Dr Zhongtian Li

Purpose: This study aims to analyze whether various textual characteristics in corporate sustainability disclosure associate with corporate sustainability performance in Australia, pertaining to tones of language and readability. The voluntary disclosure theory and legitimacy theory are used to formulate the study hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from Australian listed firms (2002¿2016), four textual characteristics are examined: tone of optimism, tone of certainty, tone of clarity and readability. Corporate sustainability performance is measured by Thomson Reuters Asset4 ratings. Different strategies are adopted to mitigate endogeneity concerns. Findings: The authors found that there is a positive relationship between the textual characteristics of sustainability disclosure and sustainability performance. Specifically, firms with better performance communicate in an optimistic, certain, clear and more readable manner. Practical implications: The results suggest that Australia¿s voluntary reporting status does not induce a combination of poor performance and positive disclosure. This paper should be of interest to investors and other stakeholders and also informs regulatory policy on sustainability disclosure in Australia. Originality/value: The authors contribute to the sustainability disclosure literature using computer-based textual analysis to explore whether firms reveal their sustainability performance by ¿how things are said¿ (i.e. textual characteristics) in sustainability disclosure. As far as the authors could ascertain, they are the first to investigate textual characteristics of sustainability disclosure in Australia.

This study examines the association between corporate environmental performance and financial distress. Using a sample of Australian firms, we find that environmental performance is negatively related to the financial distress probability perceived by the market. In addition, the negative association between environmental performance and the financial distress probability is more pronounced for firms with a higher level of risk. The findings provide important empirical evidence regarding the implications of environmental performance on firms¿ risk management.

Purpose: This study aims to examine whether announcements of mandatory sustainability disclosure affect corporate sustainability performance (CSP). Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a quasi-experiment provided by mandatory sustainability disclosure announcements that occurred in 21 countries from 2006¿2016. A difference-in-differences method is adopted. The authors restrict the drawing of all candidate treatment and control firms to a pool of firms that did not disclose sustainability information one year before the announcements. Findings: The authors find that the announcements of mandatory sustainability disclosure are positively related to CSP. The positive effect is more pronounced for firms in countries with higher anticipation effects and lower awareness effects. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of the announcements is more pronounced in a country where the rule of law is higher and stakeholders are less likely to initiate communication about sustainability with firms, and with fewer active participants in and signatories to the United Nations Global Compact initiative. The findings hold under different robustness analyses. Originality/value: The study enriches the knowledge about the effect of the announcements of comprehensive mandatory sustainability disclosure by analysing the consequences of these announcements. In the contribution to this growing stream of research, the authors provide evidence on the consequences of the announcements based on a cross-country sample and importantly, focusses on the non-economic consequences.

We examine the relationship between board of director committees tasked with risk management and environmental performance, based on a sample of 1466 firm-year observations from 2007 to 2015. We find that the presence of board committees dedicated only to risk management is associated with better environmental performance. The human capital of risk committees (measured by board tenure, committee tenure, experience, and qualifications) is also positively related to environmental performance. Our findings suggest that the benefits of risk management committees extend to non-financial matters, such as environmental performance. Our findings further suggest that environmental performance is now managed through the regular governance mechanisms within firms. This supports the notion that environmental performance is managed for economic reasons and for the benefit of investors, rather than for the aggrandisement of individual managers. Our findings should be of interest to boards, CEOs, and CFOs who are interested in risk management, as well as to investors, lenders, and auditors who are interested in assessing risk.

Using data from Australian listed firms from 2002 to 2018, we found that firms¿ sustainability performance is associated with higher future earnings and cash flows. We also revealed that firms¿ sustainability performance was positively related to earnings persistence and had a positive effect on the association between earnings and future cash flows. Our findings support resource-based theory and the theoretical argument indicating a positive relationship between firms¿ sustainability performance and earnings quality. This paper enriches the literature by showing that firms¿ sustainability performance reveals information about their future financial prospects and earnings quality.