Conventional wisdom suggests that firm’s patenting choice is largely due to strategic considerations such as industry competition and the prominence of the invention. We explore this issue from a managerial discretion perspective, suggesting that patenting choice facilitates managerial discretion via earnings management. On the one hand, not filing patents generates a more opaque information environment for market scrutiny, suggesting higher chance of earnings management. On the other hand, stewardship theory indicates that managers use trade secrets to protect their intellectual property. We find that non-patenting firms do not engage in financial earnings management while their real activity based earnings management is lower than patenting counterparts. On average, non-patenting choice does not lead to harmful opaqueness.

The objectives of this research are, first to develop a greater understanding of open book management, secondly to survey the current national status of open book management, and thirdly to conduct a preliminary examination on how employee attitudes are directly influenced by the open book management intervention. In this study, a questionnaire survey is conducted on 307 middle-level managers. The data is used to analyze the influence of the open book management over organization commitment and job satisfaction; then individual control variables, as well as business literacy training and pay-for-performance of the open book management are included as intervening variables to examine the effect. The study findings include the following five aspects. First, the domestic companies are more conservative in the financial disclosure. Second, the financial disclosure has positive effect on intrinsic job satisfaction and this effect is reinforced if companies implement pay-for-performance programs. Third, unless companies implement pay-for-performance programs, the financial disclosure would have no effect on recognition to the organization and extrinsic job satisfaction. Fourth, financial disclosure has positive effect on centripetal force to the organization but no significant effect after taking the intervening variables into account. It means that the centripetal force to the organization is not influenced regardless of the increased level of financial disclosure or implementation of pay-for-performance programs. Fifth, the hypothesis that the effect of business literacy training will influence the relationship between financial disclosure and employee attitude is not confirmed

In today’s competitive market companies aim at increasing revenue to acquire a higher market share. Previous research indicates that this can be achieved with intangible assets. These assets are described as a firm’s dynamic capabilities, which can be attained through knowledge resources, organizational structure, employee skills, customer size, Research and Development (R&D), innovative capability, market share or a recognizable brand. Previous studies have associated intangible assets to be very significant for a company’s success and even associated them with creating GDP growth, specifically in Nordic countries. Studies indicate an increasing gap between a company’s market value and book value, which is related to the constant omission of intangible assets from the balance sheet. As a result, this gap, according to previous research, attests that markets are not fully efficient and stock prices do not reflect all available information. Internally generated brand equity is among the assets omitted from the balance sheet. Brand equity is one of the most powerful intangibles within a company. Therefore, it has been alleged of generating higher returns. Due to current accounting standards, IAS 38, internally generated brands are not disclosed on the balance sheet. Instead, the standard solely permits externally generated brand equity, which arises during business combinations, to be recognized. Consequently, researchers are questioning the value relevance of accounting because the omission of internally generated brands does not provide accurate information about a company’s true value. As a result, this may create information asymmetry between management and investors. Since investors are interested in a company’s value, the omission of intangibles may lead to poor economic decisions. Numerous studies have addressed the relationship between intangibles and stock returns. However, there is little research that explains brand equity’s relationship to stock performance.  Only one study on Turkish brands, by Basgoze et al (2014), managed to address this relationship. However, the authors only concentrated on abnormal returns and not on significant performance ratios like MTBV, ROA, EPS, P/E and ROE. Considering that the study was based on Turkish brands, a research gap was found in addressing the relationship between brand equity and stock performance in Nordic countries. Seeing that these countries highly invest in intangible assets more than any other European country, it further increased curiosity on the relationship between brand equity and stock performance. To address the gap, a quantitative study in the form of Spearman correlations and a linear regression analysis was conducted. The research design of the study placed brands as an independent variable and stock performance variables as dependent variables. As studies have stated that the MTBV-gap disproves claims of markets being fully efficient, theories like EMH and AHM have been used to analyze the relationship between brand equity and stock performance. Other theories used in the analysis was about brand equity and its different sets, a self-constructed definition of stock performance which included MTBV, ROE, ROA, EPS, P/E and stock returns.  The results of the study showed that brand equity had a positive relationship with three out of the six included variables in the study, meaning that there was a positive relation. Furthermore, the study also showed that the market is not fully efficient since the results indicated that, due to brand equity not being included on the balance sheet, not all available information is included in stock prices. Therefore, investors will adapt to the current conditions of the market, which is in accordance to the Adaptive Market Hypothesis.

This study explores the concept of accountability in Islamic Banks (IB), which may achieve through disclosure. It aims to measuring the bank’s disclosure levels which contains Sharia, Social and Financial (SSF) as well as determinants and consequences of this disclosure. It moreover aims to identify the gap between Islamic banks’ board and stakeholders concerned with the accountabilities priorities of IBs. To achieve these objectives the researcher conducted six empirical studies. The first three empirical studies uses content analysis to measuring compliance level with Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards as well as measuring the and sharia, social and financial disclosure (SSFD). It furthermore adopts Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to identify the determinants of SSF reporting related to firm characteristics and corporate governance of Board of Directors (BOD) and Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB). The fourth empirical study uses the same method (manual content analysis) and OLS to measuring the economic consequences of SSFD on the firm value through testing the impacts of disclosure on market capitalization and return on assets. The fifth empirical study adopts questionnaire as well as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to measures the non-economic consequences of SSFD though surveying the perceptions of stakeholders who deal with IBs about the increasing SSFD on loyalty; trust and satisfaction. Finally, the sixth empirical study uses questionnaire to explore the consequences of SSF practices on the perceptions 600 stakeholders who deal with IBs and non-customers who do not deal with IBs. Highlighting the distinctions between economic and non-economic consequences of disclosure in the study enables the researcher to obtain greater insights into the implications of SSF reporting. Moreover, exploring accountability practices from different viewpoints (management, stakeholders and non-customers) and based on different methods (content analysis and questionnaire) allows the researcher to obtain greater insights into IBs accountabilities’ practices. This study provides several interesting findings. With regard to the disclosure and compliance levels, the study finds a variation between IBs in the number of SSFs disclosed, with a notably low level of non-financial reporting (Sharia and social). It also finds high compliance level with AAOIFI standards related to financial and Sharia reporting and low compliance levels with social reporting requirements. Concerning with the determinants of disclosure; the analysis shows positive significant association of disclosure levels with existing Sharia auditing department; auditor; size and profitability. It also finds that corporate governance mechanisms play an important role in improving SSF reporting. The analysis indicates that corporate governance mechanism of board of directors (BOD) as well as Sharia supervisory board (SSB) are the main determinants behind the disclosure levels for IBs such as SSB size, SSB reputation; BOD independence, duality in position and ownership structure. Concerned with the economic consequences of disclosure, the study finds that Sharia, social and overall disclosures have a positive impact on Firm Value (FV) based on the accounting-based measure (ROA). It moreover finds that Sharia and overall disclosure has a positive significant impact on the FV based on market-based measure (Market Capitalization). It argues that the association between disclosure and FV is sensitive to the category of disclosure and the proxy employed for FV. Consequently, the study provides evidence that the SSF disclosures not derived from the same factors, and both have a different impact on firm value. With regard to the non-economic consequences of disclosure, the results indicate that there is a significant association between disclosure and stakeholders’ trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. The results furthermore indicate that there is a partial mediating of trust and satisfaction in the relationship between disclosure and loyalty. A pyramid of IBs’ accountabilities from stakeholders’ perspectives shows the importance of Sharia, then financial and social accountability for both stakeholders and non-customers. It moreover shows that the main criterion of stakeholder’s selection of IBs was Sharia, financial then social factors. Stakeholders who deal with IBs are satisfied about the practices of these banks. Both of groups believe that IBs may guide by Sharia, financial then social objectives. The results identifies gap between the orientation of IBs’ board based on the disclosure and orientation of stakeholders and non-customers based on their perceptions towards SSF accountability. The main originality for this study is measuring SSFD for most of Islamic banks around the world from different perspectives and methods as well as identifies the main determinants and consequences of this disclosure. These results have several implications for regulators, policy makers, managers, IBs, investors, FASB and AAOIFI. For instance, the present study has revealed that disclosure of SSFs - especially non-financial ones - was limited in many annual reports as well as websites. Therefore, regulatory bodies may identify a minimum level of SSFs to publish by each IB. The study has crucial implications to how IBs may improve its Sharia compliance disclosures to create a competitive advantage. The present study is one of the first to investigate the determinants and consequences for SSF disclosure for IBs based on a holistic model. Moreover, the current study is one of the first to investigate the non-economic consequences for corporate disclosure. The current study has some limitations, in either sample or data; disclosure indices; approach; or in its research methodology, which have to consider as potential avenues for future research.

In 2014, the European Union enforced the new directive 2014/95/EU, shifting voluntary disclosure of non-financial information into mandatory. On December 31, 2016, the Swedish government implemented the directive into the Swedish Annual Account Act (ÅRL) with a more extensive regulation than stipulated by the EU's minimum requirements. In this thesis, an investigation of the EU directive's effects on Swedish firms' disclosure of non-financial information has been conducted through content analysis. 27 firms and a total of 308 reports during the time period 2014 to 2021 have been analyzed. Institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory have guided the analysis of the findings. The results demonstrate that the level of non-financial disclosure has experienced a positive change due to the implementation of the directive. However, it is conducted that other pressures and influences in firm's environment, than solely the EU directives effects, can constitute possible explanations for the increase in firms´ disclosure of non-financial information during the period.

Firms seek independent assurance from accountants on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures for various reasons, including to enhance the credibility of such disclosures or to enhance the reliability of management's CSR report. However, there are multiple levels of assurance available for CSR disclosures. The forthcoming clarified U.S. attestation standards re-frame the two levels of assurance on non-financial information as reasonable (higher) and limited (lower). While not currently addressed by U.S. standards, accountants also issue hybrid reports with both reasonable and limited assurance on CSR disclosures. I conduct an experiment to identify differences in nonprofessional investors' perceptions of CSR disclosures when reasonable, limited, or hybrid assurances are provided and manipulate firm CSR performance as a possible moderator for the influence of assurance. Findings indicate that nonprofessional investors find CSR disclosures on greenhouse gas emissions to be credible, and the degree of credibility does not vary significantly based on the firm's performance in controlling emissions or on the level of assurance provided by an accountant. However, nonprofessional investors do differ in their perceptions of the overall reliability of representations made in management's CSR report. While management's CSR report supported by hybrid assurance is generally perceived to be as reliable as when only limited or only reasonable assurance is provided, the perceived reliability differs between limited and reasonable assurance. Supplemental analyses reveal an interaction such that management's CSR report is perceived as more reliable with limited assurance rather than with reasonable or no assurance for firms with better performance at controlling greenhouse gas emissions; this association reverses for firms with worse performance. This interaction may be due, in part, to language in limited assurance reports that makes it clear higher assurance was available but not pursued by management. Results address a gap in the literature for hybrid assurance and show that nonprofessional investors find management's CSR report with hybrid assurance to generally be as credible and reliable as when either limited or reasonable assurance is provided. Further, results offer insight into the interactive effects of firm performance and level of assurance on nonprofessional investors' perceptions of the reliability of management's CSR report. / Ph. D.

No / In recent years, corporate failures and accounting irregularities have led to concerns about the effectiveness of audit committees in the financial reporting process. In response, corporate governance committees in different countries have made specific recommendations designed to enhance the role of the audit committee in executing its financial reporting oversight duties. We investigate in this study, the effect of some of the recommendations by empirically examining the relationship between selected audit committee characteristics and the level of disclosure in interim reports of a sample of 262 UK listed companies. Specifically, the audit committee characteristics examined are shareholding of audit committee members (as a proxy for audit committee independence), audit committee size and audit committee financial expertise. Employing both a weighted and unweighted index to measure interim disclosure, the results indicate a significant negative association between shareholding of audit committee members and interim disclosure. Our results provide evidence of a significant positive association between interim disclosure and audit committee financial expertise. We find no significant relationship between audit committee size and the extent of disclosure in interim reports. Overall, however, our results suggest that audit committee characteristics have an impact on its monitoring effectiveness of the financial reporting process. These results have important implications for corporate governance policy-makers who have a responsibility to prescribe appropriate corporate governance structures to ensure that shareholders are protected

本研究主要探討銀行在財務報表上的財務揭露與財務報表外的補充性揭露，如何影響股票市場價值的變化？由於銀行本身主要業務為放款，主要資產來自短中長期放款，這類資產所存在的違約風險以及因利率變動之價值減損風險較其他產業來的高，包含逾放款的產生以及放款期間結構的改變等因素，因此欲透過財務資訊的揭露，探討影響銀行股票市場價值變化的因素。本研究首先分析備抵呆帳、逾放款、放款期間結構與股票市場價值間之關係，其次再加入放款成長、買賣票券損益前純益、淨值成長率三變數，連同原先模式中之備抵呆帳、逾放款、放款期間結構，測試其對於股票市場價值之影響。另外透過虛擬變數的設立，重新測試模式。除以上模式採總額水準做測試外，另採增量水準觀念，測試兩期間備抵未帳、逾放款、放款期間結構、買賣票券損益前純益之變化對於股票市場價值變化之影響。 　　本研究係由探討國內外相關文獻，參考國內環境，加以延伸，蒐集民國七十八年至八十二年的資料，以分年及POOLING方式，另外亦透過FIXED EFFECTS MODEL做迴歸分析，探討財務資訊之資訊內涵。 　　經過實證結果，獲致以下結論： 　　1. 分年測試的結果，由於樣本數太少，結果不理想。 　　2. 備抵呆帳此項揭露在所有模式均具資訊內涵。 　　3. 買賣票券損益前純益亦具資訊內涵。 　　4. 逾放款、放款期間結構變數由於國內資料受限，未顧及時效性的因素及人為武斷定義變數的選取，並未在所有模式中得到與預期一致的結果。

Cette thèse a pour objet, d’une part, de décrire les pratiques du budget quand l’outil est utilisé dans un rôle de communication financière, et d’autre part, d’observer si, dans ce cadre-là, il conserve ses fonctions de gestion interne de l’organisation. Au travers d’une enquête qualitative menée auprès de dix-huit groupes français, puis d’une enquête quantitative auprès de 53 sociétés du SBF 250, nous avons étudié les principales caractéristiques du budget dans un rôle de communication financière.Nous avons montré que les pratiques du processus budgétaire étaient modifiées par la nécessité de rendre compte de cette nouvelle fonction du budget, au regard notamment de l’implication des acteurs, du rapprochement de la comptabilité de gestion et des IFRS et de l’importance des re-prévisions. / The purpose of this thesis is, on one hand, to describe the budgeting practices when the budget is used in a role of financial disclosure, and on the other hand, to observe if, in this case, it maintains its functions of internal management of the organization.Through a qualitative survey of eighteen French groups, and then through a quantitative survey of 53 firms of the SBF 250, we studied the main characteristics of the budget in a role of financial disclosure.We showed that the practices of the budget process were modified by the need to report this new function, particularly with regard to the attention of the actors, the link between management accounting and the IFRS and the primacy of the forecasts.

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.