Determinants of corporate corruption disclosures: evidence based on EU listed firms

Bikki Jaggi, Alessandra Allini, Gianluca Ginesti and Riccardo Macchioni

Meditari Accountancy Research, 2020, vol. 29, issue 1, 21-38

Abstract: Purpose - This study aims to examine the impact of corporate board characteristics and country-level legal system on corruption disclosures mandated by the recent European Union (EU) Directive No. 95/2014. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a sample of 234 European listed companies and covering the 2017–2018 period, this study uses regression analyses to empirically test the association of independent directors, board gender diversity and country’s legal system with disclosure of corruption information. Findings - The presence of independent directors and female directors is positively associated with corporate corruption disclosures. The association between independent directors and corruption disclosures is especially strong when firms are operating in the common law environments. Research limitations/implications - This study is exclusively focused on larger European listed firms and therefore the findings may not be valid for small and medium firms. Practical implications - This study provides important information to policymakers to have a better understanding of the factors that influence firms’ disclosure policy on corruption-related activities. It also offers useful information to investors because it shows firms’ propensity to disclose corruption information that would enable them to evaluate their risk and return better. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates firms’ response to the EU Directive No. 95/2014 in disclosing corruption information after its implementation in 2017. It documents the effective role played by female directors in influencing firms’ information disclosure policies. It also confirms that common law environment is more conducive to disclosures.

Keywords: Disclosure index; Corporate governance; Non-financial information; Corporate disclosure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:medarp:medar-11-2019-0616

DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-11-2019-0616

Access Statistics for this article

Meditari Accountancy Research is currently edited by Prof Charl de Villiers and Warren Maroun

More articles in Meditari Accountancy Research from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().