Companies Image: Marketing and Financial Communications

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the quality of the economic and financial data from the point of view of satisfying the shareholders’ demands as well as of the influences that the structure of the shareholding can have on a company’s economic and financial informational system. The bases for the theoretical background were a systematic overview and a critical analysis of the literature from the study field. According to the findings from the literature study, links were developed between the study areas and a hypothesis of the relationship between the state’s status as a stakeholder and the quality of the information that was published in the annual reports. The analysed sample initially was made up of those companies (105) that were listed on the Stock Market of Bucharest whereas the evaluation method of the quality of disclosure was based on the scoring method, i.e. the scoring points that are given to the classified elements, the nature of the simple or derivative indicators. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria remained only 65 of the company. The object of research is the companies that prepare their financial reports using the IFRS reference (International Financial Reporting Standards). The main information sources were the annual or interim published financial reports. This paper shows that economic and financial communication needs to make improvements in terms of the informational transparency that is a key element for building up its credibility. Even if the study’s practical examples focussed only on the stakeholders’ demands, the quality of the economic and financial disclosure requires that the supplied information has all those features that characterize high-quality information, that is the must be relevant and precise, easy to understand, timely, comparable and verifiable. The importance of the present study results from the fact that the beneficiaries of financial information are becoming more and more interested in quality information, a characteristic that is basically the foundation of their decisions in regards to the reporting entity. The results of the study may be useful to the stakeholders, the business environment, the financial-banking institutions, the state, highlighting the importance, need and benefits of a qualitative economic and financial communication in the decision-making process.