Starting from 2005 the disclosure of financial forecast for Taiwanese public companies has not been mandatory, firms can decide whether they want to disclose, and if so, how and when to disclose. How does the investor's reaction affect this decision? Furthermore, what is the trade-off between transparency and precision? This study develops a theoretical model in which the voluntary disclosure of earnings forecast is a double-edged sword. Such disclosure may reduce information asymmetry, but simultaneously allows entrepreneurs to hype the stock. The proposed model assumes that insiders might manipulate information and investors can learn with bounded rationality. The analytical results demonstrate that entrepreneurs may forgo earnings forecast disclosure if they can achieve greater profit under non-disclosure. In the multiperiod case, this study shows that insiders would reduce their forecast manipulation behavior due to the cost of forecast error and diminishing marginal expected profit. This study accommodates an explanation of the decrease in voluntary disclosure and the popularity of investor conferences in Taiwan. The inferences of the proposed model are examined based on forecasts issued by Taiwanese listed firms. The empirical results evidence a positive relationship between insiders¡¦ trading profit and manipulation of earnings forecast. Additionally, insiders¡¦ trading profit regarding forecast revisions is greater under voluntary disclosure than mandatory disclosure. This study offers important insights into earnings forecast policy in emerging markets.

This study examines whether corporate transparency about a restatement influences the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision to issue an enforcement action. I consider corporate transparency to be higher when firms initiate an independent investigation into the restatement, display the restatement in a more prominent press release location, and/or report the restatement in a more visible SEC filing (i.e., Form 8-K). My sample of restatement observations spans nine years, 1997-2005, and is taken from the databases compiled by the General Accounting Office. For each restatement observation, I hand-collect information on SEC enforcement actions from the SEC's website and information on corporate transparency from company press releases and SEC filings. In order to determine the influence of corporate transparency, I develop a model predicting which restatement firms will be sanctioned by the SEC that includes measures of restatement severity, restatement characteristics, firm characteristics, and all three measures of corporate transparency. I find that, on average, greater restatement transparency increases the likelihood of an SEC sanction. This result is strongest before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), where all three proxies for corporate transparency are positive and significant predictors of SEC enforcement actions. After SOX, however, more visible SEC filings decrease the likelihood of an SEC sanction, suggesting that the SEC rewards this type of transparent behavior. In addition, the SEC also rewards corporate transparency by reducing monetary penalties when an enforcement action is issued. These results extend prior research (Bowen et al. 2005; Files et al. 2008; Gordon et al. 2008; Myers et al. 2008) by providing the first evidence on how corporate transparency affects the SEC's decision to issue an enforcement action. The results may be useful to managers of restating firms and academics researching SEC enforcement actions.

<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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p> / <p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Syfte: Att beskriva i vilken omfattning de svenska börsnoterade företagen har rapporterat övergången till IFRS i sin koncernredovisning.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

Reporting regarding issues that are related to Corporate Social Responsibility have come into more and more focus lately. Most countries currently have a limited or no mandatory regulations regarding what should be included in either an annual report or in a stand-alone report in terms of CSR. However Denmark is one of the pioneers regarding mandatory CSR regulations and as such has certain rules and regulations that their companies have to follow. Even if today’s regulations are heavily focused on financial information that companies have to disclose there also exists regulations regarding non-financial information. As with the financial crisis that occurred in the early 21st century that led to stricter disclosures requirements for financial information we see a need for regulating non-financial information and especially CSR information. We have been able to see that some companies have been able to manipulate their CSR report so as to put themselves in a good light. Therefore the question arises if mandatory CSR disclosure will have any influence on the stock market.The purpose of this study was to examine if Swedish companies and the Swedish stock market could benefit from having mandatory CSR regulations, similar to those that exist in Denmark. We sought to examine if fulfilling certain amount of CSR criteria would reduce the volatility of a company’s stock price.In order for us to achieve the purpose of our research we had to conduct an experiment on the Swedish companies. In order for us to conduct the experiment we firstly had to select what type of research we would conduct and what type of research was most suitable for our research. In order for us to achieve an answer to our research question and to be able to fulfill the purpose of our research we decided to conduct a quantitative research. We have chosen to utilize the quantitative research approach as this would allow gathering sufficient data from existing databases and reports. The database that we chose to utilize in order for us to find our sample population was NASDAQ OMX Nordic where the companies had be listed as of 2015-03-31 as well as having financial data for the entire year of 2014, meaning between 2014-01-01 and 2014-12-31. NASDAQ OMX Nordic was also used in order for us to find market indexes. In order for us to able to answer our research question we developed three different hypotheses based on our theoretical framework that would later be tested.From the testing of our hypotheses we could determine that there is a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports, in terms of how many of our CSR criteria they fulfill, and the historical volatility of the company’s stock price. We were also able to determine that there exists a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports and the level of Beta that a company has. This implied that the Swedish stock market could benefit from mandatory CSR regulation as it would reduce the volatility which would also be beneficial for the company’s different stakeholders.

This study examines if three hypothesized variables affect the extent of corporate strategic information, i.e. voluntary information, in corporate annual reports, specifically in Sweden in the year of 2012. The variables deemed appropriate to the Swedish environment, i.e. firm size, ownership dispersion and performance, were retrieved from previous disclosure research conducted in a Swedish context (Cook, 1989; Adrem, 1999), as well as relevant theoretical consideration. The statistical analysis conducted in this thesis suggests that firm size is significantly positively related to the extent of strategic corporate information in Swedish listed firms’ corporate annual reports. The result hence confirms the expectation that larger listed firms to a larger extent disclose strategic corporate information, i.e. voluntary information, in their corporate annual reports. No positive relation was found between the variables performance or ownership dispersion and the extent of strategic corporate information. The results of this thesis are interpreted to suggest that asymmetric information and agency costs are important determinants of the extent of strategic corporate information, i.e. voluntary information, in Swedish corporate annual reports. Larger firms seem to reduce agency costs and narrow the information asymmetry by increasing the level of information disclosed.

Humankapital har ökat i betydelse då allt fler företag har blivit så kallade kunskapsföretag, vilka inriktar sig på att skapa värde genom att endast erbjuda personalens kunskap, kompetens och erfarenhet. Humankapitalet menar forskare, är en tillgång för företaget och borde därför också redovisas som en sådan, precis som företagets andra tillgångar. Dock får inte humankapital i dagens läge tas upp som en tillgång i den finansiella rapporten. Det redovisas därför ofta frivilligt av företagen i hållbarhetsredovisningar. Kunskapsföretagen borde enligt forskare vara de som redovisar absolut mest information om sitt humankapital, då det är företags viktigaste tillgång. Forskare menar också att företagens storlek är en faktor som påverkar hur mycket humankapital som redovisas. Är detta verkligheten? Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det finns några skillnader i hur kunskapsföretag och industriföretag redovisar sitt humankapital i sin årsredovisning samt om företagets storlek påverkar mängden humankapital som återfinns i företagens årsredovisningar. Metoden som används var en kvalitativ dokumentundersökning. I empiri och analys kapitlet finns företagssammanfattningar och vad Scoreboarden gav för resultat. Resultatet redovisas utefter Scoreboardens olika kategorier: anställda, anställdas utbildning, anställdas välmående och motivation, övrig kvalitativ information, styrelse och ledning. Resultatet analyseras också utefter kategori för att underlätta överskådligheten och analysen. Vi delar sedan upp Scoreboarden i två övergripande kategorier: ”Anställda” och ”Ledande befattningshavare”. En analys görs av dessa övergripande kategorier. ”Anställda” består av kategorierna: anställda, anställdas utbildning, anställdas välmående och motivation samt övrig kvalitativ information. ”Ledande befattningshavare” består av: styrelse och ledning. Sist analyseras skillnaden mellan företagens totala redovisning av humankapital. Slutsatser som kan dras utifrån undersökningen är att det finns en skillnad mellan kunskapsföretag och industriföretag om vi bryter ner informationen. Kunskapsföretagen redovisar mer information om ”Anställda”, medan industriföretagen redovisar mer om ”Ledande befattningshavare”. Studeras den totala bilden är skillnaderna mindre. Dock finner vi att industriföretagens redovisning av humankapital påverkas av företagets storlek, medan kunskapsföretaget inte uppvisar en sådan trend. / Human capital has become increasingly important as more companies have become so called knowledge-based enterprises, which focuses on creating value by offering their staff knowledge, skills and experience. The human capital is, according to scientists, an asset to the company and should therefore be recognized as such, just like the company's other assets. However, human capital cannot be recognized as an asset in the financial report. Firms therefore often report this information voluntarily in sustainability reports. According to researchers, the knowledge companies should be the one that presents the most information regarding its human capital, since it is such a company's most important asset. Researchers also believe that corporate size is a factor that affects how much human capital is reported. Is this reality? The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are any differences in how knowledge- and industry enterprises reports its human capital in its annual report, and if the company's size affects the amount of human capital that can be found in corporate annual reports. The method used was a qualitative document examination. In the empirical evidence and analysis chapter, the reader can find company summaries and the results the scoreboard gave us. The results are reported according to the Scoreboards different categories: employees, employee training, employee well-being and motivation, other qualitative information, the board and management. The results are also analyzed by category to facilitate transparency and the analysis. We then divided the scoreboard into two overall categories: "Employees" and "Senior Management". An analysis is made of these overall categories. "Employee" is composed of the categories: employees, employee training, employee well-being and motivation and other qualitative information. "Senior management" consists of: Board and management. Finally, the difference between a company's overall human capital reporting is analyzed. The conclusions that can be drawn from the survey are that there is a difference between knowledge- and industry enterprises when they are broken down by categories. Knowledge Enterprises presents more information about "Employees", while industrial companies report more about "Senior Management". Looking at the total picture, the differences are minor; however, we find that the industrial firms' reporting of human capital is influenced by firm size, while the knowledge company does not exhibit such a trend.

The corporate scandals in the beginning of the 21st century caused distrust in the market and a pressure for more disclosure to increase transparency. To broaden the traditional reporting, companies started to voluntarily disclose information regarding soft measures like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Due to the fast development and popularity of CSR, more companies started to disclose a separate sustainability report to communicate information about these activities. The aim of the report is to provide stakeholders with accurate and transparent information regarding the companies CSR activities, but also to legitimize the business. The main purpose of this research is to investigate if the quantity of information disclosed in the sustainability report affects the financial performance of companies listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. We also aim to investigate whether the existence of a report affects the financial performance. With companies spending an increasing amount of resources on disclosing voluntary information it is important to extend the research regarding CSR and the benefits to financial performance. This research ontological and epistemological positions are objectivism and positivism with a deductive approach. A quantitative method was used to gather sufficient data from existing databases and reports. For the first research question our population is all companies listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm on April 12th 2013, and for the second research question our population is the companies with a separate sustainability report in English from the accounting year of 2011. The financial performance data was gathered from the period 2012-04-01-2013-03.31. To answer our research questions and sub- questions, six hypotheses were formulated based on relevant theories and previous studies. Several multiple linear regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between the existence of the reports, and the quantity of information in them, to the company’s financial performance. Other regressions were performed to establish if the quantity disclosed was affected by industry classification or market capitalization size. Our results show that the neither the existence of a separate sustainability report nor the quantity of information disclosed in it has an effect on stock return. However, both having a separate sustainability and the quantity of information disclosed have a positive effect on stock volatility. Conclusively, companies do not benefit financially from disclosing their CSR activities through a separate sustainability report.

This study pretends, following the Legitimacy theory, to know the disclosure level of social information by Spanish listed companies, and the main factor influencing disclosure decisions. This study shows that studied companies disclose very few labour and non labour social information, and also shows the association among sector of activity, company size and the listing on international markets with the intention of disclosing social information voluntary. No association was found between ownership diffusion and voluntary disclosure. / El presente trabajo pretende conocer, siguiendo la teoría de la legitimidad, el grado de difusión existente de información social por parte de las empresas cotizadas españolas y los factores que determinan su revelación. Para ello, hemos analizado la información social que voluntariamente divulgan las empresas de la muestra como parte del informe anual. El estudio muestra que las sociedades analizadas revelan escasa información social laboral y no laboral, y muestra la relación existente entre el sector de actividad, el tamaño de la empresa y el hecho de cotizar en mercados exteriores con la decisión de revelar información social voluntariamente. No encuentra, por el contrario, ninguna relación con el grado de difusión de la propiedad, hipótesis planteada que no sido contrastada.

This thesis examines the different areas of agency theory including managerial discretion, corporate governance compliance, voluntary disclosure policies and regulation. The institutional setting for these studies will be the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) as this market provides a unique regulatory environment and distinctive corporate governance features that makes it suitable for analysis. Specifically, AIM, unlike its FCA-regulated main market counterpart, operates under a self-regulated environment, where application of the FCA rules and combined codes are voluntary. This allows great discretion in a firms operation leading to potential agency problems as mandatory disclosure is limited to price-sensitive information, allowing for the presence of information asymmetry. As well as agency theory, one of the main arcs of this thesis explores the role of Nomads. As principle regulator, these firms are charged with ensuring the compliance of their clients with the AIM rules, as well as ensuring the continued success of AIM itself. The first investigation creates a Nomad reputation index to test how the market responds when companies change to more reputable Nomads. To do this, event study methodology is utilised to examine the abnormal returns earned around Nomads switches. The key findings indicate that when managers switch-up to a more reputable Nomad, a proxy for managerial bonding, the market responds favourably, in spite of the costs associated with hiring a more reputable Nomad. Similarly, when managers make the unnecessary decision to switch to a Nomad of equal rank, the market responds negatively. As there is no intuitive advantage to switching to a Nomad of equal rank, it might therefore be seen as a costly and unnecessary move that will not improve the value of the firm. Therefore, the market reacts negatively, indicating the presence of market discipline as investors are punishing managers for making a decision perceived as unnecessary. The final analysis introduces the concept of ‘strict’ Nomads who are perceived to follow the AIM rules more closely than other Nomads. The reporting lag is used as a proxy and finds a positive relation with switches to a strict Nomad over a lenient one. The second study examines the determinant of corporate governance compliance with a focus on the effect of regulation. The findings document that regulation has not influenced the level of compliance, but rather there has been a convergence in governance standards over time given the increased awareness and demand for governance attributes. The findings also extend the Nomad reputation analysis with regards to governance and find a significant positive relation indicating Nomads influence governance standards as part of their monitoring role. The final study examines how the extent of voluntary disclosure is influenced by the company’s corporate governance attributes and the reputation of the Nomad. This study finds a positive relation between the level of voluntary disclosure, board independence and the presence of a nomination committee. Furthermore, this study reveals that voluntary earnings disclosure is a signal for bad news as the LS regression documents a negative relation between abnormal returns and the level of voluntary disclosure. This is corroborated in the event study where the announcement of a notification of results and the subsequent earnings announcement are associated with negative abnormal returns being earned.

Cette thèse analyse l’impact de la réglementation des divulgations environnementales ainsi que l’utilité de ces informations pour les investisseurs, partie prenante susceptible d’influencer l’entreprise en l’amenant à produire l’information environnementale utile, éventuellement imposée par la réglementation. Notre recherche s’appuie sur une approche quantitative basée sur le traitement des scores de divulgation environnementale au travers de modèles de régression ordinaire et censuré. Les scores de divulgation environnementale ont été calculés à partir d’une grille de mesure élaborée par nos soins et utilisée pour l’analyse de 121 entreprises européennes. Les résultats montrent que la réglementation des divulgations environnementales a un impact positif direct et induit sur le niveau de divulgation environnementale des entreprises. Par contre, l’impact des recommandations gouvernementales ou émanant d’organismes professionnels est identiquement faible. Les résultats montrent également que l’utilité des divulgations environnementales pour les investisseurs n’est pas uniforme : elle dépend de l’opacité des divulgations financières de l’entreprise, de son exposition aux risques environnementaux et de la structure de son actionnariat. Enfin, dans un contexte où l’information environnementale publiée est largement, voire totalement volontaire, les résultats montrent que les entreprises orientent leur communication environnementale en fonction des parties prenantes qu’elles identifient comme prioritaires. / Using disclosure scores to assess the level of environmental information provided by 121 randomly selected European listed companies, this research has two major goals. First, it examines whether environmental information is useful to investors. Second, it analyzes whether it is worth regulating environmental disclosures. Results reveal that the usefulness of environmental disclosures for investors is not uniform. It varies among firms, increasing with (i) exposure to environmental risks; (ii) ownership dispersion; (iii) the level of financial opacity. Furthermore, results also reveal that regulation has a direct and induced favorable impact on corporate environmental disclosure. After controlling for the usual determinants of environmental disclosures, we show that firms subject to a law that regulates environmental reporting disclose more than those domiciled in countries that have developed guidelines only. Finally, in a context where environmental information is mainly voluntary, we show that firms reserve their environmental communication for their preferred stakeholders.