Concise corporate reporting: Communication or symbolism?

Corporate Communications

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 418-432

  Hrasky, Sue ^a   Smith, Bernadette ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

Australia; Financial reporting; Investors; Stakeholder analysis; Symbolism

Indexed keywords

EID: 54949156811     PISSN: 13563289     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/13563280810914847     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Abrahamson, E. and Park, C. (1994), "Concealment of negative organizational outcomes: an agency theory perspective", Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 1302-34.
2. Anderson, R. (1998), "Regulating corporate annual reports in Australia", Business and Economic History, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 522-34.
3. Bartlett, S. and Chandler, R. (1997), "The corporate report and the private shareholder: Lee and Tweedie twenty years on", British Accounting Review, Vol. 29, pp. 245-61.
4. Beattie, V. and Jones, M. (1992), "The use and abuse of graphs in annual reports: theoretical framework and empirical study", Accounting & Business Research, Vol. 22 No. 88, pp. 291-303.
5. Beattie, V. and Jones, M. (1997), "A comparative study of the use of financial graphs in the corporate annual reports of major US and UK companies", Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 33-67.
6. Beattie, V. and Jones, M. (2000), "Changing graph use in corporate annual reports", Contemporary Accounting Research, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 213-26.
7. Chandra, G. (1989), "Disclosures in summary annual reports: an intra- and inter-company comparison", Ohio CPA Journal, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 18-25.
8. Clatworthy, M. and Jones, M. (2001), "The effect of thematic structure on the variability of annual report readability", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 311-26.
9. Clatworthy, M. and Jones, M. (2006), "Differential patterns of textual characteristics and company performance in the chairman's statement", Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 493-511.
10. Courtis, J. (1982), "Private shareholders response to corporate annual reports", Accounting and Finance, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 53-72.
11. Courtis, J. (1997), "Corporate annual report graphical communication in Hong Kong: effective or misleading?", Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 269-88.
12. Courtis, J. (2004), "Corporate report obfuscation: artefact or phenomenon?", British Accounting Review, Vol. 36, pp. 291-312.
13. Dolphin, R. (2004), "The strategic role of investor relations", Corporate Communications: an International Journal, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 25-42.
14. Epstein, M. and Pava, M. (1993), The Shareholder's Use of Corporate Annual Reports, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
15. Epstein, M. and Pava, M. (1994), "How useful are corporate annual reports?", Business Credit, Vol. 95 No. 4, pp. 18-20.
16. Fox, R. (2006), "Corporations' ideologies: a new subfield of corporate communications", Corporate Communications: an International Journal, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 353-70.
17. Frownfelter-Lohrke, C. and Fulkerson, C. (2001), "The incidence and quality of graphics in annual reports: an international comparison", The Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 337-58.
18. Goodman, M. (2006), "Corporate communication practice and pedagogy at the dawn of the new millennium", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 196-213.
19. Gotsi, M. and Wilson, A. (2001), "Corporate reputation: seeking a definition", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 24-30.
20. Hardy, C. and Kent, J. (1997), "Graph", in Ryan, J. and Heazlewood, C. (Eds), Australian Company Reporting: 1997, AARF Accounting Research Study No. 14, AARF, Melbourne, pp. 325-8.
21. Hynes, G. and Bexley, J. (2004), "Understandability of banks' annual reports", Education Review of Business Communications, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 81-96.
22. Johnson, J., Rice, R. and Roemmcih, R. (1980), "Pictures that lie: the abuse of graphs in annual reports", Management Accounting, October, pp. 50-60.
23. Kim, J., Bach, S. and Clelland, I. (2007), "Symbolic or behavioural management? Corporate reputation in high-emission industries", Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 77-98.
24. Kohut, G. and Segars, A. (1992), "The President's letter to stockholders: an examination of corporate communication strategy", Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 7-21.
25. Lee, C. and Morse, D. (1990), "Summary annual reports", Accounting Horizons, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 39-50.
26. Lee, T. and Tweedie, D. (1975), "Accounting information: an investigation of private shareholder usage", Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 21, pp. 280-91.
27. Leung, P. and Cooper, B. (2003), "The mad hatter's corporate tea party", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 18 Nos 6/7, pp. 505-17.
28. Li, F. (2006), "Annual report readability, earnings and stock returns", Ross School of Business Working Paper Series, University of Michigan, MI, February.
29. Lord, H. (2002), "Annual reports: a literature review (1989-2001)", Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 367-89.
30. Mallin, C. (2002), "Editorial: the relationship between corporate governance, transparency and financial disclosure", Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 253-5.
31. Nair, R. and Rittenberg, L. (1990), "Summary annual reports: background and implications for financial reporting and auditing", Accounting Horizons, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 25-38.
32. O'Sullivan, M. and Percy, M. (2004), "Concise reporting in Australia: has the concise report replaced the traditional financial report for adopting companies?", Australian Accounting Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 40-7.
33. Prasad, A. and Mir, R. (2002), "Digging deep for meaning: a critical hermeneutic analysis of CEO letters to shareholders in the oil industry", Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 92-116.
34. PriceWaterHouseCoopers (2007), Corporate Reporting: A Time for Reflection a Survey of the Fortune Global 500 companies' Narrative Reporting, PWC Global, London, April 2007.
35. Rezaee, Z. and Porter, G. (1988), "Summary annual reports: is shorter better?", Journal of Accountancy, Vol. 165 No. 5, pp. 42-54.
36. Rutherford, B. (2003), "Obfuscation, textual complexity and the role of regulated narrative accounting disclosure in corporate governance", Journal of Management and Governance, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 187-210.
37. Schmid, C. and Schmid, S. (1979), Handbook of Graphic Presentation, Wiley, New York, NY.
38. Schroeder, N. and Gibson, C. (1992), "Are summary annual reports successful?", Accounting Horizons, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 28-37.
39. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (1998), A plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents, Office of Investor Education and Assistance, SEC, Washington, DC.
40. Sias, C. (1979), "Financial communication with graphs", Management Accounting (NY), Vol. 40-42, April, p. 47.
41. Smith, B. (2005), "Characteristics of firms that issue concise financial reports in Australia", Financial Reporting, Regulation & Governance, Vol. 4 No. 1, available at: www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/V4N1Smith1. pdf (accessed 22 March 2006).
42. Stanton, P. and Stanton, J. (2002), "Corporate annual reports: research perspectives used", Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 478-500.
43. Steinbart, P. (1989), "The auditor's responsibility for the accuracy of graphs in annual reports", Accounting Horizons, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 60-70.
44. Subramanian, R., Insley, R. and Blackwell, R. (1993), "Performance and readability: a comparison of annual reports of profitable and unprofitable corporations", The Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 49-61.
45. Sydserff, R. and Weetman, P. (2002), "Developments in content analysis: a transitivity index and DICTION scores", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 523-45.
46. Tarca, A. and Atmadja, N. (2004), "Australian managers' review of operations: what do they disclose?", working paper presented at Seminar Series Workshop, University of NSW, Sydney, April.
47. Thomas, J. (1997), "Discourse in the marketplace: the making of meaning in annual reports", Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 47-66.
48. Tondkar, R., Coffman, E. and Cunningham, B. (1988), "New developments in summary annual reports", The CPA Journal, Vol. 58 No. 9, pp. 78-9.
49. Ward, M. (1998), "Summary financial statements: an analysis of the adoption decision. A research note", The British Accounting Review, Vol. 30, pp. 249-60.