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This research aims to contribute to the debate on fraud on public funds and the work that public auditors perform on this important topic, providing a useful analysis for government officials concerned about accountability, good governance, and transparency. This article presents a retrospective analysis of the European Court of Auditors' (ECA) role in combating and preventing fraud. Using innovative research tools such as the Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner lexicon and other quantitative and qualitative research methods, evidence is found that ECA fraud audits reach a more negative tone in their conclusions than in the rest of the audits and that their audit recommendations on fraud are accepted to a lesser degree than the rest. Although in recent years the ECA has taken a more active role regarding fraud and stirring the public debate on this topic, its work is still hampered by its non‐jurisdictional statute. The results obtained contribute to the literature on fraud in the public sector by bringing empirical evidence on public sector fraud audit with data of an under‐researched and unique Supreme Audit Institution. This article opens up new avenues for future research and has practical implications for practitioners by offering them insights on their role on the issue, thus helping them to address some areas more prone to be affected by fraud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is aimed at policy-makers and contributes to the debate on the shift towards performance and non-financial auditing in public sector organizations. It offers useful insights that national regulators and standard setters can consider when introducing new rules and standards in the audit sphere. Regulators and standard setters interested in teasing out the professional support that auditors can offer need to be aware of the need to blend economic efficiency targets with more sophisticated and sometimes not quantifiable assessment methods on specific topics. This article contributes to the debate on the emergence of performance and non-financial auditing in the public sector and covers a gap in the literature regarding supra-national audit institutions. The authors investigate whether the European Court of Auditors' audit methods are aligned with the different public sector paradigms (Public Administration, New Public Management and New Public Governance) using institutional logics perspectives: bureaucratic logic, managerial logic and public value logic. Their results confirm that performance auditing has led to ECA focusing on non-financial issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to analyze in an international setting the relationship between environmental disclosures, carbon emissions and gender equality on the board of directors with the cost of equity (CoE) in the food and beverage sector. Design/methodology/approach: The study sample includes 142 listed firms and 1,562 firm-observations from 35 developed and developing countries between 2009 and 2019. The authors implement a fixed-effects regression model to contrast the impact of the three sustainable variables of interest on the CoE. Findings: The results of this study indicate that firms in the food and beverage industry benefit from a lower CoE due to better environmental disclosures and gender equality. On the other hand, carbon intensive firms are penalized with higher equity costs. Originality/value: This study expands prior research on the effects of sustainable behavior on the CoE in the food and beverage industry by taking into account additional sustainability variables and a greater number of observations, both from developed and from developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the perceptions held by 623 Colombian students and graduates regarding the learning of IFRS through a MOOC. Data was collected through an online survey and the results were examined via factor analysis. Three main factors were identified: perceived utility; design; and disadvantages. Using multivariate techniques, significant differences regarding gender were found among the respondents' perceptions, women holding a more positive opinion towards learning IFRS via a MOOC. A logit model was implemented to determine how these factors could forecast the demand for an IFRS MOOC by respondents. The research findings deliver interesting insights, especially for researchers and providers of academic offerings in accounting education. This research enables the identification and further prediction of the most relevant features within an IFRS MOOC, considering the context of Southern American countries like Colombia where the training of IFRS via MOOC is not currently widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the driving forces for having carbon reporting and carbon reduction management strategies in emerging and developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology employed uses logit and linear panel data models and generalized moments method, to avoid endogeneity problems. Findings: The results show that the carbon reporting decision is positively related to being located in Africa or America (as opposed to Asia), publishing a sustainability report and having certain corporate governance (CG) attributes such as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee, larger board size and an executive compensation policy based on environmental and social performance. Regarding the driving forces leading to a reduction of carbon emissions, no evidence is obtained on the effect of the variables considered. Practical implications: The evidence obtained is valuable, as it can help standard-setters in these geographical areas to promote actions in the field of CG to increase transparency. Nonetheless, additional measures to disclosure should be needed in the future to help decrease carbon emissions more effectively. Social implications: Raising awareness amongst companies helps mimetic isomorphism take place so that efforts can be made to report levels of pollution in an initial phase, which hopefully in the future may be managed to try to keep a decreasing path. Therefore, implications of this research are crucial for emerging and developing countries, as they are especially vulnerable to climate change. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to look into this phenomenon in emerging and developing countries from Asia, Africa and America. This contribution is unique as this research shows that location, publication of a sustainability report together with some CG attributes are drivers for carbon transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sometimes class-attendance is a component (or requirement) to benefit from the continuous assessment. The objective of this study is to evidence that some students seem to be getting unfairly penalized for nonattendance. To address this issue, we provide alternative assessment solutions taking into account the different profiles of the students. This study is based on the performance in online tests undertaken in a subject of Financial Accounting taught in English in two groups at Valencia University (from Spain). This subject is especially important for International Business (IB) as managers make decisions based on financial information. In this course, students learn about the legal accounting framework, from a national and IB perspective (i.e., national standards and International Financial Reporting Standards). Difficulty of course contents, students' study time, students' university access mark, age, and class-attendance are determining factors of the mark obtained in online tests if we take into account all the students. However, for the students whose marks are the best and second best grades, only the difficulty of course contents, study time, age and parents' studies are significant factors. Evidence is found that attendance improves online test performance significantly for the whole group of students, yet this factor is not significant considering only the best performing students. Our findings justify that the continuous assessment system should only require a specific level of attendance if the online test performance drops below a certain grade (for instance the second best grade). That way, these students would have an extra motivation to attend classes but better performing students who are keeping best and second grades in their online tests will not get penalized if classes are missed as long as they keep performing well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether audit firms use transparency reports (TRs) as a tool to standardize their brand image or whether the semantic and content analysis in these reports indicates a higher importance of country effects. Design/methodology/approach: The sample includes 28 TRs published in English by the Big-4 audit firms from five EU countries (the UK, Ireland, Luxemburg, Hungary and Malta), as well as in the USA and Australia. Findings: Using content analysis, this research finds that there is variation in the language used in TRs both across audit firms and jurisdictions. Most TRs from different countries of the same firm tend to be clustered, suggesting that audit firms use transparency reporting as a strategy to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In fact, EY and KPMG seem to have more standardized internal procedures and standardized information. Regarding country effects, the results indicate that TRs in the UK are longer and show more detailed information. Originality/value: Overall, this research is innovative in the sense that it applies a new methodological approach to an emerging topic such as audit transparency reporting. It identifies emerging topics of voluntary disclosure, such as financial data of the firm, gender and ethnic origin of employees, community involvement or sanctions, among other topics of interest which might be explored in detail by future research to understand the construction of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RAE: Revista de Administração de Empresas is the property of Fundacao Getulio Vargas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the FinTech era, other technological enterprises different from traditional banking are offering financial services (Zalan and Toufaily Zalan et al. Contemporary Economics, 11(4), 2017). Crowdfunding is a materialization of the evolution of entrepreneurial finance, permitting the raising of funds from a crowd of investors through online platforms. Crowdfunding is a rather new phenomenon, so literature is still incipient. This research aims to study crowdfunding as a financial instrument. For this reason, we will focus specifically on crowdfunding that generates a financial return- i.e., peer-to-peer lending (P2P) and equity crowdfunding (EC). This article looks into the documents published in the Tomson Reuters Web of Science on the field of financial return crowdfunding. Conclusions are drawn in terms of relevance of this burgeoning topic and suggestions for future research are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este trabajo analiza los Informes Anuales de Transparencia publicados en España en 2010, tras la aprobación de la Ley 12/2010 de Auditoría de Cuentas (LAC), y en 2013, tras la publicación del Reglamento de la LAC y las nuevas propuestas europeas. Los resultados de esta investigación, pionera en nuestro país, evidencian un nivel de transparencia elevado en los items de divulgación obligatoria según la normativa y en aumento de 2010 a 2013. No obstante, se reduce la presentación de información voluntaria en 2013. Nuestro estudio revela que las firmas más grandes y menos dependientes de los ingresos por servicios de consultoría son las que presentan mayor transparencia informativa en sus Informes Anuales de Transparencia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this research is to identify the combinations of factors leading to experience in sustainability reporting by Spanish public universities.Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 49 public universities in Spain, this paper identifies the combinations of factors on innovation profile, political and internal factors that explain the different degree of corporate social reporting experience with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.Findings The study’s findings are a contribution to existing literature as the results obtained point out three different configurations leading to this expertise, with a combination of different conditions based on innovation profile, political and internal factors. Also, the results reveal new characteristics of sustainable development strategies by universities, such as devoting a specific sustainability reporting section in the university website, creating a sustainability body in the university structure or submitting the sustainability report to external assurance.Research limitations/implications This study refers only to Spanish public universities. In the future, new studies can enlarge the sample and analyse country effects and impact of public versus private status of universities on sustainability reporting strategies.Practical implications The study’s findings are important for university community, regulators and other stakeholders to start considering the need to somehow promote further sustainability reporting and assurance practices by universities, especially in a context of budget restrictions.Originality/value This paper opens up a new line of research on sustainability experience using an innovative methodology (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) useful with small sample sizes, and provides a complete picture of sustainability reporting by Spanish public universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of risk profile on sustainability reporting and its quality in European banks. Financial institutions (FI) play a social role in the financial inclusion process and incorporate environmental considerations into credit risk assessment, making corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related issues vital for risk management systems. FI with lower capital risk, higher liquidity risk, higher profitability in banking, and higher sensitivity to market risk tend to issue CSR reports. The findings suggest that FI with lower profitability in banking disclose higher quality CSR financial services sector (FSS)-specific information, whereas FI not submitting CSR reports for external assurance or having their CSR reports assured by certain auditors issue lower quality CSR/FSS-specific information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educade: Spanish Journal of Accounting, Finance & Management Education / Revista de Educación en Contabilidad, Finanzas y Administración de Empresas is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Contabilidad y Administracion de Empresas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose This paper aims to look into the new corporate reporting phenomenon, the so-called integrated reporting (IR), so as to assess the information level provided, identify trends and explore its determining factors.Design/methodology/approach This study looks into the IR disclosure level of the annual reports published by 91 companies in the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)’s pilot programme. The authors’ empirical research focuses on four areas: the guiding principles of connectivity and materiality, as well as two content elements: the business model and governance. Following extant research on voluntary disclosure, a disclosure index is proposed and some hypotheses are put forward on its connection with some corporate variables.Findings The results point out that the disclosure levels of the IRs published by IIRC’s pilot programme members reach medium levels of disclosure. According to the authors’ index, the level of disclosure is significantly associated with the specific environment of organizations (i.e. region and industry), assurance of the report and publication in the IIRC website.Originality/value This study makes a relevant contribution, as it presents an innovative IR disclosure index and sheds some light on the disclosure practices of early adopters of IR. This evidence is valuable in understanding the trends in this field and could help the IIRC and other standard setters with a view to improving sustainable development and reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading companies worldwide are increasingly concerned about stakeholders' needs. They include sustainability initiatives regarding the environment and the community in their business strategy and adopt a new way of communication with stakeholders, that is, the Integrated Report (IR). This document should include in just one document the information traditionally provided in the annual report, the sustainability report, and the corporate governance report. This article presents the IR phenomenon and pays special attention to the key concept of 'connectivity,' according to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). However, Internet and digital technologies have provided new channels of communication and interaction through social media. Within the framework of the Legitimacy Theory, Reputation Risk Management, and Stakeholder Theory, this article argues that the new possibilities brought by social media can be most valuable for IR purposes as they are useful to increase transparency and stakeholder engagement. Having looked into 78 integrated reports for the year 2012 of the companies included in the IIRC pilot programme, our study posits that the level of IR connectivity (or its absence) can be due to the combination of three types of factors (information quality, corporate characteristics, and communication factors), using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Our findings confirm the equifinality tenet and the causal asymmetry principle. Very interestingly, in the sufficiency analysis, some factors always appear present (big size, long reports, and many channels of social media used) in the model for IR connectivity whereas in the model for non-IR connectivity size and report length are always absent though the listing status is always present. This pioneering study is unique and valuable as it opens up a new line of research on IR and social media use, two of the latest trends in company reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Intangible Capital is the property of Omnia Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study looks into the effects of voluntary sustainability reporting in analysts' earnings forecasts as a driver for sustainable development. The methodology used is based on a regression model to test whether the issuance of a CSR stand-alone report affects analysts' forecast errors and forecast dispersion. Forecast error refers to the difference between the forecasted earnings per share (EPS) and the actual EPS. Dispersion refers to the standard deviation in EPS forecasts between analysts following the same firm. Our study in the Spanish context includes 527 observations from listed firms and covers the period 2005-2010. We provide evidence that there is a negative statistically significant association between the absolute forecast earnings error and the publication of a sustainability report. However, we find that the CSR reports have lost power in reducing the earnings forecast error if we compare analysts' activity before the financial crisis and during the crisis itself, so we open up a question for future research to check whether this is a consistent trend or whether in times of economic recovery this phenomenon regains power. The main conclusion of this paper points to the importance of sustainable development and stakeholder engagement through the issuance of CSR reports, which can help the smooth running of capital markets in a context of increasing sensitiveness to social responsible investment. Our study in this field is pioneering in the Spanish setting, which is especially interesting given the growing trend to publish CSR reports in this country. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest in integrated reporting that includes the company's financial, governance, environmental, and social performance. For this reason, the main objective of this investigation is to study why companies are producing integrated reporting, paying special attention to the links with the assurance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. Based on 7144 worldwide observations, this study identifies the determinants of integrated reporting through a logistic regression model. Our results point out that the likelihood of disclosing an integrated report is positively associated with having the CSR report assured, year, size and supplement industry. Next, we tested if companies that assure their CSR report are also affected by those determining variables. This research is pioneering in analysing the determinants of integrated reporting and as far as we know no existing research has examined the links between integrated reporting and the assurance of CSR reports. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Contabilidad is the property of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of the paper is to empirically test the relation between carbon emissions, environmental disclosures, assurance of sustainability reports and firms' Cost of Equity (COE) measured by an Ex-Ante proxy model. The methodological approach uses the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) required to control endogeneity problems using a sample of 929 firms that are included in the Morgan Stanley Emerging Market Index. The data panel includes 5328 observations from 30 emerging countries covering the period 2014 to 2019. Our results indicate that firms with higher carbon emissions have higher COE, which implies that capital providers penalize highly polluting firms. Contrarily, evidence shows that firms with greater environmental disclosures, and the those who externally assure their corporate social responsibility reports decrease their COE. Our study expands the literature regarding carbon emissions and its relation with firms' COE from an emerging market perspective covering a multi-country sample, with findings that confirm that higher emitters are penalized in terms of COE. Moreover, our research confirms in this setting the negative relation between environmental, social and governance disclosure scores and COE. Moreover, we evidence as well that the assurance of sustainability reports also promotes legitimacy and decreases information asymmetries, in the sense of reducing COE. The value of our findings is especially relevant as it may encourage listed companies in emerging countries to engage in more sustainable practices—e.g., reduce carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses Social Media (SM) use as a promotion tool for public institutions in the public audit sector. The authors propose a quantitative model to assess online engagement of 94 European audit institutions (national and regional) with their stakeholders, based on SM and web activity metrics of these institutions, with a focus on pressing matters such as environment, sustainability and the current COVID pandemic. The proposed model may be applied to assess organisations from any public or private sector. The research finds that SM presence helps audit institutions to promote their services more effectively by directing their stakeholders to extensive content on the audit institutions' websites, thus contributing to an increase in their web traffic. Most audit institutions do not have a strategy for the online promotion of their services and work outputs, nor do they, in general, use SM for intensively promoting environmental or sustainability-related messages. The only exception is the European Court of Auditors, who clearly promotes its environment-related activity by actively and increasingly posting on SM and referencing its reports. Audit institutions could benefit from the nature of their evidence-based activity and promote their findings on emerging topics to positively influence public policies and accountability at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, companies have started to disclose information on carbon emissions. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to look into this phenomenon in South America, which is a very important geographical area regarding climate change because of the local nature and developing economies. This paper explores the relationships between some corporate variables and two important decisions: (i) whether to report carbon emissions, and (ii) the impact on the evolution of carbon emissions. Logit and linear panel data models are used to determine the driving factors for decisions (i) and (ii). Our results show that regarding the carbon reporting decision, a company’s size, sustainability reporting, existence of a sustainability committee, and whether it belongs to a certain sector (telecom, utilities, and consumer discretionary) are significant positive factors, whereas the country is a negatively significant factor if the company is based in either Chile or Peru. Regarding the factors that lead to more sustainable behavior, our results reveal that a company’s size, the existence of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee, and the disclosure of a sustainability report lead to a decrease in emissions levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]