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1
Bernard, Taryn. "A critical analysis of corporate reports that articulate corporate social responsibility." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/96672.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the last 15 years, growing public awareness of the negative impact of corporate activities has prompted big corporations in the mining, manufacturing and retail sectors to publish reports that communicate their awareness of environmental and social issues. These reports typically take the form of standalone corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports or integrated annual (IA) reports. The publication of these reports is not an isolated event or practice on behalf of each company; the structure and content of the reports are informed by stock exchange policies such as the King Code in South Africa, and reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on an international level. The nature of corporate social responsibility and CSR reporting has captured the interest of researchers in diverse disciplines. Scholars such as Jones (1995) and Pedersen (2006), working within business and marketing-related fields, have praised CSR reports as a “win-win” concept which encourages corporations to focus on both their financial and social performance. Conversely, scholars such as Banerjee (2003, 2007) and Redclift (2002, 2005) have criticised CSR for being a new form of “greenwashing” and a mechanism that promotes the continued dominance of financially strong institutions. Critical scholars typically adopt a neo-Marxist perspective of neoliberalism and assert that legitimate environmental protection or social transformation and equality cannot take place within the reigning economic paradigm (see Pepper 1984, 1996). This study is a contribution to applied linguistic research into CSR and IA reports, particularly those originating from the Global South. It draws on methods developed within critical discourse analysis (CDA), systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and corpus linguistics to investigate the 2011, 2012 and 2013 CSR and IA reports of six South African companies located in the mining, retail and food manufacturing industries. Drawing on Halliday’s (1978) three metafunctions of texts, Fairclough’s (1989, 2002) three dimensional framework, as well as the Appraisal Framework (White 2001; Martin and White 2005) this study investigates the textual, representational and interpersonal meanings of the selected reports as ones that represent a new, gradually conventionalised genre within modern corporate discourse. In summary, the study contributes to an understanding of CSR and IA reports in three ways: First, it highlights the significant role of the GRI in prescribing, and thus restricting, the structural and discursive features of CSR and IA reports. Second, the study shows how the six companies draw on a limited set of discourses in the reports which all, in some way or another, embed neoliberal ideologies. This suggests that the South African CSR and IA reports function to maintain an established, dominant ideological and discursive order. Third, the degree of reliability of the information in the reports is dependent on how the companies construct themselves in this report. In this regard, the analysis reveals that the companies use a limited set of linguistic resources to construct themselves as strategic, moral and responsible social actors. In a country marked by widespread social inequality and diminishing resources, the findings ultimately suggest that social transformation and environmental protection are unlikely to be achieved if the sustainability discourses of corporate institutions are not publically challenged.
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Cronjé, Christo Johannes. "Corporate annual reports (CARS) accounting practices in transition /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2007. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11262007-135312.
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Stegman, John Davis. "A rhetorical investigation of selected 1982 corporate annual reports /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487325740720778.
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Thoresson, Alexander, and Pontus Niléhn. "Determinants of voluntary disclosure in Swedish corporate annual reports." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-230442.
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This study examines if three hypothesized variables affect the extent of corporate strategic information, i.e. voluntary information, in corporate annual reports, specifically in Sweden in the year of 2012. The variables deemed appropriate to the Swedish environment, i.e. firm size, ownership dispersion and performance, were retrieved from previous disclosure research conducted in a Swedish context (Cook, 1989; Adrem, 1999), as well as relevant theoretical consideration. The statistical analysis conducted in this thesis suggests that firm size is significantly positively related to the extent of strategic corporate information in Swedish listed firms’ corporate annual reports. The result hence confirms the expectation that larger listed firms to a larger extent disclose strategic corporate information, i.e. voluntary information, in their corporate annual reports. No positive relation was found between the variables performance or ownership dispersion and the extent of strategic corporate information. The results of this thesis are interpreted to suggest that asymmetric information and agency costs are important determinants of the extent of strategic corporate information, i.e. voluntary information, in Swedish corporate annual reports. Larger firms seem to reduce agency costs and narrow the information asymmetry by increasing the level of information disclosed.
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Bribesh, Fathi Naser. "The quality of corporate annual reports : evidence from Libya." Thesis, University of South Wales, 2006. https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentthesis/the-quality-of-corporate-annual-reports(20aea697-866f-48c5-a194-382422f15ac5).html.
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It was not long before it became clear that the centralised economic planning and control of business and property had failed to improve the Libyan economy. The government began to introduce economic reforms, privatisation programs and started to move towards a market economy. Many business and investment barriers and limitations have been removed and more liberal economic policies have been adopted. Reforms have been aimed at boosting private sector activities and expanding the ownership structures of business. These have generated much local interest in corporate reporting and the need to assess corporate reporting disclosure. This study attempts to assess the quality of corporate annual reports published by Libyan companies. In other words, to what extent do financial reports published by Libyan companies meet their users' needs? To achieve this objective, two research methods were undertaken. The first method was based on a survey questionnaire designed to explore the perceptions of several user groups of corporate reports. These include mainly the extent of use, the useful characteristics, the importance of different sections, information items and the user's needs and the understandability of corporate reports. The user groups included individual investors; academics (researchers); government employees; institutional investors; bank credit officers; chief executives; and accounting professionals. The second method was based on analysing a sample of corporate annual reports published by Libyan companies. The analysis aimed to identify the level of corporate disclosure as well as to what extent Libyan companies do comply with International Accounting Standards (IAS). The results of the study revealed that the corporate annual report is the most important source of information relied upon to make informed decisions. The results also showed that the credibility and timeliness of the information source were the most important qualitative characteristics that might affect the usefulness of information sources. Although there are no accounting standards, the results demonstrated that Libyan companies strongly comply with international Accounting Standards. Employing regression analysis, the study also identified some differences in the level of annual disclosure. For example, Libyan manufacturing companies that have good sales figures and government organisation or their agents tend to disclose less information than other companies.
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Campbell, David. "Causes of variability in social disclosure in corporate reports." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2002. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/3076/.
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Legitimacy theory as an explicator of longitudinal and cross-sectional variability in social and environmental disclosure is explored using a content analysis based method. Annual corporate reports are examined for ten UK FTSE 100 companies in five sectors over the year 1974 to 2000 by extracting word count data into the three categories of employee welfare, community and environmental disclosure. Eight hypotheses are generated, some of which are adapted from previous studies, to ''test for'' legitimacy theory. Three hypotheses test for intersectoral difference by disclosure category, three test for intrasectoral agreement by category and two test for correlation between environmental disclosure over time and environmental group membership in the UK.The ability of the study to yield certainty of explanation upon demonstration of hypotheses is constrained by the epistemogically ''semi-hard'' or ''indicative-only'' quality of the data. Data analysis is carried out and conclusions are drawn within these constraints.Evidence for a legitimacy-based explanation of disclosure variability is found where the categories are sufficiently resolved and circumscribed to discriminate by sector. In this study, community and environmental disclosure demonstrate this and thus provide evidence for a legitimacy-based explanation of social disclosure whilst employee welfare disclosure is found to be a less useful category for this purpose.
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Efretuei, Ekaete Edet. "Narrative disclosures in corporate annual reports : a syntactical complexity perspective." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4930/.
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The Financial Reporting Council of the United Kingdom launched the Complexity project in 2008 to investigate the causes of complexity in annual reports, given increased concerns on the increasing size, complexity and the declining relevance of annual reports. However, to date, there is still limited academic evidence on the determinants and consequence of the complexity of annual reports, though annual reports remain increasingly complex. This thesis specifically investigates what determines the syntactical complexity of narratives in annual reports, and what is the consequence of syntactical complexity in annual report narratives. It does this by assessing in three empirical chapters (i) what firm characteristics determine the syntactical complexity in narratives, (ii) what board characteristics determine syntactical complexity in narratives, and (iii) what role do narratives play when investors react to earnings information. Syntactical complexity of narratives is measured using the fog index readability formula from computational linguistics, and the tone index measure, both widely used in assessing narratives in accounting research. The results reported in the first empirical chapter of the thesis indicate that specific characteristics of a firm determine the level of syntactical complexity of narratives. It shows that the performance of the firm, size of the firm, age of the firm, and the operations of the firm, play a role in the complexity of annual report narratives. The results reported in the second empirical chapter indicate that board composition factors determine the level of syntactical complexity of narratives. It shows that the age of directors, size of the board, percentage of female directors in the board, average board tenure and the number of nationalities in the board play a role in the level of complexity of annual report narratives. The third empirical chapter presents results indicating that the syntactical complexity of narratives increases with the Post Earnings Announcement Drift. It shows that the movement of post earnings return, in the direction of unexpected earnings, increases when management provide narratives with a more positive outlook. Overall, the results reported in this study indicate that the characteristics of the firm and the composition of the board of directors play a role in the level of complexity of annual report narratives. In addition, the results indicate that the syntactical complexity of annual report narratives, influences investors’ reaction to earnings information. These results are important for policy makers and regulatory bodies that are seeking to reduce the complexity and increase the relevance of annual reports. The results are consistent with the view that firm specific factors and the governance of the firm, are important in the narrative communication process, and that complexity of narrative communication affects resource allocation decisions.
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Khaledi, Soheila. "Corporate Risk Disclosure: A Content Analysis of Swedish Interim Reports." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-231965.
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The aim of this research is to examine the determinants of the level of corporate risk disclosure (CRD) in the interim reports of Swedish non-financial companies. A quantitative research approach is used, the sample data of which consist of 166 firms with 4,849 interim reports over a 10-year period. By utilizing the notion of risk and its definition, I have distinguished three categories of risk, namely risk as uncertainty, risk as threat and risk as opportunity. A systematic content analysis is conducted with the use of a software program, which is specifically designed for this purpose. The number of sentences that contain keywords related to the three risk categories is counted as the total CRD score, which is transformed to the disclosure index. I have examined the impact of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance mechanisms on the level of CRD based on agency theory. The ordinary least squares regression method with control for fixed year effects is used to analyse the data, which show that firm size and audit committee have a positive relationship with the level of corporate risk disclosure. The result demonstrates also that there is a negative relationship between family ownership and the level of CRD, and an insignificant relationship between leverage and the level of CRD.
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Wang, Xinhan. "Earnings management, audit opinion and auditor location /." access full-text, 2005. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/ezdb/thesis-r.pl?mphil-ac-b19885763f.pdf.
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Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005."Submitted to Department of Accountancy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-100)
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Boström, Daniel. "Environmental information : A study of environmental disclosure in financial analyst reports, annual reports, CSR reports and environmental risk profiles." Thesis, Umeå University, Umeå School of Business, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-24589.
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The awareness of environmental issues has increased among the public the last decades. An environmental movement is occurring and companies are beginning to adapt themselves and their business activities to the changing view of environmental issues. Greater attention are turning to companies around the world due to the view that they have a responsibility concerning environmental and sustainability matters in their business operations. The development of environmental guidelines such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the presenting of separate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports illustrate the emerged demand of an environmental awareness from various stakeholders. Government regulations and inter-continental agreements of carbon taxes, emission trade rights and various environmental targets are influencing the operations and the environmental approach for the companies.
An important link in the information chain is the financial analysts and their role as information intermediaries. The characteristics of their profession combined with their expertise knowledge of evaluating companies are reasons behind their function in the investment value chain. Traditionally, the valuation of companies has been based on financial figures and the models derive from typical tangible assets such growth numbers, estimated future earnings and cash flow. Environmental issues have throughout the years been considered of secondary importance due to the specific kind of information it represents.
This study examines factors influencing the amount of environmental information presented in financial analyst reports. The amount of environmental information presented in annual reports, CSR reports and an environmental risk profile developed by GES Investment Services have been selected as predictor variables to determine the amount of environmental information in the financial analysts’ reports.
40 companies from the industrial sector have been included in the study and the results reveal that no or very little environmental information can be found in the financial analyst reports. The financial analysts’ seem to prioritize other kinds of information when evaluating companies and creating analyst reports. The study also reveals that companies with separate CSR reports seem to have a higher amount of environmental information presented in annual reports as well as a better environmental risk profile.
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Pouvreau, Baptiste, and Pierre Sonier. "Corporate social responsibility disclosure in corporate communication : A content analysis of the automotive industry’s sustainability reports." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-57063.
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Problems related to sustainable development such as environmental issues, human rights, orlabor conditions, are nowadays deeply integrated in our society. It became primordial forcompanies to take into consideration these problems in their business development. For morethan a decade now, car companies started to publish official documents summarizing theircommitments in favor of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions. Through thesesustainability reports, car producers disclose information concerning their sustainable policyand bring details to stakeholders on performed sustainable actions. Because publication of sustainability reports is a relatively new phenomenon, a lot of studies still have to be made in this sector. In this way, no main studies were made regarding howCSR actions performed and disclosed by car companies evolved in the past decade. Didcompanies keep focusing on the same type of sustainable actions or did some changes occuron the way they conduct their CSR policies? No trends were available to try to understandhow car companies CSR actions evolved. This thesis is an attempt to fulfill this gap and bringa first set of useful findings on this topic. Based on three different car producers which are BMW Group, Ford Motor Company andMitsubishi Motors Corporation, our study analyses these companies 2002, 2006 and 2010sustainability reports and looks at how CSR actions are disclosed. The purpose is firstly todescribe how companies’ CSR commitment disclosure is evolving between 2002 and 2010and secondly to find explanation to the key trends. In order to achieve this, we used six mainCSR categories (Economic, Environment, Human Rights, Labor Practices and Decent Work,Product Responsibility and Society) and classified disclosed information in relation with thesecategories to create trends. For each of these six categories, sub-categories were used in orderto be more precise in the analysis process of the documents. Results showed an important interest of car producers for the environment category whichrepresents, on average, more than 40% of disclosed information in sustainability reports.Society category trend shows an important increase between 2006 and 2010 which led it tobecome the second most represented category in reports. Other categories trends present amore stable evolution with time. As it is explained more in detail in our analysis part, thisattraction toward environmental issues for car producers can be explained by the badreputation given to car producers in terms of emissions, energy consumption and moreglobally environmental protection. Cultural background and business mindset are alsoinfluencing companies’ choices. Responsive behaviors resulting from stakeholder’s pressureas well as adaptation to a weak regulatory framework are additional elements to explain the key disclosure trends.
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Wolfgeher, Stephane L. "Inflation of USAF officer performance reports analyzing the organizational environment." Thesis, Monterey, California : Naval Postgraduate School, 2009. http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2009/Dec/09Dec%5FWolfgeher.pdf.
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Thesis (M.S. in Information Operations)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009.Thesis Advisor(s): Jansen, Erik. Second Reader: Greenshields, Brian. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Evaluation, Inflation, Officer performance report, Officer evaluation system, OPR, OER, Open system, Congruence in organizations, Organizational change, Military reward systems. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-89). Also available in print.
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Mkwinda-Nyasulu, Betty. "The Australian corporate annual reports : some factors contributing to low readability scores /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1994. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phm6848.pdf.
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O'Sullivan, Madonna. "An Investigation of the Role Played by Corporate Governance in the Voluntary Disclosure of Forward-Looking Information and the Quality of Corporate Financial Reports." Queensland University of Technology, 2005. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16459/.
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This study investigates the role played by corporate governance in the firm's decision to disclose forward-looking information in financial reports, as well as the quality of such reports. More effective corporate governance has often been linked to voluntary disclosure within the annual report (Karamanou and Vafeas 2005). Similarly, recent studies document a positive association between reporting quality and the standard of corporate governance (Wright 2001). This study proposes that stronger corporate governance will be associated with increased forward-looking disclosures in financial reports and higher financial reporting quality. The results indicate that audit quality, the presence and quality of board committees and the overall efficacy of corporate governance are positively associated with forward-looking disclosures in 2000. However, corporate governance does not have a positive association with such disclosures in 2002. Regarding the relationship between financial reporting quality and corporate governance, audit quality is the only governance variable that yields a significant result and is only associated with higher reporting quality in 2002.
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Hughes, Mark, and n/a. "The format effects of operating lease disclosures on the quality of decision-making by non-professional investors." University of Canberra. Law, 2003. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060203.114404.
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The recent proposal by the Group of Four Plus One to modify the accounting
treatment of operating leases has attracted considerable comment. However, a review
of the publicly available submissions to this proposal reveals that no one has
addressed the issue in terms of the primary objective of general purpose financial
reports, that is, to provide decision useful information to non-professional investors.
This thesis seeks to redress this gap by providing some evidence of the ability of nonprofessional
investors to evaluate operating leases as they are presented according to
current accounting standards and alternative presentation formats.
The thesis reports the results of an experiment carried out on surrogates for nonprofessional
investors. The main finding is that the vast majority of subjects were
unable to evaluate operating lease information when it was disclosed in the notes,
rather than reported in the body of the Statement of Financial Position. Subjects
consistently relied on reported figures and seemed unable to incorporate information
presented in the notes to the financial reports, even when the links between the notes
and the reported figures were made more obvious than is currently the case.
The finding has a number of implications. It would appear that the existing accounting
treatment of operating leases is the source of a structural information asymmetry, as a
substantial proportion of users were unable to evaluate information relating to
operating leases. This information asymmetry should be removed for reasons of
economic efficiency. The recent withdrawal by non-professional investors from
equity markets shows that non-professional investors will react strongly if they start to
doubt the ability of general-purpose financial reports to provide them with decision
useful information.
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Al-Mubarak, Fuad. "The usefulness of corporate annual reports to investment analysts in Saudi Arabia." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/278.
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In a developing country such as Saudi Arabia where alternative sources of company information tend to be more limited in a quantity and quality, the role of corporate annual reports for investment activities assumes a much more dominant and prominent role than in the more advanced and economically developed countries. This study was undertaken to examine empirically the usefulness of corporate annual reports to investment analysts in Saudi Arabia and their role in the investment activities. Before undertaking the empirical investigation it was essential to provide a background of the economic and accounting environment under which the Saudi companies operate and investment activities being carried out. Three chapters are designed to fulfil this objective, these are Chapter 2,3 and 4. Chapter 5 is focused in reviewing the literature related to usefulness of financial information. This review is believed to be an important step in providing a framework for the empirical investigation. To achieve the main objective of this research which is to evaluate the importance of corporate annual reports to the investment analysts in Saudi Arabia, a questionnaire survey was carried out to obtain the investment analysts views of the annual reports, the importance they attached to them and the uses of these reports in their investment activities. The results of the survey are presented and discussed in chapters seven and eight. The statistical tests results show that Saudi Arabian investment analysts, despite the differences in their background characteristics, still regard corporate annual reports as the most important source of information for their investment activities. A summary of the main conclusions of the study, as well as a number of recommendations, are reported in the final chapter.
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Quader, Mithila, and Sara Lidén. "An approach to manage corporate scandals : Legitimizing negative incidents in CSR-reports." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-68550.
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Background: The relationship between CSR-reports and legitimacy has been on-going from the very beginning that businesses started to report on sustainability related issues. Prior research suggest that businesses can enhance their competitive edge by maintaining legitimacy through CSR-reports. Therefore, prior research also suggests that businesses can alter how information is disclosed in CSR-reports in order to maintain or enhance their legitimacy. This has caused a tendency amongst businesses to create overly positive and unbalanced reports, but what happens when the lack of negative information backfires? Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine how negative information is disclosed before a corporate scandal, and which legitimization strategies are applied to communicate in CSR-reports to restore legitimacy after facing a corporate scandal. Method: The paper has applied a thematic analysis to analyze unobtrusive data gathered from CSR-disclosures from ten companies and media outlets who have reported on the scandal, using a qualitative approach. Findings: Three key findings were made. CSR-reports are used as a legitimacy tool to disclose negative information. The paper identifies continuous signs of companies shifting focus to maintain or restore legitimacy through the use of strengthened language, the addition of a time-aspect or a new perspective. This finding has led to the last key finding and conclusion of this paper; that an additional strategy can be identified in a majority of the companies – the strategy of shifting focus. Keywords: Legitimacy, CSR-reports, corporate scandals, negative incidents
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Mak, Ka Ying Angela. "Processing Chinese corporate performance information via the signaled stopping technique." HKBU Institutional Repository, 1999. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/165.
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Theilkemeier, Linnea, Azin Taheri, and Isabel Dreveborn. "Corporate Social Responsibility : the legal framework of CSR." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-14307.
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Watson, Anna Elizabeth. "The voluntary disclosure of accounting ratios : a survey of disclosure practices and an investigation of company characteristics associated with disclosure." Thesis, Northumbria University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.245263.
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Al-Kalbani, Marwa. "Quality of annual corporate reports in an emerging economy : the case of Oman." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2008. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55731/.
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This study empirically investigated four aspects of the financial reporting system in Oman: (1) the perception of corporate report users and auditor groups of the various elements of annual corporate reports, (2) the informational needs of corporate reports' users, (3) current reporting practice, and (4) determinants of the level of mandatory and voluntary disclosure in annual corporate reports. The first stage of the research focused on the first two aspects, which were examined via a questionnaire survey administered to seven major user groups: individual investors, institutional investors, government representatives, financial analysts, accountants, auditors, and regulators. Additionally, during this stage, similarities and differences in the perceptions of three auditor groups were investigated. The second stage of this study focused on the other two aspects, which were measured through an examination of 111 Omani corporate annual reports. The study also conducted interviews with 27 professional users in order to understand and confirm the findings of the first and second stages of the research. The study revealed that different user groups relied heavily on information obtained from the financial analysis of annual corporate reports, especially the financial statements. The usage and importance of individual report sections was broadly consistent with that in developed countries. User groups differed in their views of the importance of individual sections of the management discussion and analysis section and the corporate governance report. Regarding auditor groups, the study found that the views of auditors from the Big four audit firms differed significantly from the views of auditors from international affiliated and local audit firms. Regarding the informational needs of different stakeholders, users highly rated and demanded some of the information presented to them in the questionnaire, namely, price earnings ratio, comparison of a company's actual performance with competitors', gross profit margin, trend analysis on profitability, profit forecast and future cash flows. The second stage of the research revealed that Omani listed companies complied with mandatory disclosure requirements. However, these provided low amounts of voluntary disclosure. Comparing users' demand list of information with companies' supply list, the study revealed an information gap between what external users demanded and what companies disclosed in their reports. Using multiple regression analysis, the study was able to identify main causes of variations in the level of annual disclosure. It was found that companies' compliance with disclosure requirements is influenced by company size and auditor type. Regarding voluntary disclosure, large listed companies, companies audited by Big four audit firms, and companies in the industrial sector disclosed more information in their annual reports than other companies. On the other hand, debt ratio, current ratio, return on equity, and ownership structure had no significant association with either the level of mandatory or voluntary disclosure. Employing interviews, the study was able to understand and explain the questionnaire and regression analysis findings. One main finding was that users of reports believed that companies were complying with disclosure requirements. However, interviewees were dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of voluntary disclosure. Another important finding was that auditors have control over the disclosure since they might prepare the annual reports as claimed by some of the interviewees. Finally, the study indicated that establishing a professional body to oversee and govern the accounting profession in Oman is a necessity to improve the quality of the financial reporting system.
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Al, Smadi Safaa Adnan. "Corporate governance and risk disclosures practices in the annual reports of Jordanian banks." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2017. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/419976/.
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Recent decades have witnessed an increasing demand for risk disclosures, a demand that has augmented since the 2007/2008 financial crisis (ICAEW 2011). According to Dobler et al. (2011), the lack of clarity in risk disclosures, coupled with a complex business environment, are factors, which have increased the need for research into firms’ disclosures about risk and risk management. Furthermore, business scandals and fraudulent cases (e.g. Enron and Worldcom), and the 2007/2008 credit crisis have shaken investor confidence in the information provided by firms (Rajab and Handley-Schachler 2009), and have called into question firms’ risk exposure and the reliability of financial reports (Oorschot 2009). It has been suggested that an increase in more relevant risk information would reduce investors’ uncertainty (Elshandidy and Neri 2015) and enhance the image and reputation of firms (Louhichi and Zreik 2015). This study intends to examine risk disclosure in annual reports of 15 listed Jordanian banks. Further, this research empirically examines the influence of corporate governance factors on the level of risk disclosure in the annual reports. This study will use mixed method research entailing quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Qualitative methods will employ semi-structured interviews, whilst the quantitative approach is based on content analysis and regression analysis over the period (2007-2016). Content analysis investigates risk disclosure volume, categories, nature, timeframe and news-type. Results showed that there is an increase in the number of total risk disclosures in the annual reports of the Jordanian banks for the period examined, banks in Jordan provided similar levels of risk disclosures in terms of total risk disclosure, risk categories, timeframe, news-type and nature (quantitative vs. qualitative). However, Banks did disclose low level of voluntary risk disclosures, most of the risk information was based on mandatory requirements, such as Basel and IFRS.
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Ekara, Helfaya Akrum Nasr. "Assessing the measurement of quality of corporate environmental reporting." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2012. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=186852.
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An increasing number of companies are reporting their environmental performance, impacts, and activities. The objectives of such reports are many including, in particular, reacting to external pressures from company stakeholders demanding more information about environmental performance. This might also be matched by management requiring information to better run the business - hence an internal requirement for information that would then be available for publication. Because, this environmental reporting serves multiple objectives and satisfies different needs of different readers, it varies in the type of information provided, the scope and depth of material disclosed, presentation formats used, the credibility of the information provided and its overall quality. Although richness of report content, scope of topics covered, presentation and credibility of this content have all been used to assess the quality of corporate environmental reporting (CER), to date most prior studies have looked simply at the volume of and/or the types of information when assessing the quality of CER. Studies have used two main indices to measure disclosure quality; subjective analysts' indices and semi-objective indices. Subjective indices such as the Association of Investment Management and Research (AIMR), formerly the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF) disclosure ratings, are built on corporate disclosures' ratings weighted by a panel of leading analysts in each industry. In semi-objective indices, on the other hand, a pre-determined list of items (topics of disclosure) is developed and tested for their presence (absence ) and/or the richness of their content. It is noted that most disclosure studies adopt this second approach in the form of disclosure index studies, a partial type of content analysis. Other disclosure measures have included textual analysis such as thematic content analysis, readability studies, and linguistic analysis. However, there is no consensus about the best measure for assessing reporting quality. One of the most important limitations encountered in the disclosure literature is the difficulty in assessing the quality of disclosure (Healy and Palepu, 2001; Urquiza et al., 2009). For example, these studies identify three key limitations. Firstly, there is inherent subjectivity involved in the selection of the quality measure and in the coding scheme to assess this 'quality' generally researchers choose their own methods or proxies. Secondly, there is an ignorance of the quality perceptions of preparers and users of corporate disclosure. Hammond and Miles (2004) argue that we cannot assess the quality of disclosure independently of a detailed understanding of users' need of disclosure. Thirdly, it has been common to use annual reports (ARs) to assess the extent and quality of corporate responsibility disclosure, ignoring the other reporting media such as corporate responsibility reports (CRRs), websites, home advertisings, etc (Forst et al., 2005; KPMG, 2011). Thus considering the fact that robust, reliable, and replicable quality assessment is problematic, the objectives of this research are threefold. Firstly, to build a more representative quality model based on the findings of a questionnaire ascertaining the views of both preparers and distinct categories of readers of ARs and/or CRRs. Secondly, to apply this model to FTSE 100 CER in both ARs and CRRs to ascertain whether the proxies frequently used in prior literature yield similar results to those derived from this more complex model. Thirdly, to investigate whether the common use of ARs, rather than more detailed CRRs in assessing CER quality is giving a misleading picture of the level and richness of disclosure available to stakeholders.
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Afjei, Sayed MR. "A Content Analysis of Sustainability Dimensions in Annual Reports." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1926.
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This study examines the triple bottom line of sustainability, in the context of both profit-oriented and non-profit oriented organizations. Sustainability is a compound result of interaction between economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Sustainability cannot be achieved without balance between all three dimensions, which has implications for measuring sustainability and prioritizing goals. This study demonstrates a method for measuring organizational sustainability achievement in these three dimensions of sustainability.
Content analysis of the annual reports of corporations from the United States, Continental Europe (and Scandinavia), and Asia reveals that the economic dimension remains the preeminent aspect, and corporations still have a long way to go to reach comprehensive sustainability by maintaining a balance between the three dimensions of sustainability. The analysis also shows a high level of isomorphism in the sustainability practices of corporations, suggesting that even the most sustainable corporations are taking a somewhat passive role in prioritizing sustainability goals.
A list of 25 terms for each dimension of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) has been developed which can be used by corporations to develop and communicate their sustainability practices most effectively to the maximum number of their stakeholders. In contrast, botanical gardens demonstrate more balance among the three dimensions of sustainability.
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Blahouš, Lukáš. "Corporate Governance, účetní, právní a auditorské aspekty." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2011. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-81893.
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The thesis deals with the main principles of Corporate Governance. It focuses on the most important legal regulations and codes in this area, on the role of external and internal audit in Corporate Governance, as well as on its connection with accounting standards. Two basic models are described -- Anglo-American and Continental European model. These models are compared particularly in terms of ownership control, board structure and investor protection. After that, the situation in the Czech Republic is analysed. Finally, the information disclosed in annual reports of corporations from four countries are examined and compared
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Feige, Peter. "Communicating information via corporate reports : the potential and the limitations of financial accounting research." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633093.
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The present dissertation addresses itself to methodological issues in conjunction with financial accounting research. Its objective is to assess the implications of the nature of financial reporting information for the design of academic research in this discipline. In the thesis, 'classification models' of national financial accountancy systems and the methodology of 'positive accounting theory' serve as examples of contemporary research in the subject. These theoretical notions are subjected to scrutiny from two different perspectives. Firstly, they are critically evaluated on the basis of an abstract analytical line of reasoning. Secondly, a survey of the accounting policies of British and German chemical companies provides empirical evidence which complements the aforementioned abstract critique. The enquiry arrives at the conclusion that the claims to the achievement of high 'scientific standards' in their research which are typically advanced by the authors of international accounting 'classification models' and by certain advocates of 'positive accounting theory', ought to be qualified. The analyses carried out in this dissertation indicate that such claims are logically flawed, in that they proceed from a number of fundamental metatheoretical misconceptions. Moreover, they turn out to be empirically valid only up to a point if confronted with financial accounting data prepared in distinct economic and legal frameworks. The above-mentioned findings suggest that the very aims of academic research in financial accounting need to be thoroughly reconsidered as a prerequisite for the proposal of theoretical principles
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Singh, Anil. "The information technology, risk and return triad : a longitudinal analysis of corporate financial data /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Tonetti, Ilenia. "Linguistic Trust-Building Strategies in Swiss Banks’ Public Discourse: : A Diachronic Study of Annual Reports and Corporate Responsibility Reports from UBS and Credit Suisse." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-30335.
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To be perceived as trustworthy in the eyes of the stakeholders is one of the main assets of any successful firm, for a positive image will reflect positively on business. This study focuses on the analysis of trust-building strategies in Annual Reports (ARs) and Corporate Responsibility Reports (CRRs) of two Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse. The analysis aims to identify the linguistic means used to project a trustworthy image, as well as to point out any changes in their use which might have occurred after the financial crisis of 2008. For this purpose, a corpus of ARs and CRRs from the years 2007, 2012 and 2017 has been compiled. The corpus was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to identify the frequency and distribution of lexical expressions indexing competence, benevolence, and integrity. The results, though tentative, provide insights into the use of trust-building linguistic means and their diachronic development.
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Ndlovu, Bright. "Corporate Reporting : adoption of forward-looking reporting by Zimbabwean listed companies." University of South Africa, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/52.
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This study examines the disclosure of forward-looking information in annual
reports of companies listed on Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE). It aims to
determine if ZSE listed companies disclose forward-looking information and if they
do disclose, how helpful the information is to the intended users of the annual
report for decision making purposes? The factors proposed for the investigation
are therefore disclosure and effectiveness of the forward-looking information.
Since the annual reports represent the main source of voluntary disclosures of
forward-looking information, the investigation uses a disclosure index based on an
analysis of the statements made by management in annual reports of the
companies listed on ZSE.
In this study, the level of forward-looking information disclosed in the annual
reports of the firms is examined in three broad categories namely, (a) context,
nature, objectives and strategies, (b) drivers of development and performance,
and (c) financial position, analysis and explanations . We find that companies do
disclose forward-looking information. However, 9 out 10 companies sampled
reflect that the level of disclosure lacks the critical detail and clarity necessary for
decision making by its intended users. On average, excluding Old Mutual that is
listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges and has the highest
score of 4 (i.e. above average disclosure - information is rich and detailed and
contains key information), ZSE companies disclosed below average forwardlooking
information insufficient to give a clear understanding of the position and
performance of the company.
The findings also suggest that companies disclosed forward-looking information
without fully understanding the implications of the disclosure of such kind of
information. This is evident in that, except for Old Mutual, no disclaimers or any
notes were made by companies to cover themselves from litigations that could
arise as a result of such disclosure. This could also suggest that Zimbabwe is not
a litigious country in as far as reporting by companies is concerned.Graduate School of Business Leadership
MBL
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Adekemi, Deborah Adeola. "Strategy and business model disclosure in corporate annual reports : a study of UK Listed Companies." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/23425/.
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The UK Companies Act 2006 has made it a legal requirement for companies, since October 2013, to disclose their 'Strategy' and 'Business Model' as part of their annual report. The Act, however, does not define what is meant by the two terms. This means that the content of the disclosure remains at the discretion of managers. Prior to this, the UK 2010 Corporate Governance Code required companies to disclose their Strategy and Business Model. The Code, however, is based on a 'comply or explain' approach. This study contributes to the understanding of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model in the annual reports of UK listed companies before and after the introduction of the regulatory requirements. To achieve this, the thesis aims to investigate the extent of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model, the impact of regulations and the determinants of such disclosures. The sample includes companies operating in three industry sectors: Banking; Food and Drug Retailers; and Gas, Water and Multi-utilities, over a period of 10 years, taking into consideration, the periods before and after the Corporate Governance and Companies Act requirements. To achieve the aims of the thesis, it has been necessary to adopt a pragmatic approach, which entails the use of results from a qualitative approach as inputs to a quantitative approach. Further, the study adopts a longitudinal approach and collects empirical data from annual reports and databases. This study also relies on agency and signalling theory to provide explanations on Strategy and Business Model disclosures in annual reports. The study finds that the mandatory requirement has had a statistically significant influence on the disclosure of both Strategy and Business Model. However, the practice of Business Model disclosure is not yet at the same level as Strategy. Lastly, the findings reveal that disclosure is mostly affected by market and corporate governance incentives.
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Allam, Amir Ali. "Measuring the use of online corporate annual reports through the analysis of web server logs." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633067.
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The current study investigates a novel area of accounting research; the use of online annual reports by corporate Websites' visitors. This study is of a cross-disciplinary nature as it involves knowledge from different fields including accounting, mass communication and computer science. It is argued that the examination of communication theory may provide insights into how best to enhance the value relevance of accounting information. The Internet, as a new means of communication, has many possible effects on the way accounting information is disseminated and the way its usage can be investigated. Traditional methods, including questionnaires and interviews, have been used to study the usage of annual reports. This study explores and applies a novel method, Web Server Log Analysis, to study how online annual reports are accessed by users. The study investigated the Web Server Log Files of six companies and found that the most accessed sections of online annual reports are the Notes to the Financial Statements, the Chairman Statement, and the Profit and Loss Account. Narrative sections were accessed more frequently compared to the financial sections of the annual report. In addition, the non-statutory sections were found to be more accessed by users compared to the statutory ones.
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Abdul-Rahim, Hassan M. "An Analysis of Corporate Accounting and Reporting Practices in Bahrain." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1993. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278500/.
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The primary objective of this dissertation is to determine the factors that have shaped the corporate financial reporting practices in Bahrain. Prior researchers have offered two explanations, environmental factors and cultural importation, for the emergence of financial reporting practices in developing countries. The environmental explanation suggests that a nation's financial reporting practices will be shaped by its socioeconomic structure. The cultural importation explanation states that the desire for international legitimacy creates incentives for developing nation to adopt Western financial reporting practices. Bahrain provided an excellent environment in which to examine the two explanations since its public and closed corporations have similar economic characteristics. Only public corporations are legally required to publish financial reports. I posited that public corporations would try to gain legitimacy for their published reports by adopting Western standards, while closed corporations would not have a similar incentive. I used an interpretive framework to analyze the Bahrain socioeconomic environment and to examine the general financial reporting practices of Bahraini corporations. I found that closed corporations provided data responsive to the Bahraini environment. Public corporations, however, adopted International Accounting Standards. My analysis supported prior researchers7 findings that colonialism, the need for international legitimacy, and international audit firms were important factors in gaining acceptance for Western accounting practices. The adoption of Western financial reporting practices may be dysfunctional to a developing nation like Bahrain if these practices do not provide relevant information about corporate performance. Therefore, Bahrain, as well as other developing countries, needs to proceed cautiously before adopting Western corporate reporting practices.
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Al-Hamadeen, Radhi Mousa. "Assurance of corporate stand-alone reporting : evidence from the UK." Thesis, St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/423.
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Binti, Sanayan Zarina. "The quality of Malaysian interim financial reports and the impact of corporate governance on the quality." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/45613/.
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This thesis examines the quality of Malaysian interim financial reports (interims) and the impact of corporate governance on the quality. The quality of interims is proxied by timeliness; compliance with the FRS 134, Interim Financial Reporting; compliance with the Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements (BMLR); and comparability of profit and loss items when they were originally issued and placed in the next year’s corresponding quarter and comparison against the annual reports. Two methods are used to assess the quality of interims namely dichotomous and continuous. The first method provides one score for each proxy if it is in compliance and zero score otherwise and the latter method use the actual values. This thesis has found that the quality of interims is remarkably high for each proxy if a dichotomous method is used and it is moderate for continuous method. The lower quality is due to timeliness and comparability, because Malaysian companies are inclined to publish interims towards the end of the allowable period and most of the interims’is remarkably high for each proxy if a dichotomous method is used and it is moderate for continuous method. The lower quality is due to timeliness and comparability, because Malaysian companies are inclined to publish interims towards the end of the allowable period and most of the interims’ profit and loss items are not comparable. Consequently, compliance with the FRS 134 contributes the most to the quality of interims, while comparability contributes the least. Corporate governance is proxied by the frequency of directors’ meetings, independence, financial literacy, corporate governance expertise, and the ethnicity of directors. This thesis has found that all corporate governance variables are associated with the quality of interims except independence and corporate governance expertise. Despite these associations, multivariate regression reveals that the impact of corporate governance on the quality of interims is very low. These findings have implications for several users such as Malaysian regulatory bodies to ensure that PLC complied with the interim reporting standards; policymakers to ensure there is no misapplication of provision of accounting standards; protect shareholders to appoint appropriate composition of directors; and academicians for future research.
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Finningham, Gary D. "The impact of the introduction of IFRS on corporate annual reports and accounts in the UK." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2010. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/bf19a306-01d4-4b01-a3e1-fa52767a3613.
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From 1 January 2005, all EU-listed firms are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) (EU, 2002). This requirement represents one of the most fundamental changes to affect financial reporting in recent times. This dissertation is an examination of the introduction and impact of IFRS on the annual report and accounts of UK companies in an attempt to investigate the decision-usefulness of the new IFRS disclosures. This examination is facilitated in three ways: (i) a content analysis is undertaken to investigate the magnitude and nature of the changes in IFRS-related disclosure presented in annual report and accounts produced prior to and following the introduction of IFRS; (ii) an analysis of the Reconciliation Statements produced upon first-time adoption of IFRS included in corporate annual reports to examine the impact on both profit and equity as a result of the transition from previous national GAAP to reporting in accordance with IFRS; and, (iii) an assessment of the new IFRS disclosures against the qualitative characteristics outlined in the IASB Decision-Usefulnessfr amework. In other words, it is an investigation of whether the claims of the IASI3 about the usefulness of the mandated IFRS disclosures for decision-makers are supported in practice with the contents of corporate annual reports and accounts in the UK.The results of the content analysis indicate that the implementation of IFRS had a significant impact on the content of the annual report and accounts of UK companies.The amount of disclosure in company annual reports increased significantly following the introduction of the new reporting regime. Furthermore, there was a large increase in the physical size of the annual reports for the vast majority of the firms surveyed. The scale of the impact varied from standard to standard, however, the nature and magnitude of the information presented in UK-published annual reports has been fundamentally impacted by the introduction of IFRS. The Reconciliation Statement analysis results reveal that profit disclosed under UK GAAP increased by 105.85 per cent following the implementation of IFRS. In addition, the results show that the introduction of IFRS had a significant impact on reported equity; however, there was an almost even split between those which experienced a favourable impact following the transition and those disclosing a negative effect on the balance sheet post-IFRS adoption. The main IFRS standards which impacted reported results under previous national GAAP were IAS 10, IAS 12, IAS 19, IAS 40 and the IFRS 3/1AS 36/IAS 38 group of standards.The assessmenot f the decision-usefulness of the new IFRS information reveals that the widespread variation in impact on reported results, the complexity of the supplementary narrative disclosures, absence of company-specific and forward-looking information, uncertainty about the long-term impact of the changeover and the lack of comparability between the Reconciliation Statements will likely have constrained the usefulness of the new disclosures for users and therefore their investment decisions. Thus, one of the aims of the standard setters does not seem to have been achieved as users of UK corporate annual reports were not supplied with more useful information about these companies compared to what was previously disclosed under UK GAAP.
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Hui, Wing-chi, and 許榮枝. "Corporate sustainability and environmental reporting in Hong Kong: current status and future prospects." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31255851.
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Carduff, Kevin Christopher. "Corporate Reporting: From Stewardship to Contract The Annual Reports of the United States Steel Corporation (1902-2006)." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1270568497.
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Hassan, Mohamat Sabri. "The information quality of derivative disclosure in corporate annual reports of Australian firms in the extractive industries." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2004. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/15962/1/Mohamat_Sabri_Hassan_Thesis.pdf.
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Recent events in the business world have focused attention on the importance of high quality financial reporting. Of particular interest is where the collapse of prominent companies such as Baring Plc. was due to the company's involvement with derivative instruments. In Australia, some derivative instruments are not recognised in the balance sheet. However, the Australian accounting standard AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments requires extensive disclosures to overcome the lack of guidance with regard to the recognition and measurement. Therefore, AASB 1033 may be regarded as a high quality disclosure standard.
This thesis investigates the transparency or information quality of derivative disclosures of Australian firms in the extractive industries using 1998 to 2001 financial reports. The extractive industries play a major role in the Australian economy, where they generated exports worth more than A$30billion in 2000 to 2002 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2003a and 2003b). Further, firms in the extractive industries extensively use derivative instruments for hedging purposes (Berkman, Bradbury, Hancock and Innes, 1997). The objective of this study is, first, to examine the relationship between the transparency or disclosure quality of derivative information and firm characteristics. Second, this study investigates the value relevance of derivative disclosures in particularly hedge information, net fair value information and risk information. Quality is measured based on a disclosure index developed from AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments. A finding of concern is that the majority of firms in this study provide less than complete information and therefore enforcement power is required to ensure compliance (Kothari, 2000)
Prior studies have related disclosure quality of accounting information with firm characteristics but no attempt has been made to relate those characteristics with the disclosure quality of derivative instruments. The current study contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between firm characteristics and the quality of derivative disclosures. Firm characteristics investigated are size, profitability, price-earnings ratio, market-to-book ratio, research and development activity, auditor, debt-to-equity ratio and type of extractive firm. This study finds that the variables, firm size, price-earnings and debt-to-equity ratios are associated with the disclosure quality of derivative information. To a lesser extent, the variables, market-to-book ratio and profitability, are also associated with disclosure quality.
High disclosure quality has been argued to lead to a reduction in the cost of debt (Sengupta, 1998) and equity (Botosan, 1997), resulting in higher security prices (Miller and Bahnson, 2002). The results of this study indicate that high quality derivative information, as represented by the disclosure index, is value relevant. Market participants do consider hedge information and risk information components as important for decision-making. However, examining the specific information disclosed in the financial statements indicate that some of the disclosed information such as the unrealised gain or loss on financial assets and liabilities and off-balance sheet derivative financial instruments are not significant.
These results contribute to the value relevance literature as this study focuses on the extractive industries which have been neglected in the literature. This study provides important information for standard setters and regulators for future directions in developing accounting standards and is particularly relevant for the impending adoption of International Accounting Standards.
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Hassan, Mohamat Sabri. "The information quality of derivative disclosure in corporate annual reports of Australian firms in the extractive industries." Queensland University of Technology, 2004. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15962/.
Full textAbstract:
Recent events in the business world have focused attention on the importance of high quality financial reporting. Of particular interest is where the collapse of prominent companies such as Baring Plc. was due to the company's involvement with derivative instruments. In Australia, some derivative instruments are not recognised in the balance sheet. However, the Australian accounting standard AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments requires extensive disclosures to overcome the lack of guidance with regard to the recognition and measurement. Therefore, AASB 1033 may be regarded as a high quality disclosure standard. This thesis investigates the transparency or information quality of derivative disclosures of Australian firms in the extractive industries using 1998 to 2001 financial reports. The extractive industries play a major role in the Australian economy, where they generated exports worth more than A$30billion in 2000 to 2002 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2003a and 2003b). Further, firms in the extractive industries extensively use derivative instruments for hedging purposes (Berkman, Bradbury, Hancock and Innes, 1997). The objective of this study is, first, to examine the relationship between the transparency or disclosure quality of derivative information and firm characteristics. Second, this study investigates the value relevance of derivative disclosures in particularly hedge information, net fair value information and risk information. Quality is measured based on a disclosure index developed from AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments. A finding of concern is that the majority of firms in this study provide less than complete information and therefore enforcement power is required to ensure compliance (Kothari, 2000) Prior studies have related disclosure quality of accounting information with firm characteristics but no attempt has been made to relate those characteristics with the disclosure quality of derivative instruments. The current study contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between firm characteristics and the quality of derivative disclosures. Firm characteristics investigated are size, profitability, price-earnings ratio, market-to-book ratio, research and development activity, auditor, debt-to-equity ratio and type of extractive firm. This study finds that the variables, firm size, price-earnings and debt-to-equity ratios are associated with the disclosure quality of derivative information. To a lesser extent, the variables, market-to-book ratio and profitability, are also associated with disclosure quality. High disclosure quality has been argued to lead to a reduction in the cost of debt (Sengupta, 1998) and equity (Botosan, 1997), resulting in higher security prices (Miller and Bahnson, 2002). The results of this study indicate that high quality derivative information, as represented by the disclosure index, is value relevant. Market participants do consider hedge information and risk information components as important for decision-making. However, examining the specific information disclosed in the financial statements indicate that some of the disclosed information such as the unrealised gain or loss on financial assets and liabilities and off-balance sheet derivative financial instruments are not significant. These results contribute to the value relevance literature as this study focuses on the extractive industries which have been neglected in the literature. This study provides important information for standard setters and regulators for future directions in developing accounting standards and is particularly relevant for the impending adoption of International Accounting Standards.
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Mai, Qiuyue. "The Corporate Interest in Climate Change Issues: Analyzing Annual Reports in Asian Public Listed Companies Covering the Period 2000 - 2009." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-160447.
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Unlimited demands of development and non-stopped destruction of surrounding environments cause many environmental problems. In this paper, Climate Change as one important issue has been studied against an Asian background. For the purpose of showing a clear trend of communicated corporate awareness in global Climate Change issues, in this report, seventy Asian companies have been studied. The results show a relatively low-level growth curve of communicated corporate Climate Change awareness by dissecting companies’ CEO Letters during years 2000 to 2009, followed by a comparison study with European results and five possible explanations in the discussion part. As the conclusion of this paper, an increased interest among Asian governments and companies during year 2000-2009 has been observed. However, there is still lack of knowledge on a general level compared with the European results. According to the five possible explanations, several possible future studies have also been recommended in the paper: 1) Comparison study under the same scope within Asia or other continents; 2) Case-study on specific interested companies; 3) On-going study on the future curve trend with the same target group.
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Chen, Griffy, and 陳泓志. "Corporate Environmental Reports Research." Thesis, 1999. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/67388591167552480007.
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碩士國立政治大學
科技管理研究所
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Abstract Out of strict environmental law, intensive market competition, and the trend toward sustainable development, the environmental responsibility has now become one of the essential elements in doing business. Under the pressure of stakeholders, such as employees, shareholders, and environmental groups, there are more and more enterprises trying to have their own presentation of environmental performance. Among the enterprises of Fortune 500, Three hundreds of them have environmental reports. They believe the environmental report is a good instrument for promoting their image of environmental protection as part of marketing strategy. In Taiwan, both the academic and the public have known very little about environmental report. In the meantime, there are only a few enterprises have their own environmental reports. Consequently, it is necessary for us to systemically examine the environmental reports of the leading company in the world to understand the contents and the level of the information they disclosed. The study collected and analyzed eighty-four standalone corporate environmental reports from different industries around world. Four major issues - management systems, input∕output inventory, finance, and stakeholder relations, and twenty more detail disclosure subjects of environmental report suggested by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) are used as our research units. Via content analysis, we categorized content of these disclosure subjects into four degrees according to their qualitative, quantitative and systematic levels. The eight industries we studied are electrical & gas utilities, automobiles, energy, consumer goods, capital equipment, chemical, service, forest products and papers. We draw the best practice of each disclosure subject in electrical & gas utilities and automobiles as benchmark. In addition to analyze each industry, we compared the industries, summarized the average and the deviation of the disclosure in these twenty subjects, explored the priority of disclosure choice and discuss the differences cause of the industry''s differences. We also analyzed by four regions - America-Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan, to observe and analyze the differences of the reports by the companies in different regions. The main findings of this research are: (1) Currently, the contents covered by most of the environmental reports are: 1. The "Environmental Policy" which declares the organization''s determination to preserve the environment. 2. The operational "Environmental Management System". 3. The "organizational framework" which is responsible for environmental matters. 4. "The data of energy consumption and the effects of energy saving" which response the concerns of the scarcity of energy resource. 5. "The data of air emission and the reducing method " which response the greenhouse gas, global climate changes and local air pollution. 6. "The method of wastes disposal and the result of wastes reduction". 7. "The real effect to environment and consumers" by the operations and the products of business. (2) The disclosure by different industries in four main observed issues are: n Environmental Management Systems 1. Presentation environmental policy is a common consensus, but disclosure of the other three subjects - environmental management system, management responsibility and legal compliance has large variance. 2. The level of disclosure in the management system is not related to the nature of industry''s character. 3. Energy industry has the most disclosure on legal compliance subject, and automobiles industry is least one. 4. Chemical and service industries'' disclosures in this area are more conservative, and the rest six industries are at same level. n Input／Output Inventory Unit 1. Wastes disposal, air emission, and energy consumption are the top three subjects most disclosed by all industries. Accidents and emergency response, water consumption, health and safety are the least three. 2. The nature of the industry will effect the disclosure priority. For example, automobiles industry pays much attention on reducing material and disposing with the wastes because it dealing with thousands of components. n Related Financial issues 1. The sequence of industry''s disclosure in finance is forest products and papers, energy, consumer goods, chemical, service, electrical & gases utilities, capital equipment and automobiles. 2. Companies'' disclosures of environmental spending have wide variance in each industry. n Stakeholder Relations Unit 1. Employees, industry association and local community are the top three stakeholders thought by all industries, so the disclosure information are mostly relevant to them. 2. The industry, which affects the environment badly, like energy and automobiles, will be monitored usually by the government agencies, regulators, or environmental protection group. Therefore, their disclosure performance about the issues is much better than others. (3) The disclosure performance differences of regions are: 1. Companies in Scandinavia region have better environment disclosure in management systems and input∕output inventory issues, but the average performance in stakeholder relations unit is not as good in four regions, it appears that they have a large room to improve on that. 2. Companies in America-Canada region have the best disclosure performance in finance issues, but for those high pollution industry like chemical or energy industry still do not disclose their input and output information sufficiently. 3. The Japan companies'' disclosure performance is not as good currently, but we found their environmental management system are established in most companies, they also interacted with stakeholders actively. So we think Japanese companies have the potential to perform better in the future and reach the world class. Finally, we make some suggestions about how to encourage companies in Taiwan to prepare their environmental reports. (1) Reasons and motivations for company to disclose its environmental information, such as: 1. The responsibility to the environment. 2. Response to the unavoidable trend. 3. Direct and indirect business benefits. 4. The demands from the stakeholders (2) Making corporate environmental report step by step First, establishes a web site, put the most important environmental information (like air emission or wastes disposal). Second, the company must establish its environmental management system, environmental department, and go a step further to report the more extensive input/output data. Third, connection with the shareholders includes employees, investors, legislators, regulators, industry associations and local communities, and keep well interaction with them. As long as you "say what you do, do what you say", then to publish an standalone environmental report with relevant content will be easy!
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Adelowotan, Michael Olajide. "Human capital disclosure in corporate annual reports." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/13468.
Full textAbstract:
It is generally acknowledged that human capital intangibles are major value drivers in the new economy characterised by information and technology. The main purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange disclose information on human capital related issues. The study combined both qualitative (literature reviews and content analysis) and quantitative (survey questionnaire) methods to collect data of 60 corporate annual reports (CARs) of listed companies in South Africa from survey questionnaires administered on various categories of preparers and users of these CARs.
The study made use of 91 human capital disclosure checklists developed from literature reviews for the purpose of data collection. The data analysis was done with the aid of Atlasti-a qualitative data analysis software and SPSS- a quantitative data analysis software.
The findings show that majority of the items on the disclosure checklist are not yet disclosed in the CARs even though most of the items on the checklist are adjudged to be useful for organisational value creation. In view of the initial findings of this study, a human capital disclosure framework is recommended.Business Management
D. Accounting Science
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HUNG, HSIAO-HUA, and 洪小華. "The Association between Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, Corporate Governance, and Operating Strategies." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/329pxn.
Full textAbstract:
碩士輔仁大學
會計學系碩士班
105
In view of the negative issues of the enterprises have occurred frequently in recent years that would cause their own serious damages, in addition, they have given rise to a lot of social problems. Enterprise is as a legal entity, whether it should take up the responsibility of social morality while creates the profits, and which thereby trigger the study of the motivation. This study adopts Probit Regression Analysis to search whether the quality of the corporate governance mechanism will affect the establishment of corporate social responsibility report. Further, this study explores the establishment of corporate social responsibility report whether can cause the impact on debt financing costs and R & D innovation investment strategy; and also discusses the social responsibility report and debt financing for investment in research and development on the cost of the interaction with OLS regression analysis. As the study has indicated that the corporate governance and corporate social responsibility has a positive correlation, that is, the enterprises with good corporate governance mechanism have higher willingness to establish and implement the corporate social responsibility than the enterprises without good corporate governance environment. Moreover, we have learned that the enterprise’s debt finance costs and the establishment of corporate social responsibility report is a negative correlation. It represents that the enterprises emphasis on the corporate social responsibility will obtain the lower debt finance costs in the sustainable operation activities. The establishment of corporate social responsibility report and the investment of the research and innovation activities that showed is a positive correlation. It represents that the enterprise has the willingness to take the corporate social responsibility of "corporate citizenship" while they pursued the goal of maximizing profits for shareholders, and then to implement the research and development investment and to strengthen the corporate image. In addition, this study is based on corporate social responsibility and R & D innovation investment that we have learned the investment of the research and innovation activities and the access to debt finance costs is a positive correlation. That is, the plan for the enterprise to invest in research and development innovation activities is higher and enhance the attentions on “corporate citizenship” responsibility that will strengthen their corporate image. That will be useful the stakeholders to understand the operation of the enterprise, and then can reduce the cost of financing, so that the enterprises can achieve lower costs of debt capital.
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HO, HSIU-CHUN, and 賀秀君. "The Relationship between Assurance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Corporate Performance." Thesis, 2018. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/d8tg3y.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立中正大學
會計與資訊科技學系碩士在職專班
106
Using a sample of Taiwanese listed firms that issued corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports during 2012 and 2016, this paper studies whether and how different assurance providers and assurance standards affect corporate performance. This paper further analyzes the association between corporate performance and the choice of Big four or non-Big four auditors as the assurance providers. The empirical results show that, compared to other assurance providers, companies have better performance when their CSR reports are assured by accounting firms. In addition, firms with CSR reports assured by the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 or the Assurance Engagement Standards No. 1 of Taiwan show better performance than those firms with CSR reports assured by the AA1000 Assurance Standard. Furthermore, I find no significant difference in corporate performance when CSR reports are assured either by the Big four or non-Big four auditors. Additional tests show that compared to non-Big four accounting firms and other assurance providers, Big four auditors have a significant and positive impact on corporate performance.
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Lin, Hsiao-Su, and 林筱素. "Corporate Responsibility Reports Research: Evidence From U.K. Corporations." Thesis, 2010. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/47671392432251555789.
Full textAbstract:
碩士輔仁大學
會計學系碩士班
98
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the study develops a performance indicator based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to measure the level of disclosure in corporate responsibility reports. The sample comprised the 100 largest U.K. firms (FTSE100) in eight industries from 2007 to 2008. The GRI is a widely acknowledged guideline for reporting the economic, environmental and social aspects of a firm’s activities. A disclosure-scoring technique is employed to analyze the scope of the reports and disclosure levels among different industries. The findings indicate that firms in the environmental sensitive industries tend to provide higher level disclosure. In addition, the results suggest that firms tend to disclose more environmental information and pay less attention to the economic information. The environmental indicators are about issues such as air emissions, energy consumption, waste and the plan reducing the impact of environment. The social indicators are about issues such as labor, health and safety. The second purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance. Under the slack resource theory, better financial position can provide a cushion that allows firms to initiate strategy with respect to CSR. In this study, the performance of CSR is determined by adopting the content analysis score, and two accounting based measures are used to determine firm profitability. The findings indicate that the levels of CSR have positive association with financial performance, which is supported for the slack resource theory.
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Cronje, C. J. (Christo Johannes). "Corporate annual reports (CARS) : accounting practices in transition." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/29816.
Full textAbstract:
The main goal of this thesis was to obtain an understanding of the way in which accounting practices that are constantly in transition generate the information that is disclosed in corporate annual reports (CARS). The study shows that CARS may be seen as a product of two main interrelated information processing systems, the first being the mandatory financial information system (MFIS) and the second the discretionary information system (DIS). The MFIS uses accounting practices such as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which include International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Accounting Standards (IASs), JSE regulations and the Companies' Act requirements, in producing the information disclosed in CARS. The needs of users to reduce the uncertainty and risks in their decision making have an influence on the constantly evolving accounting practices. Standard-setting bodies play a major role in the development and refinement of GAAP. On the other hand, the DIS, in order to provide a complete picture of business entities, uses discretionary accounting practices to produce the contextual information contained in CARS. These discretionary accounting practices are also currently in transition. They cater for the production of information on the business environment, and provide an operating and financial review, overview of strategy, forward-looking information, key performance indicators and information on corporate governance and transparency. Standard-setting bodies may be able to use the contextual information contained in CARS to develop and refine the GAAP used by the MFIS.Thesis (DComm(Accounting Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2008.
Financial Management
DCom
unrestricted
47
Hsiu-NingYang and 楊秀寧. "Readability of 10-K reports and corporate tax avoidance." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29r77u.
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Lin, Yi-Chun, and 林怡君. "The Relationship between Corporate Sustainability Reports and Financial Performance." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18821954261856880947.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺北大學
會計學系
100
This research investigates the relationship between the quality of corporate sustainability reports and financial performance. We develop a multiple regression model to test the research hypotheses. Our sample comes from the listed companies which issued corporate sustainability reports in Taiwan between 2006 and 2010. The quality of corporate sustainability reports is measured by using content analysis methodology to develop scores based on the socre framework of 2010 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Report Awards. Empirical results of this study show that: 1. The companies which issued corporate sustainability reports have better financial performance. Firm’s sustainability reports have a significant impact on ROA and Tobin’s Q. 2. This Study also examines the relationship between the quality of corporate sustainability reports and financial performance.We find that there is a significantly positive relation between the quality of corporate sustainability reports and Tobin’s Q. However, the impact of corporate sustainability reports quality on ROA is not significant.The result means that providing high quality corporate sustainability reports has no positive impact on firm’s short-term profit, but has a significant positive effect on firm’s long-term value.
49
Hung, Shu-Chi, and 洪淑琪. "Corporate Voluntary Disclosure and the Capital Market characteristics: Evidence from Corporate Social Responsibility Reports." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77453388364215134966.
Full textAbstract:
碩士輔仁大學
會計學系碩士班
103
Experienced the food safety and fraud events, environmental pollution made by the famous enterprises, Taiwan has facing the serious corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues. It not only becomes the unstable factors in society, but also influences the order in capital market. With a global commitment in CSR, we have noticed the importance relative to understanding ‘How the enterprise’s operating influences the society, environments and economics.’ Moreover, the disclosure of CSR report has been an international trend. Therefore, in this study, we have collected and classified the CSR reports and authentication services, announced by Taiwan listed and Over-The-Counter company, from the domain web database in Taiwan. With a sampling period from 2003 to 2013, we examine the relationship between the voluntary disclosure of CSR reports and the capital market characteristics. And measuring the capital market characteristics by several important parameters, information asymmetry and Tobin’s Q, stock returns and institutional investor holdings, finally the analyst’s intention in forecasting the target enterprise. As a result of impacting on the environment, we also explore the relationship between the environment sensitive industry and the capital market characteristics. In sensitive test, we try to illustrate if the CSR reports with authentication or enterprises to be awarded a prize will has critical impacts on the capital market characteristics. With an empirical result, the first of all, we have found that disclosure of CSR report, indeed, decreases the situation of information asymmetry. Moreover, comparing to the enterprises without the CSR report disclosure, the enterprises with CSR report disclosure usually performs with a higher market value, stock returns and institutional investor holdings. Furthermore, it is worse in information asymmetry and has the lower institutional investor holdings in an environment sensitive industry. However, the analyst’s intention in forecasting and tracking the enterprise will be higher, on the contrary, possibly because of the characteristics and the worse information asymmetry in this industry. Likewise, the enterprise in environment sensitive industry disclose their CSR reports that also reduce the situation of information asymmetry and raise up the institutional investor holdings apparently. As a result in a sensitive test, the certificated CSR report has a significant contribution to decrease the situation of information asymmetry. However, in other capital market characteristics researches, the conclusions do not meet what we anticipated. We suppose that the authentication services to CSR report should be still an unfamiliar area to the participants in Taiwan capital market. Eventually, with statistically significant, the enterprises which are awarded the ‘Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility’ have the better performance in handling the situation of information asymmetry and market value, stock returns and the institutional investor holdings. Generally speaking, disclosing the CSR report will be helpful to lower the situation of information asymmetry; meanwhile, attracting the institutional investors to engage in relative investment. Also, we have found the positive evidences in better performance on market value and stock returns. Therefore, we conclude that the CSR report does have positive driving force to the capital market.
50
Chou, Tzu-Yun, and 周子筠. "The Risk Management Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports on Corporate Reputation: Evidence from Taiwan." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/xf622r.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣大學
會計學研究所
105
This study investigates the risk management effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports on corporate reputation in Taiwan. Specifically, little is known whether issuance of independent CSR reports could dampen or reduce the negative market reaction to the firms with negative CSR events afterwards. When firms disclose negative events, whether issuing CSR reports will have insurance effects on firms and mitigate the declines in stock price or intensify the impact of negative events and cause greater damage to firms’ reputation. The sample includes the listed companies with negative events from year 2014 to 2016 in Taiwan. The sample includes both firms with voluntary and mandatory CSR reports. The empirical results show that voluntary CSR reports do not have insurance effects on firms, but have incremental negative effects. It is possibly because the voluntary ones, considered good firms before negative events, make the community feel deceived when negative events occur. These firms obtain more severe sanctions so that CSR reports cause greater damage to firms’ reputation. However, mandatory issuance of CSR reports has no impact on firms’ reputation.