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As carbon regulation evolves and becomes specialized in addressing carbon reduction issues, stakeholders will demand that firms provide increased information regarding corporate climate change practices. This paper contributes to the international research that examines the relationship between environmental information disclosures and additional firm factors. To do so, we have conducted an empirical analysis of the relationship between the corporate climate change disclosure practices of firms listed in the Athens Stock Exchange and firm factors, such as size, profitability, leverage and activity sector. Our results indicate there is a significant positive relationship between size and increased corporate disclosures regarding climate change practices. However, no significant relationship is detected between profitability or leverage and corporate climate change disclosures.The need to reach Kyoto targets gave rise to the adoption of national and international climate change mitigation policies. These include putting a price on carbon emissions in the form of carbon taxes, mandatory process and product standards or by establishing carbon trading programs (Bebbington and Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2008). As a result, GHG-intensive activity sectors will face direct regulation risks in the form of increased costs, related to their obligation, for example, to have GHG emission allowances matching the amount of their emissions. On the other hand, non-intensive business sectors will most likely face the indirect effects of climate regulation through increased energy prices, which could affect their production costs.These increased risks that companies face have caught the attention of various stakeholders, such as institutional investors, banks, accounting firms, governmental agencies, NGOs and consumers, who have been demanding information disclosure regarding the corporate climate change practices of firms. On the financial front there is evidence that institutional investors view climate change as a major source of risk (Solomon et al., 2011). Consequently, they have begun to pay more attention to the corporate climate change practices of firms and to demand information regarding corporate climate change mitigation policies. The reason why institutional investors insist on companies disclosing information, especially those belonging to GHG-intensive sectors, is that inadequate disclosure of climate change related risks could reduce an investor's ability to estimate a firm's performance and future cash flows (Venugopal et al., 2009). Indeed, scientific research on credit risk management has shown that by incorporating sustainability criteria in financial assessment of projects, for example, banks can not only lower the chances of having to deal with credit default cases but have also more chances of gaining an advantage against their competitors by improving their credit risk management assessment procedures (Weber et al., 2008(Weber et al., , 2010.This paper contributes to the discussion of enhancing climate change corpor...

Purpose This study aims to examine the various climate change practices adopted by firms and develop a set of corporate indexes that measure the level of climate change corporate commitment, climate change risk management integration and climate change strategies adoption. Moreover, this study examines the relationship between the aforementioned indexes. The authors claim that there is a positive relationship between the adoption of climate change strategies, corporate commitment and risk management integration. The aforementioned indexes have been used to assess the largest companies in the oil and gas sectors. Design/methodology/approach To assess this study’s sample companies, a content analysis of their carbon disclosure project (CDP) reports for the years 2012-2015 was conducted. Finally, weights were assigned to the content analysis data based on the results of a survey regarding the difficulty of implementing each climate change practice included in the respective index. The survey sample included climate change experts who are either currently employed in companies that are included in the Financial Times Global 500 (FT 500) list, or work as external partners with these companies. Findings The present study results highlight the need for developing elaborate corporate indexes, as the various climate change practices have different degrees of difficulty regarding their implementation. Additionally, a general trend in adopting climate change strategies is observed, especially in the field of carbon reduction strategies, which mainly involve the implementation of low carbon technologies. Finally, a positive and significant relationship was found between carbon reduction targets, risk management integration and climate change strategies. Practical implications Although international research has extensively examined the importance of managers’ perceptions on environmental issues as an enabling factor in developing environmental strategies, according to the results of our survey, corporations must go beyond top management commitment towards climate change to be able to successfully implement climate change strategies. Incorporation of climate change risk management procedures into a company’s core business activities as well as the establishment of precise carbon reduction targets can provide the basis on which successful climate change strategies are implemented. Originality/value Most studies address the issue of climate change management in terms of environmental or sustainability management. Furthermore, research on climate change and its relationship with business management is mainly theoretical, and climate change corporate performance is measured with aggregate indexes. This study focuses on climate change which is examined from a five-dimensional perspective: top management commitment, carbon reduction targets, risk management integration, carbon reduction and carbon compensation strategies. This allows us to conduct an in-depth analysis of the various climate change practices of firms.

A novel approach on the portfolio selection theory is given with regard to advanced utility performance that incorporates more accurate investor patterns up to the fifth moment. Bankruptcy detection, a priori, on an investment portfolio of stocks is a significant process that can eliminate potential losses. Even in case of corporate fraud, efficient funds can maximize their net present value by reforming the assets. Multi‐layer perceptron neural networks are compared with hybrids of neuro‐genetic multi‐layer perceptrons and the voted‐perceptron algorithm to define the most efficient classification method into the perceptrons family, implementing extensive network topologies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many companies have implemented extensive risk management procedures. Additionally, internal audit has increasingly attracted the attention of managers as it constitutes the core of modern corporate governance. However, regarding Greek companies, there is a lack of empirical research on factors that affect risk management. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper is to analyze specific factors associated with effective risk management. Primary data were collected using questionnaires distributed to employees in companies that are listed on the Athens Exchange. Multiple regression analysis was conducted in order to examine the relationship between effective risk management, risk based internal audit, internal auditors’ involvement in risk management and top management support. Our findings demonstrate that the above factors contribute positively to effective risk management.