Title: Multi-theoretical perspectives for corporate risk disclosure: a literature review

Authors: Erastus Mbithi; David Wang'ombe; Tankiso Moloi

Addresses: Strathmore University, P.O. Box 59857, Nairobi, Kenya ' Strathmore University, P.O. Box 59857, Nairobi, Kenya ' University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, South Africa

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to review and discuss theoretical approaches commonly used to study corporate risk disclosure (CRD) behaviour. The review presents areas of convergence and divergence in understanding CRD so as to build a case for an integrated theoretical perspective. The multi-theoretical approach will provide wide conceptual lens to understand, explain CRD behaviour, and identify ways in which CRD can attain high quality. The paper reviewed 52 articles from accounting and non-accounting journals published between 1990–2019. The journals reviewed were identified according to the UK's Association of Business Schools (ABS) journal quality ranking guide. The paper responds to literature calling for CRD quality to improve among policymakers, regulators, and academicians. The paper argues that any attempts to enhance CRD quality should start by establishing an integrated framework that will help in understanding the phenomena in several perspectives in order reconcile inconsistent results of prior studies.

Keywords: agency theory; resource dependency theory; signalling theory; stakeholder theory; legitimacy theory; institutional theory; multi-theoretical perspective.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCA.2020.105064

International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2020 Vol.11 No.2, pp.125 - 143

Received: 01 Mar 2019
Accepted: 18 May 2019
Published online: 11 Feb 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article