Purpose

There is a growing concern over the need for greater transparency of quality information by companies about modern slavery to contribute toward elimination of the practice. Hence, this paper aims to examine factors behind the quality of voluntary modern slavery disclosures and major sources of pressure on Australian company disclosures in a premodern slavery legislated environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis and cross- sectional regression modeling are conducted to analyze factors determining the quality of voluntary modern slavery disclosures of the top 100 firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and their implications for institutional pressures.

Findings

Results indicate that size, assurance by Big-4 firms and publication of stand-alone modern slavery statements are significant drivers of disclosure quality in the sample. Profitability, listing status and the degree of internationalization are found to be unrelated to the quality of voluntary modern slavery disclosures. Industry classification is significant but only partly supports the prediction, and further investigation is recommended.

Practical implications

This paper provides a foundation for regulators and companies toward improving the quality of their modern slavery risk disclosures with a particular focus on prior experience, assurance and size. In practice, contrary to suggestions in the literature, results indicate that monetary penalties are unlikely to be an effective means for improving the quality of modern slavery disclosure. Results of the study provide evidence of poor quality of disclosures and the need for improvement, prior to introduction of modern slavery legislation in Australia in 2018. It also confirms that regulation to improve transparency, through the required publication of a modern slavery statement, is significant but not enough on its own to increase disclosure quality.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research examining company level factors with an impact on voluntary modern slavery disclosure quality and the links to institutional pressures, prior to the introduction of the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018.

中文翻译：

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自愿现代奴隶制披露的质量：澳大利亚顶级上市公司

目的

人们越来越担心公司需要提高有关现代奴隶制的质量信息的透明度，以促进消除这种做法。因此，本文旨在探讨现代奴隶制自愿披露质量背后的因素以及在前现代奴隶制立法环境中澳大利亚公司披露压力的主要来源。

设计/方法/方法

进行内容分析和横截面回归模型以分析决定在澳大利亚证券交易所上市的前 100 家公司的自愿现代奴隶制披露质量的因素及其对制度压力的影响。

发现

结果表明，规模、四大公司的保证以及独立的现代奴隶制声明的发布是样本中披露质量的重要驱动因素。盈利能力、上市状态和国际化程度被发现与自愿披露现代奴隶制的质量无关。行业分类意义重大，但仅部分支持预测，建议进一步调查。

实际影响

本文为监管机构和公司提高现代奴隶制风险披露质量提供了基础，特别关注先前的经验、保证和规模。在实践中，与文献中的建议相反，结果表明，罚款不太可能成为提高现代奴役披露质量的有效手段。研究结果证明，在 2018 年澳大利亚引入现代奴隶制立法之前，披露质量差和需要改进。它还证实，通过要求发布现代奴隶制声明来提高透明度的监管意义重大但仅靠其本身不足以提高披露质量。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是在引入 2018 年英联邦现代奴隶制法案之前，第一项研究公司层面因素对自愿现代奴隶制披露质量的影响以及与制度压力的联系。