Sources Of Corporate Information Research Articles

Sustainability reporting after the Costa Concordia disaster: a multi-theory study on legitimacy, impression management and image restoration

PurposeCan sustainability disclosures be a tool for executing image restoration strategies after corporate manslaughter? This is the question explored in this study of Costa Crociere's sustainability reports after the Concordia disaster.Design/methodology/approachMerging traditional textual content analysis with visual analysis and supported by machine learning tools, this is a predominantly qualitative study framed by legitimacy theory, image restoration theory and impression management.FindingsCosta Crociere's voluntary sustainability reporting is strongly influenced by a mix of text and visual signals that distract readers' attention from the disaster. A “nothing really happened” communication strategy pervades the disclosures, with the only rational motivation being to change perceptions and erase memories of this tragic and avoidable event.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the analysis covered multiple sources of corporate information, media coverage was not one of them. A more in-depth exploration of sustainability reporting in the cruise industry, including evidence of similar cases, to test impression management theory would be a worthwhile avenue for future research.Social implicationsWhile Costa Crociere technically followed the customary guidelines of disclosing human resource impacts, there was almost no acknowledgement of the people involved in the accident. Costa Concierevastly understated their responsibility for the accident, did not apologize, and conveyed very little remorse. The majority of disclosures centred on disaster recovery management.Originality/valueThe authors discuss why and how a company can overcome a legitimacy threat by completely freezing its voluntary sustainability reporting, and the authors show how a company can restore its image by minimizing specific aspects of an accident and shifting attention from the human victims to corporate operations. Incorporating image recognition driven by AI models and combining the results with narrative disclosures contributes an innovative and original analysis technique to the field of impression management. In addition, this research also contributes to our knowledge on the cruise industry – a sector currently under scrutiny for its ethical, social and environmental practices.

Is internet reporting useful? Evidence from Egypt

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the views of 18 users and preparers regarding the corporate internet reporting (CIR) practices of companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX).Design/methodology/approachA decision-usefulness theoretical framework is used as a lens for the study, in order to shed light on: internet infrastructure and its use for disclosure purposes in Egypt; the benefits of and trends in practices relating to CIR in Egypt; how the information presented accords with the qualitative characteristics of “usefulness” set out in the IASB’s conceptual framework of 2010; and the potential economic consequences of CIR.FindingsThe results indicate reasonable satisfaction with internet infrastructure in Egypt. The interviewees are intensive users of the internet, including accessing electronic sources of corporate information, but the perception remains of hard copy financial reports as the most important source of disclosure. With the exception of verifiability, the majority of respondents viewed CIR as having a (potentially) positive impact on the qualitative characteristics of accounting information as set out in the IASB framework.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of the interview method is subject to some limitations. These include: the perceived lack of anonymity, which may restrict the extent to which participants speak honestly or openly about the topic being investigated; the non-standardisation of responses – which can result in the inability to make systematic generalisations; and interviewees’ perceptions being influenced by events which have taken place prior to the discussion.Practical implicationsThis research provides substantive insights for policy makers about the current attitudes of interested parties concerning CIR in Egypt.Originality/valueThis study contributes to our knowledge in a number of ways, as it provides up-to-date evidence of interested parties’ views concerning CIR practices and it indicates how CIR has affected the quality of financial information disclosure practices. Moreover, this study extends prior research on the use of the internet as a disclosure channel by considering a different empirical site, namely Egypt, and also by adopting a different theoretical framework.

Case Study: Development of the concept of corporate web-site of the bank "Credit Agricole"

Approaches to the development of the concept of a corporate web portal of an international bank are considered. Any company (enterprise) needs information support of its business processes, as well as information interaction in online mode both within the enterprise and with the external environment. With the growing number of employees and sources of corporate information, it becomes increasingly difficult to implement internal communications. There is a need for a single information space and optimization of joint work with information and documents. From this point of view, the portal is one of the powerful tools of business management of the company. The characteristics of the corporate information portal in various aspects of its functioning as a system are described. There are three main functional layers in the typical corporate portal, such as the basic infrastructure layer, responsible for basic services, the layer of application integration, responsible for the interaction of the portal with all existing company applications (DBMS, CRM, ERP, etc.), the layer of interfaces, which includes information content management tools, interfaces for data exchange with information systems of business partners, tools for working with mobile and wireless equipment, etc. Conceptual requirements to the corporate information portal are considered. The analysis of the characteristics of the corporate information portal is carried out. The purpose of the portal is analyzed. Requirements, a diagram of use cases, portal mockups are developed. UML diagrams of use cases are used to describe portal users and the relationships between them. For each use case scenario, it describes its implementation, a brief description, preconditions, the main stream of events, an alternate flow of events, post-conditions. Cross-platform service Figma for designers, which allows several people in real time to work on the same project, is considered.

Antecedents of Consumer Preference for Information Sources for Acquiring Corporate Information

Previous research has largely ignored the information sources that consumers use for knowing the company behind the products. This research adds new insights to the corporate branding as well as to the information acquisition literatures by investigating the information sources consumers prefer for acquiring information about the company behind the products during pre-purchase information search. It further explores the influence of purchase situation risk and consumer characteristics (expertise with the product category, purchase involvement and need for cognition (NFC)) on consumer preference for different corporate information sources. Questionnaire-based data are gathered from 588 consumers. Regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that intrapersonal source is the most important source for the consumers to acquire corporate information. Among the external information sources, third-party sources are the most important followed by the company-controlled sources, whereas resellers and interpersonal sources are the least important sources to the consumers. Further, third-party sources, company-controlled sources and resellers are more important to consumers in high-risk purchases than in low-risk purchases. Consumers with high expertise prefer intrapersonal source and do not examine external sources. High-involvement consumers favour all types of information sources. Individuals with high NFC do not consult interpersonal sources, rather prefer to utilize intrapersonal source. This study would help corporate marketing practitioners in choosing the appropriate corporate information sources, and hence in devising successful corporate communication strategies.

Kuwait Stock Market Participants’ Perceptions of Information Useful to the Investment Decisions

This paper reports the results of an investigation into Kuwaiti multi-investors’ perceptions of the different types ofinformation useful for investment decision-making.One hundred and sixty-eight useable questionnaires out of 410 with a response rate of 41% were collected. Thequestionnaire targeted key players in the Kuwaiti stock market—namely, analysts, fund managers, individualinvestors and stockbrokers who are involved with investment decisions.The study found that the most important sources of information to the Kuwaiti multi-investors concerned “generalcorporate information was information about major types of product (services), and for “financial information,”was operating profit. In addition, the most important item in “non-financial information” was new contracts wonby the company. Furthermore, the most important item in “corporate governance information” was corporatestrategies. Moreover, the most important item in “corporate social information” was improvement in customerservices. Finally, the most important item in “type of valuation methods” was fundamental analysis. However,with the exception of some corporate information items, no significant differences were found betweenparticipants’ perceptions. It can be inferred that all the related corporate information sources useful for investmentdecision-making used in this study are important to the all Kuwaiti stock exchange participants.

Corporate Information Stakeholders and Sources of Corporate Information

Who cares about corporate information? Stakeholders of corporate information and typical sources.

Other Corporate Information Sources Usage: Evidence from Jordanian Individual Investors

This study aims to provide insight into of the extent of usage of other corporate financial information sources by Jordanian individual investors in taking their investment decisions in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in comparison with annual corporate reports. The study also aims to identify the main reasons for using sources of information other than corporate annual reports. The result of study revealed that corporate annual report was the most used sources of information. This followed by published daily share price, newspapers and magazines, corporate web sites, advice of friend, tips and rumours, stockbrokers’ advice and discussion with company staff respectively. These results indicated that Jordanian individual investors put more emphasis on the usage of the written sources than verbal sources. The results also indicated that Jordanian individual investors start to give more attention to the usage of electronic sources as the corporate web sites ranked forth. In respect to reasons that encouraged investors to use sources of information other than corporate annual reports, the results indicated that the first three reasons include; easier to get information, containing new information and giving up-to-date information. These reasons form the features of the written sources which were indicated as the most used sources of information.

An Empirical Investigation into the Importance, Use, and Technicality of Saudi Annual Corporate Information

Abstract This study examines the perceptions of the users of annual corporate reports in Saudi Arabia. The focus is on the use, importance, and technicality of the different sources of corporate information contained in Saudi annual reports. Our sample comprises five major user groups, namely individual investors, institutional investors, creditors, government officials, and financial analysts. In comparison with previous research efforts elsewhere around the world, this study found that the balance sheet and the income statement are the most important sections of the annual report to most of the Saudi users’ groups. The board of directors’ report was found to be the least popular. Individual investors were found to place much less importance on the cash flow statement, a finding that is similar to what has been reported in previous literature. Concerning the technicality of the language of Saudi annual corporate information, individual investors indicated that the language of most of the sections of the annual reports is fairly complicated. Although our findings do not indicate a serious problem with the technicality of the language of the report's sections for most of the user groups, a more simplified report would be beneficial to the individual investors.

Annual corporate information: importance and use inSaudi Arabia

This study examines the perceptions of the users of annual corporate reports in Saudi Arabia. The focus is on the use and importance of the seven different sources of corporate information contained in Saudi annual reports. This includes the board of director's report, the auditor's report, the balance sheet, the income statement, the statement of retained earnings, cash flow statements and the notes to the financial statements. Our sample comprises five major user groups, namely individual investors, institutional investors, creditors, government officials, and financial analysts. In comparison with previous research efforts elsewhere around the world, this study found that the balance sheet and the income statement are the most important sections of the annual report to most of the Saudi users’ groups. The board of directors’ report was found to be the least popular. As far as the cash flow statement is concerned, the individual investors were found to place much less importance to this statement, a finding that is similar to what has been reported in previous literature about investor behaviour in other areas of the world.

Users’ perceptions of various aspects of Kuwaiti corporate reporting

In this study an attempt is made to provide empirical evidence on the usefulness of different aspects of the annual report to various Kuwaiti user groups. To do so, eight Kuwaiti user groups were surveyed through a questionnaire. The groups were individual investors; institutional investors, bank credit officers, government officials, financial analysts, academics, auditors and stock market brokers. The analyses indicate that the user groups surveyed in the study rely mainly on information made directly available by the company and do not consult intermediary sources of corporate information in order to make informative decisions. The analyses also revealed that credibility and timeliness are the most important features of useful corporate information and traditional financial statements are the most important and credible parts of corporate annual reports. Non‐financial information, however, proved to be less credible and of less importance to the Kuwaiti user groups.

Financial Reporting, Private Disclosure and the Corporate Governance Role of Financial Institutions

This paper explores how large UK financial institutions (FIs) pursued a private corporate governance agenda with their portfolio companies. It also investigates the role of financial reporting in private and public corporate governance. The case financial institutions argued that the limited quality of public information, especially in financial reports, was a major constraint on their ability to act in fund management and corporate governance roles. However, the financial reporting cycle determined a private institutional and company meeting cycle and this created opportunities for private information collection and for governance influence by FIs. In addition, the perceived limitations of public governance mechanisms such as voting encouraged private governance approaches. As a result, the case financial institutions had the incentive and the means to improve the quality of their sources of corporate information and to obtain a competitive edge over other financial institutions and the market through their direct contact with companies. Despite the limitations of public information, the paper reveals how public disclosure in financial statements and the financial reporting cycle played a central role in corporate governance. Public sources of information were combined with private sources to create a financial institutional knowledge advantage. The institutions used this knowledge to diagnose problem areas in strategy, management quality, and the effectiveness of the board, and their impact on financial performance. The financial reporting cycle meant that the quasi insider financial institution had the access opportunity and the joint public/private insight to influence companies across a wide corporate governance agenda and in a range of corporate circumstances. The case institutions exploited these private access and knowledge advantages for investment purposes and for Cadbury style corporate governance purposes. Thus, the private governance process was critically dependent on the FI knowledge advantage, which in turn relied on both financial reports and private disclosure. This wide ranging governance behaviour by institutions corresponds to recommendations subsequently made by the Hampel report in 1998 concerning UK corporate governance. The paper ends by exploring how the private institutional and company meeting agenda can suggest new directions for financial reporting and public disclosure and how this can further improve public and private corporate governance.

Information control and the power and politics of marketing

The key environmental boundary-spanning role of marketing departments in organizations has been recognized descriptively by a number of marketing analysts. However, relatively little has been considered of the implications of this information-processing role for the political structure of the organization, or for the power of the marketing department. Empirical evidence concerned with the relationship between the control of information access and the power of the marketing department is presented in this paper. These empirical data are drawn from a sample of 140 medium- and large-sized manufacturing companies in the United Kingdom. Key findings relate to the restriction of marketing information flow by marketing departments in the sample companies. This phenomenon is related positively to the perceived/participative power of marketing departments and to corporate politicization, but negatively to the access gained by marketing departments to corporate information sources, and also negatively to the positional power of the marketing department. These last relationships suggest a possible substitution effect between formal power and the politics of information restriction by marketing departments. These findings lead to the identification of both a research agenda for the study of information management in marketing and a number of practical implications for marketing management.

PRIVATE SHAREHOLDER RESPONSE TO CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORTS

: Private shareholder response to annual reports of Australian public-listed companies was investigated via postal questionnaires in 1979 and 1980. Approximately 2000 usable replies indicate that although annual reports are ranked third to stockbroker advice and newspapers as sources of corporate information, two-thirds claim the report is of some importance and one-quarter would buy it and pay up to $2 per copy. Readership behaviour reveals that whereas the chairman's review is the most read item, traditional financial statements are more important in influencing equity decision-making. The auditor's report, statistical data and notes to accounts are least read and least important. Such evidence has implications for report preparers, auditors, accountancy professional bodies, financial journalists and educators.

Disclosure in Published Annual Reports

Published annual reports are extremely important sources of corporate information. The focus of this research is on the annual report disclosure practices of large industrial companies. Specifically, this study seeks to accomplish three interrelated objectives. The first is to assess the annual report information needs of informed report users. The second is to evaluate the disclosure practices of large industrial firms in relation to user information needs. The final objective is to examine the influence of corporate size and industry variables in explaining annual report disclosure differences among large industrial firms. To accomplish the first objective, a disclosure model was developed using questionnaire responses from 275 Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs). For the second objective, the disclosure model was applied using a sample of companies from the Fortune 1,000. The analysis of covariance was then used to test for the influence of size and industry variables on disclosure. Major conclusions drawn from the study are summarized in the final section.