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| Tekijä: | Hail, L. |
| Otsikko: | The relationship between voluntary annual report disclosures and firm characteristics in Switzerland |
| Lehti: | Unternehmung
2003 : VOL. 57:4, p. 273-290 |
| Asiasana: | Company reports Management control Interfirm comparisons Switzerland |
| Kieli: | eng |
| Tiivistelmä: | This study contributes to the growing body of international literature examining the determinants of voluntary disclosure in corporate annual reports thereby trying to explain why some companies might adhere to more extensive disclosure practices than others. Theoretical support for the suggested relationship between firm characteristics and disclosure scores includes agency and political costs, corporate governance, signalling, information asymmetry, audit firm reputation or capital needs. Switzerland seems especially suited for an analysis of this kind given that the only requirement for stock listed companies is compliance with Swiss GAAP, which leaves the firms with a high degree of freedom in choosing their voluntary disclosure policy. For a cross-sectional sample of 89 companies listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange the author shows a positive and highly significant association between disclosure quality and corporate size, financial leverage and internationality level. Listing status and audit firm size also exhibit a positive relation with aggregate disclosure quality, although at lower levels of statistical significance, whereas no significant association is found for corporate profitability. In subsequent analyses similar to Lang and Lundholm (1993) additional determinants of a company's disclosure strategy are investigated. Contrary to prior empirical findings in a rich, investor-oriented information environment, however, the results are inconclusive. Only firm size, security issuance and - to a lesser extent - historic return variability as well as earnings surprise exhibit a statistically significant association. One reason for the weaker outcomes might be found in differing institutional factors between US and Swiss capital markets. |
SCIMA