IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v47y2015i4p376-394.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What drives mandatory and voluntary risk reporting variations across Germany, UK and US?

Author

Listed:
  • Elshandidy, Tamer
  • Fraser, Ian
  • Hussainey, Khaled

Abstract

This paper utilises computerised textual analysis to explore the extent to which both firm and country characteristics influence mandatory and voluntary risk reporting (MRR and VRR) variations both within and between non-financial firms across Germany, the UK and the US, over the period from 2005 to 2010. We find significant variations in MRR and VRR between firms across the three countries. Further, we find, on average, that German firms tend to disclose significantly higher (lower) levels of risk information mandatorily than UK (US) firms. German firms, on average, tend to reveal considerably higher (lower) levels of VRR than US (UK) firms. Our results document that MRR and VRR variations are significantly influenced by systematic risk, the legal system and cultural values. We also find that country and firm characteristics have higher explanatory power over the observed variations in MRR than over those in VRR.

Suggested Citation

  • Elshandidy, Tamer & Fraser, Ian & Hussainey, Khaled, 2015. "What drives mandatory and voluntary risk reporting variations across Germany, UK and US?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 376-394.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:47:y:2015:i:4:p:376-394
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2014.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838914000444
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2014.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abraham, Santhosh & Shrives, Philip J., 2014. "Improving the relevance of risk factor disclosure in corporate annual reports," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 91-107.
    2. Jennifer Chen & Robin Roberts, 2010. "Toward a More Coherent Understanding of the Organization–Society Relationship: A Theoretical Consideration for Social and Environmental Accounting Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(4), pages 651-665, December.
    3. Dong, Minyue & Stettler, Alfred, 2011. "Estimating firm-level and country-level effects in cross-sectional analyses: An application of hierarchical modeling in corporate disclosure studies," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 271-303, September.
    4. Andrew Marshall & Pauline Weetman, 2007. "Modelling Transparency in Disclosure: The Case of Foreign Exchange Risk Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5-6), pages 705-739.
    5. Jaggi, Bikki & Low, Pek Yee, 2000. "Impact of Culture, Market Forces, and Legal System on Financial Disclosures," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 495-519, 010.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2007. "Financial Reporting and Supplemental Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 885-913, December.
    8. Kai Li & Xinlei Zhao, 2008. "Asymmetric Information and Dividend Policy," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 673-694, December.
    9. Abraham, Santhosh & Cox, Paul, 2007. "Analysing the determinants of narrative risk information in UK FTSE 100 annual reports," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 227-248.
    10. Ding, Yuan & Hope, Ole-Kristian & Jeanjean, Thomas & Stolowy, Herve, 2007. "Differences between domestic accounting standards and IAS: Measurement, determinants and implications," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-38.
    11. Elshandidy, Tamer & Fraser, Ian & Hussainey, Khaled, 2013. "Aggregated, voluntary, and mandatory risk disclosure incentives: Evidence from UK FTSE all-share companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 320-333.
    12. Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Michael T. Kirschenheiter, 2012. "Interactive Discretionary Disclosures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 382-397, June.
    13. Linsley, Philip M. & Shrives, Philip J., 2006. "Risk reporting: A study of risk disclosures in the annual reports of UK companies," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 387-404.
    14. Campbell, David & Cornelia Beck, A. & Shrives, Philip, 2005. "A note on comparative language interrogation for content analysis: The example of English vs. German," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 339-350.
    15. Vivien Beattie & Bill McInnes & Stella Fearnley, 2004. "A methodology for analysing and evaluating narratives in annual reports: a comprehensive descriptive profile and metrics for disclosure quality attributes," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 205-236, September.
    16. Eti Einhorn, 2005. "The Nature of the Interaction between Mandatory and Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 593-621, September.
    17. Wallace, R. S. Olusegun & Naser, Kamal, 1995. "Firm-specific determinants of the comprehensiveness of mandatory disclosure in the corporate annual reports of firms listed on the stock exchange of Hong Kong," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 311-368.
    18. Marie Chavent & Yuan Ding & Linghui Fu & Herve Stolowy & Huiwen Wang, 2006. "Disclosure and determinants studies: An extension using the Divisive Clustering Method (DIV)," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 181-218.
    19. Williams, S. Mitchell, 2004. "An international investigation of associations between societal variables and the amount of disclosure on information technology and communication problems: The case of Y2K," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 71-92.
    20. Marshall, Andrew P. & Weetman, Pauline, 2002. "Information asymmetry in disclosure of foreign exchange risk management: can regulation be effective?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 31-53.
    21. Dye, Ronald A, 1986. "Proprietary and Nonproprietary Disclosures," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 331-366, April.
    22. Khurana, Inder K. & Pereira, Raynolde & Martin, Xiumin, 2006. "Firm Growth and Disclosure: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 357-380, June.
    23. Philip Brown & Wendy Beekes & Peter Verhoeven, 2011. "Corporate governance, accounting and finance: A review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(1), pages 96-172, March.
    24. Paula Hill & Helen Short, 2009. "Risk disclosures on the second tier markets of the London Stock Exchange," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(4), pages 753-780, December.
    25. Andrew Marshall & Pauline Weetman, 2007. "Modelling Transparency in Disclosure: The Case of Foreign Exchange Risk Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5‐6), pages 705-739, June.
    26. Miihkinen, Antti, 2012. "What Drives Quality of Firm Risk Disclosure?," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 437-468.
    27. Healy, Paul M. & Palepu, Krishna G., 2001. "Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 405-440, September.
    28. Dobler, Michael, 2008. "Incentives for risk reporting -- A discretionary disclosure and cheap talk approach," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 184-206.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elshandidy, Tamer & Shrives, Philip J., 2016. "Environmental Incentives for and Usefulness of Textual Risk Reporting: Evidence from Germany," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 464-486.
    2. Shivaani, M.V. & Agarwal, Nishant, 2020. "Does competitive position of a firm affect the quality of risk disclosure?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    3. Khaldoon Albitar & Tony Abdoush & Khaled Hussainey, 2023. "Do corporate governance mechanisms and ESG disclosure drive CSR narrative tones?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 3876-3890, October.
    4. Hassanein, Ahmed, 2022. "Risk reporting and stock return in the UK: Does market competition Matter?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Hussainey, Khaled & Nawaz, Tasawar & Ntim, Collins & Elamer, Ahmed, 2022. "A systematic literature review on risk disclosure research: State-of-the-art and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Sofka, Wolfgang & de Faria, Pedro & Shehu, Edlira, 2018. "Protecting knowledge: How legal requirements to reveal information affect the importance of secrecy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 558-572.
    7. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Hussainey, Khaled, 2019. "Developing the narrative risk disclosure measurement," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 126-144.
    8. Lyndie Bayne & Juliana Ng & Marvin Wee, 2022. "Supply chain disclosure: stakeholder preferences versus current practice in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3875-3911, September.
    9. Hedi Baazaoui, 2020. "For A New Method Of Calculating The Disclosure Index," Copernican Journal of Finance & Accounting, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 9(2), pages 9-24.
    10. Elshandidy, Tamer & Acheampong, Albert, 2021. "Does hedge disclosure influence cost of capital for European banks?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Amal Yamani & Khaled Hussainey, 2021. "Compliance with IFRS 7 by financial institutions: evidence from GCC," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(1), pages 42-57, March.
    12. Abdelrehim, Neveen & Linsley, Philip & Verma, Shraddha, 2017. "Understanding risk disclosures as a function of social organisation: A neo-Durkheimian institutional theory-based study of Burmah Oil Company 1971–1976," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 103-116.
    13. Yasean A. Tahat & Ahmed H. Ahmed & David Power, 2022. "Earnings quality and investment efficiency: the role of the institutional settings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1277-1306, April.
    14. Bassyouny, Hesham & Abdelfattah, Tarek & Tao, Lei, 2020. "Beyond narrative disclosure tone: The upper echelons theory perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    15. Aust, Viktoria & Pelger, Christoph & Drefahl, Christian, 2021. "Exploring the relationship between valuation and stewardship uses of accounting information: Empirical evidence from German listed firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    16. Tan, Youchao & Zeng, Cheng Colin & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2017. "Risk disclosures, international orientation, and share price informativeness: Evidence from China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 81-102.
    17. Ritika Gupta & Jacqueline Symss, 2023. "Does Corporate Governance Impact Risk Disclosure? An Empirical Analysis in the Indian Context," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 16(1), pages 9-27, June.
    18. Kang, Helen & Gray, Sidney J., 2019. "Country-specific risks and geographic disclosure aggregation: Voluntary disclosure behaviour by British multinationals," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 259-276.
    19. Düsterhöft, Maximilian & Schiemann, Frank & Walther, Thomas, 2023. "Let’s talk about risk! Stock market effects of risk disclosure for European energy utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    20. Acheampong, Albert & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2021. "Does soft information determine credit risk? Text-based evidence from European banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    21. Bassyouny, Hesham & Abdelfattah, Tarek & Tao, Lei, 2022. "Narrative disclosure tone: A review and areas for future research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    22. Elshandidy, Tamer & Ahmed, Yousry, 2023. "Stock price informativeness of risk disclosure: Does time orientation matter?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 149-162.
    23. Ott, Christian, 2020. "The risks of mergers and acquisitions—Analyzing the incentives for risk reporting in Item 1A of 10-K filings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 158-181.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elshandidy, Tamer & Fraser, Ian & Hussainey, Khaled, 2013. "Aggregated, voluntary, and mandatory risk disclosure incentives: Evidence from UK FTSE all-share companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 320-333.
    2. Elshandidy, Tamer & Shrives, Philip J., 2016. "Environmental Incentives for and Usefulness of Textual Risk Reporting: Evidence from Germany," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 464-486.
    3. Miihkinen, Antti, 2013. "The usefulness of firm risk disclosures under different firm riskiness, investor-interest, and market conditions: New evidence from Finland," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 312-331.
    4. Ott, Christian, 2020. "The risks of mergers and acquisitions—Analyzing the incentives for risk reporting in Item 1A of 10-K filings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 158-181.
    5. Hassanein, Ahmed, 2022. "Risk reporting and stock return in the UK: Does market competition Matter?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    6. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Hussainey, Khaled & Nawaz, Tasawar & Ntim, Collins & Elamer, Ahmed, 2022. "A systematic literature review on risk disclosure research: State-of-the-art and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed, 2016. "Ruling Family Political Connections and Risk Reporting: Evidence from the GCC," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 504-524.
    8. Lorenzo Neri & Antonella Russo, 2013. "Risk Disclosures in the Annual Reports of Italian Listed Companies," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(3-4), pages 141-168.
    9. Issal Haj-Salem & Salma Damak Ayadi & Khaled Hussainey, 2020. "The joint effect of corporate risk disclosure and corporate governance on firm value," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(2), pages 123-140, September.
    10. Shivaani, M.V. & Agarwal, Nishant, 2020. "Does competitive position of a firm affect the quality of risk disclosure?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    11. Moumen, Néjia & Ben Othman, Hakim & Hussainey, Khaled, 2015. "The value relevance of risk disclosure in annual reports: Evidence from MENA emerging markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 177-204.
    12. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Hossain, Mahmud, 2015. "Disaggregation, auditor conservatism and implied cost of equity capital: An international evidence from the GCC," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 66-98.
    13. Francesco De Luca & Ho-Tan-Phat Phan, 2019. "Informativeness Assessment of Risk and Risk-Management Disclosure in Corporate Reporting: An Empirical Analysis of Italian Large Listed Firms," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(2), pages 9-41.
    14. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Hussainey, Khaled, 2019. "Developing the narrative risk disclosure measurement," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 126-144.
    15. Abdelrehim, Neveen & Linsley, Philip & Verma, Shraddha, 2017. "Understanding risk disclosures as a function of social organisation: A neo-Durkheimian institutional theory-based study of Burmah Oil Company 1971–1976," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 103-116.
    16. Khandelwal, Chandni & Kumar, Satish & Madhavan, Vinodh & Pandey, Nitesh, 2020. "Do board characteristics impact corporate risk disclosures? The Indian experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 103-111.
    17. van der Laan Smith, Joyce & Gouldman, Andrea L. & Tondkar, Rasoul H., 2014. "Does the adoption of IFRS affect corporate social disclosure in annual reports?," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 402-412.
    18. Rossella Leopizzi & Antonio Iazzi & Andrea Venturelli & Salvatore Principale, 2020. "Nonfinancial risk disclosure: The “state of the art” of Italian companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 358-368, January.
    19. Mohammad Rokibul Kabir & Farid A. Sobhani & Normah Omar & Norazida Mohamad, 2019. "Corporate Governance and Risk Disclosures: A Comparative Analysis Between Bangladeshi and Malaysian Islamic Banks," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 110-125, August.
    20. Rogério Marques Serrasqueiro & Tânia Sofia Mineiro, 2018. "Corporate risk reporting: Analysis of risk disclosures in the interim reports of public Portuguese non-financial companies," Contaduría y Administración, Accounting and Management, vol. 63(2), pages 25-26, Junio.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:47:y:2015:i:4:p:376-394. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.