Internacionalização e disclosure de riscos nas maiores companhias abertas do Brasil

Abstract

With the rivalry imposed by the global market, disclosures about corporate risks become essential in the financial reports of Brazilian publicly-held companies, especially those with international operations. However, its ways of acting are associated with asymmetric information and substantial risks, especially when analyzing emerging markets. Furthermore, these companies use discretion when defining the quality and extent of risk disclosure. However, it is observed that, despite not being a contemporary theme, in Brazil, research on risk disclosure is still incipient and punctual. Thus, in the light of the theory of disclosure, the present research has the general objective of investigating the relationship between internationalization and the disclosure of non-financial risks in the largest publicly-held companies in Brazil. The sample gathers 111 publicly traded companies listed in Exame Magazine's “Melhores e Maiores” from the years 2017 to 2019. To assess the companies' internationalization profile, four indicators were considered: foreign participation in the capital stock, internationalization of shares, internationalization of revenues, and internationalization of markets. The content analysis of section 4 of the companies' Reference Forms indicated the level of disclosure of non-financial risks. The analysis considered a scale from 0 to 4 based on the application of a pre-established checklist with 31 risk factors, grouped into the subcategories operational risks, damage risks, integrity risks, and strategic risks. The relationship of the general objective was analyzed through the application of multiple linear regression and the specific objectives were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a test of the difference between means, and correspondence analysis. In general terms, it was observed, through the tests of difference between means, that there are significant differences in the disclosure of damage, integrity, and strategic risks between the groups of internationalized and non-internationalized companies in each investigated indicator, due to the insertion of international companies. In addition, the general level of non-financial risk disclosure indicates interference from internationalization in the sample of companies, which converges with the assumptions of disclosure theory. The results of the correspondence analysis suggest that higher levels of disclosure of non-financial risks may be accompanied by a greater performance of companies in the international market. In turn, the results of the regression analysis do not confirm the hypothesis that the internationalization profile of companies influences the level of disclosure of non-financial risks. Now, in turn, the presence of foreign capital in the company's ownership structure leads to a greater level of disclosure of non-financial risks. In other words, the form of the company's international insertion, and not its internationalization profile in general, can explain transparency in terms of information on non-financial corporate risks, refuting the research hypothesis, which raises indications about the need for new studies on the constructs – internationalization of companies and disclosure of non-financial risks, especially those focused on how companies relate to other countries and markets.