Jessica Yang

Accounting Narratives and Impression Management on Social Media

In this paper, we examine the defensive and assertive impression management strategies and the impact of firm performance on accounting narratives by investigating the earnings disclosures of FTSE 100 companies on Twitter. Social media has become the prevailing venue for organisational self-presentation because it provides firms with more control over the image they intend to establish and maintain through the communication and content they deliver online. Our findings show that firms minimise the disclosures of negative information but employ various patterns and dissemination techniques to emphasise positive information. Specifically, improving performers are more willing to post and disseminate earnings-related tweets to achieve a higher degree of stakeholder engagement than declining performers. Based on these findings, we conclude that firms present themselves on social media opportunistically to construct a positive public image.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Corporate Greenhouse Gas Disclosure Strategy

This study is motivated by the introduction of mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting by UK Government under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic and Directors’ Reports) Regulations 2013. The act requires listed companies to report their GHG emission information in their annual reports. Before the enactment of this regulation, there are several GHG reporting guidance that aim to improve the reporting of GHG emissions by UK companies, such as the GHG Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Reporting Initiatives, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Resources Institute (2004). This raises the question of why further governmental intervention is initiated in GHG reporting despite the existence of institutionalized reporting guidance. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which GHG-sensitive companies in FTSE 100 disclose GHG emission information in their annual and standalone reports during the 2004–2012 period, and how they respond to the enactment of legally binding GHG reduction schemes such as the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and Climate Change Act (CCA). Consistent with institutional legitimacy theory and strategic legitimacy theory, we find that the disclosures have been increasing over time, both in number of companies making disclosures and in the amount of information being reported, which indicates the movement towards normativity. We also find that the disclosures reach their peak after the enactment of EU ETS and CCA, and that companies with GHG trading accounts are more responsive to these schemes than those without the accounts. Nevertheless, the quality of the disclosure remains low, which may justify further government intervention of mandating GHG reporting.This study is motivated by the introduction of mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting by UK Government under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic and Directors’ Reports) Regulations 2013. The act requires listed companies to report their GHG emission information in their annual reports. Before the enactment of this regulation, there are several GHG reporting guidance that aim to improve the reporting of GHG emissions by UK companies, such as the GHG Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Reporting Initiatives, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Resources Institute (2004). This raises the question of why further governmental intervention is initiated in GHG reporting despite the existence of institutionalized reporting guidance. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which GHG-sensitive companies in FTSE 100 disclose GHG emission information in their annual and standalone reports during the 2004–2012 period, and how they respond to the enactment of legally binding GHG reduction schemes such as the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and Climate Change Act (CCA). Consistent with institutional legitimacy theory and strategic legitimacy theory, we find that the disclosures have been increasing over time, both in number of companies making disclosures and in the amount of information being reported, which indicates the movement towards normativity. We also find that the disclosures reach their peak after the enactment of EU ETS and CCA, and that companies with GHG trading accounts are more responsive to these schemes than those without the accounts. Nevertheless, the quality of the disclosure remains low, which may justify further government intervention of mandating GHG reporting.

A Semiotic Approach to Critical Reasoning

Information can be interpreted as in-formation, which refers to the potential of the form for a mediation of meaning. In this paper we focus on reasoning information and consider the question how form involved in reasoning can be used for an analysis of accounting narratives in corporate disclosures. An evaluation of experimental results is included.

How Chinese Styled Executive Remuneration Works: Evidence from Chinese Red-Chips

Executive remuneration has attracted much attention from both academics and practitioners in the past two decades (Murphy, 1985; Bebchuk and Fried, 2003). A well-designed executive remuneration is significant to a firm’s performance, especially during financial crisis (Bebchuk and Weisbach, 2010). An astonishing survey shows that the average executive pay of Standard & Poor 500 firms increased more than four times from

Gender diversity and board performance: : Women'S experiences and perspectives

3.5 million to

International financial reporting standards (IFRS) as a change agent in Ukraine

14.7 million and the granted stock options to CEOs increased nearly nine-fold from 1992 to 2000 (Bebchuk and Fried, 2003). The design of executive remuneration therefore attracts a great attention in the world. Issues of concern, especially in the banking field, include poor remuneration packages, enormous executive salaries and excessive short-term risk-taking. An unprecedented number of financial firms suffered extensive collapse during the 2008 global financial crisis.