Recipients of Public Sector Annual Reports: Theory and an Empirical Study Compared

Coy, David; Dixon, Keith; Buchanan, John; Tower, Greg

doi:10.1006/bare.1996.0039

Cited by 44 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Prior studies have assigned stakeholders to categories. Stakeholders were given the choice of the 7 categories which were commonly agreed in the public sector accounting literature, ratepayers/taxpayers, other resource providers, elected officials, other recipients of services, oversight bodies, internal management and other like entities (see for example Anthony, 1978;Coy et al, 1997;Clark, 2001). This direct identification of stakeholder groups allows an accurate assessment of the absolute and comparative importance of the annual report from an individual stakeholder perspective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a New Zealand study, Coy et al, (1997) attempted to directly identify the users of tertiary education institutions' annual reports and sought their views on the qualities and disclosures of the annual reports that they received. They used a similar data collection method to that of the UK study, but refined the method by obtaining the co-operation of tertiary education institutions in placing cards in all reports distributed and then surveying those recipients who returned the cards.…”

Section: Approaches Taken In Prior Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is there an audience for public sector annual reports: Australian evidence?

Mack

Ryan

2007

International Journal of Public Sector Management

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Purpose -The purpose of this research is to investigate the role and importance of the annual report as a source of information about public sector entities.Methodology/Approach -This research uses a survey methodology to access users of public sector annual reports and is innovative because it has directly studied actual users across the entire public sector. Findings -The findings of this research indicate that the annual report is an important source of information about public sector entities but it is not the most important source of information. This study also found that the annual report is not regarded as equally important across all public sector entity types. Differences in the importance attached to the annual report by different stakeholder groups were also noted.Research Implications -These findings have important implications for policy makers with respect to the information content of public sector annual reports. In particular the blanket approach to legislative requirements for annual reporting may need to be reviewed in view of the findings of this research that there are differing levels of importance attached to the annual report as an information source by users from different public sector entity types.Originality -The research in this paper is original in that it has, systematically and directly accessed users of public sector annual reports to determine their information sources. ABSTRACTInternationally, the increased emphasis on performance and accountability in the public sector in the last quarter of a century has led to a greater awareness of mechanisms that are available to discharge accountability. In this respect, policy makers have placed increased reliance on the annual report. Some argue the annual report is an integral part of citizen engagement that enables government agencies to discharge their accountability obligations to a diverse group of stakeholders. Others discount the importance of annual reporting arguing that in spite of the considerable resources consumed to produce these reports there is no public interest in them. In terms of adding to this debate, there is little empirical evidence on stakeholders' use of the annual report, the importance of annual reports as an information source to stakeholders and the importance of other forms of information. This study uses a survey method to obtain the views of recipients of annual reports across three different Australian public sector entity types -government departments, local government authorities and government owned corporations to determine whether stakeholders in the public sector consider the annual report to be an important information source relative to other information sources. The study finds that the annual report is considered an important source of information, and further, that this perception varies for the different public sector entity types and across different stakeholder categories. This research has important implications for policy makers in their consideration of accountability mechanisms to st...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Approaches Taken In Prior Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there an audience for public sector annual reports: Australian evidence?

Mack

Ryan

2007

International Journal of Public Sector Management

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“…In this vein, Engstrom and Fountain (1989) and Coy et al (1997) have identified some groups of users interested in the financial information provided by universities: internal campus-based citizens (senior manager, support staff, academics), sister organizations (employees of other tertiary education institutions), elected and appointed representatives (board members, government and regulators), resource providers (suppliers and lenders, donors and sponsors, professional associations), external citizens (voters and taxpayers, advisers and consultants) and analysts and media (researchers, journalists).…”

Section: Financial Information In Universities: Use Of the Internetmentioning

confidence: 95%

Universities’ Websites: Disclosure Practices and the Revelation of Financial Information

Gallego

García²,

Rodríguez³

2009

IJDAR

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Despite the social importance of universities and their significance as receivers of public funds, hardly any research exists about their disclosure of financial information. The scarce research that has been done has focused on countries such as the United States, New Zealand, Austria, the United Kingdom and Norway. In addition, the Internet is used widely on behalf of public bodies as a way to improve their relations with citizens, through greater disclosure of information and the possibility of doing administrative business and paperwork online. Considering both topics, this work has a twofold objective: (1) to analyse the disclosure of information revealed online by Spanish universities, focusing on several issues, such as financial information, corporate governance, social responsibility and strategy, teaching and research activities, etc.; and (2) to observe the factors that explain the disclosure of financial information through Spanish universities' websites, focusing mainly on size, leverage, university profitability, governance, type of university, research orientation, age of the university and its internationality etc. This study takes into account the whole population of Spanish universities (70 universities: 48 public and 22 private). The findings obtained emphasize that university websites mainly disclose information on teaching and research activities and on governing bodies; to a lesser extent, they reveal information on their social responsibility and strategic aspects; and finally, the volume of financial information disclosed remains quite small, mainly including their budgets. Furthermore, the universities with lower levels of leverage disclose more information online, whereas those with higher volumes of debt are more reluctant to reveal their internal situation on the Internet.

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“…A resident in a municipality is not only an 'owner' but also a 'customer' (Grönlund, Tagesson and Öhman, 2005). Besides residents and voters, there are other principals such as central government, creditors/investors (GASB, 1999), sister organizations such as other municipalities (Coy et al, 1997;Mack and Ryan, 2006) and internal users such as officials and politicians (Mack and Ryan, 2006).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though citizens and other stakeholders often lack direct interest in municipal accounting matters (Zimmerman, 1977;Alijarde, 1997;Coy et al, 1997;Bouckaert and Dooren, 2003), municipal accounting is an important part of the democratic system (GASB, 1987;Edström et al, 2004). Voters and taxpayers have a 'right to know ' (GASB, 1987) and must be regarded as the primary stakeholders of municipal accounting (Daniels and Daniels, 1991).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consolidated financial reports in local government: a comparative analysis of IPSASB and SCMA

Grossi¹,

Tagesson²

2008

Implementing Reforms in Public Sector Accounting

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Municipal and local governments seem to use other entities to a larger extent to organise and co-ordinate their activities. Thus the need and demand for consolidated financial statements has been observed in several countries as well as by international standard-setters such as the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB). Sweden introduced consolidated financial statements in municipalities and local governments in the 1980s and is one of the few countries where consolidated financial statements for municipalities and local governments are fully implemented. The aim of this study is to analyse similarities and differences in the approach to consolidated financial statements in standards issued by the IPSASB and the Swedish Council for Municipal Accounting (SCMA). The analysis is based on data from documentary studies and interviews. The results show that the two standard-setters approach the problem of consolidation quite differently. While the IPSASB seems to emphasise decision-making, the SCMA accentuates accountability. As a result, the standard-setters come to different conclusions about such matters as concept of control, valuation and methods of consolidation.

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Recipients of Public Sector Annual Reports: Theory and an Empirical Study Compared

Cited by 44 publications

References 13 publications

Is there an audience for public sector annual reports: Australian evidence?

Is there an audience for public sector annual reports: Australian evidence?

Universities’ Websites: Disclosure Practices and the Revelation of Financial Information

Consolidated financial reports in local government: a comparative analysis of IPSASB and SCMA

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