' conflict of interest (COI) policies help to limit this exposure and protect students against commercial influence. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence, content and strength of COI policies at Australian medical schools and changes since a previous assessment conducted in 2009. We identified policies by searching medical school and host university websites in January 2021, and contacted deans to identify any missed policies. We applied a modified version of a scorecard developed in previous studies to examine the content of COI policies. All data were coded in duplicate. COI policies were rated on a scale from 0 (no policy) to 2 (strong policy) across 11 items per medical school. Oversight mechanisms and sanctions were also assessed, and current policies were compared with the 2009 study. Of 155 potentially relevant policies, 153 were university-wide and two were specific to medical schools. No policies covered sales representatives, on-site sponsored education or free samples. Oversight of consultancies had improved substantially, with 76% of schools requiring preapproval. Disclosure policies, while usually present, were weak, with no public disclosure required. We found little indication that Australian medical students are protected from commercial influence on medical education, and there has been limited COI policy development within the past decade. More attention is needed to ensure the independence of medical education in Australia.

Prospects for the transformation and development of carbon storage in abandoned mines of coal enterprises from the perspective of carbon neutrality

Under the carbon neutrality goal, coal enterprises must seek breakthroughs from abandoned mines, develop new resources in the new era, turn problems into countermeasures, and participate in the carbon emissions market, for contributing to the accomplishment of the national strategic goal of carbon neutrality. To this end, we investigated the relevant national policies and regulations to clarify the boundaries disclosed by the carbon information of enterprises, understood the development direction of carbon storage in abandoned mines, and clarified the transformation and development of carbon storage in abandoned mines. We made a few suggestions: (1) China should learn from its past experience and other countries to develop the energy industry with Chinese characteristics and reform the economic system. (2) Coal enterprises must actively respond to the national carbon information disclosure policy, clarify their own responsibilities and carbon emission boundaries. (3) It is necessary to proactively obtain advanced knowledge and plan carbon storage pathways for abandoned mines. (4) Development problems of coal enterprises should be deduced using cases. The ‘dual carbon’ goals should be achieved steadily step-by-step. (5) Three measures, i.e. improving the existing resource structure, coordinating the information of abandoned mines, and promoting the cultivation of scientific and technological talents.

Mandatory R&D disclosure and analyst forecast Accuracy: Evidence from an emerging market

Exploiting the mandatory R&D disclosure policy in China, we capitalize on a difference-in-differences framework to examine whether mandatory R&D disclosure matters to analyst forecast accuracy in a sample of technology intensive firms. We find that, after mandatory R&D disclosure, forecast errors decrease significantly more for treatment firms (i.e., firms that chose not to disclose R&D investments before the mandate policy) relative to control firms (i.e., firms that did voluntary disclosure of R&D investments before the mandate policy). Further, we show that the impact of mandatory R&D disclosure is more pronounced when there is high information asymmetry within the firm or an industry as well as when analysts are working under unfavorable conditions. Overall, our findings demonstrate the positive effect of mandatory R&D disclosure on reducing information asymmetry and shed light on the importance of R&D disclosure reform in developing markets.

Sustainability Reporting: A Financial Reporting Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper examines incentive effects of sustainability reporting, based on proposals for mandatory sustainability reporting standards in the EU, the US, and the IFRS Foundation, and highlights conceptual differences between sustainability and financial reporting. Sustainability reporting is an instrument of transparency regulation intended to influence management decisions. It requires disclosure of a large set of data points but does not provide aggregate measures. It is production-oriented and does not include accruals. It expands reporting to include disclosure of long-term policies and targets, and of information of firms in the value chain. Consequently, sustainability reporting is not very useful for tracking sustainability performance and for comparisons across firms. Overall, it would benefit from applying more generally accepted accounting concepts.