Cette thèse analyse l’impact de la réglementation des divulgations environnementales ainsi que l’utilité de ces informations pour les investisseurs, partie prenante susceptible d’influencer l’entreprise en l’amenant à produire l’information environnementale utile, éventuellement imposée par la réglementation. Notre recherche s’appuie sur une approche quantitative basée sur le traitement des scores de divulgation environnementale au travers de modèles de régression ordinaire et censuré. Les scores de divulgation environnementale ont été calculés à partir d’une grille de mesure élaborée par nos soins et utilisée pour l’analyse de 121 entreprises européennes. Les résultats montrent que la réglementation des divulgations environnementales a un impact positif direct et induit sur le niveau de divulgation environnementale des entreprises. Par contre, l’impact des recommandations gouvernementales ou émanant d’organismes professionnels est identiquement faible. Les résultats montrent également que l’utilité des divulgations environnementales pour les investisseurs n’est pas uniforme : elle dépend de l’opacité des divulgations financières de l’entreprise, de son exposition aux risques environnementaux et de la structure de son actionnariat. Enfin, dans un contexte où l’information environnementale publiée est largement, voire totalement volontaire, les résultats montrent que les entreprises orientent leur communication environnementale en fonction des parties prenantes qu’elles identifient comme prioritaires. / Using disclosure scores to assess the level of environmental information provided by 121 randomly selected European listed companies, this research has two major goals. First, it examines whether environmental information is useful to investors. Second, it analyzes whether it is worth regulating environmental disclosures. Results reveal that the usefulness of environmental disclosures for investors is not uniform. It varies among firms, increasing with (i) exposure to environmental risks; (ii) ownership dispersion; (iii) the level of financial opacity. Furthermore, results also reveal that regulation has a direct and induced favorable impact on corporate environmental disclosure. After controlling for the usual determinants of environmental disclosures, we show that firms subject to a law that regulates environmental reporting disclose more than those domiciled in countries that have developed guidelines only. Finally, in a context where environmental information is mainly voluntary, we show that firms reserve their environmental communication for their preferred stakeholders.

Text in English and siSwati / The purpose of this study was to develop support guidelines to assist with disclosure of HIV status to HIV infected children by their parents and caregivers in Swaziland. The study explored parents’ and caregivers’ experiences with disclosure, and described the pattern of disclosure for HIV status to infected children. A qualitative descriptive research was conducted. Data were collected through semi-structured with thirteen (13) parents and caregivers who were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data analysis was done using qualitative content analysis. Three themes emerged which were understanding the general concept of disclosure, the pattern followed by parents and caregivers on disclosure of HIV status to infected children and the experiences of parents and caregivers on HIV status disclosure to their children. Based on the findings, support guidelines were formulated to assist parents and caregivers with disclosure of HIV status to their infected children. The outcome of this study is the description of a clear pattern of when, how and what to be disclosed to HIV infected children; as described by the parents and caregivers of the HIV positive children. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

One of the main aims of the underlying research is to respond to continuous calls for introducing and measuring a sound economic definition for best practice disclosure quality (e.g. Beyer et al., 2010) that is derived from a reliable guidance framework (Botosan, 2004) using an innovative natural language processing technique (Berger, 2011). It also aims to examine the impact of corporate governance on best practice disclosure quality. Finally, it aims to examine the joint effect of both best practice disclosure quality and corporate governance on firm value. The thesis contributes to disclosure studies in three principal ways. First, it introduces a new measure for best practice disclosure quality. Further tests show that the proposed measure is reliable and valid. A novel feature of this measure is that it captures all qualitative dimensions of information issued by the Accounting Standards Board, 2006 (ASB) Operating and Financial Review (OFR) Reporting Statement. Second, it uses machine-readable OFR statements for financial years ending in 2006-2009, and develops a language processing technique through constructing five keyword lists. Third, it examines the extent to which disclosure quantity provides a proper proxy for disclosure quality. The analysis shows that disclosure quantity is not a good proxy for disclosure quality. Accordingly, results derived, using quantity as a proxy for quality, are questionable. Results of the association between disclosure quality and corporate governance mechanisms suggest that the most effective governance mechanisms in improving disclosure quality are leadership structure, audit committee meeting frequency, and audit firm size. Using a wide set of corporate governance mechanisms, the study also contributes to three research strands and explains the inconclusive results in relation to the association between disclosure quality, corporate governance mechanisms and firm value. It provides empirical evidence as to which governance mechanisms promote the quality of voluntarily disclosed information in large UK firms. Additionally, it provides empirical evidence as to the joint effect of best practice disclosure quality, corporate governance mechanisms on firm value in the UK. Results also show that best practice disclosure quality enjoys a substitutive relationship with two corporate governance mechanisms (audit committee independence and audit committee size) and a complementary association with board independence in relation to firm value. The study has various research and policy implications. It suggests new research avenues for re-examining disclosure relationships, especially research areas that do not have persuasive conclusions such as the economic consequences of disclosure quality. Such research may inform both regulators and managers as to the costs and benefits of disclosure quality to both firms and stakeholders. It also provides feedback on the current disclosure practices by firms so that policy-makers can modify reporting frameworks/guidance accordingly.

Magister Commercii - MCom / There is an increase in the number of people with disabilities entering, and in the workplace. Industrialised countries are encountering a workforce that is ageing, which makes the prevalence of disability, due to chronic illness amongst employees, more evident. However, even with legislation and policies that support people in the workplace, such as the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 and the Code of Good Practice on Disability in the Workplace, many people still choose not to disclose their disabilities. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to identify the perceived factors that could possibly prevent the disclosure of disability in the workplace. The study was conducted at one of the universities in the Western Cape. The study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews. Ten participants took part in the study and comprised of two academic staff members from each of the faculties on the main campus. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data where various themes and subthemes emerged.

A quantitative, descriptive, explorative survey was conducted to explore and describe nurses’ perceptions of disclosure to children of their HIV positive status in Addis Ababa. 100 nurses working in six conveniently sampled health centres participated by completing a self-administered questionnaire. The findings revealed that the majority of participants were of the opinion that children have the right to know their HIV status, participate in their own treatment, and that disclosure contributes towards improved adherence. Forty-one of the participants said that it is nurses’ role to support caregivers in the disclosure process. But 56.3% felt they lacked the training to disclose to children that they are infected with HIV. Accordingly, it is recommended that relevant and applied training is required to equip nurses with the knowledge and skills to disclose to children their status. The importance of nurses’ proactive role in disclosure to children of their HIV status needs to be emphasised. / Health Studies

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the connection between attachment and self-disclosure behavior across communication technologies. Very little research has explored the connection between attachment and self-disclosure, and no studies have examined the relationship in the context of communication technologies. Drawing on attachment theory, self-disclosure literature, and communication technology research, this dissertation predicted that individuals with high anxious or high avoidance attachment would capitalize on the affordances of communication technologies and be associated with more self-disclosure behavior. Two studies were completed to test these hypotheses. Study one (n = 479) was a cross-sectional survey using participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Study two (n = 309) was an experiment where participants had their attachment system activated by experiencing a threatening situation hypothetically. Both studies had participants report self-disclosure behavior with their romantic partner in frequency and degree of intimacy. Each participant was randomly assigned one communication channel to report on (e.g., face-to-face, text messaging, email, or social networking sites). The results from the two studies provided mixed results for attachment and self-disclosure behavior across communication technologies. In general, anxious attachment was positively associated with self-disclosure frequency and degree of intimacy regardless of which channel was used, which was expected. Avoidance attachment was negatively associated with self-disclosure frequency, but only when the participant was experiencing a threatening situation. Neither attachment style interacted with the number of cues perceived to be available in a communication channel in the proposed direction when predicting self-disclosure behavior. However, both attachment dimensions interacted with a channel’s perceived expectation for response when predicting self-disclosure intimacy. When participants were not experiencing a threat to their security, those with high anxious or high avoidance attachment reported self-disclosing more intimately in channels perceived to have less expectation for response. Together these findings suggest individuals with high anxious attachment may use self-disclosure as a hyperactivating strategy to connect with an attachment figure. Individuals with high avoidance attachment choose not to self-disclose as a deactivating strategy that prevents intimacy from forming. Additionally, individuals with high anxious or high avoidance attachment can capitalize on a channel’s expectation for response and feel comfortable self-disclosing something intimate in a channel perceived to have a low expectation for response.

Following an attempt to harmonize the U.S. GAAP and IFRS a new IFRS standard became mandatory in the EU known as IFRS 13 “Fair value measurement” in 2013. The new accounting standard aims to decrease inconsistencies with fair value measurement by introducing new disclosure requirements for fair value assets with no active market (level 3). This study investigates how well Swedish listed firms have complied with the new disclosure requirements, and whether their compliance level has affected the information asymmetry between market participants. The sample consists of Swedish listed firms from Nasdaq OMX within the banking, forestry and real estate industry where fair value assets on level 3 are prevalent. The result revealed that Swedish firms had increased their compliance level with the disclosure requirements; furthermore, the regression analysis indicated a negative relation between an increase in disclosure level and information asymmetry after controlling for some variables. However, since the result was not significant suggestions for future research is to increase the sample size outside of the Swedish context.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Previous work on hurtful messages focused on receiving hurtful messages in dyadic relationships. However, hurt feelings are also elicited when people receive hurtful messages from individuals other than the person who originally stated the message. The current study examined peoples’ experience of hurt, perception of intent, and tendency to distance themselves from both perpetrators (those responsible for generating the hurt invoking message) and deliverers (those responsible for revealing or delivering the hurt invoking message). The investigation revealed associations between victims’ perceptions of the degree of similarity they shared with perpetrators and the intensity of hurt felt by victims, as well as the degree to which the message threatened victims’ negative face and the intensity of hurt victims felt. For both perpetrators and deliverers, as victims’ perceptions of intent increased, the distancing effect on the relationship also increased. The intensity of hurt victims felt was associated with the tendency for victims to distance themselves from perpetrators. Victims perceived that friends intentionally hurt their feelings to a greater extent than did romantic partners. / text