Performance Information Disclosure Research Articles

Media pressures and corporate disclosure of social responsibility performance information: A study of two global clothing and sports retail companies

This paper investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of two large multinational companies, specifically Nike and Hennes&Mauritz. Utilising a joint consideration of legitimacy theory and media agenda setting theory, we investigate the linkage between negative media attention, and positive corporate social and environmental disclosures. Our results generally support a view that for those industry‐related social and environmental issues attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention, these corporations react by providing positive social and environmental disclosures. The results were particularly significant in relation to labour practices in developing countries – the issue attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention for the companies in question.

Private and Public Relative Performance Information Under Different Incentive Systems

Private and Public Relative Performance Information under Different Incentive Systems By: Ivo Tafkov This study investigates the conditions under which providing relative performance information to employees has a positive effect on effort and performance. Specifically, I study, via an experiment, the effect of relative performance information (present or absent) on effort and performance under two incentive systems that do not tie employees' compensation to peer performance (flat-wage or individual performance-based). Furthermore, given the presence of relative performance information, I examine the effect of the type of relative performance information disclosure (private - employee's anonymity is preserved or public - employees' anonymity is not preserved) on effort and performance under a flat-wage and an individual performance-based contract. Using theory from psychology, I predict and find that relative performance information positively affects effort and performance under the two incentive systems and that this positive effect is greater under an individual performance-based compensation contract than under a flat-wage compensation contract. Also, I predict and find that when relative performance information is present, publicly (vs. privately) disclosing relative performance information positively affects effort and performance, and this effect is greater under an individual performance-based compensation contract than under a flat- wage compensation contract. Private and Public Relative Performance Information under Different Incentive Systems By Ivo Tafkov B.B.A., Sofia University, 1998 M.B.A., Kennesaw State University, 2003 Advisor: Kristy Towry, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business 2009

Forecasting and reporting performance: the search for the holy grail?

More than 500 public entities in New Zealand are required to publicly report prospective and actual performance information. Most of the requirements have been in place for more than 15 years, their origins lying in the public sector reforms of the 1980s. There is strong theoretical logic supporting the usefulness of publicly disclosed performance information, with disclosure of non-financial performance information a growing phenomenon internationally. Indeed, last year I attended an international gathering of auditors-general at which it was clear that the demand for such information is growing.

Time for a change

Time for a change

A comparative empirical examination of extent of disclosure by private and public colleges and universities in the United States

This study examines the annual reports of 100 United States (US) institutions of higher education to determine identifiable and measurable factors associated with extent of disclosure. Each disclosure was weighted by its relative importance to users of college and university financial statements. The measurement construct for extent of disclosure was the ratio of an institution’s total disclosure score to its total possible disclosure score. Institution size and public/private status were associated with total extent of disclosure but leverage and audit firm size were not significant. Extent of disclosure of non-financial performance information (service efforts and accomplishments) was associated with high tuition rates and low dependence on tuition revenue and with state auditors as opposed to public accounting firm auditors. The findings are consistent with accountability and public interest tenets (Coy, D., Fischer, M., Gordon, T., 2001. Public accountability: a new paradigm for college and university annual reports. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 12 (1), 1–31). Highly visible institutions, those larger in size or audited by the state, disclosed more information. Moreover, some institutions used a corporate-style report to better promote their interests.

Improving Quality Through Public Disclosure Of Performance Information

Despite a growing consensus that serious quality problems afflict U.S. health care, state and federal governments have done little to improve the quality of care. Proposed health insurance reforms, including a Medicare prescription drug benefit and the use of tax credits for insurance expansion, could create a mechanism for stimulating and then monitoring improvements in quality. We propose legislative requirements that any new expenditure of federal funds for health benefits be accompanied by public disclosure of performance information regarding quality, effectiveness, and safety. Such disclosure could yield diverse public and institutional benefits.

Reporting comparative results from hospital patient surveys.

Externally-reported assessments of hospital quality are in increasing demand, as consumers, purchasers, providers, and public policy makers express growing interest in public disclosure of performance information. This article presents an analysis of a groundbreaking program in Massachusetts to measure and disseminate comparative quality information about patients' hospital experiences. The article emphasizes the reporting structure that was developed to address the project's dual goals of improving the quality of care delivered statewide while also advancing public accountability. Numerous trade-offs were encountered in developing reports that would satisfy a range of purchaser and provider constituencies. The final result was a reporting framework that emphasized preserving detail to ensure visibility for each participating hospital's strengths as well as its priority improvement areas. By avoiding oversimplification of the results, the measurement project helped to support a broad range of successful improvement activity statewide.

The public disclosure of environmental performance information—a dual test of media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory

This paper documents the results of an empirical study undertaken within Australia of the relationship between the print media coverage given to various industries' environmental effects, and the levels of annual report environmental disclosures made by a sample of firms within those industries. The paper draws upon previous studies in media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory to develop two testable hypotheses. Nine industries are reviewed across the period from 1981–1994. Drawing upon two theories, it is argued that the media can be particularly effective in driving the community's concern about the environmental performance of particular organisations (from media agenda setting theory). Where such concern is raised, organisations will respond by increasing the extent of disclosure of environmental information within the annual report (from legitimacy theory). The results indicate that for the majority of the industries studied, higher levels of media attention (as determined by a review of a number of print media newspapers and journals) are significantly associated with higher levels of annual report environmental disclosures.

Public Disclosure of Performance Information in Pennsylvania: Impact on Hospital Charges and the Views of Hospital Executives

Forty states have now passed legislation establishing governmental agencies charged with the task of gathering hospital-level data. Since 1988 all acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania have been submitting data to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4). Pennsylvania's policy was designed to make patients and purchasers more informed and selective buyers of medical services, to increase the public accountability of providers of these services, and to encourage hospitals and physicians to compete more on clinical outcomes and charges. The impact of Pennsylvania's policy of public disclosure of performance information on hospital charges over time has not previously been evaluated. Nor has the importance that hospital executives assign to the publication of comparative charges and clinical outcomes information been assessed. From 1990 through 1994 the PHC4 published a number of hospital-level performance reports (including the regional Hospital Effectiveness Reports and A Consumer's Guide to Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery) containing hospital average charges, average lengths of stay, a rating of severity of illness, and two outcome measurements--morbidity and in-hospital mortality--on a total of 59 diagnosis-related groups. An 18-item survey designed to assess hospital executives' opinions of the usefulness and importance of the PCH4 information was sent to the chief executive officers at the study hospitals. There were no significant trends toward a reduction in the dispersion of charges in either category of hospitals during the study period. Most hospital executives assigned low ratings of importance to published comparative charges information; however, executives of high-competition hospitals assigned significantly higher importance ratings to the information as a whole in enouraging hospital competition based on quality.

Assessing the Effects of Information Disclosure Requirements

S NE continuing manifestation of consumerism is the increase in legislative and regulatory requirements for disclosure of product information. The pressure for additional information shows no signs of abating,' although the focus of the pressure is certainly changing. For the past five years the greatest emphasis has been on information about ingredients, relative prices, safety, and the useful life of products. The future will see greater attention paid to disclosures of efficiency and comparative performance information2 on a much broader array of products. Table 1 illustrates the scope of present and probable future requirements. A curious feature of the growing demand for more information is the paucity of concrete evidence that past disclosures have made significant differences in consumer or market behavior. And if the future is like the past, there will be little or no programmatic research available to help decision makers forecast the impact of new disclosure requirements.3 The lack of evidence on the behavioral effects of information disclosures is due to the relative newness of most requirements and the inherent difficulties of designing and implementing the appropriate evaluation research.4 These factors are compounded by a lack of conceptual bases for understanding how buyers use informations and confusion as to the objectives to be served by providing additional information. Without specific agreed-upon objectives there is no basis for a subsequent determination of success or failure. Yet there is seldom agreement among proponents as to whether new requirements should simply enhance the consumer's right to know, improve the quality of products and competition, facilitate value comparisons, enable buyers to better match products and needs and thus increase purchase satisfaction, or pursue broad educational aims such as creating general public interest in nutrition or sensitivity to energy conservation. 1. See generally, Hans B. Thorelli, Information Systems of the Future (Distinguished Lecture in Marketing, York University, 1972); William L. Wilkie and David M. Gardner, Marketing Research Inputs to Public Policy: The Case of the FTC, JOURNAL OF MARKETING, Vol. 38 (January 1974), pp. 38-47; William A. French and Hiram C. Barksdale, Food Labeling Regulations: Efforts Toward Disclosure, JOURNAL OF MARKETING, Vol. 38 (July 1974), pp. 14-19; William C. Whitford, Functions of Disclosure Regulation in Consumer Transactions, Wisconsin Law Review (No. 2, 1973), p. 403; and Gwen Bymers, Seller-Buyer Communication: Point of View of a Family Economist, Journal of Home Economics, Vol. 64 (February 1972), p. 59. 2. George S. Day, Full Disclosure of Comparative Performance Information to Consumers: Problems and Prospects, Journal of Contemporary Business, Vol. 4 (January 1975), pp. 53-68. 3. The major exceptions to this pattern have been the research on nutrient labeling and open dating. See Monroe Peter Friedman, Responses to Unit Pricing, Open Dating and Nutrient Labeling, in Proceedings of the Association for Consumer Research, M. Venkatesan, ed. (Chicago, 1972), pp. 361-369. 4. George S. Day and William K. Brandt, Research and the Evaluation of Public Policy: The Case of Truth in Lending, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 1 (June 1974), pp. 21-32. 5. William L. Wilkie, Assessment of Consumer Information Processing Research in Relation to Public Policy Needs (Report to the National Science Foundation, 1974). Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40 (April 1976), pp. 42-52.