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Environmental Incentives for and Usefulness of Textual Risk Reporting: Evidence from Germany

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  • Elshandidy, Tamer
  • Shrives, Philip J.

Abstract

Drawing on distinct German institutional characteristics related to cultural, legal, financial, and regulatory features, this paper investigates the extent to which environmental incentives influence German non-financial firms in revealing risk information in their annual report narratives. The paper also examines whether risk-related disclosure (aggregate risk reporting and the tone of news about risk) is useful by investigating its impact on market liquidity and investor-perceived risk. We find that the decision to provide or withhold such risk information is less likely to be significantly associated with environmental incentives. Among those incentives, we find that German firms are significantly influenced by their underlying risks rather than other factors including ownership structure, capital structure, external equity finance, and borrowing. The decision to disclose is likely to be influenced by the size of the firm and whether or not it produces lengthy annual reports. The results also suggest that the impact of aggregate risk reporting levels was not observable until a distinction was made between bad and good news about risk. Specifically, we find that the German market tends to positively (negatively) price good (bad) news about risk by either improving (worsening) market liquidity through removing (creating) information asymmetries, or reducing (increasing) investor-perceived risk.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:accoun:v:51:y:2016:i:4:p:464-486
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intacc.2016.10.001
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    3. Ahmed A. Elamer & Collins G. Ntim & Hussein A. Abdou & Andrews Owusu & Mohamed Elmagrhi & Awad Elsayed Awad Ibrahim, 2021. "Are bank risk disclosures informative? Evidence from debt markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1270-1298, January.
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    6. Kathrin Kureck & Susanne Homölle, 2018. "Individuals’ Perception and Processing of Risk Information: Exploratory Evidence from Germany," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 70(3), pages 255-284, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Acheampong, Albert & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2024. "Do social and environmental disclosures impact information asymmetry?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    9. 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).
    10. Elshandidy, Tamer & Kamel, Hany, 2024. "Tone of narrative disclosures and earnings management: UK evidence," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Tariq H. Ismail & Yousra R. Obiedallah, 2022. "Firm performance and cost of equity capital: the moderating role of narrative risk disclosure quality in Egypt," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Elsayed, Mohamed & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2021. "Internal control effectiveness, textual risk disclosure, and their usefulness: U.S. evidence," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Elbakry, Ashraf E. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C. & Abdou, Hussein A. & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2017. "Comparative evidence on the value relevance of IFRS-based accounting information in Germany and the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 10-30.
    14. Gehan A. Mousa & Elsayed A. H. Elamir & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "Using machine learning methods to predict financial performance: Does disclosure tone matter?," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 93-112, March.
    15. Issal Haj-Salem & Khaled Hussainey, 2021. "Does Risk Disclosure Matter for Trade Credit?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Hyunkwon Cho & Robert Kim, 2021. "Asymmetric effects of voluntary disclosure on stock liquidity: evidence from 8‐K filings," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 803-846, March.
    17. Kim, Hyonok & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2018. "Business risk disclosure and firm risk: Evidence from Japan," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 413-426.
    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).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Aggregate risk reporting; Good and bad news about risk (tone); Investor-perceived risk; Market liquidity; Textual analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • M4 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting

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