The purpose of this study are to investigate and describe if companies’ sustainability reports differ in substance and quantity between public and Large Cap companies’ and if there are any differences between industries. This study will also analyze if companies’ size, stakeholder group or profitability have some impact on the companies’ sustainability report. The study includes all Swedish public companies and the Large Cap companies. To investigate in line of the purpose this study will measure both the substance and quantity. The substance in sustainability reports are based on the social, economic and environmental core indicators from GRI’s guidelines and the quantity is based on the number of pages. A mean value is presented based on the core indicators. Furthermore, five hypotheses are presented and are based on the stakeholder theory, the legitimacy theory and the institutional theory with the purpose to explain the differences in substance and quantity. The study’s result indicates that the companies’ size correlates with both substance and quantity. The stakeholder group correlates with substance and quantity of sustainability report. The companies’ sustainability does show a weak correlation to both substance and quantity information. The purpose of the study is also to look at differences in different industries. The results indicate that differences exist in the different industries. Furthermore, this study investigates differences between public companies and Large Cap companies on Stockholm stock exchanges. The result here indicates differences of substance and quantity information between the public companies and the Large Cap companies. The first three hypotheses tested correlation between the different factors; companies’ size, profitability and stakeholder group and these hypotheses are accepted. The other two hypotheses tested differences between differences industries and differences between public companies and Large Cap companies and these hypotheses are accepted. Regardless of which factors that affects companies’ sustainability reports one can argue that the main motive of the companies is to gain legitimacy or because their stakeholders request it. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och besrkiva hur företags hållbarhetsredovisningar skiljer sig åt i mängd och innehåll mellan statliga företag och börsnoterade företag, Large Cap, hur olika branscher skiljer sig åt samt storlekens och intressenternas påverkan och även företags lönsamhetsmått. Studien baseras på alla svenska statliga företag och alla företag på Stockholmsbörsen, Large Cap. Undersökningen syftar till att mäta både mängden information som antal sidor hållbarhetsinformation och innehållet i hållbarhetsinformation som utgår från sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga kärnindikatorer enligt GRI:s riktlinjer. Utifrån de tre olika områdena beräknas ett medelvärde för de totala kärnindikatorerna. Vidare ställs fem hypoteser utifrån intressentteorin, legitimitetsteorin och institutionella teorin med syfte att förklara variationen i innehållet och mängden. Resultatet visar att både storleken på företaget och antalet intressenter visar på samband till både innehållet och mängden hållbarhetsinformation. Även företags lönsamhet visar på ett vagt samband till både innehållet och mängden information. Undersökningen syftar även till att jämföra olika branscher med varandra vilket resulterade i statistiska skillnader mellan branscherna. Slutligen jämförs skillnader mellan börsnoterade och statliga företag som visar på att statliga företag redovisar mer innehåll och mängd information. Flera samband och skillnader påvisas därför argumenteras för att företags hållbarhetsinformation påverkas av flera olika faktorer som lönsamhet, storlek av företag, intressenter, bransch samt om företaget är börsnoterat eller statligt ägt. Oavsett vilka faktorer som påverkar hållbarhetsinformationen som ges ut beror företags syfte med hållbarhetsarbete i mindre utsträckning till att endast arbeta med hållbarhetsfrågor för att värna om framtiden utan för att bland annat få legitimitet eller för att intressenterna efterfrågar det.

An impact factor(IF) has been used extensively as a measure of the importance and impact of journals recently. The IF provided by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is calculated based on the most recent three years period. For example, the IF of 2003 for a journal is calculated; the number articles published in 2001 to 2002 cited in tracked journals during 2003 divided by the number of articles published in 2001 to 2002. In this work, we examine the different patterns of IF of journals in different fields as well as within the same field. We also provide a method of clustering journals according to the characteristics of the corresponding IF within the same field. Based on the experiences from analyzing the IF, we propose modified IFs from statistics point of view as possible new measures for the characteristics of different journals.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1928. / Vita. Published also as Teachers college, Columbia university, Contributions to education, no. 304. "Citations": p. 134-147. Bibliography: p. 131.

Originally issued as the author's Thesis (O.E. and M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Accompanying materials housed with archival copy. / The purpose of this study is to research the role of documentation in a cycle-two, year one classroom (Grade 3) in a suburban community in Quebec. As the teacher-researcher, my overarching question is to come to a better understanding of how documentation is carried out in the classroom. There are several questions that guide this research: (1) What kinds of documentation are used and what purposes do they serve? (2) What role(s) does the teacher play in the documentation process? (3) What role(s) do the children play in documentation? For the purpose of this study documentation is any recording of or about classroom activities, students, or events influencing learning (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999). Data forms included fieldnotes, video tapes, and classroom artifacts. I used complementary categorizing (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994) and contextualizing (Erickson, 1986, 1992; Merryfield, 1990) approaches for analysis, aided by the computer software program Atlas.ti (Muhr, 1997). / Three main categories of documentation were uncovered in the data. These are interactive documentation, reflective documentation, and process-oriented documentation. The activities that supported and sustained the creation of this documentation are explored in detail. The consequences of the documentation process resulted in what is described as an interactive classroom. The major conclusions concern the importance of communication cycles, flexible teacher roles, and the space provided for student participation.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate aspects of the differential corporate reporting debate in South Africa. The dissertation summarises the background to the current position and findings in respect of all previous South African research and selected previous international research. The dissertation reports the results of a postal survey of South African registered accountants' and auditors' perceptions of the suitability of selected South African statements of generally accepted accounting practice to a range of South African entities varied by size, legal form and financial statement user base. The dissertation provides evidence of (i) the need for differential corporate reporting in South Africa, (ii) the need for multiple differential reporting thresholds in South Africa, and (iii) the need for differential reporting options to include both presentation and disclosure and recognition and measurement concessions. The dissertation also raises some questions for future research. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

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This study investigates the role played by corporate governance in the firm's decision to disclose forward-looking information in financial reports, as well as the quality of such reports. More effective corporate governance has often been linked to voluntary disclosure within the annual report (Karamanou and Vafeas 2005). Similarly, recent studies document a positive association between reporting quality and the standard of corporate governance (Wright 2001). This study proposes that stronger corporate governance will be associated with increased forward-looking disclosures in financial reports and higher financial reporting quality. The results indicate that audit quality, the presence and quality of board committees and the overall efficacy of corporate governance are positively associated with forward-looking disclosures in 2000. However, corporate governance does not have a positive association with such disclosures in 2002. Regarding the relationship between financial reporting quality and corporate governance, audit quality is the only governance variable that yields a significant result and is only associated with higher reporting quality in 2002.