IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/aaaj-02-2015-1965.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate anti-corruption disclosure

Author

Listed:
  • Renata Blanc
  • Muhammad Azizul Islam
  • Dennis M. Patten
  • Manuel Castelo Branco

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether differences in media exposure regarding corporate corruption appear to influence companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also examine whether the level of press freedom in firms’ home countries affects disclosure and the impact of media exposure in different ways. Design/methodology/approach - The authors use Transparency International’s 2012 ratings of anti-corruption disclosure by the 105 largest multinational firms in the world, press freedom assessments from the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders, and media exposure measures based on a search using the Dow Jones Factiva database. The authors assess relations using regression analysis controlling for other firm-specific factors potentially impacting disclosure choices. Finally, the authors consider the potential effect of other country-level factors. Findings - The results indicate that media exposure, using either an existence or an extensiveness measure, is positively related to differences in sample companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also find that disclosure is more (less) extensive where home country press freedom is less (more) restricted and that reduced press freedom appears to reduce the impact of media exposure on the disclosure. The authors further document that press freedom levels explain more difference in anti-corruption disclosures than other country-level factors potentially influencing the practice. Research limitations/implications - Because the investigation is limited to very large international firms for a single year, the degree to which the findings apply to other companies and time periods cannot be assessed. Further, the authors cannot determine how the findings would hold using an alternative disclosure rating scheme. Finally, the authors do not assess whether differences in the source of media exposure impact the findings. Social implications - The findings suggest that, to the extent that improved anti-corruption disclosure reflects greater corporate attention to corruption issues, the media may be a powerful player in addressing this social ill. Unfortunately, the results also indicate that media efforts may not be sufficient to bring about change in locations where the freedom of the press is limited. Further, the results suggest that disclosure appears to be a function of exposure to social and political exposures, and the authors therefore question whether it will actually lead to improved corruption performance. Originality/value - The study is the first to consider the impacts of media exposure and press freedom on corporate social disclosures.

Suggested Citation

  • Renata Blanc & Muhammad Azizul Islam & Dennis M. Patten & Manuel Castelo Branco, 2017. "Corporate anti-corruption disclosure," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(8), pages 1746-1770, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-02-2015-1965
    DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-02-2015-1965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-02-2015-1965/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-02-2015-1965/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/AAAJ-02-2015-1965?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar & Pensiero, Domenico & Velayutham, Eswaran, 2021. "Corruption risk and stock market effects: Evidence from the defence industry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Seong Mi Bae & Javier Manzanares & Jong Dae Kim, 2019. "Board Directors’ Expertise and Corporate Corruption Disclosure: The Moderating Role of Political Connections," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Natalia Semenova, 2023. "The Public Effect of Private Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from Incident-Based Engagement Strategy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 559-572, January.
    4. Maria-Alina CarataÈ™ & Raluca-Andreea Trandafir, 2020. "The Anti-corruption Performance and Non-financial Disclosure: A Cross-country Analysis," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 815-821, December.
    5. Teresa Herrador-Alcaide & Montserrat Hernández-Solís, 2019. "Empirical Study Regarding Non-Financial Disclosure for Social Conscious Consumption in the Spanish E-Credit Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, February.
    6. Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Mahfuzur Rahman & Md. Harun Ur Rashid, 2022. "Anti-Corruption Disclosure, Corporate Social Expenditure and Political Corporate Social Responsibility: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-20, May.
    7. Maider Aldaz Odriozola & Igor Álvarez Etxeberria, 2021. "Determinants of Corporate Anti-Corruption Disclosure: The Case of the Emerging Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    8. Tiyas Kurnia Sari & Fitra Roman Cahaya & Corina Joseph, 2021. "Coercive Pressures and Anti-corruption Reporting: The Case of ASEAN Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 495-511, July.
    9. Barkemeyer, Ralf & Preuss, Lutz & Ohana, Marc, 2018. "Developing country firms and the challenge of corruption: Do company commitments mirror the quality of national-level institutions?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 26-39.
    10. Guo, Jianan & Islam, Muhammad Azizul & Jain, Ameeta & van Staden, Chris J., 2022. "Civil liberties and social and environmental information transparency: A global investigation of financial institutions," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    11. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.

    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:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-02-2015-1965. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.