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In recent years, integrated reporting has emerged as a tool to provide environmental information in an interconnected way. However, in the academic literature, the amount of environmental information contained in integrated reports has never been analysed. This study, through the stakeholder-agency theory, aims to fill this important gap by examining the impact of the corporate governance mechanisms on the level of environmental information disseminated by the firms through integrated reports.

A manual content analysis based on an environmental disclosure index consisting of 30 items was performed to measure the amount of environmental information. In addition, a regression analysis was performed on a sample of 129 international firms to examine the impact of the corporate governance mechanisms on the level of environmental information disseminated through integrated reports.

The results show a positive effect of the board size, board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility committee existence on the level of environmental disclosure. Furthermore, they show a non-significant impact of board independence.

This study enriches the literature in several ways. First, it extends the field of application of the stakeholder-agency theory. Second, this study extends the analysis of environmental disclosure to another document – the integrated report – still unexplored by academic literature. Finally, it shed light on the determinants of environmental disclosure.

The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has been expanding rapidly in recent years, gaining the attention of academics and practitioners. This study provides a structured literature review (SLR) on AI and management decisions (MDs) by analysing the scientific output and defining new research topics.

The study uses a rigorous methodological approach to summarise the state of the art of the past literature. The authors used Scopus as the database for data collection and utilised the Bibliometrix R package. In total, 204 peer-reviewed English articles were collected and analysed.

The results showed that literature in this field is emerging. Studies are focused on using AI as forecasting and classification for management decision-making, AI as a tool to improve knowledge management in organisations and extract information. The cluster analysis revealed the presence of five thematic clusters of studies on the topic.

The study’s originality lies in providing a new perspective on AI for MDs. In particular, the analysis reveals a new classification of research streams and provides fruitful research questions to continue research on the topic.

This study aims to contribute to the emerging debate about materiality with novel insights about the signaling effects related to the disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information using the guidelines released by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

An empirical assessment using panel data analysis was built to evaluate the relationship between sustainability reporting standards and analysts’ forecast accuracy.

The analysis revealed that the proliferation of sustainability reports prepared on mandatory or voluntary basis mitigated the signaling effects related to the disclosure of ESG information by companies. Furthermore, the additional analysis conducted considering sustainability reporting quality and ESG performance revealed the existence of mixed effects on analysts’ forecasts accuracy. Therefore, the insights highlighted the need to consider a cautionary approach in evaluating the contribution of ESG data to financial evaluations.

The practical implications consist of identifying criticisms related to disclosing ESG information by listed companies. In detail, the analysis underlines the need to enhance reporting standards’ interoperability to support the development of more accurate analysis by investors and financial experts.

The analysis reveals increasing attention investors pay to socially responsible initiatives, confirming that financial markets consider sustainability reporting as a strategic driver to engage with stakeholders and investors.

This research represents one of the first attempts to explore differences between GRI and SASB using an empirical approach.

This paper aims to investigate materiality judgement providing insights, critiques and future research paths in light of the open debate on the role of materiality in corporate financial disclosure, highlighting potential connections and implications with sustainability and intellectual capital (IC) reporting.

The research presents an overview of the analysis of financial materiality, including new stimuli from recent studies and regulatory requirements for financial and non-financial reporting. Accordingly, this study used a systematic literature review (SLR) based on a combination of content, text and bibliometric analysis of materiality in accounting research studies, collecting data from the Scopus database as one of the most relevant repositories.

The SLR identified four relevant research trends, concerning: (1) the relevance of materiality principles in corporate disclosure; (2) financial reporting practices and materiality; (3) theories and approaches in defining financial materiality and (4) the existence of quantitative and qualitative thresholds in the materiality judgement.

The results provide theoretical and practical implications when comprehending the development of the concept of financial materiality in financial statements and whether they can be appropriate in reporting IC as well. We identified future research paths.

From a practical perspective, this study is useful for companies implementing financial materiality based on stakeholder engagement and improving their transparency in financial and non-financial reporting practices.

The research investigates if the process for assessing materiality is in line with the expectations of all stakeholders involved in financial and non-financial reporting.

This research is the first to investigate the scientific basis and applicability of the concept of financial materiality to sustainability and IC reporting.

Recent accounting literature claims that private firms’ heterogeneity influences the quality of earnings. Along with certain drivers of heterogeneity, private firms get involved in specific programs aimed at fostering their access to capital, competencies and networks (CCN programs). Such programs can enhance private firms’ exposure to stakeholders that demand higher reporting quality, affecting their financial reporting choices. Therefore, this study investigated whether membership in CCN programs affects private firms’ earnings quality.

Focusing on the ELITE program, an international platform that since 2012 aims to support the growth of the most promising SMEs, and employing different econometric specifications facing endogeneity concerns, this paper carries out a quantitative empirical analysis to test the effect of CCN programs on private firms’ earnings quality.

Employing different earnings quality measures, empirical evidence reveals that firms belonging to CCN programs experienced an improvement in their earnings quality.

Even though endogeneity concerns have been addressed, we are nevertheless aware that they might, at least partially, have affected our results.

Although the contributions of the study are mostly academic, the empirical evidence obtained also carries practical implications. CCN programs not only act, as one might assume, as catalysts for economic and dimensional growth but also contribute to better earnings quality, mitigating the information asymmetries between firms and their stakeholders.

By adding new evidence to the literature concerning the impact of private firms’ heterogeneity on earnings quality, this is the first study to analyze the impact of specific programs aimed at supporting the affiliated SMEs to foster their access to capital, competencies and networks.

This study aims to explore human–machine interactions in the process of adopting artificial intelligence (AI) based on the principles of Taylorism and digital Taylorism to validate these principles in postmodern management.

The topic has been investigated by means of a case study based on the current experience of Carrozzeria Basile, a body shop born in Turin in 1970.

The Carrozzeria Basile’s approach is rooted in scientific management concepts, and its digital evolution is aimed at centring humans, investigating human–machine interactions and how to take advantage of both of these.

The research contributes to both Taylorism management and the literature on human–machine interactions. A unique case study represents a first step in comprehending the phenomenon but could also represent a limit for the study.

Practical implications refer to the scientific path to facilitate the implementation and adoption of emerging technologies in the organisational process, including employee engagement and continuous employee training.

The research focuses on human–machine interactions in the process of adopting AI in the automation process. Its novelty also relies on the comprehension of the needed path to facilitate these interactions and stimulate a collaborative and positive approach. The study fills the literature gap investigating the interactions between humans and machines beginning with their historical roots, from Taylorism to digital Taylorism, in relation to an empirical scenario.

This paper aims to contribute to the emerging debate on materiality with novel and original insights about the managerial and theoretical implications related to the adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) as reporting standards. Furthermore, the paper will evaluate the main drivers that favor the combination of the two standards by companies to develop new knowledge about the hierarchical relationship between financial and sustainability materiality.

Building on a sample of 2,046 US listed companies observed during the period 2017–2020, the research is conducted using quantitative methods. Multinomial logistic regressions are used to evaluate the differences between GRI and SASB’s adoption.

The analysis highlights that financial and sustainability materiality are driven by different purposes. In detail, SASB’s adoption is driven by factors directly related to financial dynamics, while GRI’s adoption is influenced by the existence of corporate governance mechanisms inspired by sustainable and ethical principles. Furthermore, the last analysis reveals that the combination of the two standards is characterized by the predominance of sustainability materiality.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study on the relationship between financial and sustainability materiality.

This study examines the effect that environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure generates on the cost of equity capital in the food and beverage (F&B) sector.

This study analyses a sample of 171 international listed firms pertaining to the F&B sector and headquartered in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific (developed), forming an unbalanced panel of 1,316 observations, spanning the period 2010–2019. We run a fixed-effects panel regression model to test the relationship between ESG disclosure and the cost of equity capital.

Our empirical outcomes suggest a significant negative relationship between ESG disclosure and the cost of equity capital. We find support for the notion that increased levels of ESG disclosure are linked to an improved access to financial resources for firms.

This is the first study that analyses the impact of ESG disclosure on the cost of equity capital in the F&B sector, taking existing literature a step further into more detailed and specific aspects of the relationship of focus.