About Laura Bini

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So far Laura Bini has created 70 blog entries.

Determinants of Intra-group Interlocking in European listed business groups

By | 2023-09-28T09:59:30+02:00 September 25th, 2023|

Emiliano Di Carlo, Lucrezia Fattobene, Marco Caiffa/ Financial Reporting / 1-2023

Purpose: The phenomenon of Interlocking Directorship within the same busi-ness group (the Intra-group Interlocks, IgI) has received little attention by scholars, especially when the interlocked affiliated-group companies are listed. Focusing on listed business groups, characterized by the presence of at least two affiliated-listed companies, and following the contingency perspective, this study aims to explore the determinants of IgI. Design/methodology/approach: The study analyses the controlling sharehold-er type (family, State, coalitions), the business ties, and the separation between ownership and control, focusing on 315 business groups listed in different Europe-an countries, i.e., Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The social network analysis is applied to these groups, to compare the networks that originate from the corporate board of directors. Findings: In groups controlled by the State the density of social links is lower than in those controlled by families and coalitions. The strength of IgI is also relat-ed to the degree of correlation of firms’ industries, even if this correlation is influ-enced by the separation between ownership and control and by the country regula-tion that protects minority shareholders. Overall, the results show that for listed groups the agency theory better explains the determinants of the IgI phenomenon. Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of why board members of listed parent companies sit (or do not sit) in the listed subsidiary boards. Relying on agency theory and resource dependence theory, it also propos-es a theoretical framework.

 

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CSR disclosure in banking: A qualitative literature review

By | 2023-09-28T09:56:51+02:00 September 25th, 2023|

Pablo de Andrés, Salvatore Polizzi, Enzo Scannella, Nuria Suárez/ Financial Reporting / 1-2023

Purpose: This paper reviews the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in banking to identify the most relevant aspects analyzed to date and avenues for future research. The CSR concept is key in the banking industry and banks are pushed to improve their social and environmental performance, and to disclose information about CSR in their financial and non-financial reports. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a mixed literature review approach, based on a qualitative analysis of the literature and complemented by some structured systematic analyses. The theoretical frameworks employed in the literature, the time and geographical distribution of the samples analyzed, and the main findings of the studies indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost are also examined. Findings: The findings show that (i) there is a significant gap between the liter-ature focusing on the financial dimension of bank disclosure and that exploring the CSR dimension; (ii) the time horizons analyzed in the empirical literature are concentrated around the 2008-2009 global financial crisis; (iii) the empirical litera-ture mainly focuses on the most developed European, North American and Asian countries. Originality/value: This study contributes to extant literature by describing the state of the art on CSR disclosure in banking and paving the way for future re-search on this topic. A call for research is raised on corruption-related disclosure and the relationship between national economic development and bank transpar-ency, with specific reference to CSR disclosure.

 

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Book Review. Nicola Dalla Via, XBRL for Business Reporting: Reference Framework, Network Analysis, and New Trends, FrancoAngeli, 2020

By | 2023-02-09T22:57:07+01:00 February 9th, 2023|

Andrea Tenucci / Financial Reporting / 2-2022

 

 

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Dialogue with standard setters. The impairment test in contexts of socio-economic and financial turbulence

By | 2023-09-25T10:51:35+02:00 February 9th, 2023|

Marco Vulpiani, Simone Chirchiglia, Claudio Rossetti/ Financial Reporting / 2-2022

 

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Accounting and Big Data: Trends, opportunities and direction for practitioners and researchers

By | 2023-02-09T22:24:24+01:00 February 9th, 2023|

Gianluca Gabrielli, Alice Medioli, Paolo Andrei / Financial Reporting / 2-2022

Big Data, the Internet of Things and Machine Learning are only today starting to be widely used but are already attracting interest. They can generate a significant impact on business management. This article analyses use and exploitation of Big Data by business management, focusing on its role in reshaping accounting information systems. The Internet of Things and Machine Learning play a key role in obtaining insights and value in this complex world. Like other areas of business, the accounting function is showing growing interest in their possible applications. We analyze, from three perspectives, how big data impacts on the accounting role in supporting managers and decision-making process, also with the aim to define future research lines that scholars could explore. An internal perspective focuses on how big data can impact management accounting; an external perspective focuses on a new dimension of financial accounting and disclosure of information; and a third perspective, the control one, focuses on the impact of big data on internal and external audit procedures.

 

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Minorities’ Representativeness on the Board and their Effect on the Level of Compliance with the Italian RPTs Regulation

By | 2023-02-09T22:26:34+01:00 February 9th, 2023|

Pietro Fera, Rosa Vinciguerra / Financial Reporting / 2-2022

The definition and regulation of related-party transactions (RPTs) depend mainly on the conceptual framework underlying the interpretation of such a phenomenon. While the conflict of interests hypothesis focuses on opportunistic behaviours, the efficient transaction hypothesis suggests that RPTs lead to more efficient. In such a scenario, instead of providing opposite interpretations, the contingency hypothesis considers the potential risks and benefits associated with specific RPTs, i.e. other contex- tual factors and corporate governance mechanisms. Among the latter, independent directors, empowered by the majority of national legislations worldwide, should play a crucial role in spotlighting opportunistic behaviours to the detriment of minorities. However, in light of the many corporate scandals that have stressed the RPTs’ issues, practitioners and academics have questioned their effectiveness, especially in contexts characterized by high ownership concentration, while leaving room for the so-called minority directors, i.e. independent directors appointed by minority shareholders. On this matter, aiming to analyse the potential impact of minority directors on the level of procedural compliance for the RPTs’ implementation, this empirical study, based on a data set, shows that they represent a more effective tool for the full and strict adoption of the current RPTs regulation, while independent directors fail in their monitoring role and are ineffective in bolstering corporate transparency with regard to RPTs.

 

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Does the Adoption of Planning and Control Tools Influence Performance? Opinions of Grantors and Grantees About Non-profit Projects

By | 2023-02-09T22:27:39+01:00 February 9th, 2023|

Giacomo Boesso, Fabrizio Cerbioni, Andrea Menini / Financial Reporting / 2-2022

This study analyzes whether a positive association exists between foundations’ adoption of accounting control tools and the perceived economic and social perfor- mance. Data are collected through a survey addressed to both decision-makers of Italian banking foundations (IBFs) and grantees that received project-related dona- tions from the same IBFs. Results show a positive association between the adoption of selected planning and control tools (i.e., definition of project budget, in-progress monitoring, and utilization of operating performance indicators) and performance. Meanwhile, a second set of more complex tools (i.e., ex-post valuation of activities, direct operative support offered from foundations to their grantees, and social key performance indicators) records a mixed association with social performance and a negative association with economic performance.

 

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Interdisciplinary research by accounting scholars: An exploratory study

By | 2023-02-09T22:29:08+01:00 February 9th, 2023|

Francesco Giovanni Avallone, Alberto Quagli, Paola Ramassa / Financial Reporting / 2-2022

There is a growing consensus around the pivotal role of interdisciplinary research (hereafter IDR) in achieving innovative results and addressing the challenges of modern societies, whose solutions are often beyond the scope of a single discipline. This paper builds on this literature to explore the trends in IDR and its evaluation in research quality assessments in the context of accounting studies by Italian scholars, even in comparison with disciplinary research. This exploratory study covers a dataset of all articles published by Italian accounting scholars in international journals indexed in Scopus from 1985 to 2015 (1,233 articles). We operationalise IDR as diversity in the subject area of journals where the articles are published and diversity in the disciplinary sector of coauthors. Thus, the novelty of this article is that instead of using a single indicator of IDR, we consider the interaction of two alternative perspectives of analysis. The main findings reveal a relevant increase in disciplinary and interdisciplinary articles, with a comparatively smaller increase for IDR. Additionally, we observe that IDR by Italian accounting scholars is strongly oriented towards medical publications. Regarding quality evaluation, the findings show a significantly higher evaluation of disciplinary studies compared to IDR according to the criteria followed by the national assessment exercise (VQR). This explorative study contributes to the debate on IDR in two different ways. On the one hand, our study shows a relatively low growth of IDR in the under-researched context of social sciences in a non-Anglo-Saxon setting, where national research evaluations have stimulated radical changes in the features and outlets of scientific production. On the other hand, our results are consistent with the view that papers with a clear disciplinary focus receive comparatively higher evaluations because the standards established for assessment are usually defined within the discipline.

 

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GAAP-compliant versus non-GAAP voluntary disclosures relative to critical reporting dates

By | 2022-07-29T16:09:43+02:00 June 7th, 2022|

Thomas D’Angelo, Marco Lam, Samir El-Gazzar, Rudolph Jacob  / Financial Reporting / 1-2022

Purpose – This paper investigates the impact of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and non-GAAP voluntary disclosures on equity returns for important financial reporting dates. Design/methodology – Using hand-coded archival data, we developed 2,329 matched pairs consisting of non-GAAP (control) and GAAP (treatment) quarterly observations and compared the equity returns for each group around the earnings release and SEC filing dates. Findings – Our findings suggest that the valuation relevance of GAAP disclosing firms significantly exceeds that of non-GAAP firms in the case of earnings and cash flow surprises. These results support the notion that investors perceive GAAP-compliant disclosures as necessary, complementary information about a firm’s performance and equity value. We also reveal that the market revaluation of equity on the earnings release date significantly exceeded that on the SEC filing date. This finding confirms that the more comprehensive disclosure provided by GAAP firms on the earlier date preempted at least some of the information subsequently disclosed on the SEC filing date. Value – Extends the voluntary disclosure literature, in particular the valuation relevance of GAAP versus non-GAAP disclosures. The findings discussed in this paper are of special interest to policymakers and regulators, financial analysts, corporate managers, firm stakeholders, and academics interested in financial re-porting as they continue to study voluntary disclosure rules and practices.

 

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Financial reporting and book-tax conformity: A review of the issues

By | 2022-07-29T16:10:00+02:00 June 6th, 2022|

Luca Menicacci  / Financial Reporting / 1-2022

This work reviews accounting research on book-tax conformity (BTC) with specific reference to financial reporting issues. There is an ongoing debate in the accounting literature about the impact of BTC levels (weak/strong) on accounting quality and on tax avoidance. Policymakers have discussed at length the opportunity to reform BTC as well. Proponents of a strong BTC argue that it can deter both financial reporting manipulation and aggressive tax planning by creating contrasting incentives between book earnings maximisation and taxable income minimisation. Further controls on book earnings assured by taxing authorities will reinforce such beneficial effects. Opponents of a strong BTC suggest that financial accounting decisions should not interfere with tax accounting and vice versa, as financial reporting and tax reporting have different purposes. Furthermore, under a strong BTC, managers will tend to smooth earnings to minimise income taxes, thus reducing earnings in-formativeness. Even if a strand of research based on the Tax Reform Act (TRA 86) in the US corroborates the position of opponents, a large body of literature formed in international settings has not yet reached a consensus over the consequences of BTC. This circumstance makes BTC a relevant topic to the current de-bate on financial reporting quality.

 

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