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.

This study examines the depth of audience engagement with six dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) via the Instagram platforms of pharmaceutical companies. Recent research on the relationship between CSR and health communication has established a robust link between both variables but created a gap on the level of audience engagement. Drawing on Voluntary Disclosure, Agenda Setting and Media System Dependency theories, this study finds that voluntary communication of CSR strategies has the maximum potential to set the agenda for audience engagement on social media. The remodeled digitization of the media has increased the level of media dependency making social media a tool to be leveraged for effective health communication. The results revealed that Community Volunteering had the strongest impact on total audience engagement and revealed that engagement is higher with image posts than video posts. This study is important for the burgeoning field of CSR in the healthcare industry.

No description available.

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.

Inledning: I tidigare forskning har det framgått att styrelsen har en inverkan på bolags CSR- rapportering, eftersom styrelsen är med och utformar bolags CSR-strategier. Denna forskning har dock visat sig vara begränsad till att endast undersöka ett fåtal karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen, vilket motiverar en kartläggande studie av styrelsens karaktärsdrag och dess inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering. Problemformulering: Vilka karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen samt styrelseledamöter påverkar bolagets CSR-rapportering? Syftet: Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen samt styrelseledamöter som påverkar bolagets CSR-rapportering. Metod: Studien har en deduktiv ansats och har utifrån befintliga studier och teorier skapat hypoteser. Hypoteserna har sedan testats med kvantitativ tvärsnittsdata. Det urval som studien grundar sig på är 109 bolag listade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (large och mid cap) år 2013. Studiens data har främst samlats in från bolags årsredovisningar och hemsidor. Resultat: Studiens resultat antyder att styrelseledamöter: med juridisk utbildning, som är oberoende ledamöter, arbetstagarrepresentanter har en positiv påverkan på bolags CSR- rapportering. Detsamma gäller för styrelsens storlek och styrelseordförandens ålder. Det till skillnad från när familjeägare sitter i styrelsen, vilket enligt resultaten hade en negativ inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering. Studien visar att de strukturella karaktärsdragen hos styrelsen har störst inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering, vilket bland annat indikerar att de intressen som ledamöter företräder inverkar på dess styrelsearbete. Vi jämförde även bolag som var listade på large och mid cap-listan för att se om det fanns några skillnader dem emellan. Testerna visade att flera demografiska karaktärsdrag var signifikanta i de mindre bolagen men inte i de större. Detta indikerar att CSR-rapporteringsmentaliteten som dessa karaktärsdrag tidigare bidragit med, till viss del blivit institutionaliserat i de större bolagen. Ytterligare ett resultat som studien visat är att denna typ av forskning i framtiden inte endast kan begränsa sig till en teori. / Introduction: Previous research has shown that the board of directors has an impact on the companies CSR-reporting, since the directors are a part of developing the company's CSR- strategies. This research, however, has proven to be limited to investigate only a few character traits of the board of directors, which justifies a survey of the board's characteristics and its impact on companies' CSR-reporting. Problem: Which character traits of the board and board members affect the company's CSR- reporting? Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of the board and board members that affect the company's CSR-reporting. Method: The study adopts a deductive approach and the hypotheses are therefore based on existing studies and theories. The hypotheses that have been tested in this study are based on quantitative cross sectional data. The sample for this study is based on 109 companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (large and mid cap) in 2013. The data collected originates primarily from companies' annual reports and websites. Results: The results of this study show that those directors: with legal educations, that are independent, employee representatives have positive effects on companies’ CSR-reporting. The same applies to the size of the board and the age of the Chairman. These results are different from when family owners are members of the board, which has a negative impact on companies' CSR-reporting. The study also shows that the structural characteristics of the board have the greatest impact on companies' CSR-reporting, which, for example, indicates that the interests that the members represent have an impact on the board’s activities. We also compared companies listed on large and mid cap to see if there was any difference between the two. The test’s showed that several demographic characteristics had a significant impact in the smaller companies, but not in the larger companies. This indicates that the mentality of CSR-reporting that these traits previously assumed to contribute with, to some extent has become institutionalized in larger companies. Another result this study demonstrated was that future research regarding this relationship should not only limit itself to one theory.

Background and problem – As a result of financial crises and the realization of a broader stakeholder network, recent decades have seen an increase in stakeholder demand for non- financial information in corporate reporting. This has led to a situation of information overload where separate financial and sustainability reports have developed in length and complexity interdependent of each other. Integrated reporting has been presented as a solution to this problematic situation. The question is whether the corporate world believe this to be the solution and if the development of corporate reporting is heading in this direction. Purpose - This thesis aims to examine and assess to what extent companies listed on the OMX Stockholm 30 (OMXS30), as per 2016-02-28, comply with the Strategic content element of the <IR> Framework and how this disclosure has developed since the framework’s pilot project and official release by using a self-constructed disclosure index based on its specific items. Methodology – The purpose was fulfilled through an analysis of 104 annual reports comprising 26 companies during the period of 2011-2014. The annual reports were assessed using a self-constructed disclosure index based on the <IR> Framework content element Strategy and Resource Allocation, where one point was given for each disclosed item. Analysis and conclusions – The study found that the OMXS30-listed companies to a large extent complies with the strategic content element of the <IR> Framework and that this compliance has seen a steady growth throughout the researched time span. There is still room for improvement however with a total average framework compliance of 84% for 2014. Although many items are being reported on, there are indications that companies generally miss out on the core values of Integrated reporting.

The study examines the level of quantity and quality of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reporting for a sample of FTSE 350 UK listed companies over the period (2006-2010). Furthermore, it identifies the determinants of KPIs reporting and investigates its impact upon firm value. Based upon the guidance of the best practice recommended by the Accounting Standard Board (2006), the study develops a measure of disclosure quality by considering the main qualitative attributes of information which, arguably, makes KPIs information more useful to stakeholders. The distinction between disclosure quantity and quality in the study enables the researcher to get greater insights into the drivers and implications of KPIs reporting quantity and quality. The study finds a variation between UK firms in the number of KPIs disclosed with a notable low level of reporting quality, especially for non-financial KPIs. It also finds that corporate governance mechanisms play an important role in improving KPIs reporting. In particular, it shows that directors’ compensations affect the quantity and quality of KPIs disclosure. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that quantity and quality of KPIs disclosure are not derived by the same factors, and both have different impacts on firm value. Whereas, the study finds a negative association between the numbers of KPIs disclosed and firm value, a non-significant relationship is reported between KPIs reporting quality and firm valuation. Overall, this study provides evidence that disclosure quantity is not a good proxy for disclosure quality.

<p>This paper explores the effect of credit rating agency’s (CRA) reputation on the discretionary disclosures of corporate bond issuers. Academics, practitioners, and regulators disagree on the informational role played by major CRAs and the usefulness of credit ratings in influencing investors’ perception of the credit risk of bond issuers. Using management earnings forecasts as a measure of discretionary disclosure, I find that investors demand more (less) disclosure from bond issuers when the ratings become less (more) credible. In addition, using content analytics, I find that bond issuers disclose more qualitative information during periods of low CRA reputation to aid investors better assess credit risk. That the corporate managers alter their voluntary disclosure in response to CRA reputation shocks is consistent with credit ratings providing incremental information to investors and reducing adverse selection in lending markets. Overall, my findings suggest that managers rely on voluntary disclosure as a credible mechanism to reduce information asymmetry in bond markets.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Prior empirical research has shown that forward-looking statements can be particularly informative to investors (Li 2010; Muslu et al. 2014). However, the inherent uncertainty surrounding forward-looking statements may contribute to a delayed price reaction. This paper examines the market reaction to backward-looking statements and to forward-looking statements across a 60 trading-day horizon. I did not find evidence suggesting the inherent uncertainty of forward-looking statements contributes to a delayed price reaction. However, backward-looking statements are associated with a delayed price response. This result is consistent with Bernard and Thomas’s (1990) suggestion that post-earnings announcement drift is caused by investors not fully understanding how current earnings map into future earnings. I also provide evidence that, for the prepared remarks, investors have a stronger price reaction to net backward-looking tone than to net forward-looking tone. However, for the question-and-answer session, the opposite is true. Investors have a stronger price reaction to net forward-looking tone than to net backward-looking tone. This result suggests that managers should focus their prepared remarks on the prior performance of the firm and focus their responses during the question-and-answer session on the future performance of the firm. </p>

Background: The last few years a globalization of the capital market has occurred. This have led to that it is more important for the companies that their financial information can be compared with other companies in order to compete on same grounds. In order to fa-cilitate for the companies within EU to compete with other companies and in order to strive for an internal market EU decided that IFRS should be used by all listed companies within the union. Problem: In 2006 the first financial reports according to IFRS will be published, and then it will be interesting to investigate how the companies have chosen to communicate the transition to its stakeholders. According to IFRS some information is compulsive but the companies have chosen to disclose voluntary information to a different degree. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe to what extent the Swedish listed com-panies have reported the transition to IFRS in their consolidated financial statements. Method: In this essay a quantitative method have been chosen in order to find general re-lations. The data collection is done with help of an evaluation model that have been devel-oped for this study. The data have been collected from the chosen companies’ annual re-ports. Conclusion: The study shows that the amounts of information about the transition to IFRS within the company’s annual reports vary a lot. The result of the transition is also varying. The study shows a connection between the companies’ net sales and how much in-formation the companies publish in their annual reports. The study found no relation be-tween how the transition to IFRS affected the companies equity or the result and how much voluntary information that was disclosed. / Bakgrund: De senaste åren har en stark globalisering av kapitalmarknaden skett. Detta har lett till att det har blivit viktigare för företagen att deras finansiella information kan jämföras med andra företag för att konkurrera på samma grunder. För att underlätta för företagen inom EU att konkurrera med andra företag och för att fortsätta strävan efter en inre marknad har EU beslutat att IFRS skall tillämpas av alla börsnoterade företag inom unionen. Problem: 2006 kommer de första årsredovisningarna enligt IFRS att publiceras, det är då intressant att undersöka hur företagen valt att kommunicera övergången till sina intressen-ter. I IFRS anges att en del information är tvingande men företagen har valt att I olika om-fattning ha med frivillig information. Syfte: Att beskriva i vilken omfattning de svenska börsnoterade företagen har rapporterat övergången till IFRS i sin koncernredovisning. Metod: I denna uppsats har en kvantitativ metod valts för att generella samband skall hit-tas. Datainsamlingen sker genom ett utvärderingsunderlag som utvecklats för denna studie. Data har samlats in från de utvalda företagens årsredovisningar. Slutsats: Undersökningen visar att mängden information om övergången till IFRS i företagens årsredovisning varierar kraftigt. Även resultatet är varierande. Det finns ett samband mellan företagens omsättning och hur mycket information företagen publicerar I sina års-redovisningar. Det finns dock inget samband mellan hur övergången till IFRS påverkat eget kapital eller resultat och mängden information.