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In 2015, Bursa Malaysia Berhad (BMB) issued the first edition of the Sustainability Reporting Guide (SRG 1.0) to aid Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs) in preparing corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR). After receiving users' commentaries, BMB issued the second edition of SRG (SRG 2.0) in 2018. Given the major amendments in CSRR regulatory guidelines, there is a need to analyze the readability of CSRR in light of the new guide and to investigate the combined effects of SRG 2.0 and the assurance of CSR information on the readability of CSRR.

This study employs two readability indices to compare the readability of CSRR ex-ante and ex-post the implementation of SRG 2.0 across a sample of Malaysian PLCs that maintained their market capitalization among the top 100 companies.

The practical findings of the multivariate regression revealed that the readability of CSRR is reduced after the introduction of SRG 2.0. Meanwhile, the readability of CSRR is positively influenced by combining the effect of SRG 2.0 and CSRR assurance.

This study provides empirical evidence that the amendment to CSRR has made CSR reports more challenging to read and thus reduces their communicative value. Therefore, in their quest to mandate more CSRR information from companies, regulators might need to consider advocating that such data is reported in a readable manner. This study also shows the influential role of CSR information assurance in enhancing the readability of CSRR.

This study helps assess the readability of CSRR among Malaysian companies after the adoption of SRG 2.0. It also contributes to the literature on CSRR, as the readability of such reporting within the context of Malaysia has not been widely examined in previous studies.

To assist Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs) in preparing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, Bursa Malaysia Berhad (BMB) launched the second edition of the Sustainability Reporting Guide (SRG) in 2018. This new SRG edition has several additional requirements for CSR reporting (CSRR), the most important of which is a chapter on assurance which provides detailed guidance on how it may be carried out. This study aims to determine whether the new SRG edition influences the extent of CSRR, and whether such effect is moderated by the provision of assurance on CSRR. It also aims to identify whether amending CSRR regulations and providing assurance on such reporting indirectly influences firm value through the possible improvement in the extent of CSRR.

This study performed a content analysis of the CSRR of a sample of Malaysian PLCs that maintained their positions among the top 100 companies by market capitalization between 2017 and 2020 to determine the extent of CSRR for the two years before and two years after the implementation of the new edition of SRG. This study conducted different statistical analyses to indicate whether the implementation of the second edition of SRG has an effect on enhancing the extent of CSRR, and whether the provision of assurance on such reporting moderates such an effect. This study then used instrumental variable regressions to examine the influence of the predicted extent of CSRR on firms’ value measured by Tobin’s Q.

This study found that the implementation of the second edition of SRG has a positive and significant influence on the extent of CSRR. This effect is strengthened by the provision of assurance on CSRR. Instrumental variable regressions also indicate that enhancing the extent of CSRR affected by the second edition of SRG is linked to higher firm value.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to assess the determinants and implications of CSRR among Malaysian companies after adopting the second edition of SRG.

Environmental risks (ERs) are critical to any highway construction project (HCP). One of the main contracting parties responsible for ERs is the contractor. Hence, it has been crucial to look into ways to control ERs in HCPs from the contractor’s perspective. This study aims to investigate how ERs can be managed in HCP in Sri Lanka.

A quantitative research approach with three rounds of Delphi was used. Statistical techniques were used to analyse and validate the ERs, the parties to whom the risks were to be allocated, and risk management measures identified from the empirical data collection.

The study reveals the 11 most significant ERs for HCP. Further, the most significant ERs in HCP were mainly found to be the responsibility of contractors in Sri Lanka. Twenty-four most appropriate risk response measures were determined; 13 were found to be common measures that could be used to manage two or more risks, while the remaining 11 were unique to specific risks.

Overall, this research determines the most significant ERs in HCP, the best risk allocation among the parties and appropriate risk-handling strategies and measures for each significant ERs. Additionally, the study addresses the demand for ERs management in HCP.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of financial and nonfinancial information in determining individual investor's investment decisions by analyzing the mediating effect of corporate reputation.

The approach of this study is deductive; therefore, the quantitative strategy is used for data collection. Primary data are collected from individual investors actively involved in stock trading at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Structural equation modeling is used to assess structural relationships.

The key findings of this study posit that financial and nonfinancial information positively influence an individual investor's investment decision. This study also provides empirical evidence confirming the mediating role of corporate reputation. Categorically, the findings indicate that financial and nonfinancial information remain significant to build perceived corporate reputation and influence investor's investment decisions.

he proposed model presents novel insight into the individual investor's investment decision in the context of Pakistan. The findings of this study remain robust for firms listed on the stock exchange and individual investors involved in stock trading. The results of this study are substantial to individual investor's and broker for making informed financial choices. Moreover, the firms listed on the PSX can use the findings to establish improved corporate reputation through reporting detailed financial and nonfinancial information.

Studies based on subjective measures in finance are lacking. This study contributes to the existing literature of behavioral finance by analyzing variations in investor's investment decisions explained by informational factors. The proposed model testifies the mediating role of corporate reputation in guiding investor's investment decisions, which has been overlooked by past studies. Therefore, this study seeks to fill this gap in the context of the PSX.

The behavioural decision-making process of individuals highlights the importance of investors’ sentiment and their correlation with the real economy. This paper aims to contribute to the literature of behavioural finance by examining the influence of contextual factors on investment decision-making.

Using a questionnaire, a total of 445 valid responses were collected from March to May 2021 through online sources. The current study uses a technique of Fuzzy-analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to assign relative weights to various contextual factors influencing investment decision-making. Harman’s single factor test was used to check common method bias.

Results of the study reveal that accounting information, self-image/firm-image coincidence, and neutral information as the top-ranked factors in influencing investment decisions, whereas advocate recommendation and personal financial needs emerged as less important factors in influencing investment decisions.

The current study collects data from Indian stock market investors, which may limit the generalization of the study to India only. Moreover, this study is cross-sectional in nature, and there are numerous factors that are not part of the study but might significantly influence the investors’ decision-making process.

The research has implications for both academicians working in the area of behavioural finance and practitioners’ who are active in stock markets, more specifically dealing with retail investors and in the domain of personal finance. Also, the current study will accommodate different groups, i.e. policy makers, financial advisors, investors, investment professionals, etc. in carrying out their professional work.

The current study will provide a comprehensive overview of individual investor behaviour. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of its kind to use the Fuzzy-AHP technique for evaluating the relative ranks of contextual factors influencing investment decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of personality factors in influencing mentoring relationships in the South-Asian context.

The sample included 363 subjects from public and private sector organizations in North India.

Results revealed that in the Indian context, conscientiousness acts as significant predictor of perceived psychosocial mentoring, agreeableness acts as significant predictor of perceived career mentoring support, and emotional stability acts as significant predictor of both categories of mentoring relationships. Further, managers employed in public sector organizations were found to be high on all the Big Five personality factors and mentoring functions in contrast to managers from private sector organizations.

Overall, the results suggest that mentoring relationships should operate in organizations with a firm understanding of employees’ personality traits. Implications and future research directions were also discussed. Further, suggestions have also been given for incorporating various interventions in order to handle employees with different personality attributes such as counseling for helping emotionally unstable employees manage their emotions and stress.

To the knowledge, this is the first study that seeks to examine impact of personality factors on mentoring relationships in the South-Asian context.

Stock markets are considered as the largest and most important units for the development and growth of the economy. The present study attempts to provide a comprehensive view of factors influencing investment decision making process of stock market investors. A multi group analysis of gender is also carried out on the proposed model.

The data of 402 valid responses are collected through structured questionnaires from individual investors of North India. SPSS 23 is used to do the descriptive analysis and AMOS 22 is used to establish the validity of the constructs and for hypotheses testing. For performing multi group analysis, several invariance tests have also been conducted to check the robustness of the model.

The results reveal that all the factors such as firm image, accounting information, neutral information, advocate recommendation and personal financial needs significantly influence investment decision making concluding image of the firm being the most influential factor and advocate recommendation being the least influential factor for investment decisions. No significant differences between males and females were found.

The current study suffers from the limitation of restricted geographical area of North India. Moreover, there is also a scope to incorporate more demographic factors for predicting investment decisions.

This study incorporates a range of factors which covers all the aspects of investment decision making. This study also highlights the notion of signaling theory, thus contributing to the limited literature in Indian context.

This study aims to investigate the nonfinancial information related to capitals (intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural) demanded by professional investors in their decision-making process, which can improve the usefulness of integrated reporting for this target audience.

A Systematic Literature Review in the Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases enabled the identification of information demanded by professional investors. This information was presented to experienced Brazilian investors participating in a focus group to align the theory on this topic with professional practice.

The results allow us to conclude that the focus group participants' perception is aligned with the international literature, both in the importance given to most of the nonfinancial information items identified and in the lack of interest in using integrated reporting in investment decisions. Nonetheless, the general perception of the focus group is not aligned with the literature procedures in terms of social and environmental information.

A study with a larger scope and the adoption of other approaches can contribute to broaden the understanding of the perspectives of professional investors in Brazil, as well as in other regions.

The authors provide evidence that contributes to discussions about the information to be disclosed in integrated reports. Their results are useful to legislators, regulators, report preparers and investors.

The authors investigate the information demanded by professional investors in their decision-making process aiming to fill the literature gap relating the determinants of the integrated reporting disclosure and what is demanded by this target audience as a minimum content to be reported. As an additional result they offer interesting contributions to the literature providing reflections on nonfinancial information which have become important for Brazilian investors as from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to explore the intelligibility of communication with stakeholders as a result of accrual accounting adoption. It focuses on changes in the use of visual forms and the readability of text that occurred immediately after the adoption of accrual accounting in performance reports of Italian public universities.

The authors collect the stakeholder section of performance reports published before and after accrual accounting adoption. Then, the authors use manual and computer-assisted textual analysis. Finally, the authors explore the data using principal component analysis and qualitative comparative analysis.

This study demonstrates that switching from cash to accrual accounting provokes immediate changes in communication patterns. It confirms the significant reduction of readability and increase in visual forms after accruals accounting adoption. The results indicate that smaller universities especially put effort into increasing intelligibility while implementing a more complex accounting system. This study also finds a relation between the change in readability and the change in visual forms that are complementary, with the exception of several very large universities.

The findings underline the possibility of neutralising the adverse effects of accounting reform associated with its complexity and difficulties in understanding by the use of visual forms and attention to the document’s readability.

This paper adds a new dimension to the study of public sector accounting from the external stakeholder perspective. It provides further insight into the link between accrual accounting adoption and readability, together with the use of visual forms by universities.

The purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-of-the-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in terms of context, themes, theories, methods and impacts in the field of PSAR by the exchanges they include here.

This polyphonic paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach. It brings into conversation ideas, views and approaches of several scholars on the actual and future developments of PSAR in various contexts, and explores potential implications.

This paper has brought together scholars from a plurality of disciplines, research methods and geographical areas, showing at the same time several points of convergence on important future themes (such as accounting as a mean for public, accounting, hybridity and value pluralism) and enabling conditions (accounting capabilities, profession and digitalisation) for PSA scholarship and practice, and the richness of looking at them from a plurality of perspectives.

Exploring these past and future developments opens up the potential for interesting theoretical insights. A much greater theoretical and practical reconsideration of PSAR will be fostered by the exchanges included here.

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the interdisciplinary research community interested in PSAR in various contexts. The discussion perspectives presented in this paper constitute not only a basis for further research in this relevant accounting area on the role, status and developments of PSAR but also creative potential for practitioners to be more reflective on their practices and also intended and united outcomes of such practices.