For four decades, reporting on corporate responsibility by businesses has been the subject of empirical research. In the 1970s and 1980s, studies mostly originated from Anglo-Saxon and Western European countries. During the last two decades research on responsibility reporting was increasingly undertaken in emerging and developing countries as well – always following the reporting practices of the respective businesses. Consequentially, a very large number of studies exist today. Many of these have empirically investigated the determinants of responsibility reporting and examined whether internal factors like size and industry or external factors like stakeholder pressures have an impact on disclosure. Thus, the purpose of the following paper is twofold. First, it seeks to provide an overview of the existing literature in order to facilitate further research. Overall, 186 studies have been examined for the determinants which they considered and have been grouped according to their geographical origin. This provides for an analysis of whether academics from different regions have taken different approaches to the empirical examination of responsibility reporting and if their results differed. The findings show that scholars across regions have taken different paths in empirical research, but indications for a variation in the impact of specific determinants on reporting are weak. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis

The concept of sustainable and responsible (SR) investments expresses that every investment should be based on the SR investor’s code of ethics. To a large extent the allocation of SR investments to more sustainable companies and ethical practices is based on the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) scores provided by rating agencies. However, a thorough investigation of ESG scores is a neglected topic in the literature. This paper uses Thomson Reuters ASSET4 ESG ratings to analyze the influence of firm size, a company’s available resources for providing ESG data, and the availability of a company’s ESG data on the company’s sustainability performance. We find a significant positive correlation between the stated variables, which can be explained by organizational legitimacy. The results raise the question of whether the way the ESG score measures corporate sustainability gives an advantage to larger firms with more resources while not providing SR investors with the information needed to make decisions based on their beliefs. Due to our results, SR investors and scholars should reopen the discussion about: what sustainability rating agencies measure with ESG scores, what exactly needs to be measured, and if the sustainable finance community can reach their self-imposed objectives with this measurement.

The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review

Voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of an emerging country: The case of Qatar

Environmental disclosure quality: Evidence on environmental performance, corporate governance and value relevance

This study investigates the extent of compliance with international accounting standards (IASs) by companies in the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) member states (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). Based on a sample of 137 companies (436 company-years) we find that compliance increased over time, from 68% in 1996 to 82% in 2002. Despite strong economic and cultural ties between the GCC states, there was significant between-country variation in compliance and among companies based on size, leverage, internationality, and industry. The study provides evidence of de jure but not de facto harmonization in the region. Noncompliance reflected some ineffectiveness in the functions of external auditors and enforcement bodies, which may be of interest to countries that have adopted IASs recently.

An Investigation of Compliance with International Accounting Standards by Listed Companies in the Gulf Co-Operation Council Member States

Determinants of Corporate Social Disclosure in Developing Countries: The Case of Qatar

In this study an attempt is made to provide empirical evidence on the usefulness of different aspects of the annual report to various Kuwaiti user groups To do so, eight Kuwaiti user groups were surveyed through a questionnaire The groups were individual investors; institutional investors, bank credit officers, government officials, financial analysts, academics, auditors and stock market brokers The analyses indicate that the user groups surveyed in the study rely mainly on information made directly available by the company and do not consult intermediary sources of corporate information in order to make informative decisions The analyses also revealed that credibility and timeliness are the most important features of useful corporate information and traditional financial statements are the most important and credible parts of corporate annual reports Non‐financial information, however, proved to be less credible and of less importance to the Kuwaiti user groups

Users’ perceptions of various aspects of Kuwaiti corporate reporting

The main objective of the current study is to investigate personal and external factors that might influence women's decisions to become entrepreneurs in Kuwait. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire containing selected variables of women's personal and external factors was distributed to a sample of Kuwaiti women who are mainly studying or have completed their studies at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training. The participants in the questionnaire survey were asked to express the level of agreement they assign to various variables that might affect their decisions to become entrepreneurs. Although the result of the analysis of the participants' answers revealed that they attach a certain level of agreement to the external factors effect on their decisions to become entrepreneurs, they attached higher level of agreement to personal factors. The Kuwaiti women who participated in the survey believe that getting involved in developing a self-business will enhance their social position and assist them in making independent decisions. Their interests and hobbies together with availability of business ideas would encourage Kuwaiti women to develop their own businesses. Their involvements in developing self-businesses are motivated by profit, given that they can secure the start-up capital. Finally, the participants revealed that religious bindings, together with family responsibilities, influence their decisions to become entrepreneurs.

Ahmad Al-Hussaini

Papers

Determinants of Corporate Social Disclosure in Developing Countries: The Case of Qatar

Users’ perceptions of various aspects of Kuwaiti corporate reporting

Personal and external factors effect on women entrepreneurs: evidence from kuwait