This study aims to investigate the pattern and level of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of listed companies in the alternative capital market of Thailand, and (2) to test for the relationship between ESG performance and corporate financial risk. The population and sample data are comprised of all the listed companies in the alternative capital market in Thailand, namely, the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI). Content analysis by scoring is used to quantify ESG performance in annual reports during the period 2017–2021, while corporate financial risk is measured by the ratio of debt on equity. Descriptive analysis, correlation matrix, and multiple regression are used to analyze the data of this study. The average scores of ESG performance are 6.182 out of 11 scores. In addition, there is an increase of ESG performance in annual reports of the listed companies from 5.540 to 7.180 scores during the period being studied. Finally, the result finds a negative relationship between ESG performance and corporate financial risk. The signaling theory demonstrates an explanation proposing that the increase of ESG performance can reduce corporate financial risk. Therefore, top-management and shareholders should pay attention to ESG responsibility because it can decrease risk as well as enhance sustainable development.

This paper aimed to examine the influences of sustainability reporting and gender diversity on corporate outcomes of listed companies in ASEAN region. The listed companies in ASEAN region consisting of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines during 2010 to 2019 were used as population and sample of this study. Seven key performance indexes of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Carbon Knights, and Refinitiv were used to measure the extent and level of sustainability reporting, while the proportion of female board committee was used to measure gender diversity, and firm value measured by Tobin’s Q and firm performance measured by return on asset (ROA) were used as the proxies of corporate outcomes. The sequential logit regression models were developed to test the hypotheses used in this study. This study found positive impact of energy used, water management, work safety, and gender diversity on corporate performance, while corporate performance was influenced by carbon emission and waste management negatively. Moreover, gender diversity moderated the negative relationship between energy used, water management, work safety, and corporate performance. On the other hand, there was water management, and work safety influencing firm value positively, while waste management had negative impact on firm value. However, gender diversity did not moderate any relationship between sustainability reporting and firm value. The study findings benefit to top management who may encourage in sustainability reporting especially water management and work safety to enhance the corporate performance and value.

Purpose: The study aims to examine the relationship between key audit matters (KAMs) reporting and audit quality of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).Design/methodology/approach: Corporate annual reports from 2016 to 2019 were used as samples, with 100 companies and their 400 annual reports. The word count from KAMs paragraph in the audit report was used to assess KAMs reporting, while the Modified Jones Model was used to assess audit quality. In addition, external audit characteristics were used as variables in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, correlation matrix and panel multiple analysis.Findings: As the results, there was a positive significant relationship between KAMs reporting and audit quality. Moreover, the study found the impact of audit tenure, auditor firm size, audit independence, corporate size and corporate risk on audit quality.Research limitations/implications: The number of samples as well as the proxies of KAMs reporting and audit quality are listed as limitations of this study.Practical implications: Investors can use KAMs reporting as important information to their decision-making because KAMs information is associated with a high audit quality.Originality/value: The study demonstrates that communication theory can be used to describe the positive impact of the new audit reporting on audit quality in an emerging country like Thailand as well as in developed countries.

Triple Bottom Line Reporting in Annual Reports: A Case Study of Companies Listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)

This study investigated the extent and content of environmental information disclosure provided in the annual reports of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and tested whether there were any relationships between the amount of environmental disclosure and a number of company characteristics used in previous studies conducted in more developed countries. By using a simple sampling method, 75 listed companies were selected for inclusion in the study based on their 2007 annual reports. The findings indicate that 62 companies (83%) provided environmental information in their annual reports. Companies in the resources industry group made the most disclosure of environmental information, while the least disclosure was made by companies in the agricultural and food industries group. The most common location of environmental reporting in annual reports was under the topic of corporate governance. The most common themes of disclosures were environmental policy, environmental activities, and waste management. There was a positive relationship between the amount of environmental disclosures and size of company.