Readability of annual reports: Western versus Asian evidence ‐ a comment to contexualize

Michael John Jones

63 citations0/0 files storedAccounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

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Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance Accounting Theory and Financial Reporting Financial Reporting and XBRL

Abstract

Contextualizes some of the issues raised by an article by Courtis in AAAJ 1995. Readability, which measures syntactical difficulty, should be distinguished from understandability, which measures comprehensibility. Courtis’s results, which are suggestive (but not conclusive) of a link between readability and profitability are consistent with several other recent readability studies. In addition, his results are consistent with several content analytic studies suggestive of a lack of neutrality in managements’ presentation of accounting narratives. Prior readability studies are shown to provide new information about inter‐country readability differences and the differential readability of differing sections of the annual report. Courtis’s research on English versions of Hong Kong corporate reports raises interesting questions on the use of such texts in countries where English is not the native language.

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References

1971An Empirical Analysis of the Quality of Corporate Financial Disclosure.1993Performance and Readability: A Comparison of Annual Reports of Profitable and Unprofitable Corporations 1992Readability and Understandability: Different Measures of the Textual Complexity of Accounting Narrative 1995Readability of annual reports: Western versus Asian evidence 1986An Investigation into Annual Report Readability and Corporate Risk-Return Relationships 1988A Longitudinal Study of the Readability of the Chairman's Narratives in the Corporate Reports of a UK Company 1992THE CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT AND CORPORATE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 1979Narrative Disclosures Contained in Financial Reports: Means of Communication or Manipulation?

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