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This study investigates if and how the board size, the board independence, the CEO duality and the board-specific skills are associated with higher-quality Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) disclosure in European State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

We measured SDGs disclosure through a content analysis of SOE's reports from 2017 to 2022. The characteristics of the boards analyzed are board size, board independence, CEO duality and board-specific skills. We performed multiple regression models to test the association between the SDGs disclosure and the characteristics of the boards.

The results show that board size, independent directors and board-specific skills are positively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure, while CEO duality is negatively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure.

This study provides several practical implications. Shareholders could equip their firms with larger boards, more independent and highly skilled directors, while avoiding a CEO duality for improving the SDGs disclosure; capital providers could examine the characteristics of a firm's board before allocating financial resources to verify which firms are accountable in reaching the SDGs. Also, standard-setters and policymakers could use the results of this research to define new standards or regulatory pathways to push firms to put more efforts in preparing a comprehensive and high-quality SDGs disclosure.

While prior studies mostly focused on sustainability reporting overall, this study adds a specific insight about SDGs disclosure employing an investigation which has not been previously analyzed.

The aim of this paper is to explore the effects of adopting and implementing blockchain technology (BT) in accounting and auditing practices in terms of benefits and threats, thus discovering new and upcoming risks and issues.

This paper adopts a critical perspective to investigate how the implementation of BT could affect accounting and auditing practices, providing a reflection on the role of accountants and auditors during such a technological revolution.

This paper highlights the importance of the unreplaceable professional conscience and experience of accountants and auditors compared to the impersonal and standardised operating system of artificial intelligence provided by BT. The development and diffusion of BT are leading professionals to acquaint themselves with new accounting and auditing systems, such as reinventing old practices and finding new ways of taking advantage of blockchain instead of being overwhelmed.

Different from the majority of previous literature contributions, this study looks beyond the potential and undeniable benefits that BT can offer to accounting and auditing environments by focussing especially on the threats and risks caused by its implementation.

The aim of this paper is to investigate if and how conditional conservatism influences capital management practices in the context of European listed banks.

We use multiple fixed effects regression models with robust standard errors to test the research hypotheses on a sample of 2,883 bank-year observations for EU-listed banks from 2010 to 2020.

The study provides evidence that the adoption of conditional conservatism policies constrains upward capital management. In addition, this study shows that such influence is mediated by two channels: earnings management and loan portfolio quality. Regarding the first channel, this study shows that the adoption of conditional conservatism hinders upward earning management which, in turn, negatively impacts upward capital management, all else being equal. For the second channel, this study shows that the adoption of conditional conservatism improves the quality of the loan portfolio, which hinders upward capital management because of less risky assets in the portfolio.

This study contributes to banking literature by shedding light on the factors that may favor or obstruct capital management.

This study can be useful for bank regulators and standard setters to define new regulatory policies and standards that can hinder the use of manipulative accounting practices.

This is the first study exploring the association between bank accounting conservatism and capital management, thus asking whether some factors like earnings management and loan portfolio quality may act as mediating channels in this relationship.

This study aims to investigate the effects of unconditional conservatism on investment efficiency, focusing on both its direct and indirect effects.

We conduct multiple regression analyses on a sample of nonfinancial companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2018.

We provide evidence that conditional conservatism plays a central role in mediating the indirect effects of unconditional conservatism on investment efficiency. This is because a decrease in conditional conservatism, following an increase in unconditional conservatism, leads to reduced investment efficiency.

This study offers valuable insights for the growing body of literature on the relationship between accounting conservatism and investment efficiency while emphasizing the critical role of conditional conservatism in mediating the relationship between unconditional conservatism and investment efficiency.

This study has several implications. Practitioners can make informed decisions regarding accounting policies, predict the potential effects of these choices and mitigate the negative impact of unconditional conservatism on investment efficiency. Investors can make more informed decisions by understanding how unconditional and conditional conservatism affect investment efficiency. Standard setters can guide user behavior toward more efficient investment decisions.

Considering the lack of comprehensive understanding in prior literature regarding the underlying mechanisms through which unconditional conservatism influences investment efficiency, this study investigates the direct and indirect effects characterizing this relationship. We provide evidence supporting a new explanation for the relationship between unconditional conservatism and investment efficiency.