Meditari Accountancy Research最新文献

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between company reputation and dividend policy.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, sample of 98,809 firm-year observations from 22 countries covering 2005–2016 were used.

Findings

Firm reputation concerns are associated with higher propensities to pay dividends and payout ratios. Further, this positive effect is more pronounced for firms with high free cash flows, high information asymmetry and low institutional monitoring. The results are robust to an instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching and the Heckman two-stage correction approach while addressing endogeneity concerns.

Practical implications

These findings have significant implications for various stakeholders, such as existing and potential investors, managers, policymakers and regulators, by providing insights into the relationship between corporate reputation and firm dividend payout decisions. Corporate reputation is highlighted as crucial for accessing finance, emphasizing the role of national regulators and policymakers in facilitating firms' efforts to improve their reputation. The study highlights the dynamics of corporate reputation and dividend payout, calling for proactive engagement from regulators and policymakers. Crafting policies conducive to reputation-building can enhance firms' financial prospects, indicating the need for strategic interventions at managerial, regulatory and policy levels. Understanding the influence of economic context is crucial for firms to tailor reputation management strategies and optimize funding opportunities in different economic environments.

Originality/value

Overall, results suggest that reputation serves as a disciplining mechanism, where firms will pay dividends to maintain their reputations.

Purpose

The current academic publishing model, in which researchers rely significantly on multinational publishing companies to disseminate their work, has implications for knowledge enterprise both in terms of knowledge production and distribution. This study aims to provide a critical reflection on the academic publishing model and how it works, particularly in light of the rise of open access publishing and the growing analytics focus of publishing companies and discusses the impact on knowledge equity.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory essay offers a critical analysis of the impact of the current academic publishing model on research practices. The discussion provides a foundation for the argument that knowledge equity is essential to social justice.

Findings

To effectively fulfil the transformative aims of the interdisciplinary research community within social and environmental accounting, it is imperative to establish equitable access to published research.

Originality/value

This essay opens space for discussion of the current publishing model, given its dominance of the knowledge enterprise. It outlines some of the implications of this model for knowledge equity and suggests strategies for fostering a more inclusive and accessible dissemination of scholarly work.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of terrorist attacks on tax avoidance. Further, the authors identify the possible channel leading to our main result and examine the role of social pressure.

Design/methodology/approach

Data pertaining to terrorist attacks within the USA are procured from the Global Terrorism Database. The final sample consists of 45,524 firm-year observations from 1993 to 2017. The methodology uses ordinary least squares regressions.

Findings

The authors find that firms located in close proximity to terrorist attacks (i.e. impact firms) significantly decrease their tax avoidance practices after the attacks. The authors further find that these impact firms are willing to pay more taxes post attack when their headquarters are located in higher social capital regions.

Originality/value

Studies have mainly focused on the macroeconomic effects of terrorism, and only recently have researchers shifted their focus to firm-level impacts. The authors provide strong evidence that extends the second line of the literature by exploring corporate tax activities attributed to terrorist events.

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the impact of female board directorship on the quality of key performance indicators voluntary disclosure (hereafter QKPI). Further, this paper explores whether the presence of family board members mitigates the female directors’ effect on the QKPI.

Design/methodology/approach

This study explores closely held family firms listed on the CAC All-Tradable during 2015–2022.

Findings

The initial findings provide consistent evidence indicating a positive association between female board directorship and the QKPI. However, testing for the moderating effect of family board members on the linkage between female representation in the company’s boardroom and the QKPI reveals a negative relation.

Originality/value

This study focuses on gender equality in French-listed companies, a topic that has received little attention from researchers. The country and the period considered in this paper are noteworthy characteristics that enhance the value of this research. This study sheds light on issues concerning the 2016 law that requires quotas for women on boards of directors in French firms.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of diverse practices in sustainability reporting and assurance on the disclosure of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Specifically, the authors examine the disclosure of SDGs along two dimensions: disclosure breadth, denoting the number of goals mentioned, and disclosure depth, encompassing the extent of actions disclosed to advance these goals.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a panel Tobit regression analysis, the authors analyse the communication on progress questionnaires from 299 companies (resulting in 1,015 firm-year observations) participating in the United Nations Global Compact from 2017 to 2021.

Findings

The findings revealed that greater adherence to Global Reporting Initiative standards increases SDG disclosure breadth; external assurance using publicly recognised standards, more than proprietary methods, is associated with SDG disclosure breadth and depth; and the review of information by multiple stakeholders improves the depth of SDG disclosure more than evaluation by a panel of peers.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies in its examination of the intricate interplay between sustainability disclosure and assurance practices, on the one hand, and the disclosure of SDGs, on the other. Uniquely, the authors consider the various levels of implementation of these practices, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of their influence on SDG disclosure.

Purpose

The effects of integrated reporting quality (IRQ) have been debated in increasing empirical studies. Several IRQ measures, different theoretical approaches and multiple contexts have been adopted and investigated, leading to mixed results. By using the meta-analytic technique, this study aims to contribute to the accounting literature, reconciling the conflicting results on the effects of IRQ and providing objective conclusions to complement narrative literature reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 45 empirical papers from 2013 to 2022, with 653 effect sizes, was used to assess the effects associated with IRQ. The papers were clustered into five groups (market reaction, financial performance, cost of capital, financial analysts’ properties and managerial decisions) based on the different consequences of IRQ investigated in the primary studies. A random-effects meta-regression model was used to explore all sources of heterogeneity together.

Findings

The meta-regression results confirm that IRQ positively influences firms’ market valuation and financial performance and hampers opportunistic managerial behaviour by improving corporate transparency, mitigating information asymmetry and encouraging accountability. Moreover, differences in the study characteristics affect the strength of the relationship object of interest.

Originality/value

Through meta-analysis, this study provides a broader overview of the effects of IRQ by enhancing the generalisability of the findings. The results also pave the way for additional evidence on the outcome variables affected by the quality of integrated disclosure.

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a framework for the bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets based on natural wealth sustainability. Specifically, this paper proposes a theoretical structure for qualitative and quantitative organization-level assessments of the existence and circulation of water, air, wildlife, flora, soil and subsoil resources.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used an inductive method with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The authors postulate a systemic and comprehensive bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets, including heterogeneous and homogeneous methods and quantitative and qualitative valuations of the resources that comprise environmental assets.

Findings

The authors describe a theoretical structure for the bioaccounting measurement of environmental assets based on the sustainability of natural wealth through heterogeneous and homogeneous measurement methods and show how to integrate these assets through an homogeneous method.

Research limitations/implications

The development of this general theoretical structure will require the integration of theoretical, conceptual and technical developments from multiple disciplines. The authors hope that the scientific community will evaluate and study this proposal for faster progress towards its practical implementation in organizations.

Originality/value

The authors structured the bioaccounting measurements, which are presented individually for each class of environmental assets. Each of these assets requires subcategories (accounts, subaccounts and resources) and recognition/measurement units. Environmental value units (EVUs) are used to standardize the plurality of measurement units.

Purpose

This article centres on the pertinence of redefining accounting for tomorrow, particularly for facilitating the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, thereby, for shaping a better world. In aspiring for accounting to reach its full potential as a multidimensional technical, social and moral practice, this paper aims to focus on ideas, initiatives and proposals for realising accounting’s future potential and responsibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

The study deploys a further developed “strategic implementation framework”, initially proposed by Carnegie et al. (2023), with an emphasis on accounting serving “the public interest” so as “to enable the flourishing of organisations, people and nature” (Carnegie et al., 2021a, p. 69; 2021b). It depicts strategies towards the future of accounting and the world.

Findings

Significant opportunities are identified for accounting and accountants, working closely with a diversity of stakeholders, to become alert to and cognisant of the nature, roles, uses and impacts of accounting. The evidence presented notes a predominant inattention of accounting and accountants to the SDGs despite the deteriorating state of our social and natural environment.

Research limitations/implications

Whilst this article examines other articles in this special issue (SI), there is no substitute for carefully reading, reflecting on and deliberating upon these articles individually.

Originality/value

The time for accounting to focus on creating a better world can no longer be extended. Accounting’s full potential will not be realised by remaining in a narrow and complacent, technicist state.

Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of stakeholder engagement on accountability, within nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Given the pivotal role NPOs play in disaster management and community welfare, it is crucial to gain an understanding of the obligations of NPOs, in terms of their disaster responses and accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a case-study approach, the investigation features a content analysis of social media comments regarding the Australian Red Cross’ (ARC) funds’ allocation during the 2019/2020 bushfires, followed by a similar analysis of ARC's reports. Inspired by Carnegie et al.'s (2021) definition of accounting as a social science, this study uses dialogic theory and a transformative participatory framework, to evaluate how interactive stakeholder engagement influenced accountability strategies used by the NPO, to ensure its sustainable development.

Findings

The findings reveal that there was a significant increase in stakeholder engagement on social media, following negative media coverage, with participants voicing concerns over ARC’s method of funds’ allocation, delays in funds distribution and seemingly excessive administrative costs. ARC addressed these concerns by issuing Bushfire Reports, and conducting online Q&A sessions, in a bid to establish transparency. This study emphasizes how dialogic accounting can challenge accounting's limited scope – one that often overlooks ecological concerns and social justice.

Originality/value

This study uses the perspective of dialogic accounting theory to explore the relationship between stakeholder engagement on social media, and NPO accountability. It demonstrates how robust stakeholder engagement can challenge NPOs to establish accountability, thereby bridging the information gap between themselves and the public. The use of dialogic accounting theory allows the study to shift from the traditional focus of accounting research, which is the financial objectives of powerful entities, to the voices of the marginalized, the stakeholders, who are impacted by NPO decisions, and, in doing so, it highlights the potential for NPOs to foster accountability, and so advance sustainable development initiatives.