Background: Online marketing tactics designed to have a minimized impact on consumer experience have emerged recently whereas native advertising is one concept. Native advertising is an approach designed to decrease interruptions in consumers’ online experience by matching the form and functions of the platform in which the advertisement appears. It occurs online, with the one characteristic in common that it should not disrupt or negatively affect consumer experience. The desire to minimize consumer disruption has led to that native advertising in its most effective nature can be difficult for the reader to identify, which leads to the discussion of whether the tactic is deceptive. It is found that ad disclosures are frequently the only thing that separates native ads from commercial content. Unexplored areas in the literature exist, which include if native ad disclosures can be made more efficient with the use of brand disclosures.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if brand disclosure in native advertisements affects consumers’ native ad recognition ability.  Method: Data was collected through an eye-tracking experiment, exploring if brand disclosures affect the native ad recognition ability. The experiment was created in Tobii Pro Lab which tracked participants’ real-time physiological reactions. Results were complemented with a questionnaire and data was analyzed in SPSS. The sample consisted of 60 students at Jönköping University.  Findings: The analysis illustrates that the experimental test group which received brand disclosures of high prominence showed an increased ability to recognize and identify native advertisements as promotional content compared to the control group. By implementing Mann-Whitney U tests and a Chi-Square test in order to test the hypotheses, results were found significant. The hypotheses were supported and could not be rejected, which resulted in the conclusion that brand disclosures increase the native ad recognition ability.

The purpose of this study was to identify company characteristics associated with the presence of disclosures regarding internal control in the annual report. Gibbins, Richardson and Waterhouse [1990] have developed a framework from which to examine financial disclosure,. These authors define two dimensions of a company's disclosure position; opportunism and ritualism. I examined the association between variables representing the dimensions identified by these authors and a company's decision regarding disclosure of a management report on internal control. I compared specific characteristics of companies disclosing this information to those of companies not disclosing. The dependent variable represented the presence or absence of disclosure. I used logit analysis to test the significance of the chosen characteristics relative to the decision to include or exclude a management report on internal control in the annual report. My results were consistent with the existence of ritualism with respect to this issue. Reporting on internal controls was associated with membership in the Financial Executives Institute, auditor choice, certain industry designations and prior inclusion of such a report. FEI membership was closely related to initial reporting decisions as well'. I found evidence of opportunism as well. The likelihood of reporting on internal controls was related to company size (and presumably control strength), and growth rates. I also found an association between reporting and the issuance of publicly traded securities in the succeeding year and more moderate levels of debt relative to an industry average. In addition, I found that initial reporting decisions were associated with external events relating to potential legislation of the reporting issue. This research provides insight into the corporate response to reporting on internal controls.

Bakgrund Humankapitalet är en viktig del i företaget med anledning av att det är essentiellt i den dagliga affärsverksamheten samt att det är en viktig immateriell resurs där kunskap, nätverk av relationer och kulturell styrka bidrar till företagets framgång. I och med samhällets utveckling består företag idag till allt större del av humankapital men trots detta råder det inte samstämmighet för hur humankapital ska redovisas i årsredovisningarna. Detta i samband med att högre krav ställs på redovisning av humankapital blir det intressant och relevant att undersöka hur företag väljer att upplysa om humankapital i årsredovisningarna. Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur företag inom bemanningsbranschen redovisar humankapital i deras årsredovisningar, samt undersöka hur redovisningen utvecklats över tid och hur den skiljer sig mellan företagen. Metod Studien är en longitudinell flerfallstudie utförd genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Tidigare forskning om motiv bakom upplysningar ligger till grund för den insamlade empirin tillsammans med legitimitetsteorin, intressentteorin och institutionell teorin. Studien utgår från en deduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag. Slutsats Studiens resultat visar att de undersökta företagen upplyser genom tre teman; engagemang, arbetsmiljö och kompetensutveckling. Vidare dras slutsatsen att redovisning av humankapital inom bemanningsbranschen liknar varandra till väldigt stor del. Anledningen kan vara att samtliga företag ingår i samma bransch. Studien bidrar med bevis för att företag inom bemanningsbranschen upplyser om humankapital i stor mängd i förhållande till resterande information i deras årsredovisning. / Introduction Human capital is an important part of the company because it is essential in day-to-day business and is therefore an important intangible resource where knowledge, networks of relationships and cultural strength contribute to the company's success. The development of society contributes to the fact that companies increasingly consist of human capital, but despite this, there is no consensus on how human capital should be reported in the annual reports. This, in conjunction with higher requirements for accounting for human capital, will make it interesting and relevant to investigate how this is done. Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies in the staffing industry report human capital in their annual reports, and also to investigate how accounting has developed over time and how it differs between companies. Method This study is a longitudinal multi-case study conducted through a qualitative content analysis. The empirical data is based on previous research of the motives behind disclosures together with the theory of legitimacy, stakeholder theory and institutional theory. This study is based on a deductive approach with inductive elements. Conclusion This study's results show that the investigated companies disclose information through three themes; commitment, work environment and qualification. Furthermore, it is concluded that accounting for human capital in the staffing industry is very similar to each other. The reason may be that all companies are part of the same industry. The study provides evidence that companies in the staffing industry disclose human capital in large numbers in relation to other disclosed information in the annual report.

No description available.

No description available.

Products and technologies provide us with significant lifestyle benefits but they can also evolve into hazards and bring about concern for human health. A history of poor regulatory performances has resulted in a public displeased with and skeptical of the actors responsible for protecting the public against the unintended effects of progress. It is within this historical and social context that the study explores the following objectives: to understand people's responses to emerging health issues, of which there is considerable knowledge uncertainty and little public awareness; to identify the information needs regarding these issues, and to explore the role of government disclosure for personal decision-making around these issues. Seven focus groups were conducted in Hamilton, Ontario with community members from a range of backgrounds: youth, faith, allophone immigrants, environmental, health, recreational, and mixed. Two scenarios about potential hazards, i.e. a persistent pollutant and extreme heatwaves from climate change, were used to generate discussion about people's experiences with risk and knowledge. Results indicate that emerging health issues are framed by lay individuals as a chronic societal phenomenon. Their concerns about health and well-being, resiliency, and issue comprehension point to an overarching preoccupation about social vulnerability, irrespective of the presence of confirmed hazards. The analysis further revealed several roles for disclosure which would allow for more capacity in personal decision-making; more transparent and accountable regulatory processes, and which could lead to more trustworthy relations between citizens and government. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

In recent years, corporate textual disclosure has gained considerable attention in accounting and finance research. The textual disclosures complete the picture of a firm's economic performance in addition to the quantitative information. Many studies have investigated various determinants and consequences of textual disclosure attributes. This thesis aims to contribute to this growing strand of literature that studies the drivers of the textual attributes of narrative disclosure. The thesis consists of three essays related to political uncertainty, CEO characteristics, and corporate social responsibility. The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates the impact of political uncertainty on the informativeness of a firm's narrative disclosure. Using conference calls, the results show that firms exposed to political uncertainty provide less readable disclosure, more ambiguous tone, and rely more on scripted responses to analysts. Further analysis reveals that obfuscatory disclosure has predictive power over a firm's future poor performance, suggesting that managers use obfuscation to opportunistically mask poor future performance during high political uncertainty periods. The second essay (Chapter 3) examines the impact of the CEO's tenure on the firm's disclosure complexity. Based on upper echelon theory, the results show that early tenured CEOs with greater career concerns have more incentive to provide more readable disclosure to affect the market perception about their ability. However, long-tenured managers get more entrenched and provide obfuscated disclosure. In addition, the results indicate that the effectiveness of different governance mechanisms in improving the quality of a firm narrative disclosure depends on the CEO's tenure. In particular, board oversight (internal governance by subordinate executives) is more effective in constraining new (long-tenured) CEOs' myopic disclosure practices. The third essay (Chapter 4) explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation and textual attributes of financial disclosures. The results show that firms with high CSR orientation provide more readable disclosures and use a less ambiguous tone in their annual reports. These findings are consistent with the notion that managers in CSR-conscious firms adhere to high ethical standards and commit to improving the transparency of their firms' financial disclosures. In addition, the study provides evidence that corporate governance mechanisms and CSR are substitutes for each other to ensure transparent disclosure. Overall, the findings of these studies provide insights to the investing community, the firm's board of directors, and standards-setters to better understand the implications of firm CSR engagement, political exposure, and CEO characteristics in financial reporting contexts beyond quantitative metrics.

In recent years, the impact of the permanently reinvested earnings (PRE) assertion on the financial reporting environment has grown tremendously. Under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740, a firm making the PRE assertion is able to avoid recognizing residual U.S. taxes on earnings of its foreign subsidiaries so long as it reinvests those earnings outside of the U.S. Suboptimal reinvestment is a potential consequence for PRE-asserting firms due to limited reinvestment opportunities abroad. Suboptimal foreign reinvestment, typically high amounts of reinvestment in financial assets, may be viewed negatively by financial statement users, particularly those users concerned with the default risk of a firm. The disclosure of PRE-related information varies substantially and the actual degree of compliance with this accounting standard has been questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While firms may believe it is advantageous to obscure their PRE-related activity due to media or political concerns, recent academic literature has highlighted a negative relation between disclosure quality in financial statements and credit risk. The purpose of this study is to examine the relations among foreign reinvestment strategy, PRE disclosure, and long-term credit ratings. First, I examine the direct effect of a firm's reinvestment strategy on its long-term credit rating. Second, I investigate the relation between a firm's reinvestment strategy and its choice to disclose PRE-related information. Third, I study the relation between a firm's choice to disclose PRE-related information and its long-term credit rating. Finally, I examine the potential attenuating effect of the PRE disclosure on the negative relation between financial reinvestment and credit ratings. Using hand collected PRE data for Fortune 500 firms from 1997-2010, I find a negative relation between the intensity of a firm's reinvestment in financial assets and its (1) long-term credit rating and (2) choice to disclose PRE-related information. Furthermore, I find a positive relation between a firm's choice to disclose PRE and its credit rating. / Ph. D.

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate board attributes, ownership structure and firm-level characteristics on both corporate mandatory and voluntary disclosure behaviour. Multivariate regression techniques are used to estimate the effect of corporate board and ownership structures on mandatory and voluntary disclosures of a sample of Libyan listed and non-listed firms between 2006 and 2010. First, the authors find that board size, board composition, the frequency of board meetings and the presence of an audit committee have an impact on the level of corporate disclosure. Second, results indicate that ownership structures have a non-linear effect on the level of corporate disclosure. Finally, the authors document that firm age, liquidity, listing status, industry type and auditor type are positively associated with the level of corporate disclosure. Future research could investigate disclosure practices using other channels of corporate disclosure media, such as corporate websites. Useful insights may be offered also by future studies by conducting in-depth interviews with corporate managers, directors and owners regarding these issues. The evidence relating to the important role that corporate governance mechanisms play in shaping the expectations relating to the level of corporate voluntary and/or mandatory disclosures may be useful in informing investor decisions, as well as future policy and regulatory initiatives. This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the governance-disclosure nexus relating to both mandatory and voluntary disclosures in both listed and non-listed firms operating in a developing country setting.

Reporting regarding issues that are related to Corporate Social Responsibility have come into more and more focus lately. Most countries currently have a limited or no mandatory regulations regarding what should be included in either an annual report or in a stand-alone report in terms of CSR. However Denmark is one of the pioneers regarding mandatory CSR regulations and as such has certain rules and regulations that their companies have to follow. Even if today’s regulations are heavily focused on financial information that companies have to disclose there also exists regulations regarding non-financial information. As with the financial crisis that occurred in the early 21st century that led to stricter disclosures requirements for financial information we see a need for regulating non-financial information and especially CSR information. We have been able to see that some companies have been able to manipulate their CSR report so as to put themselves in a good light. Therefore the question arises if mandatory CSR disclosure will have any influence on the stock market.The purpose of this study was to examine if Swedish companies and the Swedish stock market could benefit from having mandatory CSR regulations, similar to those that exist in Denmark. We sought to examine if fulfilling certain amount of CSR criteria would reduce the volatility of a company’s stock price.In order for us to achieve the purpose of our research we had to conduct an experiment on the Swedish companies. In order for us to conduct the experiment we firstly had to select what type of research we would conduct and what type of research was most suitable for our research. In order for us to achieve an answer to our research question and to be able to fulfill the purpose of our research we decided to conduct a quantitative research. We have chosen to utilize the quantitative research approach as this would allow gathering sufficient data from existing databases and reports. The database that we chose to utilize in order for us to find our sample population was NASDAQ OMX Nordic where the companies had be listed as of 2015-03-31 as well as having financial data for the entire year of 2014, meaning between 2014-01-01 and 2014-12-31. NASDAQ OMX Nordic was also used in order for us to find market indexes. In order for us to able to answer our research question we developed three different hypotheses based on our theoretical framework that would later be tested.From the testing of our hypotheses we could determine that there is a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports, in terms of how many of our CSR criteria they fulfill, and the historical volatility of the company’s stock price. We were also able to determine that there exists a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports and the level of Beta that a company has. This implied that the Swedish stock market could benefit from mandatory CSR regulation as it would reduce the volatility which would also be beneficial for the company’s different stakeholders.