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The objective of this paper is to determine the effects of the corporate governance practices of central government agencies on the reliability of financial reporting. There has been a considerable growth of these agencies across countries, and there are no studies about the relationship between the features of their corporate governance and the level of reliability of their financial reports. This paper provides evidence of systematic upward earnings management by agencies that apply the Private Sector Chart of Accounts to improve their financial performance and to compensate for the reduction of revenues during the worst years of the financial crisis. The results also show that abnormal accruals have a significant and inverse relationship with the percentage of independent directors and women on the boards, i.e., diversity improves the reliability of the financial information of these entities.

Companies develop their activity in an environment characterized by knowledge-based economies, with qualified and highly skilled workers. Human Capital is one of the most important intangible resources that companies have to generate sustainable wealth. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the Human Capital information provided by companies in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance. Using the methodology of content analysis, this paper analyses the Human Capital disclosure contained in social responsibility reports of Spanish companies belonging to the IBEX 35. In addition, it identifies factors related to Corporate Governance (characteristics of the Board of Directors, and ownership structure of companies) with greatest impact on information provision. Balanced panel data are used to test our hypotheses. Empirical evidence shows a quadratic U-shaped relationship among the size of the board, independence, and the ownership concentration with Human Capital disclosure; and an inverted U-shaped relationship between managers’ ownership of shares and Human Capital disclosure. In addition, it has been found that companies with greater gender diversity on their Board, as well as with greater board activity, tend to disclose more information related to Human Capital.

Governance stands as a multifaceted area of interest, attracting attention in both political and academic realms on a global scale. Its significance, particularly in economics and management, has been increasingly emphasized due to a series of scandals that have resonated across various contexts, often highlighting common issues associated with power struggles and conflicting interests within organizations. The quest for effective governance demands the implementation of multiple control mechanisms to address and prevent power-related challenges within organizations. In this article, we focus on the governance of companies operating in the context of bancassurance. Indeed, bancassurance companies are of major importance to any economy, which explains the scope of our research that explores the rules and governance mechanisms governing this sector worldwide, as well as their manifestation in our research context. A comprehensive review of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision forms an integral part of this discussion. This committee plays a central role in setting global banking standards and its governance structure. Notably, the article highlights Bank Al-Maghrib's adoption of Basel III provisions in the Moroccan context and underscores the significant role played by the Credit Institutions Rating Assistance System. Furthermore, the article delves into the pivotal role of the Insurance and Social Welfare Supervisory Authority within the insurance sector, emphasizing the intrinsic connection between solvency and governance. It explores the historical importance of Solvency I and its evolution towards Solvency II, with a focus on the impact of this directive on the European insurance industry. Finally, the paper thoroughly examines the strategic application of the risk-based solvency approach in Moroccan bancassurance, stressing its contribution to enhancing financial robustness and its tailored assessment within the national context.

This research focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and performance in the largest European listed banks, which have been studied to a lesser extent within this field. The study is based on agency theory and we use a sample of 404 observations referring to 97 banks selected from the annual ranking of the 2,000 biggest companies in the world prepared by Forbes. The paper covers the period from 2006 to 2010, thus, examining the changes in the performance drivers in the recent financial crisis. On the basis of the panel data analysis, we confirm that the variety of governance factors including board size, insider appointed, directors’ age, board meetings and affiliated committees influence the performance of the banks. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the effect of corporate governance on the financial performance of the financial companies in times of high capital market volatility.

Purpose: This paper aims at examining the quality of corporate disclosure about goodwill impairment and its relationship with goodwill write-offs and earnings performance, exploiting an accounting regulation that allows significant unverifiable estimates whilst requires a high level of information.Design/methodology/approach: This study, based on a sample of Italian and British firms with market indications of goodwill impairment, verifies through a both univariate and multivariate analysis whether the level of disclosure is positively related to the magnitude of goodwill write-off and to earnings performance, using a self-constructed score of mandatory disclosure about goodwill impairment tests in accordance with IAS 36 requirements.Findings: In a general context of insufficient information, we find that for Italian firms both the magnitude of goodwill write-offs and earnings performance are significantly and positively associated to the level of mandatory disclosure about goodwill impairment tests. For the British firms, as companies more used to impairment test rules, the data does not confirm any significant association.Research limitations/implications: The objective of this study is to test the initial impact of IAS 36 in the first years of its application, selecting a sample of firms belonging to limited but significant activity sectors. Future research could usefully analyse a wider sample of firms, also extending the time period of analysis. In any case, the findings of our study are consistent with the insights of earnings management theory, suggesting that the subjectivity inherent in impairment test assumptions could be used opportunistically by managers.Originality/value: This research investigates questions still relatively unexplored, concerning the effects of goodwill write-offs and accounting performance on corporate disclosure about goodwill impairment test. Based on this analysis, the study shows that corporate disclosure could be a “litmus paper” able to test the degree of good faith with which each firm has implemented IAS 36 requirements.

Abstract Purpose: This paper sought to verify the influence of family structure on the performance of family companies listed in Brazil between 2010 and 2017. We also analyzed the impact of monitoring and duality on the performance of these companies. Originality/value: The relevance of the study is found mainly in the use of unusual variables, such as the participation of founders and descendants as shareholders, on the boards of directors, and as chief executive officers (CEOs), since it was not possible to identify any study in Brazil that addressed family participation in a fragmented way, separating the effects caused by founders and descendants, giving greater depth to the issue. In addition, it generates interest to the most varied audiences, including shareholders, regulators, analysts, and investors who have a specific interest in how family structures affect the performance of companies. Design/methodology/approach: Data related to shareholders, composition of the boards of directors, executives, family ties, founding families, founders, descendants, and financial performance were used in the research. An unbalanced data panel was analyzed through the generalized method of moments (GMM). Findings: A positive effect of monitoring and duality on the firms’ performance was verified. The impact of family structure on performance was ambiguous. Founders and descendants that were CEOs or were working in management had positive and negative effects on the performance measures. Additionally, the participation of founders on the board of directors negatively impacted the performance. Finally, it was observed that family ownership positively impacts the firms’ performance, suggesting that families look after the companies. / Resumo Objetivo: Este artigo buscou verificar a influência da estrutura familiar no desempenho de companhias familiares listadas no Brasil entre 2010 e 2017. Também se analisou o impacto do monitoramento e da dualidade no desempenho dessas empresas. Originalidade/valor: A relevância do estudo encontra-se principalmente na utilização de variáveis inusitadas, como a participação de fundadores e descendentes como acionistas, nos conselhos de administração e como chief executive officers (CEOs), pois não foi possível identificar nenhum estudo no Brasil que tratasse dessa participação de forma fragmentada, separando os efeitos causados por fundadores e descendentes, dando maior profundidade ao tema. Além disso, o estudo desperta interesse dos mais variados públicos, abrangendo acionistas, reguladores, analistas e investidores que tenham interesse específico em como as estruturas familiares afetam o desempenho das companhias. Design/metodologia/abordagem: Na pesquisa, foram utilizados dados relativos a acionistas, composição do conselho de administração, executivos, vínculos familiares, famílias fundadoras, fundadores, descendentes e desempenho financeiro. Um painel de dados não balanceado foi analisado por meio do método dos momentos generalizados (generalized method of moments - GMM). Resultados: Verificou-se um efeito positivo do monitoramento e da dualidade no desempenho das empresas. O impacto da estrutura familiar no desempenho foi ambíguo. Fundadores e descendentes que eram CEOs ou atuavam na gestão tiveram efeitos positivos e negativos nas medidas de desempenho. Adicionalmente, a participação dos fundadores no conselho de administração impactou negativamente o desempenho. Por fim, observou-se que a propriedade familiar impacta positivamente o desempenho das empresas, sugerindo que as famílias cuidam das empresas.

During the last decade, the regulation of corporate social and environmental disclosure and reporting has gradually but steadily emerged. What explains its emergence at different levels of regulation and through varying modes of governance? Which political and socio-economic actors are involved? Who has benefitted from its emergence? The onset of the current economic and sustainability crisis has shown the need for a more ‘regulated capitalism’ and called for a re-assessment of dominant ideas about ‘CSR’ and ‘corporate governance’. Better transparency and disclosure have often been indicated as a solution to this impasse. The paper focuses on the emergence of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure regulation in Europe during the last decade. It is organized in four main sections. After introducing the argument within the literature on the regulation of corporate accountability, the second section offers an historical overview of the recursive emergence of environmental and social disclosure regulation. Thereafter, the paper briefly reviews the current debate over the regulation of ESG disclosure. In particular, it outlines the interests of the main constituencies involved at the EU-level: large corporations, institutional investors, trade unions, NGOs, professional accountants and financial analysts, public authorities. The last part develops an argument suggesting the current emergence of ESG disclosure regulation constitutes an institutional investors’ strategy to strengthen, on the one hand, their control over managers and, on the other hand, the legitimacy of their claims over companies resources. Durante la última década la regulación de la transparencia social y ambiental ha surgido a un ritmo constante y gradual. ¿Cómo se explica su aparición en los diferentes niveles de regulación y a través de diversos sistemas de gobernanza? ¿Qué actores políticos y socio-económicos están implicados? ¿Quién se ha beneficiado de su aparición? La actual crisis económica y de sostenibilidad ha puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de un "capitalismo regulado" y una revisión de las ideas dominantes acerca de la RSE y el gobierno corporativo. A menudo se ha señalado la necesidad de una mayor transparencia y divulgación como una solución ante este punto muerto.Este artículo se centra en la aparición durante la última década de la regulación de la transparencia ambiental, social y de gobierno (ASG) en Europa. Está organizado en cuatro secciones principales. Después de contextualizar el tema en la literatura sobre la regulación de la responsabilidad corporativa, la segunda sección ofrece un panorama histórico de la aparición recurrente de la regulación de la transparencia ambiental y social. Posteriormente, el documento revisa brevemente el debate actual sobre la regulación de la transparencia ASG. En particular, se exponen los intereses de los principales grupos involucrados a nivel europeo: las grandes corporaciones, inversores institucionales, sindicatos, ONG, los contadores públicos y analistas financieros, autoridades públicas. La última parte sugiere que la aparición actual de la regulación de la transparencia ASG supone una estrategia de los inversores institucionales para fortalecer por un lado su control sobre los directivos, y por otro, la legitimidad de sus demandas sobre los recursos de las empresas. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2041918

Various corporate governance theories indicate that governance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) differs to that of larger corporations due to the ownership-management function within the organizational structure. This article provides empirical evidence of enhanced firm value in a sample of listed SMEs resulting from certain corporate governance mechanisms related to managerial and ownership concentration. The empirical analysis conducted in this paper is based on a panel data set consisting of 108 small and medium-sized public firms on the Spanish alternative stock exchange over a time frame of five years (2015-2019). The results suggest that CEO duality, the controlling shareholders, and the second largest shareholders all improve firm value. Conversely, the ratio of independent directors has a negative impact on firm value. These findings are robust to alternative model specifications such as dynamic panel estimators (Generalized Method of Moments -GMM-) and instrumental variable methods. Overall, we show that the governance configuration of listed SMEs can mitigate several of the central issues, such as agency problems, that large corporations face.

This paper aims to identify potential explanatory variables of the entrepreneurial orientation and innovation capacity (EO-IC) of family enterprises (FEs) through a comparative study of family businesses in Spain and Latin America. The innovation literature reports a paradigm shift whereby the dynamic boost provided by corporate governance and productivity is playing an increasing role as a driver of EO-IC and sustainable competitive advantage. This issue acquires particular relevance in the ase of family firms, where entrepreneurial and innovation capacities are characteristically hampered by socio-emotional and risk-aversion factors. We construct a panel of data on 182 large family enterprises (1,820 observations) domiciled in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Spain, drawing on the Thomson Onebanker and ORBIS databases for the period 2008-2018. The results reveal the emergence of new explanatory variables for the structure of the family-firm EO-IC framework, some related to productivity; others more basically to corporate governance. They also show that, in Latin America, the use of business efficiency (productivity) factors in the planning and potentiation of EO-IC by family firms is hampered by the institutional (legal, regulatory, labour and educational) environment, where traditional factors such as firm size and ownership concentration are more relevant. In the Spanish case, however, the evidence points to a transition from traditional inputs towards business efficiency and productivity-related factors.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if the culture of countries influences earnings management practices. Earnings management (EM) was chosen as a Corporate Governance mechanism. Methodology: We selected the Earnings Management proxies from Leuz et al. (2003). We adopted Hosftede´s cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. The sample comprised companies listed in 2016 in the stock markets of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and the United States. This work involved regression analysis to associate the dimensions of culture with the practice of EM of the firms. Findings: The results showed a positive relationship between EM and power distance and between EM and uncertainty avoidance. On the other hand, the results showed a negative relationship between EM and individualism and between EM and long term orientation. Overall, our results suggest that culture influences firms’ earnings management. Originality/value: Finance literature has had difficulty in assessing which variables can affect the development of CG in companies and its peculiarities in each country. It is also difficult to find country-level variables that are common to all countries. This paper breaks new ground by developing culture indicators of the countries and aggregating legal and firm-level variables to these indicators to advance the understanding of CG in the firms and nations. Theoretical and methodological contributions: studying culture at a multi-country level is important to improve the understanding of common aspects and the countries’ particularities that may affect the relationship between corporate governance and performance around the world.

This paper investigates the dynamics of complexity and expertise in the context of compensation committees (ccs). Drawing on semi-structured interviews, mostly with cc members and consultants, we bring to light two axes of subordination that impact the mindset of corporate governance participants, and may ultimately undermine directors’ degree of accountability to shareholders. The first axis involves cc members’ subordination to consultant expertise, which tends to be considered as an indispensable ally in dealing appropriately with the webs of complexity that allegedly characterize executive compensation. Nourished partially by the first axis, the second implies subservience to these webs of complexity, which are widely presumed and naturalized by cc members and the consulting experts they employ. One of our main contributory statements is to question the ascendancy of complexity in the boardroom, casting doubt on one of the key assumptions upon which practices and expertise in contemporary corporate governance institutions are built and promoted. We also question the extent of epistemic dependency in many compensation committees, where much of the knowledge necessary to properly operate the repertoire of practices (deemed necessary to address the problem of executive compensation determination) is not primarily in the hands of cc members, but rather in those of consultants.

We analyze the effect of corporate governance on banks’ performance in the MENA countries using an index comprised of seven widely used governance measures, as a measure of firm-level corporate governance. In addition, we have also considered country governance as an important determinant of performance. The data at the firm level has been obtained from the Bankscope Database and we also hand-collect the corporate governance data from the annual reports over the period 2005-2012, covering the period of the financial crisis. At the country level we obtain the data from different sources. Our paper shows that corporate governance is relevant explaining performance in a way consistent with the segmentation of the corporate governance at both country level and bank level. It highlights the need for internal governance mechanisms but also the importance of country governance in emerging markets. The best governance at the country level has a positive effect under favorable conditions but not in crisis situations.

This technological paper presents the development and application of the Quotaholder Agreement - as an internal Corporate Governance (CG) mechanism - for the beginning of the activities of a small company in the software development industry. The challenge is identified on the need to apply CG mechanisms in micro and small enterprises (MPE), configuring the extrapolation of this article. The rationale behind the Quotaholder Agreement is the ability to mitigate problems of asymmetry of information and interest among (main) shareholder of a company, by converging interests on management, succession, among others. Future conflicts are anticipated in the clauses of the agreement, which provides more transparent, controlled and lasting management. Using action research as a method, we verified the initial presence of several conflicts between the future partners of the company studied here. Such conflicts prevented the realization of the beginning of corporate activities. In this way, this article contributed, in an innovative way, through the development of a CG tool, the QA, in the social relations of companies divided by limited quotas. Through this application, other MSEs can adopt the proposal to apply the QA and mitigate conflicts of asymmetry and interests by initiating the implementation of the CG within the company.

This article presents an editorial perspective of corporate governance in Brazilian family firm as a result of the call for papers and this special issue of the RAC to address this research topic. The two accepted articles tackle relevant issues in the academic debate, namely: the need for a theoretical framework for the evaluation of strategic decision-making processes of family businesses, and the importance of gender diversity on the boards of directors of family firms. The theoretical proposition and empirical evidence documented in these two studies open a new line of research in corporate governance of Brazilian family firms. More specifically, these two articles provide new insights on the conciliation of the heterogeneity in the composition of the board of directors and its relationship with the value creation process in family firms.

Directors’ corporate networks have been the subject of several studies that explore their different consequences, such as resource collaboration, transmission of practices, financial decisions, reduc-tion of uncertainty, control and management, the firm’s reputation and individual interests. However, there is still no consensus about what these interlocking directorates (IDs) really do for firms and in what direction current research is following. This study carried out an extensive review of the literatu-re in 75 papers (from 1969 to 2018) focused on IDs research, and as a result proposes two categories and four subcategories related to companies’ outcomes. The study found that the biggest contribution to firms, focuses on the description of network structures and control and management results, re-marking the difference between North America IDs research and other regions, while shedding light on what IDs do for firms. It also identified gaps in research such as dissemination, globalization and collusion that need to have more analysis.

Purpose: This paper analyses the viability of stock trading as a mechanism to promote corporate governance, addressing its effects on abnormal returns, information, and firm performance. Originality/value: The study indicates that competition among institutional investors is important to raise stock price efficiency. Policies that allow capital inflow, increase in liquidity, and a link between managers’ salaries and stock performance are beneficial to reinforce the stock market efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses testing using panel data regressions of 233 stocks between December 2009 to December 2017 from Thomson Eikon, Economatica and ComDinheiro. Findings: The results indicate that the number of institutional investors is not related to abnormal returns. On the other hand, the number of institutional investors increases the amount of firm-specific information into stock prices, rising stock market price efficiency. This relationship is stronger among the preferred stocks (PN), but this mechanism is still not valid to increase firms’ operational performance. Despite the possible increase in stock price efficiency, the investors cannot adopt such a mechanism to exercise governance if there is no remuneration linked to performance. / Objetivo: Este artigo analisa a viabilidade da negociação de ações como um mecanismo para promover a governança corporativa, abordando seus efeitos sobre retornos anormais, informações e desempenho das empresas. Originalidade/valor: A competição entre investidores institucionais é importante para aumentar a eficiência informacional dos preços das ações. Políticas que permitem a entrada de capital, aumentam a liquidez e fortalecem a relação entre os salários dos gestores com o desempenho das ações são benéficas para reforçar a eficiência do mercado. Design/metodologia/abordagem: Realizaram-se testes de hipóteses usando regressões de dados em painel com 233 ações entre dezembro de 2009 e dezembro de 2017 da Thomson Eikon, Economatica e ComDinheiro. Resultados: O número de investidores institucionais não está relacionado a retornos anormais. Porém, o número de investidores institucionais aumenta a incorporação de informações específicas da empresa nos preços das ações, o que eleva a eficiência dos preços no mercado de ações. Essa relação é mais forte entre as ações preferenciais (PN), mas esse mecanismo ainda não é suficiente para aumentar o desempenho operacional. Apesar do possível aumento na eficiência do preço das ações, os investidores não poderão adotar esse mecanismo para exercer governança se não houver remuneração vinculada ao desempenho.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and systematize previous studies on boards of directors in Brazil and propose an agenda to guide future studies. Originality/value: A conceptual model is developed to provide an integrated view for research on the board of directors, incorporating variables from different levels that connect governance mechanisms, best practices, board dynamics and company performance; we identified gaps for the research agenda. Design/methodology/approach: This review analyzed 95 articles on boards of directors in Brazil between 2000 and 2019. The review was conducted in three major steps: 1. planning; 2. conducting; and 3. organizing the data and reporting the findings. Findings: There is a growing interest in studying boards of directors in Brazil, with a wide range of topics. The most studied are board compo­sition, best practices, diversity and gender. Despite the diversity, the previous studies are homogeneous in theoretical and methodological terms. Based on the agency theory, most articles sought to relate board demography to financial performance, and the findings are not convergent. This scenario opens up some research avenues to address topics that have not yet been explored, such as board processes, board tasks, and differentiation between board performance and company performance. / Objetivo: Este artigo tem como objetivos revisar e sistematizar os estudos anteriores em conselho de administração no Brasil e propor uma agenda para orientar futuras pesquisas. Originalidade/valor: Foi desenvolvido um modelo conceitual que fornece uma visão integrada para a pesquisa em conselho de administração. A partir de uma análise com variáveis de diferentes níveis que conectam os mecanismos de governança, boas práticas de governança, dinâmica do conselho e resultados da empresa, identificaram-se as lacunas para a agenda de pesquisa. Design/metodologia/abordagem: Esta revisão analisou 95 artigos sobre conselhos de administração no Brasil publicados no período de 2000 a 2019. A revisão foi desenvolvida em três etapas: 1. planejamento, 2. condução e 3. organização dos dados e reporte dos resultados. Resultados: O interesse por estudar conselhos de administração no Brasil é crescente, com uma grande diversidade de temas. Os tópicos mais estudados são: composição do conselho; boas práticas de GC; diversidade e gênero. Apesar dos diferentes temas, os trabalhos são homogêneos em termos teóricos e metodológicos. Baseada na teoria da agência, a maioria dos artigos buscou relacionar variáveis demográficas do conselho com o desempenho empresarial, e os resultados encontrados não são convergentes. Esse cenário abre oportunidades de pesquisas para endereçar temas ainda não explorados, como: processos psicossociais, tarefas do conselho e diferenciação entre resultados do conselho e resultados da empresa.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance structure and GRI reporting. More specifically, the study seeks to analyse board independence, board size and ownership concentration and their relationships with GRI reporting. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses of the study were tested in a sample of 287 Brazilian companies listed on the B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, using logistic regression models. Data from 2013 were collected from the Econoinfo and GRI databases. Findings –The findings show that there is a positive relationship between both board independence and GRI reporting and board size and GRI reporting, and a neutral relationship between ownership concentration and GRI reporting. These results indicate that the corporate governance structure influences a company’s decision to engage in social issue and stakeholders’ relationship activities. Originality/value – The contribution of this study is it presents theoretical arguments and empirical evidence regarding the influence of corporate governance structure on CSD beyond the Anglo-Saxon context. The results show that good corporate governance practices cannot be generalized to different contexts.

This paper researches the reasons and expected benefits of Spanish non-financial listed companies for disclosing risk information as well as the possible motivations for not doing so. It investigates the current situation of risk disclosure but also looks forward and studies what it will be like in the near future. In view of an increasingly information demanding environment, it looks for ideas for improving the risk disclosure practice. With the objective of gathering insights from the parties involved (preparers and users of risk information) and getting an agreed view among them, we conducted a Delphi study. The group of experts was made up of twenty-two people, thirteen internal audit directors from Spanish non-financial listed companies, five financial analysts and four scholars. We ran three rounds of questions between the months of January and July of 2017. The study concludes, among other findings, that the demand for risk disclosure will increase in coming years, that the benefits of disclosing offset any kind of associated costs, and that the policy maker should develop more legal provisions to ensure greater clarity and consistency of risk information and more comparability among companies.

The purpose of this research paper is to determine the effect of the size and independence of the board of directors on economic performance of family and non-family businesses in Colombia. The relationship was analyzed using regression models in a balanced panel data based on three aspects (size and independence of the board of directors and family nature of the company). The sample comprised 2,170 observations (310 businesses a year) between 2008 and 2014. It was found that: (i) the size of the board of directors has a negative influence on the ROA, ROE in the family companies; (ii) there is a positive influence from the independent members of the board of directors in the operating income (OI) for both family and non-family businesses; and (iii) the family nature shows a positive influence in the ROA indicator; however, the relationship is negative when they are first-generation family businesses. On the basis of the empirical findings, it is suggested that the control entities promote campaigns to disseminate the impact of the board of directors and the adequate role of independent members on the companies’ performance, and entrepreneurs are welcomed to implement good corporate governance practices.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the corporate governance characteristics of Spanish companies included in the Ibex35 stock price index that influence the voluntary information disclosure policy regarding their Intellectual Capital. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used was content analysis of 115 annual reports from 23 Ibex35 companies over five years; this allowed for the development of an index to quantify Intellectual Capital information. Findings – Based on Agency-Stakeholders Theory postulates, the main results reveal that companies that disclose most information about their Intellectual Capital are those in which managers have greater managerial ownership, fewer independent directors, separation of functions between the chairman and the chief executive, and larger Boards of Directors. Originality/value – With this study, we contribute to agency-stakeholder theory by analyzing a non-Anglo-Saxon market (characterized by strong executive power and low protection of minority shareholders and other stakeholders), stating that certain characteristics of Corporate Governance condition the disclosure of Intellectual Capital.

This paper addresses earnings management from an international perspective. This study particularly analyzes whether external auditing reduces earnings managements and, if so, whether this relationship is affected by the economic crisis. The study employs a cross-country approach. The sample has 3,830 observations from listed firms from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, France and Spain during the period 2005–2009. Panel data are used to verify the research hypotheses. The findings show that external auditing is an important mechanism to minimize earnings management. In this sense, the Big Four and auditor specialization helped to reduce earnings managements during the economic crisis. Moreover, long audit tenure does not contribute to mitigating discretionary accruals. The study includes implications for academia, practitioners, and policymakers. It provides the literature with complementary evidence on the external auditing and earnings management relationship and how this is influenced by the economic crisis. The article benefits practitioners and policymakers by highlighting the most important characteristics of audit firms related to the mitigation of earnings managements. In addition, this study considers the recent economic crisis as an important economic factor. Given that the crisis affected most countries around the world and caused structural changes within companies, information about the consequences of the crisis and how to deal with them is an important empirical question.

This paper explores the necessary and sufficient conditions of good Corporate Governance practices for high risk disclosure by firms in their Corporate Governance Annual Report. Additionally, we explore whether those recipes have changed during the financial crisis. With a sample of 271 Spanish listed companies, we applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to a database of financial and non-financial data. We report that Board of Directors independence, size, level of activity and gender diversity, CEO duality, Audit Committee independence, being audited by the Big Four auditing firms and the presence of institutional investors are associated with high risk disclosure. The conditions included in almost every combination are the presence of institutional investors and being audited by the Big Four. We found similar combinations for 2006 and 2012, while the analysis for 2009 showed the lowest number of causal configurations.

The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent globalization pressures are changing interlocking directorate networks modeled on continental capitalism into Anglo-Saxon models. For this purpose we analyse the Spanish network of interlocks, comparing the present structure (2012) with that of 1993 and 2006. We show how, although Spanish corporative structure continues to display characteristics of the continental economies, some major banks are significantly reducing industrial activity. Nevertheless, the financial organizations continue to maintain a close relationship with sectors such as construction and services. The analysis of the network of directorates shows a retreat in activity of industrial banking in Spain. Two large Spanish financial institutions, BSCH and La Caixa, continue to undertake activities of industrial banking in 2006, but this activity is significantly reduced in 2012. According to the theories on the role of the interlocking directorates, the companies in these sectors assure their access to banking credit by incorporating advisors from financial organizations to their board of directors. We cannot conclude that the structure of the Spanish corporate network has become a new case of Anglo-Saxon structure, but we got indications that are becoming less hierarchic as banks seem to slowly abandon centrality positions. This is especially salient if we compare the networks of 2006 and 2012, which show a continuing decrease of the role of banks and insurance companies in the network.