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This study aims to investigate the association between corporate carbon risk and debt maturity and the moderating role of voluntary disclosure, within the context of South Africa, an emerging player in the climate policy debate.

Based on the insights drawn from agency as well as information asymmetry theories, the authors develop models that link debt maturity with corporate carbon risk and voluntary disclosure and examine data obtained from companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), for the period 2011-2015.

The findings document that, other things being equal, debt maturity is significantly higher, both statistically and economically, for companies with lower carbon intensity (risk). In addition, high-quality carbon disclosure accentuates the positive association between debt maturity and the inverse of carbon intensity. The results are robust to alternative measures of corporate carbon risk and issues of endogeneity. The findings are consistent with the view that lenders in South Africa use debt maturity as a non-price mechanism to address borrower risk and grant lower carbon risk companies that voluntarily provide higher quality carbon disclosures an even higher access to longer maturity debts; JSE-listed companies could use voluntary carbon disclosure to ease their access to debt with longer maturity.

The findings of this study have important implications to borrowers, pressure groups, policymakers and other stakeholders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to document evidence suggesting that lenders in South Africa use debt maturity as a non-price mechanism to address borrower risk.

Although proponents of integrated reporting (IR) advocate that this emerging practice has the potential to transform corporate reporting, the eventuation of this expectation would depend on the incentive IR provides to firms. This study aims to examine whether IR is associated with cost of debt and whether IR moderates the relationship between financial reporting quality and cost of debt.

Based on insights drawn from information asymmetry and agency theories, the authors develop models that link IR and financial reporting quality with a firm’s cost of debt. The authors analyze 847 firm-year observations drawn from non-financial firms traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, for the period between 2009 and 2015.

The authors find that firms that provide integrated reports tend to have a lower cost of debt than those do not provide IR. The authors also find an inverse association between financial reporting quality and cost of debt, and that integrated reports accentuate this association. The findings suggest that the debt market perceives value in the information presented in integrated reports beyond what is furnished in financial reports.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to document evidence suggesting that the debt market perceives value in the information presented in integrated reports, beyond what is furnished in financial reports.

This paper aims to interpret the role and professional issues of public sector performance auditing (PA) as a mechanism of neoliberal governmentality in the New Public Management (NPM) era by drawing on a Foucauldian conceptual lens to chart directions for future research.

The study uses the Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity to interpret PA against the background of neoliberal imperatives of public sector management.

As the growing emphasis on PA in recent decades can be understood as driven by the concurrent development of neoliberal and NPM rationalities, the relatively underexploited concepts of visibility and identity allow further inquiry into important PA issues. This paper identifies avenues for future research under the following three themes: the issue of visibility in neoliberal governmentality and potential for auditors-general to expand the domain of influence of National Audit Offices through the PA role; the potential for PA as a unified distinct specialisation; and the neoliberal idea of professional identity as the individual expert and its interplay with the potential emergence of PA as a distinct function within the accounting profession.

This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future PA research. Key areas in this respect include the position and authority afforded to PA and the possibility of transformation in auditors’ conception of their professional worldview.

This paper charts direction for future research by interpreting PA using Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity that remain to be exploited in PA research.

We develop a conceptual framework as a basis for thinking about the impact of extractive industries and emancipatory potential of alternative accounts. We then review selected alternative accounts literature on some contemporary issues surrounding the extractive industries and identify opportunities for accounting, auditing, and accountability research. We also provide an overview of the other contributions in this special issue.

Drawing on alternative accounts from the popular and social media as well as the alternative accounting literature, this primarily discursive paper provides a contemporary literature review of identified issues within the extractive industries highlighting potential areas for future research. The eight papers that make up the special issue are located within a conceptual framework is employed to illustrate each paper’s contribution to the field.

While accounting has a rich literature covering some of the issues detailed in this paper, this has not necessarily translated to the extractive industries. Few studies in accounting have got “down and dirty” so to speak and engaged directly with those impacted by companies operating in the extractive industries. Those that have, have focused on specific areas such as the Niger Delta. Although prior studies in the social governance literature have tended to focus on disclosure issues, it is questionable whether this work, while informative, has resulted in any meaningful environmental, social or governance (ESG) changes on the part of the extractive industries.

The extensive extractive industries literature both from within and outside the accounting discipline makes a comprehensive review impractical. Drawing on both the accounting literature and other disciplines, this paper identifies areas that warrant further investigation through alternative accounts.

This paper and other contributions to this special issue provide a basis and an agenda for accounting scholars seeking to undertake interdisciplinary research into the extractive industries.

This study aims to investigate disclosure of asbestos-related liabilities in corporate accounts and counter-accounts to examine whether and how accounting contributes to corporate accountability for asbestos-contaminated products.

This study uses the Goffmanesque perspective on impression management to examine instances of concealed asbestos-related liabilities in corporate accounts vis-à-vis the revealing of such liabilities in counter-accounts.

The findings show counter-accounts provide significant information on liabilities originating from the exposure of employees and consumers to asbestos. By contrast, the malleability of accounting tools enables companies to eschew accounting disclosures. While the frontstage positive performance of companies served an impression management role, their backstage concealing actions enabled companies to cover up asbestos-related liabilities. These companies used three categories of mechanisms to avoid disclosure of asbestos-related liabilities: concealing via a “cloak of competence”, impression management via epistemic work and a silent strategy of concealment frontstage with strategic reorganisation backstage.

This study has policy relevance as regulators need to consider the limits of corporate disclosures as an accountability tool. The findings may also initiate academic and practitioner conversations about accounting standards for long-term liabilities.

This study highlights the strategies companies use both frontstage and backstage to avoid disclosing asbestos-related liabilities. Through analysis of accounts and counter-accounts, this study identifies the limits of accounting as an accountability tool regarding asbestos-induced diseases and deaths.

This study aims to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of accounting infrastructure (calculative practice and the communicative dimension of accounting) in extractive industries (EIs) towards a sustainable orientation from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective.

This study is a literature-based analysis of the calculative property and communicative dimension of accounting in EIs, using the concepts of calculability, assemblage and other related concepts from ANT to identify potentialities and limits of the roles of accounting in this sector.

While accounting infrastructure can influence social and environmental outcomes, it has not, as yet, led to ecologically and socially sustainable practices in EIs. Calculative properties and the communicative dimension of accounting infrastructure have capabilities to foster the phenomenon of “sustainability” in EIs by valuing, disclosing (reporting) and governing EIs towards a sustainable orientation. Conceptualizing sustainable EIs as a promissory economy, accounting infrastructure serves as a tool not only to represent past performance but also to enact the future: it helps to shape a sustainable future for the industry by informing and triggering behavioural decisions of EIs firms towards sustainable practices.

This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future sustainability accounting research. The research agenda discussed in this paper can be used to enrich our understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability.

This paper charts a direction for future research by interpreting the role of sustainability accounting within networks of sociotechnical relations, using ANT concepts which attach importance to the dualism of nature and society. Conceptualizing sustainability accounting and reporting as an infrastructure, which draws more attention to the relationality characteristic of accounting, the study goes beyond the traditional interpretation of accounting as a mediation device and draws on a contemporary view of accounting by invoking the dynamic relation between accounting and society, in the context of EIs.

This study aims to examine the impact of political stability and political rights on firm-level earnings (both accrual-based and real) management.

The authors develop models that link political stability, political rights, and the interplay between the two and earnings (both accrual-based and real) management. The authors analyze 63,872 firm-year observations of publicly listed, non-financial, firms drawn from 39 countries, for the period 1995 to 2016.

The authors find that political stability (political rights) attenuates (accentuates) accrual-based earnings management; political rights (political stability) accentuates (have no effect on) real earnings management; and the association between political rights and real earnings management is more pronounced in countries with better political stability.

The findings imply that users of financial statements should take cognizance of a country’s ambient political environment in assessing the potential for earnings management by firms.

No prior research examined the role of political forces in shaping firm-level earnings management behavior in a cross-country setting.

The emerging practice of integrated reporting (IR) has raised curiosity regarding how it impacts on firms and their stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a firm’s decision to provide integrated reports is associated with its financing decisions and whether financial reporting quality mediates the relationship.

A usable sample of 832 firm-year observations was employed based on a dataset drawn from companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) for the period between 2009 and 2015.

The findings show that firms that provide integrated reports tend to have lower levels of leverage, and this effect is partially mediated through financial reporting quality. We further document that the partial effect of financial reporting quality on leverage is stronger for firms that provide integrated reports than is the case for other firms. The findings suggest that IR enables firms to employ equity financing, which is a more informationally-sensitive source of capital than debt financing.

This study is the first to document evidence suggesting that management can draw on IR in devising optimal financing strategy.

This study aims to analyze the temperature variability and change for the past 30 years (1990–2019) and the future 60 years (2030s, 2050s and 2070s) in Wolaita Zone and the surroundings, in Southern Ethiopia.

The temperature (maximum and minimum) data of the past 30 years (1990–2019) of ten meteorological stations and the future (2021–2080) data of regional climate models (RCMs) under two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) were used in this study. The accuracy of RCMs in representing observed temperature data was evaluated against mean absolute error, root-mean-square error, percent bias, Nash–Sutcliffe measure of efficiency, index of agreement (d) and coefficient of determination (R²). The temperature variability was analyzed using the coefficient of variation, and the trend was determined using the Mann–Kendall trend and Sen’s slope tests.

The results indicate that the past maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperatures showed low variability (CV = 4.3%) with consistently increasing trends. Similarly, Tmax and Tmin are projected to have low variability in the future years, with upward trends. The Tmax and Tmin are projected to deviate by 0.7°C–1.2°C, 1.3°C–2.2°C and 1.5°C–3.2°C by 2030s, 2050s and 2070s, respectively, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, from the baseline. Thus, it can be concluded that temperature has low variability in all periods, with consistently increasing trends. The increasing temperature could have been affecting agricultural production systems in Southern Ethiopia.

This research did not remove the uncertainties of models (inherited errors of models) in future temperature projections. However, this study did not have any limitation. Therefore, individuals or organizations working on agricultural productivity, food security and sustainable development can use the results and recommendations.

The globe has been warming due to the increasing temperature; as a result, many adaptation and mitigation measures have been suggested globally and nationally (IPCC, 2021). FAO (2017) indicates that the level of vulnerability to the impacts of climate change varies with geographic location, economy and demography; the adaptation measures need to be local. The detailed information on temperature variability and change in the past and future helps to understand the associated negative impacts on agriculture, hydrology, biodiversity, environment and human well-being, among others.

The projected future climate pattern helps the country devise proactive adaptation and mitigation measures for the associated damages at different levels (from local to national). This could improve the resilience of farmers and the country to climate change impacts. This contributes to achieving sustainable development goals (e.g. no poverty, zero hunger and climate action). This is because the agriculture sector in Ethiopia accounts for 80% of employment, 33% of the gross domestic product and 76% of exports (EPRSS, 2023).

Temperature is one of the major climate elements affecting agricultural production in rain-fed production systems. Despite this, past studies in Southern Ethiopia considered only the past temperature but not the future climate. Thus, generating detailed information about past and future temperatures is very important to take proactive adaptation measures for reducing climate-associated damages in the agriculture sector in Ethiopia.

The aim of this paper is to examine the nexus between firm-specific attributes and a company’s decision to setup a separate risk management committee (RMC) as a sub-committee of the board within the context of an emerging economy, South Africa.

The authors analyse data extracted from audited annual financial reports of 181 non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) by using logistic regression technique.

The results show a strong positive relationship between the existence of a separate RMC and board independence, board size, firm size and industry type. However, the authors fail to find support for the hypotheses that independent board chairman, auditor reputation, reporting risk and financial leverage have an influence on a firm’s decision to establish RMC as a separately standing committee in the board structure. The findings signify the role of costs associated with information asymmetry, agency, upkeep of a standalone RMC, damage to the reputation of directors and industry-specific idiosyncrasies on a firm’s decision to form a separate RMC.

As in most empirical studies, this study focuses on listed firms. Nonetheless, future studies that focus on non-listed firms could add additional insights to the literature. Investigating the role of firm-specific governance attributes other than those considered in the present study (e.g. gender of directors, ownership structure, etc.) could further enhance the understanding of antecedents of risk-management practices.

The findings have practical implications for the investment community in assessing the quality of risk management practices of companies listed on the JSE. Furthermore, the results provide insights that are potentially useful to the King Committee and other corporate governance regulators in South Africa in their effort to improve corporate governance practices.

The present study focuses on firms drawn from an emerging economy which has profound economic, institutional, political and cultural differences compared to advanced economies, which have received a disproportionately higher share of attention in prior studies. Thus, the study contributes additional insights to the literature on corporate risk management from the perspective of an emerging economy.