IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sumafo/v27y2019i3d10.1007_s00550-020-00492-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Diesel-Gate” in risk reporting—An analysis of risk communication in annual reports using the example of a disruptive event

Author

Listed:
  • Deborah Nagel

    (TU Dresden)

  • Lisa Koep

    (Technische Universität Dresden)

  • Edeltraud Guenther

    (Technische Universität Dresden)

  • Thomas Günther

    (TU Dresden)

Abstract

Using the example of VW’s handling of “Diesel-Gate” in its corporate communications (suspected manipulation of vehicle emission test results discovered in 2015), we examine the effects of a disruptive event on corporate risk reporting. To this end, an evaluation in the form of a case study of external corporate communications in VW’s annual reports covering the years 2012–2017 was carried out. Changes can be seen in VW’s communication with shareholders following “Diesel-Gate”, especially with regard to what topics were covered and the emotionality of the language. Among the strategies used for restoring the company’s image, the company took pains to highlight corrective measures designed to avoid similar incidents in the future. The methodology presented in the paper can be applied to the analysis of similar events.

Suggested Citation

  • Deborah Nagel & Lisa Koep & Edeltraud Guenther & Thomas Günther, 2019. "“Diesel-Gate” in risk reporting—An analysis of risk communication in annual reports using the example of a disruptive event," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 151-163, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:sumafo:v:27:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s00550-020-00492-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s00550-020-00492-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00550-020-00492-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00550-020-00492-3?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. Ntim, Collins G. & Lindop, Sarah & Thomas, Dennis A., 2013. "Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa: A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre- and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 363-383.
    2. Julia Krause & Thorsten Sellhorn & Kamran Ahmed, 2017. "Extreme Uncertainty and Forward-looking Disclosure Properties," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(2), pages 240-272, June.
    3. Philip M. Linsley & Philip J. Shrives, 2005. "Examining risk reporting in UK public companies," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 6(4), pages 292-305, August.
    4. 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.
    5. Matias Laine, 2009. "Ensuring legitimacy through rhetorical changes?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(7), pages 1029-1054, September.
    6. Giacomo Boesso & Kamalesh Kumar, 2007. "Drivers of corporate voluntary disclosure," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(2), pages 269-296, April.
    7. Asay, H. Scott & Libby, Robert & Rennekamp, Kristina M., 2018. "Do features that associate managers with a message magnify investors’ reactions to narrative disclosures?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 68, pages 1-14.
    8. Ole-Kristian Hope & Danqi Hu & Hai Lu, 2016. "The benefits of specific risk-factor disclosures," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1005-1045, December.
    9. Merkl-Davies, Doris M. & Koller, Veronika, 2012. "‘Metaphoring’ people out of this world: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a chairman's statement of a UK defence firm," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 178-193.
    10. 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. Patrick Velte & Martin Stawinoga, 2020. "Do chief sustainability officers and CSR committees influence CSR-related outcomes? A structured literature review based on empirical-quantitative research findings," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 333-377, December.

    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. 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).
    2. Francesco De Luca & Andrea Cardoni & Ho-Tan-Phat Phan & Evgeniia Kiseleva, 2020. "Does Structural Capital Affect SDGs Risk-Related Disclosure Quality? An Empirical Investigation of Italian Large Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Diana Weekes‐Marshall, 2022. "A developing country's commercial banking risk governance disclosures: Post‐financial crisis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3265-3286, July.
    4. Stefania Veltri & Francesco De Luca & Ho‐Tan‐Phat Phan, 2020. "Do investors value companies' mandatory nonfinancial risk disclosure? An empirical analysis of the Italian context after the EU Directive," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2226-2237, September.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Ahmed A. Elamer & Collins G. Ntim & Hussein A. Abdou & Alaa Mansour Zalata & Mohamed Elmagrhi, 2019. "The impact of multi-layer governance on bank risk disclosure in emerging markets: the case of Middle East and North Africa," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 246-281, April.
    11. Elsayed, Mohamed & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2021. "Internal control effectiveness, textual risk disclosure, and their usefulness: U.S. evidence," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    12. Khurram Ashfaq & Rui Zhang & Abdul Munaim & Naveed Razzaq, 2016. "An Investigation into the Determinants of Risk Disclosure in Banks: Evidence from Financial Sector of Pakistan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(3), pages 1049-1058.
    13. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    14. Nik Nazli Nik Ahmad & Noor Afzalina Mohamad, 2014. "Environmental Disclosures by the Malaysian Construction Sector: Exploring Extent and Quality," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 240-252, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Mohammed Mahmud Kakanda, & Basariah Salim, & Sitraselvi Chandren,, 2017. "Do board characteristics and risk management disclosure have any effect on firm performance? Empirical evidence from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 13(4), pages 506-521, October.
    17. Salem Boumediene & Fatma Ezzahra Abdallah & Salma Ben Moussa & Emna Boumediene, 2022. "Internal Corporate Governance Mechanisms And Risk Disclosure: Evidence From Tunisia," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 14(1), pages 15-30.
    18. 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.
    19. Areneke, Geofry & Adegbite, Emmanuel & Tunyi, Abongeh, 2022. "Transfer of corporate governance practices into weak emerging market environments by foreign institutional investors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).
    20. Nadezda Gulko & Catriona Hyde & Nina Seppala, 2017. "Disclosure of corporate risks and governance before, during and after the global financial crisis: case study in the UK construction industry in 2006–2009," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(3), pages 207-223, August.

    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:spr:sumafo:v:27:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s00550-020-00492-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.