IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausact/v25y2015i2p192-203.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are User Perceptions of Chairman Addresses Managed through Syntactical Complexity and Rationalisation?

Author

Listed:
  • Leopold Bayerlein
  • Paul Davidson

Abstract

type="main"> This study assesses whether or not the preparers of chairman addresses of large listed Australian firms manage user perceptions through the syntactical complexity of the provided information and/or the rationalisation of unwanted information. It applies an innovative assessment approach for the rationalisation of unwanted information. The study analyses the chairman addresses of 87 firms included in the Standard & Poor's ASX200 index using the Flesch readability formula, as well as the relative occurrence frequency of sentences with particular connotations within each analysed report. The findings of this study demonstrate that although the comprehension difficulty of chairman addresses is generally high, preparers do not attempt to manage user perceptions through syntactical complexity or rationalisation. Specifically, the study finds no evidence that chairman addresses that contain predominantly negative news are more difficult to comprehend than chairman addresses that contain predominantly positive news. Furthermore, it is concluded that preparers do not use rationalisations to manage user perceptions. Prior literature has thus far failed to investigate the rationalisation of information as a potential perception management tool and no other recent contribution to the literature has investigated the syntactical complexity of Australian chairman addresses that contain predominantly positive or negative news. This study aims to fill that gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Leopold Bayerlein & Paul Davidson, 2015. "Are User Perceptions of Chairman Addresses Managed through Syntactical Complexity and Rationalisation?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(2), pages 192-203, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:25:y:2015:i:2:p:192-203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/auar.12053
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian Rutherford, 2003. "Obfuscation, Textual Complexity and the Role of Regulated Narrative Accounting Disclosure in Corporate Governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 7(2), pages 187-210, June.
    2. Philip M. Linsley & Michael J. Lawrence, 2007. "Risk reporting by the largest UK companies: readability and lack of obfuscation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(4), pages 620-627, July.
    3. Malcolm Smith & Anita Jamil & Yang Chik Johari & Syahrul Ahmar Ahmad, 2006. "The chairman's statement in Malaysian companies: A test of the obfuscation hypothesis," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 14(1), pages 49-65, July.
    4. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    5. Margaret Woods & David Marginson, 2004. "Accounting for derivatives: An evaluation of reporting practice by UK banks," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 373-390.
    6. Bloomfield, Robert, 2008. "Discussion of "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence"," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 248-252, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ajina, Aymen & Laouiti, Mhamed & Msolli, Badreddine, 2016. "Guiding through the Fog: Does annual report readability reveal earnings management?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 509-516.
    2. Vismaya Gangadharan & Lakshmi Padmakumari, 2024. "Fogging the firm performance: an empirical examination of the annual report readability in India," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 211-226, June.
    3. Mousa, Gehan A. & Elamir, Elsayed A.H. & Hussainey, Khaled, 2022. "The effect of annual report narratives on the cost of capital in the Middle East and North Africa: A machine learning approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh Brennan & Stuart McLeay, 2011. "Impression management and retrospective sense-making in corporate narratives : a social psychology perspective," Open Access publications 10197/2900, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    5. Asay, H. Scott & Libby, Robert & Rennekamp, Kristina, 2018. "Firm performance, reporting goals, and language choices in narrative disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 380-398.
    6. Jia, Jing & Li, Zhongtian, 2022. "Risk management committees and readability of risk management disclosure," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    7. Pinto, Inês & Morais, Ana Isabel & Quick, Reiner, 2020. "The impact of the precision of accounting standards on the expanded auditor’s report in the European Union," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    8. Philippe Baumard,, 2008. "Learning Strategies in Coopetitive Environments," Post-Print hal-00403576, HAL.
    9. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    10. M. Fernanda Wagstaff & Gabriela L. Flores & Albert Cannella & Sayan Sarkar & Christine Choirat, 2021. "Construct Validity of Unobtrusive Measures of Organizational Ethical Climates," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 158-177, August.
    11. Chychyla, Roman & Leone, Andrew J. & Minutti-Meza, Miguel, 2019. "Complexity of financial reporting standards and accounting expertise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 226-253.
    12. Danial Hemmings & Lynn Hodgkinson & Gwion Williams, 2020. "It's OK to pay well, if you write well: The effects of remuneration disclosure readability," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 547-586, May.
    13. Hearn, Bruce, 2013. "The institutional determinants of IPO firm prospectus length in a developing context: A research note," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 52-65.
    14. YAN, Beibei & AERTS, Walter, 2014. "Rhetorical impression management in corporate narratives and institutional environment," Working Papers 2014014, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    15. Del Gaudio, Belinda L. & Porzio, Claudio & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo, 2020. "Public policy and venture capital: Pursuing the disclosure goal," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Lo, Kin & Ramos, Felipe & Rogo, Rafael, 2017. "Earnings management and annual report readability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 1-25.
    17. Leung, Sidney & Parker, Lee & Courtis, John, 2015. "Impression management through minimal narrative disclosure in annual reports," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 275-289.
    18. Dyer, Travis & Lang, Mark & Stice-Lawrence, Lorien, 2016. "Do managers really guide through the fog? On the challenges in assessing the causes of voluntary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 270-276.
    19. Benson, David F. & Brau, James C. & Cicon, James & Ferris, Stephen P., 2015. "Strategically camouflaged corporate governance in IPOs: Entrepreneurial masking and impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 839-864.
    20. Ahsan Habib & Mostafa Monzur Hasan, 2020. "Business strategies and annual report readability," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2513-2547, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:25:y:2015:i:2:p:192-203. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1035-6908 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.