Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Franco de Godoy.pdf: 1608626 bytes, checksum: d368775242196d25aaaacc580c7b23df (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Environmental Accounting aims to provide adequate information of the measurement of economic events related to the environment by contributing to the disclosure of the decision making process of internal and external users. The search for greater disclosure and accountability of environmental issues has led companies to promote the dissemination of information in its financial statements, although not complying with any specific regulations. In Brazil, the environmental disclosure is not required by law or regulation, there are only guidelines that encourage their development. This research aims to analyze the characteristics of environmental disclosure in financial statements of a sample of companies of the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) Stock Exchange São Paulo (BOVESPA) and belonging to the economic sectors of high environmental impact. To achieve the goal we carried out a descriptive survey, relying on the theoretical foundation for literature and content analysis to analyze the environmental disclosure in the Financial Statements (DFP's) for the fiscal year 2009. The results indicate that because there is no legal requirement in Brazil companies opt to make the voluntary disclosure, with the features for this type of disclosure the predominance of environmental declarative sentences and good information for the image or some kind of credit for the company, are using the Management Report as the primary means for communication, which is not subject to verification by an auditor may be questioned about the credibility of the information it disclosed / A Contabilidade Ambiental tem por objetivo fornecer informações adequadas sobre a mensuração dos eventos econômicos relacionados ao meio ambiente, contribuindo por meio de seu disclosure, para o processo decisório dos usuários internos e externos. A busca por um maior disclosure e accountability das questões ambientais tem levado as empresas a promover a divulgação de informações em suas demonstrações financeiras, muito embora sem estar em conformidade com alguma regulamentação específica. No Brasil o disclosure ambiental não é exigido por leis ou regulamentos, havendo apenas orientações incentivando sua elaboração. Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar as características do disclosure ambiental nas demonstrações financeiras de uma amostra de empresas integrantes do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) da Bolsa de Valores do Estado de São Paulo (BOVESPA) e pertencentes aos setores econômicos de alto impacto ambiental. Para atingir o objetivo foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva, apoiando-se na pesquisa bibliográfica para fundamentação teórica e na análise de conteúdo para analisar o disclosure ambiental nas Demonstrações Financeiras Padronizadas (DFP s), referentes ao exercício social de 2009. Os resultados indicam que, por não haver exigência legal no Brasil, as empresas optam pela realização do disclosure voluntário, tendo como características para este tipo de disclosure a predominância de sentenças ambientais declarativas e de informações boas para a imagem ou algum tipo de crédito para a empresa, sendo utilizado o Relatório da Administração como o principal meio para sua comunicação, o qual por não ser submetido a uma verificação pela Auditoria Independente pode vir a ser questionado sobre a credibilidade das informações nele divulgadas

Background/Discussion: Among investors, annual reports are used as a decision-making document to value a company. Many companies therefore use voluntary disclosure as a complement to statutory information in annual reports. Previous studies have examined what the underlying factors for voluntary disclosure are. These have among other things, resulted in factors such as size, country of origin and owner concentration, which has a significant impact on the amount of voluntary disclosure. Therefore, it is interesting to examine if there is a significant difference between the amount of voluntary disclosure in companies with controlled ownership versus management ownership. The selection is based on companies listed on the Swedish stock market Nasdaq Strockholm, Large Cap and Small Cap. Purpose: This comparative study is aiming to investigate differences in the amount of voluntary disclosure between companies with controlled ownership and management ownership. The purpose is to create a deeper understanding and increase awareness of the ownership structure's impact on voluntary information. Method: A quantitative method has been used for the study and empirical data has been collected through observations of annual reports. The collected data has then been assessed according to a valuation index designed for the study. The index has been adapted to both swedish and international regulations. The study has then used scatterplots and a t-test to measure whether or not there is a significant difference in the amount of voluntary disclosure between the two owner concentrations. Result: Based on the study's sample, there is no significant difference in the amount of voluntary disclosure between control-owned and management-controlled companies. Control-owned companies tend to report more information about accidents than managementcontrolled companies. The management-controlled companies in the study tend to report more information on marketing than control-owned companies

There are two competing theoretical debates about the impact of ownership concentration on organisational outcomes, namely efficient-monitoring hypothesis and conflict-of-interest (strategic-alignment) hypothesis. New Zealand has a distinctively concentrated ownership structure. This raises an important research question: Does concentrated ownership in New Zealand perform an efficient monitoring or opportunistic function? This question remains unanswered due to the very limited research on ownership structure in New Zealand. This research considers three specific where studying the function of ownership concentration is likely to be insightful. Three contexts are: CEO compensation scheme, corporate voluntary disclosures and investor perception of ownership structure in the stock market. This research further contributes to the existing literature by decomposing ownership into four mutually exclusive groups, namely financial institution-, government-, management- and other company-controlled ownership structures. The different impacts of ownership concentration under each type of controlling ownership structure are investigated. The findings of Essay One reveal that concentrated ownership is a significant contributor to the poor CEO compensation pay-for-performance relationship in New Zealand listed companies. However, reduced ownership concentration promotes the alignment between CEO compensation and firm performance. These results imply that large shareholders in New Zealand do not play a monitoring role in curbing managerial power; rather it exacerbates the poor relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance. In Essay Two, regression results show that companies characterised by financial institution-controlled ownership structure tend to make significantly fewer (more) disclosures at high (low) concentration levels. In contrast, firm observations in the high concentration group with government- and management-controlled ownership structures have considerably higher voluntary disclosure scores compared with their low concentration counterparts. With respect to the linearity assumption, the relationship between ownership concentration and voluntary disclosure practices unveil a non-linear pattern, indicating that the efficiency of large shareholders’ monitoring varies with the level of intensity of ownership concentration. The results of Essay Three demonstrate that ownership concentration in general is positively associated with information asymmetry observed around annual report release date. This is supportive of investor-adverse selection towards ownership concentration, and such an adverse selection problem is strongly associated with financial institutional and managerial shareholdings. Also, ownership concentration decreases stock liquidity, so no result is found in line with the ownership concentration liquidity hypothesis. When voluntary disclosure is taken into account, regression results suggest that disclosure significantly attenuates information asymmetry risk related to ownership concentration. This effect is particularly pronounced for firms with management-controlled ownership structure. Findings highlight the importance of corporate disclosures under concentrated ownership structure in eliminating information asymmetry and enhancing market efficiency in New Zealand.

This dissertation explores the disclosure on intangibles acquired in Mergers & Acquisitos. The related empirical analyses are based on a sample of M&As that are accounted for under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US-GAAP). In three different research papers I answer three distinct research questions. In order to enable capital providers and other external stakeholders to evaluate the PPA, the International Financial Reporting Standard 3 (IFRS 3) and the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 141 (SFAS 141) require the acquirer firm’s management to disclose information about the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the notes to the financial statement. The first research paper (see chapter II) addresses the following research question: Which information about intangibles acquired in M&As does the acquirer firm’s management disclose in the notes to the financial statement? The second research paper examines the factors that affect the initial recognition of goodwill. This research question is answered in the second research paper (see chapter III): Does the acquirer firm’s management opportunistically or efficiently use its discretion to recognize goodwill initially? The corporate information environment consists not only of corporate disclosure but also of disclosure by information intermediaries. The third research paper (see chapter IV) addresses this last set of research questions: Which information about intangibles acquired in M&As is provided in voluntary or mandatory corporate disclosures and in disclosures by information intermediaries? How are the disclosure channels interrelated?

本文旨在探討投資人情緒與法人說明會之關聯性，即公司如何經由召開法人說明會，策略性地回應投資人情緒反應，以企圖影響情緒所導致的預期偏差。實證發現：管理當局策略性地改變其自願性揭露政策，以反映投資人情緒。當投資人情緒愈低落時，公司將傾向於召開法人說明會，且公司召開法人說明會之頻率亦會增加。相反的，當投資人情緒高昂時，公司則愈不會召開法人說明會。再者，當投資人情緒愈低落時，法人說明會所揭露之公司資訊將愈樂觀。此研究亦顯示公司自願性揭露政策的選擇，反映管理當局渴望維持樂觀之評價。 / In this paper we explore the association between investor sentiment and the likelihood of holding conference calls. In other words, this paper investigates how firms react strategically to investor sentiment via their conference calls in an attempt to influence the sentiment-induced biases in expectations. We show that managers strategically vary their voluntary disclosure policies in response to prevailing sentiment. We find that during low-sentiment periods, the firms are more likely to conduct conference calls and conduct them more frequently; while during periods of high sentiment they decrease the frequency of conference calls. In addition, during low-sentiment periods, the conference calls disclose more optimistic information. Overall, this study provides evidence that company’s voluntary disclosure choices reflect managers desire to maintain optimistic valuations.

This thesis builds on the literature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. The following three chapters study the potential impacts of disclosing voluntarily negative information in a company’s own CSR communication within the contexts of pharmaceutical, textile and chocolate companies, respectively. Incorporating survey and experimental methodologies, these studies aim to help identify effective solutions for ethical issues by revealing the appropriate contexts in which companies can discuss them transparently and, thus, be rewarded for responding and acting in good faith and due diligence. Our results suggest that companies might benefit from voluntary disclosure of ethical issues if they also intend to disclose their specific actions for eliminating such infractions. Additionally, we highlight the role of public awareness in how negative information by the relevant stakeholders is evaluated. These studies reinforce the concept that acknowledging ethical issues would lead to higher levels of ethical behavior in business. / La siguiente tesis se basa en la literatura sobre comunicación de responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) de empresa. Se analizan los posibles efectos de divulgación voluntaria de información negativa en la comunicación (RSC) en contextos de empresas farmacéuticas, textiles y de chocolate. Estos estudios tienen como objetivo ayudar a identificar soluciones efectivas a cuestiones éticas al revelar los contextos donde las empresas puedan debatir de manera transparente, y ser recompensadas por responder y actuar de buena fe y con diligencia. Los resultados sugieren que las empresas pueden beneficiarse de la divulgación voluntaria de aspectos éticos negativos si también divulgan sus acciones específicas para la eliminación de tales infracciones. Además, se destaca el papel de la sensibilización del público sobre como la información negativa se evalúa por las partes interesadas. Estos estudios refuerzan la idea de que reconocer problemas éticos conduce a niveles más altos de comportamiento ético en el mundo empresarial.

[Truncated abstract] A spate of sudden, high-profile corporate collapses has raised serious concerns over the degree to which managers are open and honest about poor financial performance. Corporate failures such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco in the United States and One.tel and HIH in Australia have advanced the view that internal governance mechanisms and private managerial incentives systematically fail to ensure timely and reliable disclosure of bad news (e.g. Jensen, 2004). This thesis appraises the conventional view by investigating managers’ communications with the capital market during a period of sudden, poor financial performance. We study 74 firms that are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange [ASX], which experience an adverse earnings shock between 1994 and 1999. An adverse earnings shock is defined as a year of positive, increasing net income, followed by two contiguous years of negative or declining net income. The Australian setting for this study provides access to a richer database of investor communications than previously utilised in the literature, including management discussion and analysis, strategy disclosures, earnings and revenue forecasts, earnings preannouncements, business segment forecasts, dividend changes and share repurchases. Exploiting this extensive data set, we find that managers actually step up their investor communications activities around an adverse earnings shock. In the low litigation Australian setting, we are able to rule out litigation-avoidance incentives as a major explanatory factor. We investigate whether the increase in the volume of investor communications is aimed at mitigating information asymmetry, signalling a turnaround in financial performance or simply due to management “hype”

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de l'utilité de la communication d'information afférente aux actifs immatériels lors des augmentations de capital en numéraire des sociétés françaises cotées, et son impact sur la liquidité. L'importance grandissante des éléments immatériels dans la compétitivité et la croissance des entreprises et leur non-reconnaissance comptable pose souvent la question de la nécessite de compléter les états financiers par une offre volontaire d'information sur ces actifs. La littérature comptable et financière montre l'évolution des besoins informationnels des utilisateurs externes des rapports annuels et constate l'intérêt qu'ils portent aux informations liées aux actifs immatériels. Une communication insuffisante sur ces actifs accentue donc le problème d'asymétrie d'information sur les marchés financiers. Elle offre un terrain favorable au transfert de richesse des investisseurs non informés vers les investisseurs informés, car ces derniers en exploitant l'information privée réalisent une rentabilité supérieure, au détriment des autres investisseurs. Cette situation conduit à une diminution de la liquidité des titres, et par conséquent, accroît le coût de capital des entreprises. Cela devient plus important lors des émissions de nouvelles actions où le décalage informationnel entre les investisseurs, ainsi qu'avec l'équipe dirigeante s'agrandit. L'étude menée sur un échantillon d'entreprises françaises cotées émettrices de nouvelles actions sur la période 2000-2009 montre un niveau faible d'offre volontaire d'information sur les actifs immatériels. De surcroît, l'analyse de l'impact de leur communication sur les éléments immatériels met en évidence que l'offre volontaire diminue la fourchette de prix, et augmente la profondeur du marché à l'annonce d'une augmentation de capital en numéraire. / This thesis is devoted to the usefulness of intangible assets disclosure by French listed companies around new equity issues and its impact on stock liquidity. The growing importance of intangibles for companies' competitiveness and growth, besides of their non-recognition often raises the question of the need to complete financial statements by intangible assets voluntary disclosure. Accounting and finance literature shows changes in external users' information needs and highlights their attention for information related to intangibles. Insufficient communication on these assets accentuates information asymmetry in financial markets. It provides also a fertile ground for wealth transfer from uninformed investors to informed investors, as by exploiting private information, they can derive higher returns at the expense of other investors. This situation leads to a decrease in stock liquidity, and therefore to an increase of companies' cost of capital, which becomes more important around equity issues. The study conducted on a sample of French listed companies issuing new equity over the period 2000-2009 shows a low level of intangibles voluntary disclosure. Furthermore, our analysis shows that intangibles voluntary disclosure reduces spread, and increases market depth at the announcement of a capital increase.

Medarbetarna genererar ekonomiska fördelar och är en konkurrensfördel på markanden, därför anses de som en av företagens viktigaste resurser. Ett ökat intresse för humankapitalet har bidragit till att många företag idag väljer att integrera information om humankapitalet i den frivilliga rapporteringen. Trots detta finns det idag inga riktlinjer eller standarder för hur resurserna ska presenteras. Det finns även lite forskning om hur företag kan presentera frivilliga upplysningar om humankapital. Syftet med vår studie är att generera kunskap om hur fem svenska företag med många anställda presenterar information om sitt humankapital. Vi vill även undersöka hur informationen varierar mellan företagen. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ innehållsanalys på företagens års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar där vi skapat kärnkategorier utifrån tidigare litteratur men även kunnat addera underkategorier med hjälp av en abduktiv ansats. Undersökningen pekar på att det finns ett externt intresse för de mänskliga resurserna då samtliga företag väljer att integrera information om humankapital i sina års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar. Upplysningarna skiljer sig något mellan företagen men likheterna är desto fler och mönster i utformningen går att finna mellan samtliga företag. / Employees generate economic benefits and are a competitive advantage on the market and therefore they are considered as one of the company's most important asset. An increased interest in human capital over the past years has contributed to the fact that many companies today choose to integrate human capital disclosures in their voluntary reports. However, there is an absence of standards and guidelines of presenting human resources. The research on how companies can present voluntary information about human capital is also unexplored. The purpose of our study is to generate knowledge about how five Swedish companies with many employees present information about their human capital. We also want to acquire knowledge how the information varies between companies. We have conducted a qualitative content analysis on companies' annual and sustainability reports, where we created core categories based on previous literature, but we could also add subcategories using an abductive approach. The survey points out that there is an external interest in human resources where all companies choose to integrate human capital into their annual and sustainability reports. Although the information differs between the companies, there are also similarities and patterns can be found among the companies in their reporting.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka faktorer som kan förklara att svenska noterade SME frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Metod: Den här studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi och tillämpar en deduktiv ansats. För att besvara syftet i studien har en kvantitativ metod tillämpats genom en innehållsanalys och hypotesprövningar via en logistisk regressionsanalys. Data inhämtas från räkenskapsåret 2016 och består av både primärdata från företags årsredovisningar samt sekundärdata från databasen Retriever. Populationen i studien är 188 stycken noterade SME:s på segmenten Small- och MidCap på Nasdaq Stockholm varav det är 49 antal företag som hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att storlek spelar en viss roll till SME:s benägenhet att frivilligt hållbarhetsrapportera. Studien fann att det råder ett svagt positivt samband med statistisk signifikans mellan storlek och frivillig hållbarhetsrapportering bland företagen på segmentet SmallCap. Dessvärre fann inte denna studie någon statistisk signifikans för de oberoende variablerna tillväxt, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad samt kontrollvariabeln bransch mellan dem och frivillig hållbarhetsrapportering.      Uppsatsens bidrag: Studiens praktiska bidrag ger företagsledare hos noterade SME:s i Sverige en utökad kunskap om området och en insikt i hur olika faktorer kan ge en förklaring till att SME:s hållbarhetsrapporterar. Det teoretiska bidraget delger ett svar på syftet i studien och visar på att faktorn storlek till viss del kan förklara att noterade SME:s i Sverige frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Faktorerna tillväxt, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad kan till skillnad från storlek inte förklara något då inga samband visats denna studie.    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: En begränsning är att det enbart var 49 stycken som hållbarhetsrapporterar av studiens population om 188 stycken företag från år 2016. Denna studie kodade sin beroende variabel med 1 om ett företag hållbarhetsrapporterar och med 0 om det inte gör det. En begränsning blir att det enbart går att se om de hållbarhetsrapportar eller inte efter de kriterier som studien har vid kodningen. Det vill säga att det inte går att urskilja hur mycket företagen hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Förslag till vidare forskning är att göra en ny studie när lagändringarna gällande stora företags tvång till hållbarhetsrapportering har fått effekt på dem som inte ställs under lagen, det vill säga mindre företag som frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Förhoppningsvis blir det fler företag på segmenten Small- och MidCap som frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Ett förslag är att utforma ett index med hjälp av en innehållsanalys för att kunna gradera dem efter hur mycket de hållbarhetsrapporterar. Dessutom gick denna studie till största del inte i linje med de utformade hypoteserna eller till stor del med vad den tidigare forskningen har visat, vilket sig bland annat att kan bero på hur variablerna blivit mätta. Ytterligare förslag till den vidare forskningen är att eventuellt välja andra faktorer utifrån den tidigare forskningen eller att använda sig av samma faktorer men mäta dem på annat sätt. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate determinant factors that can explain why some Swedish listed SME:s sustainability reports voluntary.   Method: This study is based on positivist research philosophy and applies a deductive approach. In order to respond to the purpose of the study a quantitative method has been used through a content analysis and hypothesis tests through a logistic regression analysis. The collection of data was from 2016 and consists of both primary data from company annual reports and secondary data from the database Retriever. The population of the study is 188 listed SME:s in the Small- and MidCap segment of Nasdaq Stockholm.   Result & Conclusions: The result of the study shows that size plays a certain role in SME:s inclination to report sustainability voluntarily. The study found that there was a positive correlation with statistical significance between size and sustainability reporting voluntary among the companies in the SmallCap segment. Unfortunately, this study did not find any statistical significance for the independent variables growth, profitability and debt ratio as well as the control variable business sector between them and sustainability reporting voluntary.   Contribution of the thesis: The practical contribution from this study gives business leaders in Swedish listed SME:s an expanded knowledge of the area and an insight into how different determinant factors can explain that SME:s sustainability reports voluntary . The theoretical contribution gives an answer to the purpose of the study and shows that the size partly can explain that Swedish listed SME:s sustainability reports voluntary. The determinant factors growth, profitability and debt ratio, unlike to size do not explain anything since no relationship has been found. Suggestions for future research: One limitation is that there were only 49 out of 188 companies from 2016 that sustainability reports voluntarily. This study encoded its dependent variable by 1 point if companies sustainability reports or with 0 point if it did not. A further limitation is that it is only possible to see the sustainability reports or not, according to the criteria during the encoding process. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish how much companies report sustainability.   Suggestions for further research is to undertake a new study when the changes in the law regarding large companies compulsion to sustainability reporting have impacted on those not subject to the law, that is smaller companies as voluntary sustainability reports. Hopefully, there will be more companies in the Small- and MidCap segments who sustainability reports voluntary. One suggestion is to design an index by using a content analysis to grade them according to the amount of sustainability reports. In addition, this study was largely not in line with the assumptions or largely based on what the previous research has shown, which may be due to how the variables have been measured. Additional suggestions for the further research to possibly choose other factors or choose the same but measure them differently.