The effect of integrated reporting, culture and board gender diversity on European firms’ value relevance

Abstract

This study researches the effect of integrated reporting (IR), long- versus short-term cultural orientation and board gender diversity on the value relevance of European firms. In addition, the moderation effects of a long- versus short-term cultural orientation and board gender diversity on the relation between IR and value relevance are tested. For this study, a panel data set including 782 European firms with 5471 observations over the time period 2011-2017 is used. The findings indicate that IR, a long-term cultural orientation and a high level of board gender diversity have a positive effect on value relevance. Furthermore, a long-term cultural orientation and a high level of board gender diversity both have a complementary effect on the relation between IR and value relevance. However, due to the presence of autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity these findings should be interpreted with caution.