Ikram Radhouane, Mehdi Nekhili, Haithem Nagati and Gilles Paché
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential benefits for firms that report more on environmental activities, with regard to two important categories of stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential benefits for firms that report more on environmental activities, with regard to two important categories of stakeholders: shareholders and customers.
Design/methodology/approach
To avoid the endogeneity problem, the authors apply the system generalized method of moments approach by estimating the relationship between environmental reporting and firm performance with regard both to levels and first differences simultaneously.
Findings
Based on the 120 largest publicly traded companies in France from 2007 to 2011, results suggest that shareholders interpret and perceive firms’ environmental information disclosure differently than consumers. However, reporting on environmental duties is perceived favorably by both customers and shareholders for firms with better environmental performance. In the same way, an increase in the level of environmental reporting is valuable in terms of customer-related performance (i.e. sales growth and profit margin) and in terms of market value (i.e. Tobin’s q) for firms operating in customer proximity industries. In a supplementary analysis, the authors found that, for reporting on climate change (a component of the combined environmental reporting index), positive customer and shareholder perceptions are acquired in particular through superior environmental performance and proximity to the final customer.
Research limitations/implications
When reporting on their environmental duties, environmental performance and proximity to the final customers play a critical role for firms in obtaining the necessary support of key stakeholders.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the difference between shareholders’ and customers’ perception of environmental reporting according to firms’ environmental performance and to their proximity to the final customer.
Details
Keywords
Ikram Radhouane, Mehdi Nekhili, Haithem Nagati and Gilles Paché
This paper aims to investigate whether providing voluntary external assurance on voluntary environmental information by firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether providing voluntary external assurance on voluntary environmental information by firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries (ESI) is relevant in terms of market value. It also examines how various characteristics of assurance statements (i.e. level of assurance, scope of assurance and provider of assurance) affect the value-relevance of environmental disclosure by ESI firms.
Design/methodology/approach
To mitigate the endogeneity problem, the authors use the two-step generalized method of moments estimation approach.
Findings
Focusing on annual and social reports of French companies listed in the SBF120 index, results show that environmental disclosure by ESI firms and its assurance are destructive in terms of market value. Moreover, while providing a broader scope of assurance and having a professional accountant as the assurance provider enhance the value relevance of environmental reporting of the whole sample, this is unlikely to be the case for ESI firms. In particular, a higher level of environmental disclosure is financially rewarded by market participants for ESI firms that provide a higher level of assurance.
Practical implications
The study provides a better understanding of the circumstances under which market participants assign value to voluntary environmental information disclosed by companies operating in ESI. It also provides insights into the value added to different characteristics inherent in the quality of assurance provided with regard to environmental disclosure.
Social implications
The study indicates that the institutional context of the relationship between the firm and its shareholders influence the value obtained from assurance. Results provide value insights regarding cultural and legal dimensions of environmental reporting.
Originality/value
The study extends the prior literature on the capital market benefits of voluntary assurance practices by focusing on the French legal environment. France can be considered as a new institutional context that has been little addressed by the existing literature.
Details
Keywords
Haithem Nagati and Claudia Rebolledo
The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between relative absorptive capacity and suppliers' operational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between relative absorptive capacity and suppliers' operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses structural equation modelling of survey data from 218 Canadian manufacturers referring to a particular relationship with one of their customers.
Findings
Results suggest that only the first dimension of the relative absorptive capacity – knowledge sharing routines – influences the knowledge transferred from the customer to the supplier. Knowledge transfer acts as a mediator between knowledge sharing routines and the supplier's operational performance improvement.
Research limitations/implications
The absence of a significant association between the second dimension of relative absorptive capacity – overlapped knowledge bases – and knowledge transfer is a surprising result that should be further investigated.
Originality/value
This appears to be the first study to operationalise and empirically test relative absorptive capacity and its consequences in the particular context of customer‐supplier relationships.
Details
Keywords
Olivier Mamavi, Haithem Nagati, Frederick T. Wehrle and Gilles Pache
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of spatial proximity on supplier selection in the French public sector. While French public procurement legislation forbids…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of spatial proximity on supplier selection in the French public sector. While French public procurement legislation forbids consideration of supplier location in the procurement process, public contractors may still rely on spatial proximity for complex transactions necessitating mutual adjustments with suppliers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using French Official Journals (BOAMP), the authors compiled 565,557 transactions completed on three public procurement markets between 6,182 contractors and 26,570 suppliers, over a period of six years (between 2006 and 2011). The authors conducted a two-level hierarchical linear auto-regression analysis and a feature evaluation analysis for all transactions.
Findings
The paper finds significant variation between the transactions on different markets: a negative effect of spatial proximity on the number of contract notices in the public market and a positive effect of spatial proximity on the number of notices in the services and supplies markets. The difference lies in the levels of mutual adjustment required to optimally manage the relationship between public contractor and supplier.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on an econometric analysis conducted uniquely in the French context, which calls into question the external validity of the results obtained. The study also rests on segmentation into three aggregate markets, which might be considered too general.
Originality/value
Rather than analyze public contractors’ perceptions of the importance of the criterion of spatial proximity, the paper examines 565,557 actual transactions. The results point to the emergence of a new type of relationship with certain suppliers, which should lead public contractors to integrate relationship management competencies, in addition to legal and economic competencies, in the organization of calls for tenders.
Details
Keywords
Olivier Mamavi, Haithem Nagati, Gilles Pache and Frederick T. Wehrle
The purpose of this paper is to study if the performance history impacts supplier selection in the French public sector context. While French public procurement legislation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study if the performance history impacts supplier selection in the French public sector context. While French public procurement legislation forbids consideration of the past contract wins in supplier selection, public contractors may still rely on contract win history for highly complex transactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using French Official Journals (BOAMP), the authors collected all public procurement transactions of 976 suppliers that had at least one transaction per year, over a period of six years (between 2006 and 2011). The authors conducted a two-level hierarchical linear auto-regression analysis and a feature evaluation analysis for all transactions.
Findings
The paper finds significant variation between the transactions of different markets, as well as in the overall positive impact of past wins and in the detailed impact patterns and thresholds of each market. The findings may allow refinement of existing contract awarding strategies and of current legislation.
Originality/value
The paper aims at empirically testing whether a supplier’s degree of success in any given year, measured by the number of public contracts won, may have an impact on the likelihood that the same supplier is awarded a public contract the following year. The authors conclude that suppliers retained for public contracts could benefit from building public buyers’ loyalty using a key account selling approach rather than systematically seeking to acquire new contracts.
Details
Keywords
Jamel Chouaibi and Abir Hichri
The purpose of this paper is to consist in examining the effect of the auditor’s behavioral and individual characteristics on the integrated reporting quality, in regard to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consist in examining the effect of the auditor’s behavioral and individual characteristics on the integrated reporting quality, in regard to a sample involving 130 European industrial companies, relevant to the year 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study’s adopted methodology rests on the hypothetico-deductive approach. The relevant data applied are analyzed by means of multiple linear regression models.
Findings
The reached results prove to indicate well that both auditor specialization and auditor ethics factors appear to have a significantly positive effect on the integrated reporting quality. Noteworthy, also, is the fact that the audit firm size and auditor behavior have been discovered to have a positive and insignificant effect on the integrated reporting related quality.
Originality/value
Faced with the scarcity of studies linking the auditor characteristics and the integrated reporting quality, the present study is elaborated to provide some kind of modest contribution, whereby, the determinants of integrated reporting are distinguishably highlighted