Sustainability Reporting Ecosystem: A Once-in-a-Lifetime Overhaul during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The preparation of sustainability reports, which a negligible number of organisations had been doing until recently, will soon be the new reality for many more organisations. This research aims to present changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the ecosystem of sustainability reporting pronouncements, especially those used by organisations. In our research, we compare important information about two different periods and the content demands in reporting on sustainability. Changes in the ecosystem are fundamental and unique. Based on the analysis of events and documents, the current research shows the changes in the ecosystem and the future dynamics in the ecosystem, including the principle standard setters (i.e., International Sustainability Standards Board and European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, EFRAG). The research shows that although the changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, they did not significantly impact the ecosystem's development or slow down or stop their development. The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the speed or dynamics of changes. In the last few years, EFRAG and the European Union established their position and gained a significant influence in sustainability reporting, with EFRAG at the forefront. The European Sustainability Reporting Standards will be mandatory for organisations doing business in the European Union. At the same time, we do not expect that the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards will be directly endorsed for use in the European Union. The paper presents a new perspective on examining sustainability via developing organisations' reporting demands within the framework of the uncertain environment caused by COVID-19. In this context, our research also contributes to the literature. The study also has a potential practical impact on organisations and management since it illuminates a wide range of selected sustainability viewpoints and their reporting.

Análisis de los criterios de revelación financiera por efectos de la pandemia por COVID-19 de empresas cotizadas chilenas y peruanas

Esta pesquisa qualitativa permitiu analisar e descrever a natureza das revelações em notas aos estados financeiros anuais de 2019 e intermédios de 2020, em firmas chilenas e peruanas listadas no contexto de pandemia por COVID-19, sob o marco da teria institucional. Os resultados do estudo confirmam que o nível de revelação sobre o impacto da COVID-19 não cumpre com todos os critérios da normativa e recomendações apesar da influência institucional de entes reguladores e firmas de auditoria. Mesmo que algumas empresas revelam informação sobre efeitos financeiros, um grande grupo não tem sido capaz de quantificá-los e tem acabado afetando o cumprimento do objetivo da informação financeira segundo NIIF de utilidade para a toma de decisões. Isto tem levado a encontrar uma influência institucional mimética ou normativa do efetivo cumprimento das NIIF ou recomendações de firmas de auditoria.Alternate abstract:Cette recherche qualitative nous a permis d∂analyser et de décrire la nature des divulgations dans les annotations des états financiers annuels 2019 et intermédiaires 2020 des sociétés cotées chiliennes et péruviennes, dans le contexte de la pandémie de COVID-19, encadrées dans la théorie institutionnelle. Les résultats de l∂étude confirment que le niveau de divulgation de l∂impact de COVID-19 ne répond pas à tous les critères des réglementations et recommandations, malgré l∂influence institutionnelle des régulateurs et des cabinets d∂audit. Si certaines entreprises publient des informations sur les effets financiers, un grand nombre d∂entre elles n∂ont pas été en mesure de les quantifier et ont fini par nuire à la concrétisation de l∂objectif d∂une information financière IFRS utile à la prise de décision. Cela a conduit à trouver une influence institutionnelle ou réglementaire mimétique de la conformité effective aux IFRS ou aux recommandations des cabinets d∂audit.Alternate abstract:Esta investigación cualitativa permitió analizar y describir la naturaleza de las revelaciones en notas a los estados financieros anuales del 2019 e intermedios del 2020, en empresas chilenas y peruanas cotizadas en el contexto de pandemia por COVID-19, bajo el marco de la teoría institucional. Los resultados del estudio confirman que el nivel de revelación sobre el impacto de la COVID-19 no cumple con todos los criterios de la normativa y recomendaciones a pesar de la influencia institucional de entes reguladores y firmas de auditoría. Si bien, algunas empresas revelan información sobre efectos financieros, un gran grupo no ha sido capaz de cuantificarlos y ha terminado afectando el cumplimiento del objetivo de la información financiera según NIIF de utilidad para la toma de decisiones. Esto ha llevado a encontrar una influencia institucional mimética o normativa de efectivo cumplimiento de las NIIF o recomendaciones de firmas de auditoría.Alternate abstract:Under the framework of institutional theory, this qualitative research analyzes and describes the disclosure nature in the notes to the 2019 annual and 2020 interim financial statements of Chilean and Peruvian listed companies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the institutional influence of regulators and audit firms, the findings confirm that the level of disclosure on the impact of COVID-19 does not meet all the regulation and recommendation criteria. Although some companies disclose information on financial effects, a large number of them have been unable to quantify them, affecting compliance with the objective of IFRS financial information, useful for decision making. This has allowed to identify a mimetic or normative institutional influence of effective compliance with IFRS or audit firms' recommendations.

Investigation into the International Financial Reporting Standards 9 model flaws exposed during the pandemic

Orientation: Market events during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposed flaws in the econometric models used to derive International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 impairments. Models were unable to capture the level of government intervention or predict the economic recovery process because of the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. Research purpose: This study examines the causes of the challenges experienced with the IFRS 9 models during the pandemic and approaches to minimise this risk in the future. Motivation for the study: Structural correlation breaks forced banks to replace the IFRS 9 models with expert overlays or rapidly rebuild the models to reduce impairment volatility and manage the impact on earnings. Expert judgement may lead to biased outcomes. Research approach/design and method: Behavioural finance theory suggests that emotion and cognitive biases often lead to irrational investment decisions with disastrous consequences to the market. The link between market sentiment and economic outcomes is tested with natural language processing. Archimedean copulas are used to compare the dependence structures of market variables between different stress periods. Main findings: Market sentiment is closely related to the trends observed in major macroeconomic indicators. The nature of the dependence structures differs between stress periods. Practical/managerial implications: Sentiment may be a valuable exogenous variable to incorporate into economic forecast models. Learnings from one stress period are not necessarily applicable to another. Contribution/value-add: Government intervention and market sentiment had a significant impact on the economic outcomes and correlation breaks observed during the pandemic. Developing bespoke models for the different phases of the economic cycle may not necessarily lead to improved outcomes.

Global assessment of the COVID-19 impact on IFRS 9 loan loss provisions

PurposeThis article aims to analyze the impact of COVID-19 measures by governments and central banks on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 loan loss provisions (LLPs). Changes in the total amount of LLPs, distribution of outstanding loan balance among IFRS 9 stages and credit risk parameters used for calculation are investigated for each world region where banks report under IFRS.Design/methodology/approachData for a global selection of 105 banks reporting under IFRS were collected from 2019 to 2020 annual reports, financial statements, and Pillar III reports. These data provide the basis to empirically analyze the impact of COVID-19 on LLPs.FindingsIn most world regions Stage 2 balances increase while Stage 3 balances remain comparatively stable. The credit risk parameters used for computing LLPs remained stable in 2020. However, in China, the impact of COVID-19 on banks was not detected. Mean Stage 1 balances for Chinese banks increased slightly during the pandemic. Aside from the COVID-19 impact, we find that LLPs, credit risk parameters, and loss absorption capacities are significantly lower for banks in Canada, Oceania and Western Europe compared to those in the rest of the world.Originality/valueThere exists previous research examining the COVID-19 impact on financial stability, implementation of emergency rules and country-wide analyses to anticipate default rates depending on recovery scenarios. However, this is the first global study on the immediate impact of COVID-19 on LLPs. It reveals the significant differences between world regions and provides implications about their resilience against future credit shocks.

“The moderating role of IFRS in the relationship between risk management and financial disclosure in Jordanian banks”

This study investigated the impact of IFRS on the relationship between risk management and financial disclosure in Jordanian banks in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study data were collected from Jordanian banks’ financial reports with the help of panel data to measure IFRS and risk management. The study depended on daily data, at a rate of (256) trading days from March 3, 2020 until April 29, 2021. Also, the study used questionnaires to measure financial disclosure in addition to interviews with eight Jordanian bank managers. Multiple regression was used to test hypotheses. The study found a positive statistically significant relationship between risk management and financial disclosure. The relationship was portrayed by a coefficient of 0.315. The result also showed the moderating role of IFRS in such a relationship, the effect reached 0.696. The conclusions have implications for both theory and practice. In fact, the findings elucidated the connection between risk management, IFRS, and financial disclosure. Finally, Jordanian banks should focus on IFRS and risk management, enhanced management, and employee skills as recommendations in this study. Thus, Jordanian banks pay particular attention to IFRS and risk management in order to achieve profitability through financial disclosure. © The author(s) 2022.

Enforcing Double Materiality in Global Sustainability Reporting for Developing Economies: Reflection on Ghana’s Oil Exploration and Mining Sectors

While the development of globally accepted sustainability reporting standards initiated by the IFRS Foundation has largely engaged stakeholders in developed economies, the stakes for developing economies could be compromised without an explicit consideration of their sustainability issues within this standard-setting framework. This paper examines the need to develop global sustainability reporting standards based on the principle of double materiality to warrant that both the target towards carbon net-zero by 2050 under the Paris Agreement and the subsequent promise to accelerate under COP26 are achieved with efficacy. Adopting a multiple-case study approach, this paper reveals the limitations of existing sustainability reporting in the absence of double materiality in a developing economy. Specifically, the analyses reveal limited climate-related disclosures among selected cases in Ghana. Available disclosures connote increasing GHG emissions over the period under consideration. This study also shows weak disclosure comparability across the companies following similar reporting standards. Overall, it argues that enforcement of double materiality to embrace sustainability issues impacting both developed and developing economies is necessary for an effective transformation towards a low-carbon global economy. It contributes to the existing body of knowledge by elucidating double materiality as a pertinent interdisciplinary concept and devising a holistic framework for the emerging global sustainability reporting system to underscore governance accountability for external costs to the environment. Global sustainability reporting standards with a myopic focus on conventional financial matters in the absence of double materiality remain a disclosure system with implausible impact on climate change.

Adherence with reporting of ethical standards in COVID-19 human studies: A rapid review

Background: Patients with COVID-19 may feel under pressure to participate in research during the pandemic. Safeguards to protect research participants include ethical guidelines [e.g. Declaration of Helsinki and good clinical practice (GCP)], legislation to protect participants' privacy, research ethics committees (RECs) and informed consent. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) advises researchers to document compliance with these safeguards. Adherence to publication guidelines has been suboptimal in other specialty fields. The aim of this rapid review was to determine whether COVID-19 human research publications report compliance with these ethical safeguards. Methods: A rapid systematic literature review was conducted in MEDLINE using the search term 'COVID-19'. The search was performed in April 2020 with no start date and repeated to include articles published in November 2020. Filters were 'Full free text available' and 'English Language'. Two reviewers assessed article title, s and full texts. Non-COVID-19 articles and non-clinical studies were excluded. Independent reviewers conducted a second assessment of a random 20% of articles. The outcomes included reporting of compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki and GCP, REC approval, informed consent and participant privacy. Results: The searches yielded 1275 and 1942 articles of which 247 and 717 were deemed eligible, from the April search and November respectively. The majority of journals had editorial policies which purported to comply with ICMJE ethical standards. Reporting of compliance with ethical guidelines was low across all study types but was higher in the November search for case series and observational studies. Reporting of informed consent for case studies and observational studies was higher in the November search, but similar for case series. Overall, participant confidentiality was maintained but some case studies included a combination of details which would have enabled participant identification. Reporting of REC approval was higher in the November search for observational studies. Conclusions: While the majority of journal's editorial policies purported to support the ethical safeguards, many COVID-19 clinical research publications identified in this rapid review lacked documentation of these important safeguards for research participants. In order to promote public trust, ethical declarations should be included consistently. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Qualitative research on financial accounting – an emerging field

Purpose>The purpose of this Editorial is to reflect on the potentials and challenges of qualitative research in financial accounting and introduce the four papers included in this Special Issue.Design/methodology/approach>The authors draw on and discuss extant literature and the papers included in the Special Issue to develop our assessment of the current state of the field of qualitative financial accounting research and possible future paths ahead.Findings>The authors observe that qualitative research on financial accounting is still an emerging field with substantial further research potential.Research limitations/implications>The authors outline future potentials for qualitative accounting research.Originality/value>This Editorial contributes to studies on the state of academic research in (financial) accounting.

An Exploratory Study on Preparers’ Perception of ESEF Reporting: Evidence from the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Research background: This paper focuses on the preparers’ opinion on reporting in the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF).Purpose: The goal of the paper is to examine the preparers’ perception of adopting Inline XBRL as a fundamental technology to report annual consolidated financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) within the ESEF framework.Research methodology: In the present work, Poland was considered as a case study. Using the survey, we obtained evidence from 25 issuers of securities listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, whose financial reports were complied with IFRS.Results: The questionnaires were completed in the majority by issuers with no previous experience in XBRL utilisation. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that respondents could not be able to judge the appropriateness of Inline XBRL selection as a digital reporting format, or they disagreed with it. Furthermore, over half of them saw no need to extend this technology to other business reports, including non-financial reporting.Novelty: The paper can offer valuable pre-insights into preparers’ perception of introducing Inline XBRL in the context of ESEF reporting and ensure initial feedback to the policy-makers responsible for ongoing and forthcoming digital reporting standards initiatives in the European Union.

Supplier Finance Programs: Certified Public Accountant

[...]parties (e.g., Taulia, Oracle, C2FO) are well-known suppliers of supply chain finance and SFP services. [...]the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Interpretations Committee (IC) also received requests to improve RF accounting standards (Moody's Investors Service, letter to IFRS IC, AP3: Research summary, https:// bit.ly/3wi7dR7, 2020). The inclusion of RF amounts in trade payable excludes RF from key leverage and debt ratios and affects loan capacity, loan covenants, efficiency measures (e.g., cash flow from operating activities to sales) and potentially, market valuation (Nicola White, "Financing That Masks 'Hidden Debt' Stokes Accounting Anxiety," Bloomberg Law, January 6, 2020, https://bit.ly/3N86RTU). 3) Which disclosures will enhance transparency and allow financial statement users to appropriately evaluate liquidity, cash flow, and working capital?

Towards a conceptual framework for non-financial reporting inclusive of pandemic and climate risk reporting

Purpose>This paper aims to evaluate non-financial reporting (NFR) frameworks insofar as risk reporting is concerned. This is facilitated through analysis of the adequacy of climate- and pandemic-related risk reporting in three industries that are both significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are at risk from climate change. The pervasiveness of pandemic and climate-change risks have been highlighted in 2020, the hottest year on record and the year the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Stakeholders might reasonably expect reporting on these risks to have prepared them for the consequences.Design/methodology/approach>The current debate on the “complexity” of sustainability and NFR frameworks/standards is critically analysed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and calls to “build back better”. Context is provided through analysis of risk reporting by the ten largest airlines and the five largest companies in each of the hotel and cruise industries.Findings>Risk reporting on two significant issues, pandemics and climate change, is woefully inadequate. While very little consideration has been given to pandemic risks, disclosures on climate-related risks focus predominantly on “risks” of increased regulation rather than physical risks, indicating a short-term focus. The disclosures are dispersed across different corporate reporting media and fail to appreciate the long-term consequences or offer solutions. Mindful that a conceptual framework for NFR must address this, the authors propose a new definition of materiality and recommend that sustainable development risks and opportunities be placed at the core of a future framework for connected/integrated reporting.Research limitations/implications>For sustainable development risks to be perceived as “real” by managers, further research is needed to determine the nature and extent of key sustainable development risks and the most effective mitigation strategies.Social implications>This paper highlights the importance of recognising the complexity of the issues facing organisations, society and the planet and addressing them by encouraging robust consideration of the interdependencies in evolving approaches to corporate reporting.Originality/value>This study contributes to the current debate on the future of corporate reporting in light of two significant interconnected crises that threaten business and society – the pandemic and climate change. It provides evidence to support a long-term oriented and holistic approach to risk management and reporting.

The Impact of Covid-19 on IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements

Accuracy and transparency of financial reporting are compromised under conditions of crises and uncertainty. The disruption caused by Covid-19 presents a challenge to firms, regulators, auditors and investors to make meaningful conclusions about financial data. In the absence of clear guidelines, firms and regulators cannot present financial information with consistency and reliability. The study proposes a revised financial statement structure to address the limitations of financial reporting, particularly in the context of Covid-19. The conceptual paper utilizes secondary data and the researchers' expertise to propose a revised financial statement structure. The study finds a need to maintain the standards of financial reporting as per the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) guidelines, with some changes to the immediate impact of Covid-19. The revised financial statement structure can promote transparency, consistency and reliability in reporting financial information, while keeping these standards. This study is one of the first papers to propose a revised financial statement structure to deal with the current Covid-19 crisis. The suggested modifications can be apportioned to Covid-19 issues, will be beneficial for users in decision making, and can be used to amend current reporting standards.

VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE OF CROATIAN HOTEL COMPANIES BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID CRISIS

The aim of this paper is to determine the difference in the quality of voluntary disclosure of listed hotel companies in Croatia for the observed 2013 and 2020. It has been proven that quality reporting reduces capital costs, promotes the company and in this way the company gains the trust of investors. There are two types of disclosure that apply to listed companies, mandatory - regulated by law and voluntary - depends on the decision of management. The notion of quality of voluntary disclosure in this paper refers to the amount of voluntarily published information regarding the business of a company that helps users of this information in making correct judgments regarding the current situation and future business results. For the purposes of operationalizing the research, an aggregate measure called the transparency index was used. In this paper each voluntarily published information has equal significance, so an unweighted index was used. In accordance with the above methodology, a questionnaire of 50 questions was prepared, which includes historical data, business information, managerial analysis, business plans, non-financial and statistical information, as well as information on the management, supervisory board and shareholders. The research for the purposes of this paper was conducted on a sample of 14 hotel companies whose shares were listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange at the end of 2013 and at the end of 2020. The difference in the quality of voluntary disclosure between 2013 and 2020 was determined by the Wilcoxon test. The results obtained by testing indicate that in 2020 voluntary disclosure is significantly better.

IMPACT-Global Hip Fracture Audit: Nosocomial infection, risk prediction and prognostication, minimum reporting standards and global collaborative audit: Lessons from an international multicentre study of 7,090 patients conducted in 14 nations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIMS: This international study aimed to assess: 1) the prevalence of preoperative and postoperative COVID-19 among patients with hip fracture, 2) the effect on 30-day mortality, and 3) clinical factors associated with the infection and with mortality in COVID-19-positive patients. METHODS: A multicentre collaboration among 112 centres in 14 countries collected data on all patients presenting with a hip fracture between 1st March-31st May 2020. Demographics, residence, place of injury, presentation blood tests, Nottingham Hip Fracture Score, time to surgery, management, ASA grade, length of stay, COVID-19 and 30-day mortality status were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 7090 patients were included, with a mean age of 82.2 (range 50-104) years and 4959 (69.9%) being female. Of 651 (9.2%) patients diagnosed with COVID-19, 225 (34.6%) were positive at presentation and 426 (65.4%) were positive postoperatively. Positive COVID-19 status was independently associated with male sex (odds ratio (OR) 1.38, p = 0.001), residential care (OR 2.15, p < 0.001), inpatient fall (OR 2.23, p = 0.003), cancer (OR 0.63, p = 0.009), ASA grades 4 (OR 1.59, p = 0.008) or 5 (OR 8.28, p < 0.001), and longer admission (OR 1.06 for each increasing day, p < 0.001). Patients with COVID-19 at any time had a significantly lower chance of 30-day survival versus those without COVID-19 (72.7% versus 92.6%, p < 0.001). COVID-19 was independently associated with an increased 30-day mortality risk (hazard ratio (HR) 2.83, p < 0.001). Increasing age (HR 1.03, p = 0.028), male sex (HR 2.35, p < 0.001), renal disease (HR 1.53, p = 0.017), and pulmonary disease (HR 1.45, p = 0.039) were independently associated with a higher 30-day mortality risk in patients with COVID-19 when adjusting for confounders. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of COVID-19 in hip fracture patients during the first wave of the pandemic was 9%, and was independently associated with a three-fold increased 30-day mortality risk. Among COVID-19-positive patients, those who were older, male, with renal or pulmonary disease had a significantly higher 30-day mortality risk.

Limitations of Canadian COVID-19 data reporting to the general public.

Canadian coronavirus (COVID-19) case statistics reported by governmental bodies and news outlets are central to inform the public and to guide health policy. We searched Canadian governmental and news outlets websites to determine how COVID-19 case statistics were reported to the general public, whether they were reported with appropriate denominators, data sources, and accounted for age, sex, and race or ethnicity. Canadian COVID-19 data reporting practices were found to have limited utility due to varying case definitions, heterogeneous and dynamic testing criteria, lack of appropriate standardization accounting for dynamics, sizes, and characteristics of the populations being tested. Population-wide representative COVID-19 testing should be implemented to enable accurate estimation of the scale and dynamics of the epidemiological situation. Comprehensive COVID-19 data on underrepresented and marginalized populations should be collected and reported in an effort to develop equitable health policies.

How regulatory changes are driven by a need for control in reputational scandals: a case study in the German insurance industry

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms that evolve during reputational scandals and lead to changes in industry regulation. It explores the processes by which a demand for external industry regulation evolves, also addressing the consequences of firms’ competitive behaviors which lead to substantial misbehavior and the destruction of reputational capital. The authors are interested in whether and how regulatory activities – in the case analyzed here, changes in insurance regulation regarding sales commissions for insurance brokers – are used as a costly, external behavioral control mechanism (third-loop learning) to terminate a reputational scandal that cannot be stopped by internal controls at a firm level (first-loop and second-loop learning) anymore.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores a real-life case in the German insurance industry that peaked in 2012 and has been well documented by broad media coverage, complemented by interviews with leading industry representatives. Using causal process tracing as a methodology, the authors study the factors in the case that led to an industry scandal. The authors further analyze why the insurance firms involved were not able to limit the scandal’s impact by internally controlling their behaviors, but had to call for external regulation, thus imposing costly restrictions on sales and contract processes. To identify the mechanisms underlying this result, theories from the fields of economics (game theory) and sociology (vicious cycle of bureaucracies), as well as organizational learning theory, are used.FindingsThe authors find that individual rationality does not suffice to prevent insurance firms from scandalous business practices, e.g. via implementing appropriate internal behavioral control measures within their organizations. If, as a result, misbehavior leads to reputational scandals, and the destruction of reputational capital spills over to the whole industry, a vicious cycle is set in motion which can be terminated by regulation as an externally enforced control mechanism.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the analysis of a single case study, combining published materials, e.g. broad media coverage, with interviews from representatives of the insurance industry. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms that have been identified can be used in other case studies as well.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that if firms want to avoid increasing regulation, they must implement strong reputational risk management (RRM) to counteract short-term profit pressure and to avoid restrictive regulation imposed on the industry as a whole. Furthermore, it sheds light on the relevance of spillover effects for RRM, as not only employee behavior within an organization might lead to the destruction of reputational capital but also that from other firms, e.g. from elsewhere within an industry.Originality/valueThe paper contributes by emphasizing a direct causal link between corporate scandals, loss of reputation and regulatory change within the insurance industry. Furthermore, the paper contributes by combining economic theories with organizational theories to understand real-life phenomena.

Practical expedients and theoretical flaws: the IASB's legitimacy strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeGrounded in the legitimacy theory and framed within the context of European Union’s (EU's) endorsement process, this paper analyses the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB's) response to the COVID-19 crisis and the impact of its practical expedient COVID-19-Related Rent Concession on the IASB's output legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a qualitative process-tracing approach and combines inductive historical narratives and deductive reasoning to draw theoretical implications concerning the COVID-19 crisis' impact on the standard-setting process.FindingsThe paper shows a growing reliance on practical expedients in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to maintain the IASB's output legitimacy. While introducing some theoretical flaws, practical expedients increase the standards' flexibility and strengthen the IASB's ability to respond to the European political bodies' concerns. Indeed, an analysis of the IASB's response to the COVID-19 outbreak reveals the role practical expedients might play not only in reducing (ex ante) new IFRS transition costs but also in dealing (ex-post) with the broader economic impact of unexpected systemic crises to limit criticisms and controversies surrounding IFRS.Originality/valueThis study reveals a causal relationship between the rise of the European public good criterion in the EU endorsement process and the wider use of practical expedients in IFRS. An analysis of the latest amendment to IFRS 16 in response to the COVID-19 crisis also confirms the role of practical expedients in strengthening the acceptance of IFRS in an increasingly complex economic reality and sheds some light on the new strategies adopted by the IASB to preserve its legitimacy in the EU.

What Every Reader Should Know About Studies Using Electronic Health Record Data but May Be Afraid to Ask.

Coincident with the tsunami of COVID-19-related publications, there has been a surge of studies using real-world data, including those obtained from the electronic health record (EHR). Unfortunately, several of these high-profile publications were retracted because of concerns regarding the soundness and quality of the studies and the EHR data they purported to analyze. These retractions highlight that although a small community of EHR informatics experts can readily identify strengths and flaws in EHR-derived studies, many medical editorial teams and otherwise sophisticated medical readers lack the framework to fully critically appraise these studies. In addition, conventional statistical analyses cannot overcome the need for an understanding of the opportunities and limitations of EHR-derived studies. We distill here from the broader informatics literature six key considerations that are crucial for appraising studies utilizing EHR data: data completeness, data collection and handling (eg, transformation), data type (ie, codified, textual), robustness of methods against EHR variability (within and across institutions, countries, and time), transparency of data and analytic code, and the multidisciplinary approach. These considerations will inform researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders as to the recommended best practices in reviewing manuscripts, grants, and other outputs from EHR-data derived studies, and thereby promote and foster rigor, quality, and reliability of this rapidly growing field.

Bias at warp speed: how AI may contribute to the disparities gap in the time of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting a disproportionate impact on minorities in terms of infection rate, hospitalizations, and mortality. Many believe artificial intelligence (AI) is a solution to guide clinical decision-making for this novel disease, resulting in the rapid dissemination of underdeveloped and potentially biased models, which may exacerbate the disparities gap. We believe there is an urgent need to enforce the systematic use of reporting standards and develop regulatory frameworks for a shared COVID-19 data source to address the challenges of bias in AI during this pandemic. There is hope that AI can help guide treatment decisions within this crisis; yet given the pervasiveness of biases, a failure to proactively develop comprehensive mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic risks exacerbating existing health disparities.