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This study aims to explore how the degree of chief executive officer (CEO) overconfidence influences the reporting of risk information. Likewise, it delves into how overconfident CEOs shape the usefulness of such risk disclosures, specifically in terms of their relationship with abnormal corporate stock returns.

It examined FTSE350 shares-firms from 2010 to 2018. The textual analysis using a bag-of-words approach with the Nudist 6 QSR software package codes the quantity and tone of risk reporting in the UK firms. The study used a metric based on the firm's capital expenditure rate relative to its industry median in the same year to assess the degree of firm’s CEO overconfidence. The abnormal return of stock reflects the investors' reaction to the quantity and tone of risk disclosure.

UK firms differ considerably in their willingness to share risk information with investors, with a slight tendency toward pessimism in risk reporting. Likewise, firms with high (low) overconfident CEOs disseminate higher (lower) levels of risk reporting. Also, overconfident CEOs provide more positive than negative risk news. Besides, the quantity risk reporting does not impact the abnormal stock return of the corporation. However, the positive risk news has a higher (lower) impact on enhancing the stock return in firms with low (high) overconfident CEOs. Finally, negative risk news tends to have an inverse consequence on the company's stock returns. However, this effect is more pronounced for companies led by highly overconfident CEOs compared to those with less overconfident CEOs.

Stakeholders should be aware that risk reports of firms with overconfident CEOs may exhibit a potential bias toward positive news. Likewise, boards of directors and governance mechanisms should be mindful of the consequences of CEO overconfidence in risk reporting and ensure that risk disclosures accurately reflect the true risk profile of the company.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to delve into the consequences of CEOs' overconfidence in terms of risk disclosure in the UK. It goes beyond investigating the level or quantity of risk disclosure and also considers the tone of risk reporting, i.e. the messages communicated through the reporting. Likewise, it explores how CEO overconfidence can affect the value-relevance of risk disclosure, shedding light on the role of CEO characteristics in shaping investor perceptions and decision-making.

Kuwait has taken significant steps to reform its corporate governance (CG) by introducing the New Company Law (NCL) in 2013. This study investigates how this reform of CG mechanisms affects the disclosure of future-oriented information. Likewise, it explores how CG mechanisms affect the informativeness of this disclosure.

The sample comprises the nonfinancial firms listed on the Boursa Kuwait from 2014 to 2018. The study uses an automated textual analysis to measure the level of future-oriented disclosure in the annual reports of these firms. The informativeness of disclosure is proxied by firm value at three months of the date of the annual report.

The study finds that Kuwaiti firms with larger board sizes and substantial ownership by institutional investors are less likely to disseminate future-oriented information. Conversely, firms with more independent directors and larger audit committees are more inclined to provide future-oriented disclosure. Furthermore, the disclosure of future-oriented information carries contents that enhance investors' valuations of Kuwaiti firms, especially in firms with fewer institutional ownership and more prominent audit committees.

It focuses on management decisions to disclose information in the annual reports. Examining other channels of disseminating information, such as social media disclosure, provides avenues for future research.

Policy setters in Kuwait should consider the importance of some CG mechanisms to improve the transparency of Kuwaiti firms, as suggested by the NCL. Likewise, investors should rely on such specific CG mechanisms to build their prospects about the firm's value.

Apart from developed countries, the current study is the first evidence on how CG mechanisms could affect the informativeness of future-oriented disclosure in a developing economy. It is also the first to investigate the new CG mechanism introduced by Kuwait NCL in 2013.

Corporate managers spend on research and development (R&D) for reasons of growth and survival. However, they may be less willing to invest in R&D because of its long-term horizon, high failure rate and uncertain outcomes. This study aims to explore the extent to which managerial ownership influences R&D expenditure decisions.

Apart from the linear regression models, this study uses a semi-parametric quantile regression analysis for a sample of German non-financial firms throughout 2009–2018.

This study finds a nonmonotonic sensitivity of R&D spending to the level of managerial ownership over various quantiles of R&D distribution. That is, managerial ownership increases the expenditure on R&D at low R&D intensity firms. However, it decreases the expenditure on R&D at high R&D intensity firms. These results suggest the presence of a maximum level of R&D expenditure, after which owner-managers would be unwilling to spend on R&D.

The results confirm the importance of corporate ownership structure for firm R&D and innovation activities. It provides an implication for corporate policymakers to reform the corporate ownership structures to encourage corporate managers and owners to invest in R&D projects.

This study offers two distinct contributions study. First, it provides the first German shred of evidence on the nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and R&D expenditure decisions by distinguishing between high and low R&D intensity firms. Second, unlike prior research, it uses a semi-parametric quantile regression analysis. This method is more efficient than least-squares estimators and produces robust estimators to heteroscedasticity of the residuals.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing disclosure literature by examining the determinants of narrative risk information in the interim reports for a sample of UK non‐financial companies.

This study uses the manual content analysis to measure the level of risk information in interim report narrative sections prepared by 72 UK companies. It also uses the ordinary least squares regression analysis to examine the impact of firm‐specific characteristics and corporate governance mechanisms on narrative risk disclosures.

The empirical analysis shows that large firms are more likely to disclose more risk information in the narrative sections of interim reports. In addition, the analysis shows that industry activity type is positively associated with levels of narrative risk disclosure in interim reports. Finally, the analysis shows statistically insignificant impact of other firm‐specific characteristics (liquidity, gearing, profitability, and cross‐listing) and corporate governance mechanisms on narrative risk disclosure.

The study's findings have practical implications. It informs investors about the characteristics of UK companies that disclose risk information in their interim reports. For example, the findings show that narrative risk disclosures are affected by firm size and industry type rather than firms' risk levels (e.g. financing risk measured by the gearing ratio or liquidity risk measured by lower liquidity ratios). Practical implications for managers from these findings are that, in order to keep investors satisfied, companies with high levels of financing and liquidity risks should look at investors' demands for risk disclosure. This will help investors when making their investment decisions.

The determinants of narrative risk disclosure in interim reports have not been explored so clearly in prior research and, therefore, this paper is the first of its kind to examine this research issue for a sample of UK companies.