This paper investigates the impact of a firm's annual report readability and ambiguous tone on its borrowing costs. We find that firms with larger 10-K file sizes and a higher proportion of uncertain and weak modal words in 10-Ks have stricter loan contract terms and greater future stock price crash risk. Our results suggest that the readability and tone ambiguity of a firm's financial disclosures are related to managerial information hoarding. Shareholders of firms with less readable and more ambiguous annual reports not only suffer from less transparent information disclosure but also bear the increased cost of external financing.
is a compact and 'land-hungry' city where recycling has become an important measure for treating waste and reducing the demand on the limited landfills. The objectives of this paper are to extend the model of recycling attitude and behaviour to explain the relationship between perceived policy effectiveness and recycling behaviour. Previous studies on recycling attitude and behaviour had widely adopted the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Norm Activation Model (NAM), and drawn policy implications from them.Nevertheless, little research has been conducted to investigate the role of perceived effectiveness of policy measures in predicting recycling behaviour. To address this, a model that integrates the TPB and NAM was proposed in this study, and a street survey was conducted to investigate the case. The results illustrate that recycling intention is influenced by subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, moral norms, and awareness of consequences, as well as a newly proposed construct, namely perceived policy effectiveness.The study proved self-reported recycling behaviour (direct behaviour) and support for policy measures (indirect behaviour) are influenced by recycling intention. All in all the Government should provide more recycling bins, guidelines on recycling activities, and should accent what it has been doing to facilitate and encourage recycling.
Prior studies have identified key factors that influence recycling intention. However, these studies rarely pay attention to the interaction of attitude and subjective norm that influences recycling intention. This study applied a conceptual model by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for addressing the gap. The study collected 246 responses through a street survey in Hong Kong. Findings revealed that two interaction terms (i.e., experiential attitude and subjective norm; instrumental attitude and subjective norm) influenced recycling intention. It implies that subjective norm plays a crucial role in motivating recycling behaviors. Moreover, subjective norm could increase the likelihood of recycling for people exhibiting positive experiential attitude, and motivate people who possesses limited knowledge on recycling benefits of practicing recycling behaviors. Policy implications were drawn from the findings. Limitations of the study and future research direction were also discussed.
Purpose -This study investigates the recycling attitudes and behaviour of university students and staff members, and suggests ways to improve environmental policies and recycling facilities in a university campus. Design/methodology/approach -This study applies the theory of planned behaviour, through which it develops an instrument to measure the determinants of recycling behaviour among the people in a university campus. A survey was designed and administered at a public university in Hong Kong; 205 valid responses from 179 students and 26 staff members were collected. A partial least squares approach was used to validate the proposed model. This model accounted for the 42.1 per cent and 50.3 per cent variance (R 2 ) in behavioural intention and behaviour, respectively, vis-à -vis recycling activities. Findings -The survey results suggested that behavioural intention with regard to recycling is influenced by attitude, the subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, awareness of consequences, the moral norms, and convenience. Educational and promotional programmes highlighting the benefits and importance of recycling activities and convenience of the recycling facilities can be adopted as the key strategies to encourage recycling on campus.Research limitations/implications -The unique culture in relation to recycling in the specific campus environment and the nature of the sample might limit the generalisability of the results to other areas and contexts. The self-report-based measures adopted in this study might lead to a social desirability bias in the results provided by the respondents. Originality/value -The findings provide insightful information for universities and the wider community to shape a more user-friendly and convenient recycling scheme. This can fulfil the actors' social responsibility.
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