Evolution of information content from an institutional perspective: El Alcázar brewery (1928–1993)

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the information provided by El Alcázar, a private Spanish company, over the period 1928-1993. This information includes: Memoria, that is, qualitative information contained in the annual report, which is a Management Report to shareholders; the minutes of the Board of Directors; and the minutes of the Shareholder General Meeting. We apply a longitudinal thematic content analysis with the aim of understanding how the content of these documents adapts to the different institutional settings experienced by the company. Following Meyer (1986), different environments may determine the amount of accounting information a particular company produces beyond the variation determined by its intrinsic technical needs. The period studied bears witness to a number of relevant institutional conditions involving deep social, economic, cultural and political changes. The results show that these documents change between the stages identified in response to the pressures of different institutional environments.

The influence of institutional factors on corporate narratives: A thematic content analysis of Guinness

“…Indeed, as mentioned, the content of the Chairman's Statement is relatively stable overall (see Appendix 4). This is to an extent in contrast to the findings of Moreno and Cámara (2014). Their study was over a longer time frame , in a different context and of a much smaller Spanish organisation.…”

“…While using some content analysis methods, Badua and Watkins' (2011) work is less similar to the nature of the present study. A study by Moreno and Cámara (2014) is closer in nature, as it uses a content analysis method to identify themes over time in some corporate documents, one of them similar to the Chairman's Statement; coincidentally they also study the brewing sector.…”

“…The current study similarly uses time periods, which we have outlined in the previous section mainly based on economic and social conditions because, in contrast to the Spanish case, the Irish and UK political landscapes were quite stable in the period of study 12 . In addition, the present study is based on a well-known multinational company, whereas Moreno and Cámara's (2014) work is on a much smaller brewery and organisation.…”

“…This approach permeates both the contemporary and historic accounting literature. To give two brief examples, from the accounting history literature, Moreno and Cámara (2014) draw on the nature of the institutional environment and analyse how it affects corporate disclosures; or, from the contemporary literature, Colasse and Pochet (2009) draw on coercive and mimetic isomorphism to explore the accounting standards setting process.…”

Relación de agencia y monopolio. El caso del tabaco en España (1887-1986)

“…Sobre información cualitativa revelada en la información contable de empresas existen investigaciones longitudinales, con bases teóricas distintas a la teoría de la agencia, como las de Tinker y Neimark (1987), sobre General Motors 1917-1976, usando la perspectiva de la economía política; Guthrie y Parker (1989), sobre US Steel and Broken Hill Propietary 1885-1985, bajo la teoría de la legitimidad; y utilizando la teoría institucional, los de Casasola (2007), sobre Cepsa 1930-2004y Repsol-YPF 1987-2004, y Moreno y Cámara (2014), sobre El Alcázar 1928-1993 Este caso presenta las siguientes fortalezas: a) es una relación de monopolio en la que existe una gran desconfianza creada por la ineficiencia de la gestión anterior; por ello, el control por parte del propietario es atípico y muy riguroso; b) son muchos los contratos que se firman durante el periodo de arrendamiento, siendo gran parte de las modificaciones nuevas medidas de control; c) se dispone de una serie ininterrumpida de 100 años de información contable, tanto de los informes anuales de la empresa como de los estados de liquidación sobre la renta encomendada, relativos a un periodo en el que se producen sustanciales cambios políticos, sociales y económicos, que resumimos en la tabla 1; d) se produce un cambio significativo en la estructura del capital en 1944; e) es un monopolio que supone un porcentaje muy significativo a los ingresos del Estado, aproximadamente un 12% a lo largo del siglo xix y primera mitad del siglo xx, aunque su participación vaya reduciéndose, y f) un estudio histórico como es este puede contribuir positivamente a la construcción, mejora o desarrollo de las perspectivas teóricas utilizadas en la investigación contable (Araujo, 2003;Donoso, 2005;Carmona, 2010).…”