Thesis (doctoral)--Freiburg Universität, 2006/07. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Accounting and Information Studies, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 8, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-101). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1988.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1988.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A divulgaÃÃo de informaÃÃes nÃo obrigatÃrias caracteriza-se como uma questÃo de Ãtica e responsabilidade corporativa empresarial. A publicaÃÃo de relatÃrios de sustentabilidade tem como objetivo, alÃm de comunicar a mais variada gama de interessados prÃticas responsÃveis em toda a cadeia produtiva e operacional da empresa, consolidar em sua gestÃo uma postura sustentÃvel. Nesta perspectiva, o presente estudo tem o objetivo de verificar se existe relaÃÃo significativa entre as caracterÃsticas econÃmico-financeiras e a divulgaÃÃo voluntÃria de informaÃÃes sob o enfoque da sustentabilidade nas empresas de capital aberto dos paÃses de economias emergentes, Brasil, RÃssia, Ãndia e China (BRIC). As caracterÃsticas econÃmico financeiras sÃo tratadas como incentivos econÃmicos que motivam as empresas a aderirem a prÃticas de divulgaÃÃo voluntÃria de informaÃÃes. Os incentivos econÃmicos estudados foram: rentabilidade, desempenho no mercado de capitais, tamanho, endividamento, efeito da atividade no meio ambiente e paÃs. O nÃvel de disclosure voluntÃrio foi medido a partir de cinco perspectivas: nÃvel de aderÃncia ao relatÃrio GRI, disclosure econÃmico, disclosure ambiental, disclosure social e disclosure sustentÃvel. A pesquisa tem abordagem quantitativa, por se tratar de um estudo explicativo que verifica o efeito causal de hipÃteses. Foram analisadas informaÃÃes de 93 empresas de capital aberto dos paÃses membros do BRIC que publicam seus relatÃrios de sustentabilidade no modelo G3 da GRI. Para tratamento dos dados foram utilizadas as ferramentas estatÃsticas descritivas e regressÃo linear mÃltipla. A partir dos resultados obtidos, pode-se inferir que o nÃvel de disclosure voluntÃrio de informaÃÃes voltadas à questÃo da sustentabilidade pode estar associado com a prÃ-existÃncia de incentivos econÃmicos. O desempenho no mercado de capitais e o tamanho afetaram positivamente o nÃvel de disclosure. Dessa forma, pode-se inferir que empresas maiores e com alto desempenho no mercado de capitais sÃo potencialmente mais transparentes quanto ao disclosure da sustentabilidade. Jà a variÃvel PaÃs, afetou negativamente o nÃvel de disclosure, indicando que empresas sediadas em paÃses com IDH mais elevados possuem uma menor contribuiÃÃo para a divulgaÃÃo voluntÃria sob o enfoque da sustentabilidade de acordo com as diretrizes do relatÃrio GRI. As caracterÃsticas econÃmico-financeira rentabilidade, endividamento, e efeito da atividade no meio ambiente nÃo apresentaram influÃncia ao disclosure estudado. / The disclosure of volunteer information is characterized as a matter of business ethics and corporate responsibility. The publication of sustainability reports aimes, in addition to communicating the widest range of stakeholders responsible practices throughout the supply and operating chain of the company, to consolidate its management in a sustainable position. In this perspective, this study aims to verify whether there is a significant relationship between the economic and financial characteristics and voluntary disclosure of information with a focus on sustainability in publicly traded companies from emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). The economic and financial characteristics are treated as economic incentives that motivate companies to adhere to practices of voluntary disclosure. The economic incentives analyzed were: profitability, capital market performance, size, indebtedness, effect of activity on the environment and country. The voluntary disclosure level was measured from five perspectives: the level of adherence to the GRI reporting, economic disclosure, environmental disclosure, social disclosure and sustainable disclosure. The research has a quantitative approach because it is an explanatory study to evaluate the effect of causal hypotheses. It was analyzed information from 93 publicly traded companies of BRIC members countries that publish their sustainability reports on the GRI G3 model. The data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression tools. From the obtained results, it can infer that the level of voluntary disclosure of information focused on the issue of sustainability can be associated with the pre-existence of economic incentives. The performance in the capital market and the size affected positively the level of disclosure. Thus, it can be inferred that larger firms with high performance in the capital market are potentially more transparent about the disclosure of sustainability. The factor Country affected negatively the level of disclosure, indicating that companies hosted in countries with higher HDI have a lower contribution to the voluntary disclosure under the focus of sustainability according to the guidelines of the GRI report. The economic and financial characteristics profitability, indebtedness, and the effect of activity on the environment had no influence on the studied disclosure.

Bakgrund och problemformulering: Trots att humankapital ofta ses som en tillgång, får den inte tas upp i balansräkningen. Istället får företag frivilligt presentera information rörande personal i övriga delar i sina årsredovisningar. Vad för typ av information, och hur den ska redovisas, bestämmer företagen själva. Forskning senaste år har dock visat att företagen har slutat presentera information om humankapitalet, samt att det endast var en trend som nu bytts ut mot andra trender. Dessutom visar forskningen att rapporteringen varit ologiskt, och att företagens rapportering skiljer sig från år till år. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra med en ökad förståelse om redovisningen av humankapitalet skiljer sig åt mellan företag ur olika sektorer. Vi vill med detta ge en bild av om och i så fall hur olika typer av företag redovisar humankapitalet. Detta för att skapa en bättre förståelse om humankapitalet är ett viktigt inslag i företagens redovisning, men även om det prioriteras olika beroende på vilken sektor de tillhör. Metod: En totalundersökning av företagen inom small cap från de tre sektorerna industri, teknologi och hälsovård på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Mätinstrumentet disclosure index användes vid analys och insamling av data från företagens årsredovisningar. Indexen delades in i 6 olika kategorier, och byggdes på ett tidigare index gjort av Bukh m.fl. (2005), samt en egen förstudie. Referensram: Här ges en djupare inblick inom begreppet humankapital och intellektuella kapitalet. Vidare ges en historisk återblick från 1960 talet till idag angående forskning och redovisningen av humankapitalet. Olika motiv och faktorer tas upp till varför företagen väljer att presentera humankapitalet. Empiri och slutsats: Undersökningens utfall visade på att det inte förkom direkta skillnader mellan sektorerna. Det var mer likheter än skillnader mellan sektorerna med hur de redovisar information om humankapitalet. Inga skillnader hittades angående mängden redovisat humankapital och endast små skillnader hittades angående innehållet. Detta resultat var oväntat, då det inte var tydliga skillnader mellan sektorerna. Vidare förekom det stora variationer avseende mängden mellan företagen inom respektive sektor. Den sektor som hade största genomsnittsmängden var teknologisektorn. Hälsovårdssektorn kom efter, och industrisektorn redovisade minst. Avseende vilken typ av information de presenterade så redovisade teknologisektorn främst information angående olika fördelningar på anställda. Industri- och hälsovårdssektorn presenterade däremot främst information angående personalens utveckling och motivation. / Background and research issue: Although human capital is often regarded as an asset, it cannot be included in the balance sheet. Instead, companies may voluntarily present information about their personal in other parts of their annual reports. What type of information, and how it should be reported, is up to the companies to determine themselves. However, research in recent years has shown that companies have ceased to present information about human capital, and that it was only a trend that has now been replaced with other trends. In addition, research shows that reporting has been illogical, and the reporting by the companies differs year to year. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding if the reporting of human capital differs between companies from different sectors. We want to give a picture if and how different types of companies report human capital. This is for a better understanding if human capital appears to be an important element in the companies accounting, also whether it is prioritized differently depending on which sector they belong to. Method: A total survey of small cap companies from the three sectors industry, technology and healthcare at Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. The measuring instrument disclosure index was used in analyzing and collecting data from the companies’ annual reports. The index was divided into 6 different categories, and was based on a previous index made by Bukh et al (2005), as well as a separate preliminary study. Empiricism: Here gives a deeper insight into the concept of human capital and intellectual capital. In addition, a historical recital from the 1960s to today is presented regarding research and the accounting of human capital. Furthermore, different motives are presented to show why companies choose to present human capital. Conclusion: The outcome of the study showed that there were no direct differences between the sectors. There were more similarities than differences between the sectors regarding how they report human capital. No differences were found regarding the amount of disclosure, and only a few differences was found regarding the type of information disclosed. This result was unexpected, as there were no clear differences in the reporting between each sector. Furthermore, there were large variations in the amount of disclosure between the companies in each sector. The sector with the largest average amount disclosure was the Technology sector. The Healthcare sector came after, and the Industry sector reported least. Regarding what type of information they presented, the Technology sector mainly reported information about different employee distributions. The Industry and Healthcare sector mainly presented information about staff development and motivation.

Background: In the last decades voluntary disclosure has become more common. The available research on the subject has mainly focused on the motive of voluntary disclosure rather than the content or what kind of information is published most frequent. There is a shortcoming in the academic literature about what information outflow is focused on and to whom. Henceforth this study aims to analyze the voluntary disclosure in the annual report among listed companies on the Swedish Stock Exchange. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to operationalize and describe voluntary disclosure to contribute empirically to the knowledge gap within the subject. The study intends to clarify the type of voluntary disclosure that dominates in annual reports on Stockholm Stock Exchange. Method: To answer our purpose of this study as well as possible we conducted a qualitative content analysis with selected companies’ annual reports. This literature study has an abductive research strategy based on collecting empirical data from the annual reports of the companies with the most new owners by 2020. Based on a checklist and a coding scheme, the empirical data will be quantified, analyzed and compared. Results and conclusions:We found in accordance that the companies published a considerably high amount of voluntary disclosure in their annual report. The companies with the most new owners distinguished themselves by publishing more voluntary information than companies with fewer new owners. The categories of voluntary disclosure that were given the highest priority were financial information about the company and organization.

In September 1979, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a statement entitled Financial Reporting and Changing Prices (FASB No. 33). FASB No. 33 requires publicly-held companies of a certain size to issue supplementary constant dollar and current cost disclosures along with their primary financial statements.To investigate the effect of the signals on security prices the study used a methodology known as "Iso-beta Portfolio Analysis" and employed different models in conjunction with the methodology, the market model (MM) and a new model called "the multi-index model" (MIM). Cluster analysis was used to develop the indexing used with the MIM.

Voluntary disclosure theory suggests a firm increasing its disclosures should lower the information asymmetry component of its cost of capital. Empirical results on specific disclosures are mixed though, as individual disclosures may not provide enough value to investors in disclosure rich environments. Salary expense disclosures, unlike some other cost disclosures, may provide insight into increasing firm risk leading to an increased cost of capital, as employee pay has been shown to increase in response to leverage increases. I examine whether salary expense disclosures provide valuable information to investors, as measured through a disclosing firm's cost of capital, and I examine the channels through which the disclosure provides the information. I find that firms that disclose salary expense receive a lowered cost of capital if they are disclosing more stable cost structures, and the value of this disclosed information relates to the relative risk associated with the disclosed cost structures. I also find the propensity for firms to initiate disclosure increases as more analysts follow the firm and these initiating firms receive a lower cost of capital in exchange for their initial disclosure. Additionally, this lower cost of capital for initial disclosers is not based on the relative stability of the disclosed cost structure. / Doctor of Philosophy / Theory suggests when a company voluntarily discloses information that is useful to investors, the investors will pay more for that company's stock which equates to a lower cost of capital for the company. Empirical results on individual disclosures are mixed though, as each disclosure may not provide enough value to investors in environments where companies disclose a large amount of information. Salary expense disclosures, unlike some other cost disclosures, may provide insight into increasing firm risk leading to an increased cost of capital for the disclosing companies, as employee pay has been shown to increase in response to leverage increases. I examine whether salary expense disclosures provide valuable information to investors, as measured through a disclosing firm's cost of capital, and I examine the channels through which the disclosure provides the information. I find that firms that disclose salary expense receive a lowered cost of capital if they are disclosing more stable cost structures, and the value of this disclosed information relates to the relative risk associated with the disclosed cost structures. I also find the propensity for firms to initiate disclosure increases as more analysts follow the firm and these initiating firms receive a lower cost of capital in exchange for their initial disclosure. Additionally, this lower cost of capital for initial disclosers is not based on the relative stability of the disclosed cost structure.

I develop a general equilibrium model to examine the innovation and welfare effects of expanding mandatory financial disclosure to a broader set of firms. In the model, disclosure by relatively small firms reveals proprietary information about their local markets, which helps larger firms enter and compete. Consistent with previous empirical findings, the model predicts that mandatory disclosure encourages (discourages) innovation by larger (smaller) firms. More importantly, I identify conditions for when expanding the scope of disclosure regulation increases aggregate innovation and/or welfare. I structurally estimate the model using innovation data and plausibly exogenous variation in the extent of disclosure regulation in Europe. My estimates suggest that subjecting 15% more firms to full reporting requirements decreases aggregate innovation by around -0.26% but increases welfare by around 1%. This disparity is driven by the fact that production shifts to larger firms that innovate less but are more efficient in exploiting the fruits of innovations.