Firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) because they consider that some kind of competitive advantage accrues to them. We contend that resource-based perspectives (RBP) are useful to understand why firms engage in CSR activities and disclosure. From a resource-based perspective CSR is seen as providing internal or external benefits, or both. Investments in socially responsible activities may have internal benefits by helping a firm to develop new resources and capabilities which are related namely to know-how and corporate culture. In effect, investing in social responsibility activities and disclosure has important consequences on the creation or depletion of fundamental intangible resources, namely those associated with employees. The external benefits of CSR are related to its effect on corporate reputation. Corporate reputation can be understood as a fundamental intangible resource which can be created or depleted as a consequence of the decisions to engage or not in social responsibility activities and disclosure. Firms with good social responsibility reputation may improve relations with external actors. They may also attract better employees or increase current employees’ motivation, morale, commitment and loyalty to the firm. This article contributes to the understanding of why CSR may be seen as having strategic value for firms and how RBP can be used in such endeavour. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006capabilities, corporate reputation, corporate social responsibility, financial performance, resources, resource-based perspectives,

annual reports, internet, legitimacy theory, resource-based perspectives, social responsibility disclosure, Portugal,

Purpose -This paper seeks to identify factors that influence the voluntary disclosure of intangibles information in annual reports of Portuguese listed companies. Design/methodology/approach -An index of the voluntary disclosure of intangibles is constructed based on analysis of the Management Report and Chairman's Letter of all 56 companies listed on Euronext Lisbon at 31 December 2003. Several hypotheses about associations between that index and eight firm-specific variables are tested. Findings -The voluntary reporting of intangibles is found to be influenced significantly by size, ownership concentration, type of auditor, industry and listing status in univariate analysis; and by size, industry, type of auditor, and ownership concentration (and listing status to a lesser extent) in multivariate analyses.Research limitations/implications -This study focuses on annual reports only, and is cross-sectional. The use of content analysis and the subjective judgment involved in constructing the index cannot be view uncritically. The small sample size is inevitable because of the small Portuguese capital market. Practical implications -Accounting regulators will be better able to understand the factors that explain the voluntary disclosure of intangibles by firms and use this in developing future recommendations. Originality/value -The paper validates some previous research and also provides insights to the firm-specific factors that explain voluntary disclosure of intangibles by companies operating in the small share market of a European country in which capital market fund raising is not regarded to be an important source of financing.

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Purpose: This paper explores the factors that affected the voluntary risk-related disclosures in the individual annual reports for 2006 of Portuguese banks. We also explore the extent to which in those reports conformed to Basel II requirements in terms of the voluntary disclosure of operational risk and capital structure and adequacy matters.Design/methodology/approach: We conduct a content analysis of the annual reports of a sample of 111 banks. Voluntary operational risk and capital structure and adequacy disclosures were assessed using a list of disclosure categories that were developed from the Third Pillar disclosure requirements of the Basel II Accord. Originality/values: The voluntary risk-related disclosures observed are shown to be explained by legitimacy theory and resources-based perspectives. This theoretical framework has not been tested hitherto in explaining the motives for banks to make voluntary RRD.

Some theories, as agency theory or signalling theory raised the problem related with the information asymmetry between the shareholders and the managers. One way of reducing this asymmetry is to pressure the companies to disclose more risk-related information. In our research we try to determine the risk reporting practices among Portuguese non-financial companies. For this purpose a content analysis of 81 individual and consolidated annual reports, from the year 2005, of Portuguese companies listed on the Eurolist Lisbon stock exchange market, and on the un-regulated market and not listed companies was made. We concluded that managers, at the time of reporting information about risk, adopt strategies of "impression management" consistent with the attribution theory. We also conclude that almost all of the information disclosed was generic, qualitative and backward-looking, expressing a gap between the risk reporting practices and the usefulness of this kind of information.Therefore, this study is relevant for risk disclosure regulation.