The aim of this study is to examine whether the European Union (EU) Directive on Non‐Financial Information (NFI) would be capable of increasing corporate transparency and sustainable development. To this end, the study reports the findings of 17 interviews with preparers and auditors about the content and reporting methods of NFI, as specified by the Italian regulation. The study finds that preparers and auditors favour many of the requirements introduced by the Italian legislature. In particular, the board's responsibility for NFI, the flexibility in the content and in the reporting method, and the audit of non‐financial statements are regarded as a fruitful approach to disciplining NFI. The study contributions are twofold. First, it extends the so far scant literature on the role of EU policy as a change agent for sustainable development. Second, the study identifies some features of the Italian regulation that may be regarded as fruitful ways to regulate NFI.

An experimental investigation has been performed to measure average and local mass transfer coefficients on the tip of a gas turbine blade using the naphthalene sublimation technique. The heat/mass transfer analogy can be applied to obtain heat transfer coefficients from the measured mass transfer data. Flow visualization on the tip surface is provided using an oil dot technique. Two different tip geometries are considered: a squealer tip and a winglet-squealer tip having a winglet on the pressure side and a squealer on the suction side of the blade. Measurements have been taken at tip clearance levels ranging from 0.6 to 3.6% of actual chord. The exit Reynolds number based on actual chord is approximately 7.2×105 for all measurements. Flow visualization shows impingement and recirculation regions on the blade tip surface, providing an interpretation of the mass transfer distributions and offering insight into the fluid dynamics within the gap. For both tip geometries the tip clearance level has a significant effect on the mass transfer distribution. The squealer tip has a higher average mass transfer that sensibly decreases with gap level, whereas a more limited variation with gap level is observed for the average mass transfer from the winglet-squealer tip.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the interaction between mandatory and voluntary risk disclosure is a complementary or substitutive consequence of different risk regulatory regimes. The paper is a cross analysis comparing Germany, the US, Italy, France and the UK during the period 2007-2010. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis is used to examine mandatory and voluntary risk information in corporate annual reports. A framework for the identification and measurement of risk information is developed by considering national and supranational regulations. Findings: A complementary effect between mandatory and voluntary risk disclosure exists in each risk regulation jurisdiction. This effect does not depend on the presence of national risk rules (Germany and the US) as against national risk guidelines (France and the UK). Some cross-country differences emerge in the extent of the complementary effect, which are based on the national risk regulations. Germany shows the highest degree of complementing mandatory with voluntary risk disclosures. Research limitations/implications: The main limitations relate to the sample size, which is based on the choice of a matched approach and to some country-specific influences on regulatory regimes, which are not analysed. The practical implications refer to the revision or addition of mandated rules by accounting standard setters. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it proposes an incremental analysis of corporate risk disclosure by examining the interaction between mandatory and voluntary risk disclosure with a complementary or substitutive consequence in different risk regulatory settings not previously investigated. Second, the paper makes a method-based contribution by developing an original analytical framework based on the analysis of different regulatory regimes

Purpose To determine whether to entrust the European Union (EU) to create a new nonfinancial reporting framework or endorse the extant reporting framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), this study aims to explore whether the mandatory implementation of the EU Directive positively impacted the GRI-based environmental disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The authors compared the pre- and post-EU Directive environmental disclosure of 16 Italian environmentally sensitive companies. The authors used an extended coding scheme and developed a unique scoring system to compare the quantitative and qualitative changes in environmental disclosure. Findings The analysis showed that the quantity of environmental disclosure increased after the mandatory EU Directive adoption. The most significant change was observed regarding the disclosure topics explicitly required by the Italian legislature. Additionally, disclosure of soft information continued to prevail over that of hard information in the post-Directive period. While the Directive boosted the level of adherence to GRI standards, Italian companies disclosed information that could be easily mimicked (soft) instead of objective measures that could be verified (hard). In light of this evidence, the endorsement of extant GRI standards could be a valuable option for enhancing the comparability and transparency of environmental disclosure. Originality/value This study used an original extended coding system and proposed related environmental disclosure indexes that allow monitoring changes in environmental disclosure over time. To the authors’ best knowledge, this study is one of the few that justifies the significant impact of regulation (here the EU Directive) on the increase in environmental disclosure and that uses hard and soft information typology to examine the quality of environmental disclosure.

Mass transfer measurements on the endwall and blade suction surfaces are performed in a five-blade linear cascade with a high-performance rotor blade profile. The effects of purge flow from the wheelspace cavity entering the hot gas path are simulated by injecting naphthalene-free and naphthalene-saturated air through a slot upstream of the blade row at 45 deg to the endwall, for a Reynolds number of 6×105 based on blade true chord and cascade exit velocity, and blowing ratios of 0.5, 1, and 1.5. Oil-dot visualization indicates that with injection, a recirculation region is set up upstream of the leading edge, and the growth of the passage vortex is altered. The coolant exiting from the slot is drawn to the suction side of the blade and is pushed up along the suction surface of the blade by the secondary flow. For blowing ratios of 0.5 and 1.0, only a little coolant reaches the pressure side in the aft part of the passage. However, at a blowing ratio of 1.5, there is a dramatic change in the flow structure. Both the oil-dot visualization and the cooling effectiveness maps indicate that at this blowing ratio, the coolant exiting the slot has sufficient momentum to closely follow the blade profile and is not significantly entrained into the passage vortex. As a result, high cooling effectiveness values are obtained at the pressure side of the endwall, well into the midchord and aft portions of the blade passage.