Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of voluntary adoption of integrated reporting on the stock prices of firms in Japan. Design/methodology/approach The event study methodology was used to analyze the stock market reactions to voluntary integrated report (IR) publication. Abnormal returns were estimated for 1,602 observations of 490 firms publishing IRs in Japan using the market model. The t-test, the Boehmer et al., 1991 test and the generalized sign test examined the significance of the cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs). Findings The study reveals that the stock market reacts positively to voluntary IR publication by firms, especially in 2019 and 2015. Additionally, it reveals a tendency for higher CAARs around IR publication dates than around corporate social responsibility report publication dates, especially in 2016 and 2015. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this study include the possibility of self-selection bias and omitted variable bias. Practical implications This study suggests that firms can earn higher abnormal returns in the stock market through environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure in IRs, corroborating the recently rising investor interest in voluntary integrated reporting in Japan. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the value relevance of voluntary adoption of integrated reporting by providing evidence of firms achieving significantly positive abnormal returns around voluntary IR publication dates. There is no published analysis on this topic using multitudes of sample firms using the event study methodology.

This article examines the roles of policy brokers in different settings of collaboration in Khon Kaen and Bueng Kan Cities in Thailand. It integrates the advocacy coalition and multiple stream frameworks to view how a policy broker in different collaborative settings would manage their preferred urban transport initiatives by conducting qualitative research methodology based on an embedded multiple case study approach. The results showed Khon Kaen City revealed a horizontal setting of local collaboration where the Khon Kaen Think Tank and Khon Kaen Transit System were key policy brokers that strategized light rail transit initiatives. These policy brokers were proficient in negotiating, financing, and locally‐allied strategies. Bueng Kan City displayed a vertical collaboration where the Deputy Minister of Interior of Thailand was a crucial policy broker who held potential administrative and political powers to manage the desired policies. This study showed that several joint actors, as backing resources to policy brokers, were essential to horizontal collaboration, but they were less critical than the resources of the policy brokers in vertical collaboration.

Internationally and domestically, depopulation and the decrease of student enrollment caused are becoming an issue of interest in higher education, especially in regions such as east Europe, south Europe, and East Asia. This article analyzes strategies of Japanese universities to tackle depopulation issues in Japan. The 18-year-old bracket population has been halved for the last quarter century, and steep depopulation currently occurs in Japan. Such demographic changes strongly affect the Japanese higher education system. Through document and secondary data analysis, five major strategies were identified: subject diversification; merger (vertical and/or horizontal integration); campus relocation; take-over by local authorities; and closure. From these findings, a framework to describe the strategic decision-making of Japanese universities that consisted of environmentally determined exogenous factors, endogenous factors of university, and strategic options in managing the contraction of student enrollment was proposed. Finally implications on each strategy were discussed both in domestic and international contexts.