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- Research Summary
Voluntary Disclosure
Professor Kimbrough's early work focused on the determinants and economic consequences of firms’ disclosure practices related to earnings. This included examinations of management forecasts and earnings-related conference calls. View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Disclosure Standards and Communication Norms: Evidence of Voluntary Sustainability Standards as a Coordinating Device for Capital Markets
By: Khrystyna Bochkay, Jeffrey Hales and George Serafeim
In this paper, we examine how the development of voluntary sustainability standards has affected the nature of information covered in conference calls. Using industry-specific dictionaries of sustainability terms contained in the disclosure standards developed by the... View Details
Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainability Standards; ESG; ESG Disclosure; Accounting; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards; United States
Bochkay, Khrystyna, Jeffrey Hales, and George Serafeim. "Disclosure Standards and Communication Norms: Evidence of Voluntary Sustainability Standards as a Coordinating Device for Capital Markets." Review of Accounting Studies (forthcoming). (Pre-published online March 17, 2025.)
- 22 Jul 2015
- News
The behavioural economics of voluntary disclosure
- April–May 2019
- Article
Disclosure Incentives When Competing Firms Have Common Ownership
By: Jihwon Park, Jalal Sani, Nemit Shroff and Hal D. White
This paper examines whether common ownership – i.e., instances where investors simultaneously own significant stakes in competing firms – affects voluntary disclosure. We argue that common ownership (i) reduces proprietary cost concerns of disclosure, and (ii)... View Details
Park, Jihwon, Jalal Sani, Nemit Shroff, and Hal D. White. "Disclosure Incentives When Competing Firms Have Common Ownership." Journal of Accounting & Economics 67, nos. 2-3 (April–May 2019): 387–415.
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Evolution of ESG Reports and the Role of Voluntary Standards
By: Ethan Rouen, Kunal Sachdeva and Aaron Yoon
We examine the evolution of ESG reports of S&P 500 firms from 2010 to 2021. The
percentage of firms releasing these voluntary disclosures increased from 35% to 86%
during this period, although the length of these documents experienced more modest
growth. Using a... View Details
Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Textual Analysis; Modeling And Analysis; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; AI and Machine Learning; Accounting
Rouen, Ethan, Kunal Sachdeva, and Aaron Yoon. "The Evolution of ESG Reports and the Role of Voluntary Standards." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-024, October 2022.
- October 2021
- Article
Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
This paper examines whether—in the absence of mandated disclosure requirements—shareholder activism can elicit greater disclosure of firms’ exposure to climate change risks. We find that environmental shareholder activism increases the voluntary disclosure of climate... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Reporting; Shareholder Engagement; Shareholder Activism; Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Environmental Management; Investment Activism; Corporate Disclosure; Communication Strategy; Information Publishing; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; United States
Flammer, Caroline, Michael W. Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan. "Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks." Strategic Management Journal 42, no. 10 (October 2021): 1850–1879. (Featured in Harvard Business Review.)
- Article
Complementarity between Audited Financial Reporting and Voluntary Disclosure: The Case of Former Andersen Clients
By: Richard Frankel, Alon Kalay, Gil Sadka and Yuan Zou
Prior literature presents various perspectives on the role of financial reporting. One view is that mandatory periodic reporting disciplines managers and encourages timely voluntary disclosure. We examine this "confirmation hypothesis" using the shock to financial... View Details
Keywords: Financial Disclosure; Mandatory Reporting; Reliability; Voluntary Disclosure; Financial Reporting; Quality; Corporate Disclosure
Frankel, Richard, Alon Kalay, Gil Sadka, and Yuan Zou. "Complementarity between Audited Financial Reporting and Voluntary Disclosure: The Case of Former Andersen Clients." Accounting Review 96, no. 6 (November 2021): 215–238.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Shareholder Activism and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
This paper examines whether—in the absence of mandated disclosure requirements—shareholder activism can elicit greater disclosure of firms’ exposure to climate change risks. We find that environmental shareholder activism increases the voluntary disclosure of climate... View Details
Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Climate Risk; Corporate Accountability; Climate Change; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry; United States
Flammer, Caroline, Michael W. Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan. "Shareholder Activism and Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-049, October 2019. (Revised March 2021.)
- 13 Nov 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Shareholder Activism and Firms’ Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Risks
- March 2020
- Article
Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments
By: Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim
Concerns about high rates of government corruption in resource-rich countries have led transparency advocates to urge oil and gas firms to disclose payments to host governments for natural resources. Transparency, they argue, can increase government accountability and... View Details
Keywords: Oil ＆ Gas; Corruption; Transparency; Self-regulation; Industry Self-regulation; Regulation; Disclosure; Disclosure Regulation; Energy Sources; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Energy Industry
Healy, Paul M., and George Serafeim. "Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments." Accounting Horizons 34, no. 1 (March 2020): 111–129.
- September 2015
- Article
Speaking of the Short-Term: Disclosure Horizon and Managerial Myopia
By: Francois Brochet, Maria Loumioti and George Serafeim
We study conference calls as a voluntary disclosure channel and create a proxy for the time horizon that senior executives emphasize in their communications. We find that our measure of disclosure time horizon is associated with capital market pressures and executives'... View Details
Keywords: Short-termism; Management Styles; Disclosure; Conference Calls; Investing; Earnings Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Style; Forms of Communication
Brochet, Francois, Maria Loumioti, and George Serafeim. "Speaking of the Short-Term: Disclosure Horizon and Managerial Myopia." Review of Accounting Studies 20, no. 3 (September 2015): 1122–1163.
- 04 Jun 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Is Voluntary Disclosure a Signal of Effective Self-Policing?
Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short
- June 2025
- Article
Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap
By: June Huang and Shirley Lu
We study whether voluntary gender diversity disclosure is predictive of gender diversity performance. Exploiting a mandate in the United Kingdom that requires firms to disclose 2017 gender pay gap ("GPG") data for the first time, we find that providing voluntary gender... View Details
Huang, June, and Shirley Lu. "Gender Diversity Performance and Voluntary Disclosure: Mind the (Gender Pay) Gap." Accounting, Organizations and Society 114 (June 2025).
- Article
Strategic Disclosure: The Case of Business School Rankings
By: Michael Luca and Jonathan Smith
We empirically analyze disclosure decisions made by 240 MBA programs about which rankings to display on their websites. We present three main findings. First, consistent with theories of countersignaling, top schools are least likely to disclose their rankings, whereas... View Details
Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Shrouded Attributes; Information Unraveling; Rankings; Higher Education; Corporate Disclosure; Rank and Position
Luca, Michael, and Jonathan Smith. "Strategic Disclosure: The Case of Business School Rankings." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 112 (April 2015): 17–25.
- Person Page
Disclosure of potential conflict of interests
By: William R. Kerr
This is a voluntary disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. This is recommended but not currently required of faculty members at Harvard Business School.
During the past three years, I have worked with the following organizations in advisory, board of... View Details
- July 2021
- Article
Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness
By: Jody Grewal, Clarissa Hauptmann and George Serafeim
As part of the SEC’s revision of Regulation S-K, many investors proposed the mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in the form of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. However, progress is contingent on collecting evidence regarding which... View Details
Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Accounting Standards; Sustainability; Nonfinancial Information; Corporate Social Responsibility; Stock Price Informativeness; Synchronicity; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Accountability; Stocks; Price; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Accounting; Standards
Grewal, Jody, Clarissa Hauptmann, and George Serafeim. "Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness." Journal of Business Ethics 171, no. 3 (July 2021): 513–544.
- July 2016
- Article
The Capital Market Consequences of Language Barriers in the Conference Calls of Non-U.S. Firms
By: Francois Brochet, Patricia L. Naranjo and Gwen Yu
We examine how language barriers affect the capital market reaction to information disclosures. Using transcripts from the English-language conference calls of non-U.S. firms, we find that the calls of firms in countries with greater language barriers are more likely... View Details
Keywords: Voluntary Disclosure; Capital Market Consequences; Non-plain English; Spoken Communication; Complexity; Capital Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues
Brochet, Francois, Patricia L. Naranjo, and Gwen Yu. "The Capital Market Consequences of Language Barriers in the Conference Calls of Non-U.S. Firms." Accounting Review 91, no. 4 (July 2016): 1023–1049.
- August 2011
- Article
Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Does Voluntary Self-Reporting Indicate Effective Self-Policing
By: Michael W. Toffel and Jodi L. Short
Regulatory agencies are increasingly establishing voluntary self-reporting programs both as an investigative tool and to encourage regulated firms to commit to policing themselves. We investigate whether voluntary self-reporting can reliably indicate effective... View Details
Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Programs; Governance Compliance; Corporate Disclosure; Law Enforcement
Toffel, Michael W., and Jodi L. Short. "Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Does Voluntary Self-Reporting Indicate Effective Self-Policing." Journal of Law & Economics 54, no. 3 (August 2011): 609–649.
- 21 Mar 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Voluntary, Self-Regulatory, and Mandatory Disclosure of Oil and Gas Company Payments to Foreign Governments
- 2008
- Working Paper
Consequences of Voluntary and Mandatory Fair Value Accounting: Evidence Surrounding IFRS Adoption in the EU Real Estate Industry
By: Karl A Muller III, Edward J. Riedl and Thorsten Sellhorn
We examine the causes and consequences of European real estate firms' decisions to provide investment property fair values prior to the required disclosure of this information under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find evidence that investor... View Details
Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Corporate Disclosure; Standards; Real Estate Industry; European Union
Muller, Karl A., III, Edward J. Riedl, and Thorsten Sellhorn. "Consequences of Voluntary and Mandatory Fair Value Accounting: Evidence Surrounding IFRS Adoption in the EU Real Estate Industry." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-033, September 2008.