Human Resources Disclosure in the Annual Reports: A Case of Romanian Listed Companies from the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

Abstract The main objective of this paper is to determine whether corporate characteristics reflecting financial performance, size, and information on internal and external audit, or performance management are determinants of human resources disclosure in the annual reports. In this paper, information from annual reports of six Romanian companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange are collected for the years 2012-2021, using content analysis. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Moreover, the multiple linear regression is applied to cross-sectional panel data in order to determine the effects of human resources disclosure index in relation to return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), leverage, number of employees, company size, company age, the existence of an Audit Committee, the auditor type and performance management. The results show that the age of the company and the existence of the Audit Committee are the most significant variables positively correlated with disclosure of human resources information. Furthermore, leverage is another significant variable, however, negatively associated with the level of company disclosure in the annual report. The variables ROA, ROE, number of employees, company size, type of auditor and performance management do not have a significant impact on human resources disclosure in the case of Romanian listed companies from the medical and pharmaceutical industry.