Unweighted Index Research Articles

Oral Microbiota Development in the First 60 Months: A Longitudinal Study.

Childhood is considered crucial in the establishment of future oral microbiota. However, the precise period of oral microbiota development remains unclear. This study aimed to identify the progression of oral microbiota formation in children. We longitudinally investigated the salivary microbiota of 54 children across 13 time points from 1 wk to 60 mo (5 y) old and their parents at 2 time points as a representative sample of the adult microbiota. Using next-generation sequencing, we obtained 10,000 gene sequences of the 16s rRNA V1-V2 region for each sample. The detection rate in children of 110 operational taxonomic units commonly detected in more than 85% of mothers and fathers, defined as the main constituent bacteria, was 25% at 1 wk old, increased to 80% between 6 and 18 mo old, and reached approximately 90% by 36 mo old. Early main constituent bacteria detected at 1 wk old were limited to Streptococcus, Rothia, and Gemella. At 6 to 18 mo old, the detection rates of various main constituent bacteria, including Neisseria, Haemophilus, and Fusobacterium, increased. UniFrac distance analysis showed that the oral microbiota of children approached that of adults at 6 to 18 mo old. In the weighted UniFrac distance index, unlike the unweighted index, there were no significant changes in children between 36 and 60 mo old from adults, and microbiota formation at 60 mo old was sufficiently advanced to be included within the range of adult individual differences. Our findings suggest that the initial 36 mo, particularly the period from 6 to 18 mo old, consists of a time window for oral microbiota maturation. In addition, the development of microbiota during this period may be critical for future oral disease prevention.

Determinants of corporate disclosures: An empirical test of political economy theory

The principle objective of this study was to employ political economy theory in order to examine the determinants that impact the corporate disclosure of listed companies in Sri Lanka. Data was gathered from 122 companies over a period of eight years, from 2012 to 2019. Corporate disclosures of Sri Lankan listed corporations were analysed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Determinants of corporate disclosures have been examined in light of political economy theory, namely legitimacy, isomorphic effects, and stakeholder power. The amount of corporate disclosure was quantified using an unweighted index in this research. This study found that legitimacy, isomorphic influences, and stakeholder power are positively associated with the level of corporate disclosure. Findings suggest that managers use corporate disclosures as a strategy to legitimize themselves, manage stakeholder power, and cope with isomorphic influences. This is the first research so far to utilize the PLS-SEM to identify the determinants of corporate disclosures. Considering emerging economies across the globe, the findings of the study provide valuable insights for companies to understand how political economy theory affects the level of corporate disclosures.

Assessment of social factors that promote the vulnerability of communities to coastal hazards in the Volta estuary in Ghana

Although vulnerability assessments have been widely conducted along the coast of Ghana, they have not focused on the factors contributing to social vulnerability of households and communities to disaster risks. Using an indicator-based approach, this study examines the social factors that affect the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of households and communities in the Volta estuary, Ghana. Results indicate that all the communities within the study area were exposed to climate change related hazards. However, two communities, Azizanya in Ada East District and Fuveme in Anloga District, were highly exposed with unweighted indexes of 0.50 and 0.76, respectively. Sensitivity among communities was generally high ranging from 0.00 to 0.87 due to several social factors including low household income, high number of children and aged at home, and lack of social amenities such as roads, health facilities, markets, and schools. The communities recorded high adaptive capacity and were able to withstand the ravages of the ocean and the river system. Households and communities developed various adaptation measures such as relocation to nearby communities or higher grounds, open spaces and packing of their belongings on higher objects such as tables, whiles government actions included occasional dredging and constructions of sea defense structures. An integrated, multi-stakeholder approach involving government, non-governmental community-based organisations, communities, households, and other stakeholders is proposed to design and implement a comprehensive disaster management plan to combat climate change related coastal disasters.

A multicomponent index method to evaluate the relationship between urban environment and CHD prevalence

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally, coronary heart disease (CHD) is the main category of it. It has been shown that the urban built environment affects the occurrence of CHD, but most focus on single environmental factors. This study developed two multicomponent Urban Heart Health Environment (UHHE) Indexes (unweighted index and weighted index), which were based on the four main behavioral risk factors for CHD (unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, smoking, and drinking). And we examined the relationship between the indexes and the prevalence of CHD. The prevalence calculation is based on the database of F Hospital patients, who have had coronary stent implantation (CSI). Furthermore, these single-center data were corrected to reduce underestimation of prevalence. We performed global (Ordinal Least Square) and local (Geographically Weighed Regression) regression analyses to assess the relationship between the two UHHE indexes and CHD prevalence. Both indexes showed a significant negative relationship with CHD prevalence. In its spatial relationship, a non-stationary was discovered. The UHHE indexes may help identify and prioritize geographical areas for CHD prevention and may be beneficial to urban design in China.

Power Grid Structure Performance Evaluation Based on Complex Network Cascade Failure Analysis

A safe and stable operation power system is very important for the maintenance of national industrial security and social economy. However, with the increasing complexity of the power grid topology and its operation, new challenges in estimating and evaluating the grid structure performance have received significant attention. Complex network theory transfers the power grid to a network with nodes and links, which helps evaluate the system conveniently with a global view. In this paper, we employ the complex network method to address the cascade failure process and grid structure performance assessment simultaneously. Firstly, a grid cascade failure model based on network topology and power system characteristics is constructed. Then, a set of performance evaluation indicators, including invulnerability, reliability, and vulnerability, is proposed based on the actual functional properties of the grid by renewing the power-weighted degree, medium, and clustering coefficients according to the network cascade failure. Finally, a comprehensive network performance evaluation index, which combines the invulnerability, reliability, and vulnerability indicators with an entropy-based objective weighting method, is put forward in this study. In order to confirm the approach’s efficacy, an IEEE-30 bus system is employed for a case study. Numerical results show that the weighted integrated index with a functional network could better evaluate the power grid performance than the unweighted index with a topology network, which demonstrates and validates the effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper.

Intra-genotypic variability in elite parent lines of papaya.

This study aimed to characterize papaya lines via microsatellite markers, and select genotypes based on the fixation index in order to promote the genetic purification of important commercial hybrids parent lines. Overall, 400 genotypes from three parental lines (JS-12, SS-72/12, and Sekati) were genotyped. Expected (HE), observed (HO) heterozygosity, and fixation index (F), were estimated. Genetic distances were estimated using an unweighted index, which was graphically presented via cluster analysis using the UPGMA and PCoA. Intra-genotypic variability was detected in both JS-12 and Sekati lines, while an absence of it was observed in SS-72/12. Such variability may positively contribute to the fitting of 'UENF/Caliman 01' and 'UC-10' hybrids into the traits of commercial interest how size and weight fruit. Regarding the fixation index, 293 genotypes showed maximum values (F=1) facilitating the genotypes selection process. Concerning population analysis, a close proximity between heterotic group 'Formosa' lines was observed, while a greater distance among 'Solo' group ones, and this enables systematic exploitation of such material. The fixation index maximum enabled the 80 genotypes selection thereby contributing to the parents genetic purification, since, the selected genotypes will be used in future hybridization steps to generate hybrids fitted into the traits of commercial interest.

Abstract 14680: Outcomes of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation - A Study From National Inpatient Database 2016-2019

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia after Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). There is a paucity of data on the outcomes of CABG either On-pump CABG (ONCABG) or Off-pump CABG (OFCABG) in patients with underlying AF. Methods: We queried the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2016-2019 to identify adult patients who underwent CABG (On and Off-pump) using ICD 10 codes. Patients were divided into two groups based on history of AF. Primary outcomes of interest were in-hospital mortality and mean length of stay. Other covariates of interest included sex, age, race, insurance, income quartile by zip code, comorbidities, hospital location, and size. We used the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) categories to account for comorbidities. We ran multivariate regression models to investigate the possible association. Results: There were 100,715 unweighted index hospitalizations identified for ONCABG and 25,956 for OFCABG. Patients were predominantly male and white race with a mean age of 65.7 years. A total of 34,333 (34.1%) patients had underlying AF in ONCABG group and 8369 (32.24%) in the OFCABG group. Multivariate regression analysis showed that in ONCABG, AF gorup had significantly higher odds of in-hospital mortality (aOR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.36; p = <0.001) compared to those without AF. Similarly, in OFCABG group, AF group had significantly higher odds of in-hospital mortality (aOR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.52; p = 0.019) compared to those without AF after controlling for the covariates of interest and comorbidities. The mean LOS was higher in the AF group in both ONCABG (10.6 vs 8.59 days, p<0.001) and OFCABG (10.78 vs 8.77 days, p<0.001). The number of ONCABG performed each year increased from 24,761 in 2016 to 25,683 in 2019, however, the number of OFCABG decreased from 7008 in 2016 to 6179 in 2019. Conclusions: AF was associated with increased in-hospital mortality and mean LOS among the patients who underwent CABG. The number of ONCABG performed each year increased whereas the number for OFCABG decreased.

Sustainable development scores using spatial information systems-analytic hierarchy process

PurposeThis research aims to develop sustainable development scores at districts level based on weights of thirteen sub-indicators using a spatial information system.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study was conducted at seven districts in the state of Terengganu Malaysia. The evaluation was implemented using a spatial information system combined with weights of sub-indicators that were computed from the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method.FindingsIn this study the sub-indicators layers overlaid into one raster layer to produce a sustainability development score from 1 to 3 for every district. The one raster layer shows that Marang district received the highest sustainable development score of 2.284. On the other hand, Kemaman district received the poorest sustainable development score of 1.686.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study the weights that obtained from the AHP method are verified and validated using a sensitivity analysis. The scores at districts level perhaps may not be accurate due to difficulties in differentiating the variability of indicators and sub-indicators. These are among the unsettled issues that could be explored as future research direction.Social implicationsThe results would have greatly benefited the policy makers and stakeholders, particularly in planning for future development without compromising the significance of environment, social and economic indicators.Originality/valueSustainable development is one of the key elements that needs to be considered seriously in assessing development of a country. The assessment may include proposing indices for environment, social, economic indicators and related sub-indicators of sustainable development. Instead of considering specific indices for indicators, this approach departs more formally from the concept of unweighted indices at country level.

Earnings Management and the Reputation of Nomads Around IPOs: The Experience of the UK Alternative Investment Market

The research problem We examined whether the reputation of the nominated advisor (Nomad) impacts the accrual and real earnings management of initial public offering (IPO) firms on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in the UK. Motivation and theoretical reasoning While the role of Nomads on the AIM is a significant determinant in ensuring the integrity of the financial reporting quality of their advisee firms, to date, there has been no analysis of the impact of Nomads on such reporting activities. The test hypothesis The main hypothesis of this study tested whether IPO firms that appoint a more reputable Nomad exhibit a lower level of accrual-based and real-based earnings management during the IPO. Target population The initial sample of this study consisted of all IPO firms that went public on the AIM between January 1998 and December 2008. After restricting the sample to non-financial IPO firms with the necessary data available to estimate accrual and real earnings management and Nomad reputation, the final sample consisted of 432 IPO firms that are backed by 80 Nomads over the sample period. Adopted methodology Two real earnings management activities were examined: sales-based manipulation and discretionary expenses–based manipulation. Discretionary accruals were estimated as a proxy of accrual earnings management. To construct the unweighted index of Nomad reputation (NOMAD), data were manually collected for the number of IPOs backed by a Nomad, proceeds of IPOs backed by the Nomad, the Nomad’s age, and the Nomad’s credit score. Analyses Following prior research, several techniques and regressions were employed to test the hypothetical relation between Nomad reputation and accrual and real earnings management. As for robustness, both Heckman and instrumental variable (IV) regressions were used to control for sample selection bias, and a three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimation approach was used to test for the two-way interaction between Nomad reputation and earnings management. Findings This paper found evidence that more reputable Nomads on the AIM play a significant role in constraining the use of accrual-based and real-based earnings management during the IPO year by their advisee IPO firms. This is also the first evidence on the significant role of reputable financial institutions and intermediaries in monitoring the financial reporting quality in less regulated markets such as the AIM in the UK.

Voluntary Disclosures of Indian Microfinance Institutions

The microfinance sector is growing at an astonishing rate in India. Reserve Bank of India, from time to time, comes up with a lot of directions to maintain transparency and governance in the microfinance sector. The current study focuses on the voluntary disclosure (VD) of the Non-Banking Financial Companies- Microfinance Institutions in India. The study constructs an unweighted index to measure the VD scores of the firms. The study also estimates the technical efficiency of the firms in meeting dual objectives of social and financial efficiency of the microfinance institutions. The empirical testing derived the association of the VD score and the efficiency from the data sourced from 2015 to 2019. The findings suggest a negative association between VD and efficiency. The study's major contribution is the type of VD disclosed by the firms. Finding also suggests that firms consider discretionary disclosure a wasteful activity. The dual performance is low but shows a gradual increase. The study is relevant for the policymakers and managers to check the disclosure strategy and the patterns of these firms, which mainly depend on the donors for raising funds for their sustainability.

The impact of COVID-19 on European tourists' attitudes to air travel and the consequences for tourist destination evoked set formation

We study how risk conditions derived from the COVID-19 pandemic may impact on both the desire to travel and intention to visit of tourists and, therefore, on different stages of the destination choice process. We analyse 5134 million flight searches and 379 million flight picks during 2020 for the 17 largest European tourism source markets. An unweighted index number is employed to measure the average variation for searches and picks, for the year 2020, in relation to the reference base period (year 2019). This is done for air travel in general and to Spain specifically. The study then proceeds to conduct an analysis of 17 international travel destinations that are in the evoked sets of the two largest outbound markets in Europe (Germany and UK). We also identify which markets are most favourable to Spain. The research design can inform cost-efficient marketing decisions in a situation of high uncertainty.

Impact of Efficiency on Voluntary Disclosure of Non-Banking Financial Company—Microfinance Institutions in India

This paper investigates how the financial and social efficiency of firms influence the extent of the voluntary disclosure of Non-Banking Financial Companies–Micro Financial Institutions (NBFC-MFI). The study constructed an unweighted index of voluntary disclosure to estimate the level of voluntary disclosure of all of the included firms from the years 2015–2019. The financial and social efficiency, which is analogous to the technical efficiency of production theory and analyses both sustainability and outreach, respectively, was estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The panel data analysis was completed, and a positive association of financial efficiency was estimated. The social efficiency was found to have no relationship to the voluntary disclosure level. This paper contributed to the literature by providing new determinants of voluntary disclosure. The study examines the econometric model and suggests that financially sustainable firms that utilize these resources well are more open to outsiders, while socially efficient firms are reluctant to voluntary disclosure, which also includes social activities, and consider this as a wasteful activity. The findings of this study are relevant to industry practitioners and regulators, who need to think upon the sustainability of this crucial sector by meeting the dual objectives of financial and social performance. This study is helpful to all stakeholders as well as for the government, who can use the results to design additional rules for the NBFC–MFI. This study will also help firms to design disclosure strategies to ascertain goodwill and less cost of capital, with easy access to funds.

Comparison of Production Costs in the Financial Statements PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia Tbk With PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk Using Number Index

This study used a relatively simple price and an unweighted aggregate price index number used to calculate the level of production cost annually in the form of a percent. The use of this index number is to compare the current year period divided by the based year and multiplied by 100%. The purpose of this study is to analyze the comparison of production costs from animal feed companies in Indonesia, namely PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia. Tbk and PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk in 2014-2018 with 2014 as the base year. Based on the calculation of production costs using the index number method at PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia Tbk and PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk there is an increase and decrease in production costs. PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk has better production costs than PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia Tbk because the profits of PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk company have increased more than PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia Tbk every year.

A comprehensible short list of ecological network analysis indices to boost real ecosystem-based management and policy making

Some basic choices are discussed based on two recently proposed short lists of Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) related indices to assess food webs and ecosystems. The discussion is on the use of either internal carbon flow matrices or extended carbon flow matrices, weighted or unweighted indices and the use of ENA or not ENA related indices. The preference here is the use of weighted indices based on double hand-balanced extended carbon flow matrices. The indices that best seem to be able to serve policy makers and meet most of the requirements of different European Directives (WFD, MSFD) are Relative Overhead (Φ/DC) indicating the systems' resilience, Relative Ascendency (A/DC) indicating the efficiency of the systems’ carbon flow organisation, the Detritivory/Herbivory (D/H) indicating the importance of the detritus flow compared to primary production products, the Connectance Index (CI) indicating the number of connections among all the species (or compartments), The Finn Cycling Index (FCI) expressed as the cycled portion of the Total System Throughflow (TSTc) divided by the Total System Throughput (TSTp) indicating the carbon turnover within the system and the Mean/Average Trophic Level (written as MTL or ATL). In comparison with the medical world, the (Φ/DC) and the FCI can be considered as the thermometer and the stethoscope of the ecosystem, while the CI represents an internal system structure scan comparable to a MRI scan. The D/H ratio and the MTL can be considered as the Diet Quality and the Body Mass indices. These “medical” check-ups (indicators) indicate whether a system operates well and whether it can be considered as being “healthy”.

Comparison of weighted and unweighted methods of wealth indices for assessing SOCIO-ECONOMIC status

Due to some of the limitations of monetary measures, various non-monetary approaches for assessing household wealth have been developed as alternative tools for classifying household socio-economic status. Among them, wealth indices based on household durable assets are being used. The literature revealed that two basic methods of constructing wealth indices are employed: an unweighted method, where assets are weighted equally; and a weighted method, where specific weights are assigned to assets. In the case of using the weighted method, weighting can be assigned using various techniques. The overall objective of the study is to compare the wealth indices constructed by using weighted and unweighted methods for assessing the socio-economic status of households in rural Bangladesh. Firstly, the study attempts to construct wealth indices based on durable assets using the unweighted method and two techniques of the weighted method: weighted index using the inverse of proportion, and weighted index using principal component analysis (PCA). Following this, the study compares some distributional characteristics of these indices as well as monetary indicators. At the same time, the study evaluates and examines some attractive properties of these indices such as the extent of clumping and truncation, consistency with traditional monetary measures. Comparative analysis revealed that the unweighted asset index, as well as weighted asset index using PCA, can be treated as an efficient alternative to the monetary measures to evaluate the living standard of the households in the present study. However, due to some advantage's asset index using PCA can be considered to be somewhat better than the unweighted index. But, as the unweighted asset index is not very different from the weighted asset index using PCA, it can also be used as an alternative to the monetary measures without the need to use weighting.

Disclosure Quality on Covid-19 of European Banks in Half-Year and Year-End Financial Statements 2020

In March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Most European governments reacted with lockdowns. A drop in demand as well as supply disruptions affected the economy which also hit European banks with quite a lot of uncertainty, not only regarding possible future loan losses. Due to the experience of the last financial crisis in 2008 European regulatory bodies and standard setters (like ESMA, EBA, IOSCO or IASB) immediately communicated their expectations on disclosure regarding the pandemic’s impact in order to meet the objective of the IFRS to provide decision-useful information to stakeholders. The majority of these publications was released during the second quarter of 2020 and became available to the banks for the preparation of their half-year reports. As ESMA considers Covid-19 a significant event under IAS 34 a high level of disclosures is required in interim reports.The aim of the following study is to examine the extent to which banks fulfilled the disclosure expectations communicated by the relevant professional institutions. For this purpose, a disclosure index approach will be applied to half-year reports and annual reports for the year 2020 from European banks. The selection of banks is based on the list of significant entities being directly supervised by the ECB. A totality of 86 annual reports and 67 interim reports are analysed. To a large extent, the sample appropriately reflects the European banking sector seen by the EBA.48 disclosure items are derived to structure a disclosure index. A dichotomous approach is used to avoid a high degree of subjectivity. Items are grouped thematically, resulting in twelve categories. Therefrom, the category “credit risk”, forms with a total of 13 elements by far the largest category. Furthermore, for comparison reasons a weighted as well as an unweighted index are calculated for each report. Within the weighted index quantitative disclosure elements are being weighted more heavily than qualitative ones. Seven hypotheses are tested with the following expectations. The disclosure quality in annual reports is higher than in half-year reports. Banks, which have published a half-year report 2020, fulfil the disclosure expectations in their annual reports 2020 to a higher degree. Larger banks provide more information on Covid-19 related topics. Listed banks meet disclosure expectations to a greater extent than unlisted banks. Profitable banks provide more information. The CET1 ratio is positively linked to the level of disclosure. Banks which are more heavily affected by the pandemic fulfil the disclosure requirements to a minor degree than other banks. It is shown that less than 50 per cent of the expected disclosures of the respective authorities are fulfilled. Only parts of the credit risk disclosure satisfy and there is a lot of room for improvement for the next reporting period. Furthermore, the study provides a deep and detailed insight into the areas and the level of disclosure of European banks.

International Price Comparisons of Anticancer Drugs: A Scheme for Improving Patient Accessibility

Background: The demand for implementing a new listing scheme to expedite patient access to novel oncology drugs has increased in South Korea. This study was conducted to compare the prices of anticancer drugs between eight countries and to explore the feasibility of a ‘pre-listing and post-evaluation’ scheme to expedite patient access to oncology drugs. Methods: This study included 34 anticancer drugs, which were reimbursed between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2017. The unit price and sales volume of the study drugs were collected from eight countries and IQVIA data, respectively. The prices were adjusted to estimate the ex-factory prices using the discount/rebate rate suggested by the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA). The four price indices of Laspeyres, Paasche, Fisher, and the unweighted index were calculated using the price in each country, the average price, and lowest price among the study countries. Each currency was converted using the currency exchange rate and purchasing power parity (PPP). The budget impact of implementing the proposed pre-listing and post-evaluation scheme on payers was calculated. Results: Based on the currency exchange rate, anticancer drug prices were higher in other countries (index range: 1.05–2.78) compared to Korea. The prices in Korea were similar to countries with the lowest prices. When the PPP was applied, prices were higher in the US, Germany, Italy, and Japan than in Korea (range: 1.10–2.13); however, the prices were lower in the UK, France, and Switzerland than in Korea (range: 0.72–0.99). The financial burden of implementing the pre-listing and post-evaluation scheme was calculated at 0.83% of the total anticancer drug sales value in Korea from 2013–2017. Conclusions: The prices of anticancer drugs in Korea were similar to the lowest prices among the seven other study countries. A pre-listing and post-evaluation scheme should be considered to improve patient access to novel anticancer drugs by reducing the reimbursement review time and uncertainties.

Do well-reputed companies carry out higher quality social reporting? An empirical approach

PurposeThe purpose of this research objective was to analyse social reporting within MERCO Business companies both from the point of view of the quantity of information disclosed and the references about their quality. This approach constitutes a novelty with respect to previous literature on the subject.Design/methodology/approachThis paper assesses how social reporting is being carried out by the companies included in the MERCO Corporate Reputation Business Monitor, MERCO Business, during the period 2014–2016. The methodological design include the construction of a weighted index based on two unweighted indexes related to the quantity revealed and the quality detected. In addition, this study integrates intellectual capital and social responsibility approaches in order to deep into these voluntary disclosures.FindingsWhile social reporting is considerable from a quantitative point of view within MERCO Business companies, they do not reach very high levels of quality, which is good to counteract the final value of the quantity–quality index that the authors' propose.Research limitations/implicationsIn MERCO Business companies, quantity is not a proxy for quality within social reporting. In this sense, only considering both dimensions it will be possible to assess these disclosures in a more complete way.Practical implicationsThis study allows a more accurate and comparable view of social reporting than those studies that only focus on how much information is disclosed. Besides, it involves an important advance in the identification of the relative quality of social reporting, opening a new line of research that will be key to comparing this type of disclosures in a more homogeneous way. Likewise, the results can be applied in future studies in the intellectual capital field given the complementarity between both types of disclosures.Social implicationsLikewise, these results will be of interest for future actions aimed at regulating the improvement of the quality of social reporting in the hands of managers, investors and regulators.Originality/valueThe authors have tested the value of quality in social reporting using a weighted index amongst the most reputable companies in the Spanish scenario. These disclosures have been compared with and without the use of it in order to deduce its value to obtain valid conclusions about social reporting.

Looking back and forging ahead: the weighting of ESG factors

The research for the investigation of the quality of the Corporate Annual Reports (CAR) and particularly the part of the narrative information contained in it has long been underestimated, mainly due to the lack of tools that allow an objective measurement and analysis of the narrative disclosed information of each company. The concept of narrative portion is extremely difficult and multidimensional, most studies use ESG composite scores to measure the CSP. The studies which investigate this issue are facing two major problems. The first problem related with the aggregation number of Key Performance Indicators while the second problem is that all ESG factors are not equal importance. This research focuses on the detailed presentation of a new method of reliable measurement of the quality of the narrative part of the CARs, which is greatly enhanced by using two composite indices, the unweighted index Ma.Co.I and the weighted one Ma.Co.Iw. These specific indices, for the first time, offer a comprehensive and coded checklist (for the measurement of the quality of the narrative information) which follows the guidelines set by the International Accounting Standards Board in 2010. Finally, this article proposes a novel weighting scheme of narrative portion and suggest specific minimum and maximum weights per ESG factors with purpose to contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of composite scores and to improve the quality of their outputs.

Combining the weighted and unweighted Euclidean indices: a graphical approach

This paper proposes a simple graphical mechanism for facilitating the comparison between an author’s citation count, as measured by the Euclidean Index (Perry and Perry in Am Econ Rev 106:2722–2741, 2016), and the visibility of the journals within which an author’s articles were published, as measured by the Weighted Euclidean Index (Haley in PLoS ONE, 2019a. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212760). The goal is to help research review bodies easily grasp the distinction between these two forms of scholarly accomplishment and to also provide them a transparent way to articulate to scholars how the evaluation committee intends to balance these two modes of scholarly accomplishment. The robustness of the proposed composite index is also assessed.