Yes / This paper investigates the relationship between intellectual capital disclosure and corporate governance variables, controlling for other firm-specific characteristics, for a sample of 100 UK listed firms. Intellectual capital disclosure is measured by a disclosure index score, supported by word count and percentage of word count metrics to assess the variety, volume and focus of intellectual capital disclosure respectively. The independent variables comprise various forms of corporate governance structure: board composition, ownership structure, audit committee size and frequency of audit committee meetings, and CEO role duality. Results of the analysis based on the three measures of intellectual capital disclosure indicate significant association with all the governance factors except for role duality. The influence of corporate governance mechanisms on human, structural and relational capital disclosure, based on all three metrics, is also explored.

Yes / This paper examines the effect of textual risk disclosure on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated into share prices, as measured by stock price synchronicity, for Chinese listed firms during 2007-2011. We find that synchronicity is inversely associated with risk disclosure, suggesting that risk disclosure is firm specific and useful to investors. In addition, our results document that the usefulness of risk information is statistically and economically more pronounced among internationally oriented firms than their domestically oriented peers, consistent with the necessity for risk disclosure to be more meaningful when it relates to greater uncertainty. Finally, we find that internationally oriented firms tend to disclose more risk factors than their domestically oriented counterparts. Our findings are robust to a variety of specifications and the use of alternative measures of risk disclosure, stock price synchronicity and international orientation. Our paper has practical implications since its findings shed light on the current debate on whether or not narrative sections of annual reports convey useful information to investors.

With the increase of requesting personal information online, unauthorized disclosure of user privacy is a significant problem faced by today's Internet. As a typical identity theft, phishing usually employs fraudulent emails and spoofed web sites to trick unsuspecting users into divulging their private information. Even legitimate web sites may collect private information from unsophisticated users such as children for commercial purposes without their parents' consent. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 was enacted in reaction to the widespread collection of information from children and subsequent abuses identified by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). COPPA is aimed at protecting child's privacy by requiring parental consent before collecting information from children under thirteen. In this thesis, we propose two solutions for ensuring user online privacy. By analyzing common characteristics of phishing pages, we propose a client-side tool, Trident, which works as a browser plug-in for filtering phishes. The experiment results show that Trident can identify 98-99% online and valid phishing pages, as well as automatically validate legitimate pages. To protect child's privacy, we introduce the POCKET (parental online consent on kids' electronic privacy) framework, which is a technically feasible and legally sound solution to enforce COPPA. Parents answer a questionnaire on their privacy requirements and the POCKET user agent generates a privacy preferences file. Meantime, the merchants are required to possess a privacy policy that is authenticated by a trusted third party. Only web sites that possess and adhere to their privacy policies are allowed to collect child's information; web sites whose policies do not match the client's preferences are blocked. POCKET framework incorporates a transaction protocol to secure the data exchange between an authenticated client and a POCKET-compliant merchant. / Master of Science

The present study used regression procedures to investigate the relationships between selected communication variables and innate innovativeness. The three general types of variables examined in this study were communication anxiety, communicator style, and selfdisclosiveness. Ten hypotheses were tested together with a descriptive model which was based on the communication variables and their ability to predict innate innovativeness. Results of the tests of the model were confirmed as were the ten hypothesized relationships. The results of the regression analyses performed on the data indicated that receiver apprehension and honesty of self-disclosiveness were negatively and positively associated with innate innovativeness respectively, and were the variables which most significantly impacted the variance of innate innovativeness scores.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-15T20:08:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Angela Patrícia Bovolini Pedron.pdf: 650305 bytes, checksum: dc268a9b96a9eb0822b79a60d29641a3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-15T20:08:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Angela Patrícia Bovolini Pedron.pdf: 650305 bytes, checksum: dc268a9b96a9eb0822b79a60d29641a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-01-31 / Nenhuma / O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar se existe relação entre o nível de evidenciação de informações ambientais e a rentabilidade e valor de empresas listadas na BM&FBovespa. O embasamento teórico está centrado na teoria da legitimidade que parte do pressuposto que as empresas evidenciariam informações com objetivo de legitimar suas operações junto à sociedade, e na teoria de custos do proprietário a qual postula que evidenciar informações sobre a empresa acarretaria em custos aos proprietários. O estudo utilizou uma amostra de empresas listadas na BM&FBovespa no período de 2006 a 2012. A evidenciação de informações ambientais foi realizada por meio de indicadores de evidenciação, construído a partir da revisão da literatura. A rentabilidade é percebida pelos indicadores retorno sobre o patrimônio (ROE) e retorno sobre os ativos (ROA) e o valor pelo indicador Q de Tobin. A partir da revisão da literatura foram identificados 46 indicadores de evidenciação ambiental que foram reunidos em 5 categorias por possuírem características semelhantes. Com a definição dos indicadores e suas categorias, foram calculados os níveis de evidenciação ambientais. Posteriormente, foram realizadas regressões com dados em painel buscando responder ao problema de pesquisa. Os resultados econométricos não identificaram relação significativa entre a evidenciação de informações ambientais e a rentabilidade e o valor das empresas, com exceção da relação entre o nível de evidenciação de políticas ambientais e o ROA. Como contribuição deste estudo destaca-se a utilização de indicadores de evidenciação ambiental e a utilização do Q de Tobin, como indicador de valor. / The objective of this study was to analyze if a relationship exists between the level of environmental information disclosure and the profitability and value of listed companies on the BM&FBovespa - Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&FBovespa). The theoretical basis centers on the Theory of Legitimacy, which postulates that companies disclose information with the objective of legitimizing their operations before society, and on the Proprietary Costs Theory, which postulates that disclosing information about the company incurs costs for the owners. The study draws on a sample of listed companies on the BM&FBovespa in the period from 2006 to 2012. The disclosure of environmental information was verified through disclosure indicators developed based on a review of the literature. Profitability was observed using the indicators return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) and value was observed using Tobin's Q indicator. Based on a review of the literature, 46 environmental disclosure indicators were compiled and organized into five categories based on the similarity of characteristics. Once the indicators and their categories were defined, the levels of environmental disclosure were calculated. Then regression analyses were performed using panel data in order to answer the problem proposed in the study. The econometric results did not identify a significant relationship between environmental information disclosure and the profitability and value of companies, with the exception of a relationship between the level of environmental disclosure and ROA. A noteworthy contribution made by this study was the use of environmental disclosure indicators and the use of Tobin's Q as an indicator of value.

Regulators have long disagreed whether regulation would reduce hedge funds’ financial misreporting. On the one hand, critics have stated that hedge funds are unlikely to misreport because their investors are highly sophisticated financial players who can detect and deter financial misconduct. On the other hand, recent changes in the composition of hedge funds’ investors have led many to question this argument. In this paper, I test whether hedge fund regulation reduces misreporting by using a quasi-natural experiment in which a subset of hedge funds was regulated, deregulated, and then regulated again. Unique features of the setting permit me to study not only whether hedge fund regulation reduces financial misreporting—but, if so, why the regulation reduces misreporting. The results show that regulation reduces misreporting at hedge funds and that the imposition of disclosure requirements, even without other concurrent changes in regulation, can reduce hedge funds’ misreporting. The result seems surprising, because hedge funds’ investors are commonly thought to have access to far more information than is required by disclosure rules. Further inquiries suggest that disclosure requirements led funds to make changes in their internal governance, and that these changes in governance induced funds to report their financial performance more honestly and accurately.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / This research examined whether an improved participation of women in the board of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) firms has any relationship with sustainability disclosure. Accordingly, the objective of this research was to examine the relationship between the number of women on the board and environmental, social and gender-employment disclosure in South African firms. The research applied a purposive sampling design to study the nine best socially responsible investing firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and secondary data were collected from the sustainability reports of the firms. Using a quantitative approach, the panel-data regression analysis was used to analyse the relationship between women on the board of directors, environmental, social and gender employment disclosure. Energy consumption disclosure, social investment and the number of women employment in the firms were the proxy for environmental disclosure, social investment and gender employment disclosures respectively. Findings show a positive relationship between the number of women on the board of directors and firm disclosure on energy consumption, disclosure on women employment and social investment disclosure. However, the number of women employed in the corporate is still very low in comparison with the male counterparts. The research recommends that, given the unique social and environmental sensitivity of women, the corporate should recruit more women onto the boards to enhance accelerated corporate sustainability performance and disclosures. Key words: sustainability disclosure, women in the board, sustainability performance, energy disclosure, sustainable development

Educators are commonly concerned about how to trigger students' interest in the classroom, as well as how to create a learning experience in which students are engaged and motivated to invest effort and time. Similarly, researchers have explored these variables and aimed to establish a better understanding of how students' interest is developed. Yet, less attention has been paid to teacher self-disclosure as a factor in students' learning experiences and interest development. Although teacher self-disclosure has commonly been addressed in connection with the teacher-student relationship it has not been linked to interest development. Therefore, with the goal of exploring the construct of teacher self-disclosure, this study explored associations and interactions of perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and of students' individual and situational interest in a language learning context. In addition, students' ratings of the learning experience and intended effort were added to investigate associations between these student variables and their perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and interest. Data were collected in language classes of 16 different instructors. In total, 185 students participated in the qualitative part of the study, Phase 1, by filling out surveys at the beginning and end of the semester. For the main analysis, correlation and regression analyses were used in order to explore the relations between students' perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and initial individual interest, situational interest, the learning experience, and intended effort. Further, a total of nine instructors and eight students participated in the qualitative part, Phase 2, by agreeing to be observed and interviewed. Here, the focus was on describing and assessing the use of teacher self-disclosure in language classes. Results indicated that teachers were rated as varying in their self-disclosure, but that self-disclosure did not account for much of the variance in students' situational interest. Qualitative results showed that students perceived teacher self-disclosure to be an important communication strategy and one of the influential variables an instructor can bring into the learning experience. Overall, this study makes a contribution to understanding the complexity and interactions of student and teacher variables that are crucial to establish a functioning student-teacher relationship and subsequently healthy learning experience. / text

Syfte: Studien har två syften: Att beskriva förekomsten av kategorier och omfattningen av frivillig redovisning om anställda som är relaterad till bolagens sociala ansvar (CSR). Att förklara vilka faktorer som påverkar omfattningen av frivillig redovisning relaterat till anställda.  Metod: Då studien har ett förklarande syfte som berör omfattningen av frivillig redovisning om anställda, så har kvantitativa metoder använts och data till studien har samlats in via en kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Studien utfördes på 56 av de 58 bolag som befann sig på Large Cap, Stockholmsbörsen 2012, varav två bolag fick räknas som bortfall på grund av andra redovisningssätt än de övriga. Datat analyserades sedan genom deskriptiv statistik och multipla regressionsanalyser.  Resultat & slutsats: Stora bolag på Stockholmsbörsen redovisar frivilligt multipla kategorier information om anställda, men den kategori som generellt används mest är profilinformation om anställda. Den faktor som främst förklarar den frivilliga informationen om anställda är bolagets skuldkvot, men också vilken industrisektor ett bolag tillhör har betydelse. Den teori som främst förklarar frivillig redovisning om anställda är agentteorin.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: I denna studie upptäckte vi att bolag redovisar fler kategorier om anställda än vad vi i vår studie deducerat fram från tidigare forskning. En kvalitativ kartläggning av kategorierna kan därför vara ett förslag till fortsatt forskning.  Uppsatsens bidrag: Mycket av tidigare forskning när det gäller frivillig redovisning har haft ett generellt fokus, där flera olika kategorier information som berör socialt ansvar (CSR) har använts och mycket av den har berört miljö eller finansiell information. Denna studie däremot har fokus på vad bolag specifikt frivilligt redovisar om anställda och detta specifika fokus har inte tidigare utförts på stora bolag på Stockholmsbörsen.

Submitted by VITOR HUGO DA SILVA DANTAS de MORAES (vitor.engmec@gmail.com) on 2015-02-24T23:43:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MPE - DISSERTAÇÃO MESTRADO - VITOR MORAES - REVISADO V2.pdf: 629479 bytes, checksum: 84bdb0a8f1a9a631f407867932459037 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br) on 2015-02-25T18:55:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MPE - DISSERTAÇÃO MESTRADO - VITOR MORAES - REVISADO V2.pdf: 629479 bytes, checksum: 84bdb0a8f1a9a631f407867932459037 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-25T18:59:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MPE - DISSERTAÇÃO MESTRADO - VITOR MORAES - REVISADO V2.pdf: 629479 bytes, checksum: 84bdb0a8f1a9a631f407867932459037 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-01-28 / This paper seeks to go beyond such decision, own capital or third, and verify the decision of what type of third resource raise, so this study analyzes the company's debt composition with respect to the source of financing: private or public sources. Therefore, econometric models were built in order to investigate which features are relevant in seeking the decision of the best sources of financing their activities. Data were collected from panel of Brazilian companies outside the finance and insurance sector, whose shares are traded on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA). In this paper we report variables of enterprises regarding the quality and credibility of financial reporting, total fixed assets, profitability, leverage, sector, company size and internationalization. The results indicated that factors such as total fixed assets, leverage, profitability and some sectors of activity are relevant to establishing the firm's financing strategy. The variable level of disclosure, responsible for differentiating a company with higher accounting information quality from others, was not significant, as it was expected. Therefore, the results suggest that the studied companies tend to follow the theory of inefficient liquidation when they take their funding decisions. / O presente trabalho busca ir além da decisão, capital próprio ou terceiro, e verificar a decisão de qual tipo de recurso terceiro angariar, portanto, analisa a composição do endividamento da empresa com relação à fonte de financiamento: recursos privados ou públicos. Logo, foram construídos modelos econométricos com o intuito de investigar quais características, por parte da empresa, são relevantes na escolha de qual fonte recorrer para financiar suas atividades. Foram utilizados dados em painel de empresas brasileiras não pertencentes ao setor de Finanças e Seguros, cujas ações são negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). Neste trabalho foram investigadas variáveis das empresas referentes à qualidade e credibilidade das informações contábeis, total de ativos imobilizados, lucratividade, alavancagem, setor de atuação, tamanho da empresa e internacionalização. Os resultados indicaram que fatores como total de ativos imobilizados, alavancagem, lucratividade e alguns setores de atuação são relevantes para determinar a estratégia de financiamento da firma. A variável nível de disclosure, responsável por diferenciar a empresa que possui qualidade da informação contábil superior às demais, não apresentou ser significante, embora, com o sinal esperado. Portanto, os resultados sugerem que as empresas estudadas tendem a seguir a teoria da liquidação ineficiente quando tomam as suas decisões de financiamento.