The information gap in  annual reports

Hooks, Jill; Coy, David; Davey, Howard

doi:10.1108/09513570210440577

Cited by 111 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…First, the relative importance of the annual report in both sectors has been assumed to be equal. However, it is widely argued that in the public sector, in the absence of a market, and definable performance measures, accountability through the regulated disclosure of information is even more important (Hooks, 2002;Coy et al, 2001;Guthrie et al, 2003). Second, the format and content of the public sector annual report has been adopted from the private sector with little regard for the differences in operating structure and objectives of the organisations in the two sectors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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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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: Introductionmentioning

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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“…Content analysis is one of the most used methodologies in the study of corporate communication [47][48][49], as it permits one to obtain reliable and valid information from narratives. Content analysis is therefore largely applied in the study of mission statements [15,30,31,34,38].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder Orientation in Cruise Lines’ Mission Statements

2017

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Consistent with the extant management literature, mission statements are crucial for the sustainability and growth of any firms and have been considered to be a tool for the strategic management process. Despite the considerable attention awarded to this theme, the role of the mission statement in the strategic management of tourism firms has not been sufficiently highlighted. The present paper tries to bridge this literature gap and aims to (i) analyze the content of mission statements; and (ii) investigate the stakeholder orientation of cruise line mission statements. We apply a content analysis method to analyze the mission statements of 44 cruise lines, employing three different perspectives: (1) the inclusion of stakeholder groups; (2) mentions of specific "mission" components; (3) reference to four goals usually assigned to mission statements. The analysis was performed using the software package QDA-Miner. The results suggest that it is possible to identify four clusters of firms that present similar content in their mission statements, and that cruise companies tend to reserve a major attention to customers. This contribution presents some valuable research implications mainly useful for researchers and academics, but also maybe of benefit to professionals and investors.

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“…Annual reports have been reported to be inadequate, hence investors tend to resort to other sources for corporate information (Chandra 1974). Inadequate disclosure has resulted in an information gap between stakeholders' expectations and disclosure provided in annual reports (Hooks et al (2002). In the Malaysian context, research on the importance of annual reports dates back to 1980s and 1990s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance and Usefulness of Corporate Annual Reports in Malaysia

Ghazali

2010

GADJAH MADA INT. J. BUS.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived importance and usefulness of corporate annual reports in Malaysia and to determine if there is a difference between the perceptions of preparers and users of corporate annual reports. Data for this study were collected using a questionnaire survey conducted in late 2006 and early 2007. Preparers are represented by chief financial officers while users by investment analysts. The mean scores for preparers and users are compared using the independent samples t test and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test to determine if there are any statistically significant differences in their opinions. The findings reveal that preparers rank the annual report as the most important source of corporate information. Users, on the other hand, rank the annual report as the second most important after the visits to companies. However, the difference in the mean scores of preparers and those of users on the importance of annual reports is not significant at 5 percent level. The difference in the mean scores for the visits to companies is, on the other hand, statistically significant at 5 percent level. An implication for this finding is whether the annual report serves the information needs of analysts for decision-making purposes. An opportunity thus arises for future research to examine information needs of analysts and if there is a gap between information provided in annual reports and that required by analysts. Keywords: corporate annual reports; disclosure; Malaysia; transparency

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The information gap in annual reports

Cited by 111 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

Stakeholder Orientation in Cruise Lines’ Mission Statements

The Importance and Usefulness of Corporate Annual Reports in Malaysia

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