The impact of diversity and inclusion on management control and corporate disclosure: the role of finance

Funding level: National

Funding agency: Italian Ministry of University and Research

Abstract:

The project's overall objective is to analyse the impact of diversity and inclusion within the finance function on companies' accounting information. We start from the fundamental premise that while top management team and board of directors play a pivotal role in shaping accounting information and the overall company's disclosure, the development of accounting information lies within a specific function of a business company, i.e., the finance and accounting function (IFAC 2020). Nonetheless, the accounting literature has ignored this function's fundamental role.

Therefore, this project aims to understand how the surface-level diversity, deep-level diversity, and degree of inclusiveness of the finance-account function improve accounting information's efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Accordingly, the project intends to pursue the following sub-objectives:

(a) Map accounting and finance functions within organisations (i.e., Italian companies),

(b) Develop a measure of diversity and inclusion within the finance function, and

(c) Empirically investigate the effects of diversity and inclusion on accounting information and corporate disclosure.

Disa role: Partner - Local Unit

DiSA Team Leader: Lorenzo Dal Maso

DISA Team members: Eleonora Monaco, Marco Maria Mattei

Project Coordinator: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Other Project partners: Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi

Start date 28/09/2023 - End date 27/09/2025

Total project cost: 269.136 euro

Funded by European Union - Next Generation EU