Previous research has indicated that the use of self-disclosure statements may be beneficial in improving listener’s perceptions of a speaker who stutters. While some research to this point is available concerning the perceptions of adults, this theory has not been studied in school-age populations. In addition, information about the perceptions of listeners who are also stutterers is unexplored. This study seeks to address these voids in the literature and also to explore the impact of gender bias in the context of self-disclosure. This study seeks to bolster the evidence-based practice for the technique of self-disclosure and to better understand the perceptions of school-age listeners. Such information could improve treatment delivery and outcomes as part of a comprehensive intervention program for individuals who stutter. Research objectives were explored by exposing participants to two of four possible videos of a speaker who stutters (a male who self-discloses, male who does not self-disclose, female who self-discloses, and a female who does not self-disclosure). Directly after viewing the videos the participant completed a survey probing for perceptions of the speaker, information about their experience with and knowledge of stuttering, and allowing for additional comments to be reported. Results indicated a preference for the speaker who self-disclosed. However, some differences were noted between then listener groups (stutterers versus. non-stutterers). The participants who stuttered tended to be less impacted by the presence or absence of a self-disclosure; they more often reported perceiving “no difference” between the speakers across a variety of traits in comparison to the participants who do not stutter. These results indicate that individuals who stutter and individuals who do not stutter may perceive the use of self-disclose differently. Results, in regards to gender bias, were inconclusive. In summary, results from the current study add to the body of research supporting the use of self-disclosure statements and suggest that individuals who stutter may perceive their use differently than individuals who do not stutter. / text

Drawing upon media agenda-setting theory and previous studies in organizational impression management, this paper empirically investigates the influence of tax avoidance news on corporate tax reporting. This study is based on the pronounced discontinuity in the amount of news articles related to tax avoidance in the United Kingdom over two periods (2010-2011 and 2012-2013). A difference-in-differences design is employed in order to enable a comparison of the media effects on those firms that have been reported in tax avoidance news versus those without media attention. Using a sample of annual reports of UK FTSE 100 companies across the period 2010 to 2013, I test the impact of tax avoidance news on quality and quantity of tax disclosure. The results suggest that the recent increase in media attention on tax avoidance does not stimulate firms to improve the quality and the quantity of tax disclosure in their corporate reporting. Rather, firms can be discouraged from discussing the most relevant tax items in their reporting, as shown in the case of financial firms which were the subject of the largest amount of tax avoidance news. (author's abstract) / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

This study reports the results of experimental laboratory markets designed to test two propositions set forth by Verrecchia 1982 . The first proposition addressed the change in the level of private information acquisition given a change in the level of public information in a competitive market. The second proposition considered the amount of informedness in the market given an increase in the level of public information and the resultant change in private information. The development of these propositions was motivated by the ambiguous results produced from the market-based accounting research investigating the impact on market price of mandated accounting disclosures. A limitation of the market based research is the inability to control for changes in the level of private information acquisition given a change in the level of public information which may explain the ambiguous results. A laboratory markets method was used to test the propositions because of the control provided by this research method. The market mechanism employed was a version of the PLATO computerized double-auction mechanism described by Smith, Suchanek, and Williams 1985 . This trading mechanism allows traders to communicate bids and offers and to form contracts to buy and sell assets in a computerized market which provides a high degree of control. In addition to the market for assets, a posted offer market for private information was used to allow traders to acquire private information. The results show significant decreases in private information acquisition in markets with higher levels of public information. Thus, public and private information appear to be substitute goods in this experimental setting. The results also indicates that the variance of contract prices around the true dividend value is significantly greater in markets with lower levels of public information. This remains true when controlling for possible confounding variables including market day, the contract number, the dollar value of private information, and the number of informed traders that executed the contract.

This dissertation extends previous studies on firms' differential earnings response coefficients. It provides further theoretical explanation and empirical evidence for the differential earnings response coefficients across firms and time. The empirical evidence found by Ball & Brown (1968) that the sign of unexpected earnings is positively correlated with the sign of market reactions is used to improve the control of measurement errors on investors' prior belief. Revisions of financial analysts' forecasts (FAFs) for firms' future earnings per share (EPS) are used as the event information. Both the impact of FAFs quality on investors' earnings belief revision and the mapping from EPS to security price are considered. Investors are assumed to be Bayesians who are homogeneous in belief. They use FAFs as information for making portfolio investment decisions. FAFs with smaller contemporary dispersion relative to the variance of investors' prior belief are considered to have higher quality. It is proposed that investors have stronger faith on the forecasts with higher information quality. A non-normative approach is used to map EPS into security prices. The market price over (expected) earnings ratio (P/E) is used as a linear approximation for the security valuation function. The major advantage of this approach is that non-earnings factors that have price effect on securities are implicitly controlled. The model predicts that ceteris paribus, the earnings response coefficient adjusted for the differential P/E is positively correlated with the quality of FAFs. Cross-sectional and time series samples of 1097 FAFs revisions from Standard & Poor's Earnings Forecaster in the years 1981 to 1985 are used in the empirical test. The empirical results are consistent with the theoretical implication. The quality of FAFs is found to be positively correlated with the P/E adjusted earnings response coefficient at one percent significance level. The results are robust across event day windows, the estimation periods for market model parameters and the price reaction measurements.

The study attempted to investigate the element of self-disclosure in the everyday communication transaction. More specifically, it sought to determine: (1) What is self-disclosure and how has it been defined? (2) What are the intrapersonal variables affecting the process? (3) What barriers hinder the interpersonal process of self-disclosure? (4) What, in fact, is appropriate self-disclosure within the interpersonal transaction? and (5) How can self-disclosure be facilitated to enhance the interpersonal process of communication?Although numerous theorists have attempted to define the process, the definitions have been inconsistent and somewhat vague. The study suggested that self-disclosure is not realistic in the everyday communication transaction, and attempted to illustrate how communication could be enhanced through a modified approach to self-disclosure. This approach included the utilization of a supportive climate and the giving and receiving of constructive feedback. The modified approach was illustrated through the use of the Johari Window.Further research was suggested to determine the effects of interpersonal trust and the effects of attitudes on the self-disclosing process.

What function does self-disclosing conversation play in the conversations of young children? Two studies were conducted to investigate how 5 14 year old children self-disclose in their everyday conversations. Both studies video-recorded children’s self-disclosing conversations while they participated in an art activity. Study 1 investigated the effect of two conversational partner characteristics (age of partner and partner familiarity), and of the conversational context on children’s self-disclosing behavior. Children were paired with an unfamiliar adult, an unfamiliar peer, or a familiar peer play partner, and conversations were recorded in three interaction contexts. Self-disclosure was found to be a more frequent topic of conversation in a fairly barren conversational environment than during an art activity. In each context, however, children self-disclosed at least twice as often with an unfamiliar as with a familiar play partner. There was no difference in self-disclosing behavior for children paired with an unfamiliar adult or an unfamiliar peer. Study 2 was designed to investigate a possible function for increased self-disclosing with an unfamiliar partner: that children use self-disclosure in early conversations with unfamiliar partners to gauge the desirability of future interaction. It was hypothesized that children would evaluate unfamiliar partners who did not participate in self-disclosure less favorably than children paired with a self-disclosing partner. A methodology was designed to allow children to think they were talking to another child when they were actually speaking with a researcher trained to talk like a five-year-old. Children were randomly paired with a play partner who either reciprocated or did not reciprocate self-disclosing conversation, and behavioral and evaluative] reactions were measured. Results indicated that children paired with a non-reciprocating partner became less persistent in their self-disclosing initiations over time. Children paired with a reciprocating partner self-disclosed at similar levels throughout the interaction. Evaluative differences were also found. Children paired with a non-reciprocating partner rated the unfamiliar peer significantly lower than children paired with a partner who reciprocated self-disclosure. Based on these findings, it was concluded that young children are differentially sensitive to the self-disclosing behavior of unfamiliar conversation partners, and that they use participation in self-disclosure as a gauge for establishing initial connections with unfamiliar partners. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

The present study empirically investigates the level of compliance by listed Indian firms with disclosure requirements of Indian Accounting Standards. India’s Accounting Standards have been gradually converging with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) since 2001. India currently stands on the verge of adopting the International standards. Indian companies are working fervently towards adopting IFRS. This provides an extraordinary research environment to assess the level of compliance during this transitional time as well as lending an opportunity for a post adoption study. This study addresses two research questions developed to review annual reports of 156 listed Indian firms to determine (1) their current level of compliance with selected disclosure requirements of Indian Accounting Standards, and (2) key corporate characteristics that affect their level of compliance. The data used for the study pertains to the financial year 2009-2010 and utilizes disclosure and compliance index methodology to calculate the level of disclosure. Overall, the findings of this study indicate none of the companies in the sample was fully compliant with the mandatory requirements of the Indian Accounting Standards. On average, level of disclosure made by Indian companies based on selected mandatory disclosures is 70.91%. Nevertheless, the disclosure levels were on an average comparable to results from similar studies conducted in other developing countries. Moreover, results indicated a strong and positive association between level of disclosure and the size, profitability and timeliness of reporting of the sample companies.

Legitimacy theory as an explicator of longitudinal and cross-sectional variability in social and environmental disclosure is explored using a content analysis based method. Annual corporate reports are examined for ten UK FTSE 100 companies in five sectors over the year 1974 to 2000 by extracting word count data into the three categories of employee welfare, community and environmental disclosure. Eight hypotheses are generated, some of which are adapted from previous studies, to ''test for'' legitimacy theory. Three hypotheses test for intersectoral difference by disclosure category, three test for intrasectoral agreement by category and two test for correlation between environmental disclosure over time and environmental group membership in the UK.The ability of the study to yield certainty of explanation upon demonstration of hypotheses is constrained by the epistemogically ''semi-hard'' or ''indicative-only'' quality of the data. Data analysis is carried out and conclusions are drawn within these constraints.Evidence for a legitimacy-based explanation of disclosure variability is found where the categories are sufficiently resolved and circumscribed to discriminate by sector. In this study, community and environmental disclosure demonstrate this and thus provide evidence for a legitimacy-based explanation of social disclosure whilst employee welfare disclosure is found to be a less useful category for this purpose.

Thesis (M.Com. (Accounting))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016 / The focus of this study is to provide a view of the extent of strategy disclosures made by companies in both the developed market and the emerging market. The study also provides empirical evidence on the differences in the extent of strategy disclosures between developed and emerging markets. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that the emerging market companies have better strategy disclosures in their annual reports than companies in the developed market. [Abbreviated abstract. Open document to view full version]

Global warming imposes significant physical, regulatory and reputational risks to listed corporations. Consequently, climate-related issues have recently received increased attention from investors, creditors and stock market regulators. In February 2010, The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an interpretative guidance requiring publicly listed firms to disclose material climate change risks (CCR) in their annual securities filings (10Ks). However, considering the level of enforcement and managerial discretion in the definition of materiality, market participants raised concerns about the lack and quality of CCR disclosure. This research explores the effects of family control as an important determinant of CCR disclosure strategies. Family firms are the world’s most common form of economic organizations, dominating the global economy. The socioemotional wealth (SEW) theoretical perspective argues that family firms behave differently from their nonfamily counterparts and exhibit significant heterogeneity depending on the level of family control and involvement. Using a sample of S&P 500 companies, I examine whether family firms differ from their non-family peers in their climate change disclosure strategies. Additionally, I further explore the effects of two dimensions (i.e. family control and influence, family identity) of socioemotional wealth on CCR disclosures. Overall, I find that family ownership has no impact on CCR disclosure decisions, but is negatively related to CCR disclosure quality. Moreover, I find a positive relationship between family firms prioritizing family identity and CCR disclosure quality. The findings of this research have implications for regulators, investors, and academic researchers.