This paper examines if the level of voluntary disclosure affects the association between current returns and future earnings. Economic theory suggests that firms might find it advantageous to provide additional pieces of information (i.e., voluntary disclosure) to investors and analysts (Verrecchia 1983). Our results indicate that more voluntary disclosure does not improve the association between current returns and future earnings; i.e. current returns do not reflect more future earnings news. This finding raises the question whether voluntary information in the annual report contains value relevant information about future earnings or if investors are simply not capable of incorporating voluntary information in the firm value estimates. Key words: Disclosure, future earnings, informativeness.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not voluntary disclosure made by Indian listed companies are value-relevant in the capital market. The sample consists of top 100 non-financial, non-utility companies based on market capitalization listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) over the period 2014-2017. Data regarding voluntary disclosure level has been collected by analyzing the contents of annual reports. In order to investigate the impact of voluntary disclosure on firm value, fixed-effect panel data regression model is employed. Furthermore, Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression model with instrumental variables is used as a robustness test to alleviate the endogeneity issue. The findings of the study reveal that voluntary disclosure is value-relevant, i.e., impacts the firm value. The more the voluntary disclosure made by the companies, the higher the value they have in terms of market capitalization. Therefore, this finding provides impetus to managers to disclose more information voluntarily to meet the information needs of the stakeholders. By evaluating the value relevance of overall voluntary disclosure, the study contributes to the relevant literature, as there is paucity of studies regarding how the market participants perceive voluntary disclosure in an emerging market such as India, which is subjected to market imperfections.

The paper aims to assess the level of voluntary disclosure in companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and understand the relationship between the quality of voluntary disclosure and market value of Italian listed companies. Voluntary disclosure refers to the discretionary release of financial and non-financial information, which companies are not obliged to disclose by accounting standard setting bodies. In particular, this paper analyzes the effect that disclosure of voluntary information could have on the stock market value of Italian listed companies. To do this, 203 annual reports of Italian listed companies for the year 2012 were analyzed. A voluntary disclosure index index is created to measure the extent of disclosure. The index is used in an ordinary least squares model, as a dependent variable, to understand relationships between the above-mentioned determinants. The disclosure score is composed mainly of 38 items per firm.A total of 7,714 items were collected and analyzed.Results show the level of voluntary disclosure provided by Italian listed companies in their 2012 annual reports positively and significantly affect the value relevance of Italian listed companies.

Purpose: Enhanced Business Reporting (EBR) seeks to address the information needs of investors when making company valuations for investment decisions. The paper analyses the relevance for market valuation of EBR disclosures that are directly related to firm valuation (Value Based Reporting, VBR).Design/methodology/approach: Data are hand collected from annual reports of German publicly listed companies over 5 years. The content analysis is based on the valuation-related disclosure framework of the German Schmalenbach Society of Business Administration. A 2SLS approach accounts for potential endogeneity.Findings: Share-based compensation, leverage, corporate size, and share volatility are significant determinants of VBR. The level of VBR is significantly associated with market values and provides additional market value explanatory power, indicating its relevance to investors in the process of valuation and decision making. Also, the relevance of book value and earnings for explaining market values increases for firms with better VBR. Findings are robust to the exclusion of banks and assurance companies and to alternative model and variable specifications.Research limitations/implications: The research contributes to the literature on voluntary disclosures by testing an EBR framework explicitly derived from valuation theory. The results provide indirect evidence of investors' use of respective valuation techniques in decision making. A contribution is made to the value relevance literature by showing that valuation-related disclosures constitute a suitable proxy for 'other information' in the Ohlson (1995) model. Such disclosures complement traditional accounting metrics, i.e. book value and earnings, as basis for valuations. Potential caveats relate to the content analysis of annual reports and the endogeneity of voluntary disclosures.Originality/value: This paper informs the debate on further developments of EBR in helping to identify important components thereof.

The importance of an effective corporate communication with all stakeholders including shareholders has been extensively debated in the business literature in the aftermath of 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The key indicator of business value have shifted from accounting profits and stock market performance, formerly, to firm reputation and sustainability performance, currently. Therefore, the transparency and value-relevance of conventional financial reporting has been questioned in terms of its capability to satisfy increasing information needs of all stakeholders. Many doubt whether those traditional financial metrics derived from financial statements can appropriately capture firm & rsquo;s long-term value creation ability. In recent years, users of corporate reports are demanding more relevant financial and non-financial on key performance indicators and forward looking information above and beyond conventional financial statements. To satisfy the demands of information users and decision makers, companies are expected to not only increase their reporting transparency in conventional financial statements but also disclose more inside information to outside public through different types of voluntary disclosure. The first dissertation investigates the role of sustainability report through examining the associations among voluntary disclosure, earnings quality and audit fee. Recently more and more firms begin to release sustainability reports, one important channel of voluntary disclosure, to satisfy the needs of information users and increase the transparency of financial reporting. In this paper, I especially examine the effect of voluntary disclosure quality on those associations. Through Difference-in-Difference test, I find that the release of sustainability report is positively correlated with innate earnings quality and negatively correlated with discretionary earnings quality. Moreover, the positive (negative) correlation between sustainability report and innate (discretionary) earnings quality is more (less) pronounced when the voluntary disclosure quality is high. I also find that the release of sustainability report is associated with higher audit fees and thus it suggests that the sustainability report cannot substitute the traditional financial statement. My conclusions are robust through additional tests of OLS regressions. This paper has important political, academic and industry application. The second dissertation investigates how the firm & rsquo;s cost stickiness strategy is associated with the firm & rsquo;s management earnings forecast (MEF). I conjecture that the managerial incentive regarding the cost strategy and voluntary disclosure strategy are interdependent. When managers choose their cost management, they will also choose the corresponding management earnings forecast strategy to align their interests. Through the empirical tests with a sample between year 2005 and 2011, I find that the firm & rsquo;s level of sticky cost is positively associated with the firm & rsquo;s propensity to issue MEF and the frequency of MEF. Moreover, I find that the firm & rsquo;s level of sticky cost is associated with more good earnings news forecasted by managers. Finally, I find that the relation between cost stickiness and MEF behaviors is more pronounced when the MEF is long-horizon oriented and when the firm efficiency is high. My research builds a link between financial accounting information and managerial accounting information, and also provides new evidence to understand the managerial incentives behind each strategy chosen by managers. This third dissertation investigates how industry peer firms tend to influence the specific firm & rsquo;s voluntary disclosure strategy. Through examining the empirical example of management earnings forecast between 2005 and 2011 and implementing the 2SLS regressions, I find that the specific firm & rsquo;s disclosure frequency, disclosure horizon and the disclosure of bad news are significantly influenced by its peers firms & rsquo; disclosure behaviors. Specifically, the increase in the peers & rsquo; disclosure frequency, disclosure horizon and disclosure of bad news tend to encourage the specific firm to increase its disclosure frequency, disclosure horizon and disclosure of bad news. Moreover, certain firms (such as firms with S & P credit rating, higher profit, larger size or higher market-to-book ratio) tend to be more sensitive to their peer firms & rsquo; voluntary disclosure strategy. Finally, I find that the specific leader-follower relation doesn & rsquo;t exist in the peer effects of disclosure strategy and thus the signaling theory, litigation risk and CEO reputation are more major reasons than herding theory and free rider theory in explaining this phenomenon.

What is my theory? How do I choose a theory? Why and how should I employ a particular method for collecting the empirical data? These basic questions concern everyone involved in research. A research study can be a voyage of discovering or choice of theoretical perspective as well as gathering empirics or facts on a problem or situation. This book provides a good guideline as to why and how to choose a particular theory or method to study an organisational phenomenon such as accounting. All the chapters provide both retrospective and contemporary views by scholars in the field. Each chapter documents the latest developments and research in accounting and control systems and provides valuable insights into methodological perspectives in accounting research. This second edition has also introduced a number of new chapters covering strategy-management control as practice, grounded theory approach, institutional logic and rhetoric, social interaction theory, actor-network theory and practice theory. The book is primarily intended for research students and academic researchers. It can also be used for undergraduate Honours course as well as postgraduate accounting and business methodology courses. Research organisations and consulting firms in accounting and business fields may also find this book useful. The principal aims of this second edition are (1) to update the chapters previously published in 2006 and (2) to introduce new chapters documenting recent developments in accounting research.