Readabilty in management reports: extension and good governance practices

Adelberg, A. H. (1979). A methodology for measuring the understandability of financial report messages. Journal of Accounting Research, 17(2), 565–592.

Ajina, A., Laouiti, M., & Msolli, B. (2016). Guiding through the Fog: Does annual report readability reveal earnings management? Research in International Business and Finance, 38, 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2016.07.021

Asay, S., Libby, R., & Rennekamp, K. (2018). Firm Performance, Reporting Goals, and Language Choices in Narrative Disclosures. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 65(2–3), 380–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2018.02.002

Beattie, V., & Davison, J. (2015). Accounting narratives: Storytelling, philosophising and quantification. Accounting and Business Research, 45(6–7), 655–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2015.1081520

Beattie, V., & Jones, M. J. (1997). A comparative study of the use of financial graphs in the corporate annual reports of major U.S. and U.K. companies. Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, 8(1), 33–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-646X.00016

Beattie V., McInnes, B., & Fearnley, S. (2004). A methodology for analysing and evaluating narratives in annual reports: A comprehensive descriptive profile and metrics for disclosure quality attributes. Accounting Forum, 28(3), 205–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2004.07.001

Beattie, V., & Smith, S. J. (2013). Value creation and business models: Refocusing the intellectual capital debate. British Accounting Review, 45(4), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2013.06.001

Bonsall, S. B., Leone, A. J., Miller, B. P., & Rennekamp, K. (2017). A plain English measure of financial reporting readability. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 63(2–3), 329–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2017.03.002

Bravo, F., & Reguera-Alvarado, N. (2017). Do independent director’s characteristics influence financial reporting quality? Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting / Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad, 47(1), 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/02102412.2017.1362200

Bushee, B. J., Gow, I. D., & Taylor, D. J. (2018). Linguistic Complexity in Firm Disclosures: Obfuscation or Information? Journal of Accounting Research, 56(1), 85–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12179

Cerbioni, F., & Parbonetti, A. (2007). Exploring the effects of corporate governance on intellectual capital disclosure: An analysis of European biotechnology companies. European Accounting Review, 16(4), 791–826. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180701707011

Clatworthy, M., & Jones, M. J. (2001). The effect of thematic structure on the variability of annual report readability. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 14(3), 311–326. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570110399890

CNMV. (2013). Guía para la elaboración del informe de gestión de las entidades cotizadas.

Courtis, J. K. (1986). An Investigation into Annual Report Readability and Corporate Risk-Return Relationships. Accounting and Business Research, 16(64), 285–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1986.9729329

Courtis, J. K. (1987). Fry, Smog, Lix and Rix: Insinuations about corporate business communications. Journal of Business Communication, 24(2), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/002194368702400202

Courtis, J. K. (1995). Readability of annual reports: Western versus Asian evidence. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 8(2), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579510086795

Cuomo, F., Mallin, C., & Zattoni, A. (2016). Corporate Governance Codes: A Review and Research Agenda. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 24(3), 222–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12148

Dempsey, S. J., Harrison, D. M., Luchtenberg, K. F., & Seiler, M. J. (2012). Financial Opacity and Firm Performance: The Readability of REIT Annual Reports. Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 45(2), 450–470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-010-9263-2

Dolphin, R., & Wagley, R. A. (1977). Reading the annual report. Financial Executive, 45, 20–22.

Drago, C., Ginesti, G., Pongelli, C., & Sciascia, S. (2018). Reporting strategies: What makes family firms beat around the bush? Family-related antecedents of annual report readability. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 9(2), 142–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2017.11.006

Fama, E. F., & Jensen, M. C. (1983). Separation of Ownership and Control. Journal of Law & Economics, XXVI(June), 301–325. https://doi.org/10.1086/467037

Fernández Huerta, J. (1959). Medidas sencillas de lecturabilidad [Simple measures of readability]. Consigna, 214, 29–32.

Fialho, A., Fuertes, Y., & Pascual, E. (2002). La carta del presidente a sus accionistas. Partida Doble, 131, 52–63.

Flesch, R. (1948). A new readability yardstick. Journal of Applied Psychology, 32(3), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0057532

Ginesti, G., Drago, C., Macchioni, R., & Sannino, G. (2018). Female board participation and annual report readability in firms with boardroom connections. Gender in Management, 33(4), 296–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-07-2017-0079

Guay, W., Samuels, D., & Taylor, D. (2016). Guiding through the Fog: Financial statement complexity and voluntary disclosure. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 62(2–3), 234–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JACCECO.2016.09.001

Gunning, R. (1952). The technique of clear writing. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Havemo, E. (2018). Visual trends in the annual report: the case of Ericsson 1947-2016. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 23(3), 312–325. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-03-2017-0015

Hopwood, A. G. (2007). Whither accounting research? Accounting Review, 82(5), 1365–1374. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2007.82.5.1365

Hynes, G. E., & Bexley, J. B. (2004). The Contribution of Banks’ Annual Report Writing Quality to Investor Decision-Making. Academy of Banking Studies Journal, 3(1–2), 113–122.

IASB. (2006). Preliminary views on an improved conceptual framework for Financial Reporting: the objective of Financial Reporting and qualitative characteristics of decision-useful Financial Reporting Information.

IASB. (2010). Management Commentary. A framework for presentation.

Instituto Cervantes. (2017). El español: Una lengua viva. Informe 2017. Madrid, Spain.

IOSCO. (2003). General Principles Regarding Disclosure of Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(76)90026-X

Jones, M. J. (1988). A longitudinal study of the readability of the chairman’s narratives in the corporate reports of a UK Company. Accounting and Business Research, 18(72), 297–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1988.9729377

Jones, M. J. (1997). Methodological themes: Critical appraisal of the cloze procedure’s use in the accounting domain. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 10, 105–128. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579710158739

Jones, M. J., & Shoemaker, P. A. (1994). Accounting narratives: A review of empirical studies of content and readability. Journal of Accounting Literature, 13, 142–194.

Kaspereit, T., Lopatta, K., & Onnen, D. (2017). Shareholder Value Implications of Compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code. Managerial and Decision Economics, 38(2), 166–177. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.2750

Lewis, N. R., Parker, L. D., Pound, G. D., & Sutcliffe, P. (1986). Accounting report readability: The use of readability techniques. Accounting and Business Research, 16(63), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1986.9729318

Li, F. (2008). Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 45(2–3), 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2008.02.003

Lim, E. K., Chalmers, K., & Hanlon, D. (2018). The influence of business strategy on annual report readability. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 37(1), 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JACCPUBPOL.2018.01.003

Liu, X., & Zhang, C. (2017). Corporate governance, social responsibility information disclosure, and enterprise value in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 1075–1084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.102

Lo, K., Ramos, F., & Rogo, R. (2017). Earnings management and annual report readability. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 63(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2016.09.002

Loughran, T., & McDonald, B. (2014). Measuring readability in financial disclosures. Journal of Finance, 69(4), 1643–1671. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12162

Mallin, C. (2013). Corporate governance (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moreno, A., & Casasola, A. (2016). A Readability Evolution of Narratives in Annual Reports: A Longitudinal Study of Two Spanish Companies. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 30(2), 202–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651915620233

Ngai, C., & Singh, R. (2014). Communication With Stakeholders Through Corporate Web Sites An Exploratory Study on the CEO Messages of Major Corporations in Greater China. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 28(3), 352–394. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651914524779

OCDE. (2016). Principios de Gobierno Corporativo de la OCDE y del G20. Ocde. https://doi.org/10.1787/9788485482726-es

Oliveira, L., Lima Rodrigues, L., & Craig, R. (2006). Firm-specific determinants of intangibles reporting: Evidence from the Portuguese stock market. Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, 10(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380610672657

Pucheta‐Martínez, M. C., & Narro‐Forés, C. (2014). La comisión de remuneraciones y las retribuciones de los consejeros. Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administracion, 27(1), 46–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARLA-10-2013-0149

Rabin, A. T. (1988). Determining difficulty levels of text written in languages other than English. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Rutherford, B. A. (2003). Obfuscation, textual complexity and the role of regulated narrative accounting disclosure in corporate governance. Journal of Management and Governance, 7(2), 187–210. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023647615279

Schroeder, N., & Gibson, C. (1990). Readability of management’s discussion and analysis. Accounting Horizons, 4, 78–87.

SEC. (1998). A plain English handbook. How to create clear SEC.

Smith, M., Jamil, A., Chik Johari, Y., & Ahmar Ahmad, S. (2006). The chairman’s statement in Malaysian companies: A test of the obfuscation hypothesis. Asian Review of Accounting, 14(1–2), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1108/13217340610729464

Smith, M., & Taffler, R. (1992). Readability and understandability: Different measures of the textual complexity of accounting narrative. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 5(4), 84–98. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579210019549

Soper, F. J., & Dolphin, R. (1964). Readability and corporate annual reports. Accounting Review, 39, 358–362.

Suárez Fernández, Ó. (2013). La claridad de la información narrativa en las empresas cotizadas españolas. Revista Galega de Economía, 21(1), 9–29.

Suárez Fernández, Ó. (2016). ¿Es Neutral La Información Sobre Resultados? Revista de Contabilidad, 19(2), 204–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsar.2015.09.001

Subramanian, R., Insley, R. G., & Blackwell, R. D. (1993). Performance and Readability: A comparision of Annual Reports of profitable and unprofitable corporations. Journal of Business Communication, 30(1), 49–61. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/002194369303000103

Szigriszt Pazos, F. (1992). Sistemas predictivos de legibilidad del mensaje escrito: Fórmula de perspicuidad. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.

Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (1996). Using Multivariate Statistics (3rd ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

Tarca, A., & Seah, S. (2006). The Impact of Regulatory Framework on Management Commentary Reports. SSRN eLibrary. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.962628

Van Beest, F., Braam, G., & Boelens, S. (2009). Quality of Financial Reporting: measuring qualitative characteristics. NiCE Working Paper 09-108, (April), 1–41.

Velte, P. (2018). Does gender diversity in the audit committee influence key audit matters’ readability in the audit report? UK evidence. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(5), 748–755. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1491

Wang, M. C. (2016). The relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm valuation: the role of corporate governance. Quality and Quantity, 50(3), 1135–1151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0194-0

Yekini, K. C., Adelopo, I., Andrikopoulos, P., & Yekini, S. (2015). Impact of board independence on the quality of community disclosures in annual reports. Accounting Forum, 39(4), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2015.05.004

Zattoni, A., & Cuomo, F. (2008). Why adopt codes of good governance? A comparison of institutional and efficiency perspectives. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 16(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2008.00661.x