Materiality is an ambiguous concept in sustainability reporting where potential users are more heterogeneous than in financial reporting. Building on decision usefulness and dual process theory, we scrutinize in an experimental setting how two important stakeholder groups react to manipulations...

We examine whether mandatory climate reporting leads to changes in firms’ carbon emissions. Using propensity score matching and a difference-in-differences design, we assess the effects of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in...

We investigate the capital market reaction in response to the publication of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board's (SASB) standards on the financial materiality of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Based on the argument that accounting mechanisms impact perceptions...

The paper focuses on the reporting of climate change-related physical risks. Drawing on data from the CDP questionnaire for 717 European companies over three years (2011–13) we find that information asymmetry is generally smaller when firms report about their physical risks. Furthermore, we...

Disaggregation of earnings into earnings components is a common method in accounting research. I argue that the disaggregation can also be applied to earnings attributes which results in earnings components attributes. This is of relevance to address measurement problems and to better design...

The debate surrounding climate change often centers on companies' contributions to global warming, which has led to an increase in the importance of carbon disclosure. We evaluate the current state of related research and identify its trends, coherences, and caveats via a systematic literature...

We investigate how the selection of assurance topics and the format of their communication influence the credibility perception of sustainability report readers. This is important because misleading communication may discredit ethical sustainability assurance practices. Based on signaling theory...

We investigate how the selection of assurance topics and the format of their communication influence the credibility perception of sustainability report readers. This is important because misleading communication may discredit ethical sustainability assurance practices. Based on signaling theory...

Purpose: The capitalisation of intangible investments is discussed controversially in the financial accounting literature. International accounting standards are concerned with this issue and generally demand more intellectual capital to be recognised on the face of the balance sheet. If...