IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ijoais/v48y2023ics1467089522000483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disclosures about algorithmic decision making in the corporate reports of Western European companies

Author

Listed:
  • Bonsón, Enrique
  • Bednárová, Michaela
  • Perea, David

Abstract

Over the last decade, the use of different artificial intelligence (AI) tools has increased. To shed some light on the emerging trend of AI disclosure, the aim of this paper is to analyse the current practices of major Western European companies regarding the automated decision-making (ADM) disclosure in their annual or sustainability reports. This paper proposes a methodology based on bigrams that enables the automatic extraction of the information on ADM that companies disclose. The sample consisted of 962 annual/sustainability reports, published in 2018 and 2019, of 337 companies listed on 13 Western European countries’ stock markets. Our findings show that ADM disclosure is still at an early stage and that the first adopters are mostly companies operating in the financial sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Bonsón, Enrique & Bednárová, Michaela & Perea, David, 2023. "Disclosures about algorithmic decision making in the corporate reports of Western European companies," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijoais:v:48:y:2023:i:c:s1467089522000483
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accinf.2022.100596
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1467089522000483
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.accinf.2022.100596?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. Comment, Robert & Schwert, G. William, 1995. "Poison or placebo? Evidence on the deterrence and wealth effects of modern antitakeover measures," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 3-43, September.
    2. repec:eme:ijlma0:ijlma-05-2013-0021 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Fang Gao & Yi Dong & Chenkai Ni & Renhui Fu, 2016. "Determinants and Economic Consequences of Non-financial Disclosure Quality," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 287-317, June.
    4. Yigitbasioglu, Ogan M., 2015. "External auditors' perceptions of cloud computing adoption in Australia," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 46-62.
    5. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513570210435861 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Jonathan P. Doh & Terrence R. Guay, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Policy, and NGO Activism in Europe and the United States: An Institutional‐Stakeholder Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 47-73, January.
    7. Rezaee, Zabihollah & Tuo, Ling, 2017. "Voluntary disclosure of non-financial information and its association with sustainability performance," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 47-59.
    8. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    9. Elisabeth Albertini, 2019. "Integrated reporting: an exploratory study of French companies," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 513-535, June.
    10. Bonsón, Enrique & Lavorato, Domenica & Lamboglia, Rita & Mancini, Daniela, 2021. "Artificial intelligence activities and ethical approaches in leading listed companies in the European Union," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    11. Azlan Amran & S. Susela Devi, 2008. "The impact of government and foreign affiliate influence on corporate social reporting: The case of Malaysia," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(4), pages 386-404, April.
    12. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513570310492308 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7-8), pages 1168-1188.
    14. Jarrad Harford & Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell, 2012. "Corporate Governance and Firm Cash Holdings in the U.S," Springer Books, in: Sabri Boubaker & Bang Dang Nguyen & Duc Khuong Nguyen (ed.), Corporate Governance, edition 127, pages 107-138, Springer.
    15. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1168-1188, September.
    16. Shan Zhou & Roger Simnett & Wendy Green, 2017. "Does Integrated Reporting Matter to the Capital Market?," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(1), pages 94-132, March.
    17. repec:eme:maj000:02686900810864327 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hao Cheng, 2020. "Chinese Experience of Advancing Financial Inclusion in Light of Foster’s Three Limiting Conditions in Institutional Change," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 480-485, April.
    19. Laurence Ashworth & Clinton Free, 2006. "Marketing Dataveillance and Digital Privacy: Using Theories of Justice to Understand Consumers’ Online Privacy Concerns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 107-123, August.
    20. Sutton, Steve G. & Holt, Matthew & Arnold, Vicky, 2016. "“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”—Artificial intelligence research in accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 60-73.
    21. Schwartz, Mark S. & Carroll, Archie B., 2003. "Corporate Social Responsibility: A Three-Domain Approach," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 503-530, October.
    22. Lobschat, Lara & Mueller, Benjamin & Eggers, Felix & Brandimarte, Laura & Diefenbach, Sarah & Kroschke, Mirja & Wirtz, Jochen, 2021. "Corporate digital responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 875-888.
    23. David Campbell & Barrie Craven & Philip Shrives, 2003. "Voluntary social reporting in three FTSE sectors: a comment on perception and legitimacy," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 558-581, October.
    24. Thomas Osburg, 2017. "Sustainability in a Digital World Needs Trust," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Thomas Osburg & Christiane Lohrmann (ed.), Sustainability in a Digital World, pages 3-19, Springer.
    25. John R. Graham & Si Li & Jiaping Qiu, 2012. "Managerial Attributes and Executive Compensation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(1), pages 144-186.
    26. Craig Deegan & Michaela Rankin & John Tobin, 2002. "An examination of the corporate social and environmental disclosures of BHP from 1983‐1997," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 312-343, August.
    27. Dye, Ronald A., 2001. "An evaluation of "essays on disclosure" and the disclosure literature in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 181-235, December.
    28. Ng, Anthony C. & Rezaee, Zabihollah, 2015. "Business sustainability performance and cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 128-149.
    29. Lu, Jing & Wang, Jun, 2021. "Corporate governance, law, culture, environmental performance and CSR disclosure: A global perspective," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    30. Mikkilä, Mirja & Toppinen, Anne, 2008. "Corporate responsibility reporting by large pulp and paper companies," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(7-8), pages 500-506, October.
    31. Peter M. Clarkson & Michael B. Overell & Larelle Chapple, 2011. "Environmental Reporting and its Relation to Corporate Environmental Performance," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 47(1), pages 27-60, March.
    32. Enrique Bonson & David Perea & Graca Azevedo, 2021. "Tone and content analysis in the president’s letters to shareholders: Spanish evidence," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 78-90, March.
    33. Vidgen, Richard & Hindle, Giles & Randolph, Ian, 2020. "Exploring the ethical implications of business analytics with a business ethics canvas," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(3), pages 491-501.
    34. Beke, Frank T. & Eggers, Felix & Verhoef, Peter C., 2018. "Consumer Informational Privacy: Current Knowledge and Research Directions," Foundations and Trends(R) in Marketing, now publishers, vol. 11(1), pages 1-71, July.
    35. Abeer Hassan & Colette Hunter & Ayodele Asekomeh, 2013. "GRI Application Levels and Disclosure on Specific Environmental Activities: An Empirical Investigation of Industry Membership and Geographical Region of Top European Companies," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 156-176, December.
    36. Azlan Amran & S. Susela Devi, 2008. "The impact of government and foreign affiliate influence on corporate social reporting," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(4), pages 386-404, April.
    37. Mark Clatworthy & Michael Jones, 2003. "Financial reporting of good news and bad news: evidence from accounting narratives," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 171-185.
    38. Sunee Ratanajongkol & Howard Davey & Mary Low, 2006. "Corporate social reporting in Thailand: The news is all good and increasing," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 3(1), pages 67-83, April.
    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. Jordan Famularo, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility communication in the ICT sector: digital issues, greenwashing, and materiality," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Downen, Tom & Kim, Sarah & Lee, Lorraine, 2024. "Algorithm aversion, emotions, and investor reaction: Does disclosing the use of AI influence investment decisions?," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    3. Fadi Shehab Shiyyab & Abdallah Bader Alzoubi & Qais Mohammad Obidat & Hashem Alshurafat, 2023. "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Disclosure on Financial Performance," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-25, September.

    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. Bonsón, Enrique & Lavorato, Domenica & Lamboglia, Rita & Mancini, Daniela, 2021. "Artificial intelligence activities and ethical approaches in leading listed companies in the European Union," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Siying Cai & Wenzhong Zhu & Yuting Wang, 2023. "Corpus analysis of evaluative language and framework implementation for pharmaceutical industry CSR reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 2037-2052, July.
    3. Breeda Comyns, 2016. "Determinants of GHG Reporting: An Analysis of Global Oil and Gas Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 349-369, June.
    4. Lobschat, Lara & Mueller, Benjamin & Eggers, Felix & Brandimarte, Laura & Diefenbach, Sarah & Kroschke, Mirja & Wirtz, Jochen, 2021. "Corporate digital responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 875-888.
    5. Yongjun Tang & Qi Li & Fen Zhou & Mingjia Sun, 2024. "Does Clan Culture Promote Corporate Natural Resource Disclosure? Evidence from Chinese Natural Resource-Based Listed Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 167-190, June.
    6. Charles H. Cho & Jonathan Maurice & Emmanuelle Nègre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2016. "Is environmental disclosure good for the environment? A meta-analysis and research agenda," Post-Print halshs-01369422, HAL.
    7. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    8. Mihai Carp & Leontina Păvăloaia & Mihai-Bogdan Afrăsinei & Iuliana Eugenia Georgescu, 2019. "Is Sustainability Reporting a Business Strategy for Firm’s Growth? Empirical Study on the Romanian Capital Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, January.
    9. Liu, Chengyun & Su, Kun & Zhang, Miaomiao, 2021. "Water disclosure and financial reporting quality for social changes: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    10. Garanina, Tatiana & Kim, Oksana, 2023. "The relationship between CSR disclosure and accounting conservatism: The role of state ownership," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    11. Rainer Lueg, 2022. "Constructs for Assessing Integrated Reports—Testing the Predictive Validity of a Taxonomy for Organization Size, Industry, and Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, June.
    12. Breeda Comyns & Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn & Ralf Barkemeyer, 2013. "Sustainability reporting: The role of “Search”, “Experience” and “Credence” information," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 231-243, September.
    13. Thomas Thijssens & Laury Bollen & Harold Hassink, 2015. "Secondary Stakeholder Influence on CSR Disclosure: An Application of Stakeholder Salience Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 873-891, December.
    14. Nguyen, Phong Thanh & Nguyen, Linh Thi My, 2022. "Understanding platform market value through decentralization governance — An integrative model from signaling and mechanism design theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    15. Abdalla Shwairef & Azlan Amran & Mohammad Iranmanesh & Noor Hazlina Ahmad, 2021. "The mediating effect of strategic posture on corporate governance and environmental reporting," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 349-378, February.
    16. Tang, Hua & Xiong, Langyu & Peng, Ru, 2024. "The mediating role of investor confidence on ESG performance and firm value: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    17. Hui Zhao & Ao Lei & Yuhui Li & Dingjun Hong, 2023. "The Sectoral and Regional Peer Influences on Heavy-Pollution Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-42, August.
    18. Xiaohua Meng & Saixing Zeng & Xuemei Xie & Hailiang Zou, 2019. "Beyond symbolic and substantive: Strategic disclosure of corporate environmental information in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 403-417, February.
    19. Kerstin Lopatta & Thomas Kaspereit & Sebastian A. Tideman & Anna R. Rudolf, 2022. "The moderating role of CEO sustainability reporting style in the relationship between sustainability performance, sustainability reporting, and cost of equity," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 429-465, April.
    20. Beke, Frank T. & Eggers, Felix & Verhoef, Peter C. & Wieringa, Jaap E., 2022. "Consumers’ privacy calculus: The PRICAL index development and validation," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 20-41.

    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:ijoais:v:48:y:2023:i:c:s1467089522000483. 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/international-journal-of-accounting-information-systems/ .

    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.