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Chinese annual report readability: measurement and test

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  • Wei Xu
  • Zhenye Yao
  • Donghua Chen

Abstract

Among existing researches, readability is an important research direction as a text feature of annual reports. But almost all relevant studies are based on English. In fact, readability in Chinese environment may be a problem worth studying from the perspective of motive and consequence. Accordingly, based on the analysis of the readability indexes of Chinese and English annual reports, this paper constructs three readability indexes and conducts empirical tests. Results show the average word number of each clause, the proportion of adverbs and conjunctions in each sentence, and the arithmetic mean of them are probably a reasonable set of measures. As measures aforementioned, they better meet theoretical expectation and are consistent with relevant research results. Further examinations of other text features found that length of text and count of numbers and tables may not be good measures. Work in this paper provide some basic reference for subsequent researches.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Xu & Zhenye Yao & Donghua Chen, 2019. "Chinese annual report readability: measurement and test," China Journal of Accounting Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 407-437, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rcjaxx:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:407-437
    DOI: 10.1080/21697213.2019.1701259
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    Cited by:

    1. Shan, Wei & Wang, Jiaxuan & Shi, Xiaoxiao & David Evans, Richard, 2024. "The impact of electronic word-of-mouth on patients’ choices in online health communities: A cross-media perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Peng Hu & Xuming Li & Nian Li & Yiying Wang & Derek D. Wang, 2024. "Peeking into Corporate Greenwashing through the Readability of ESG Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Yao, Yanzhen & Wei, Lu & Jing, Haozhe & Chen, Meiqi & Li, Zhan, 2024. "The impact of readability of risk disclosures in bond prospectuses on credit risk premium," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).

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