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Article
Publication date: 20 December 2021

Shreeya Jugnandan and Gizelle D. Willows

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange use impression management techniques to obscure financial performance…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange use impression management techniques to obscure financial performance across the corporate reporting suite.

Design/methodology/approach

Mixed-effect linear regression models were used to examine whether there is a relationship between the financial performance of a company and the length or complexity of the reports produced.

Findings

Consistent with trends examined internationally, companies with lower financial performance tend to present lengthier disclosures throughout the reporting complement. However, there is limited evidence to suggest a definitive relationship between report complexity and performance. Corporate reports have maintained a consistent level of complexity and are not easily readable.

Social implications

This paper is unique as it simultaneously considers multiple corporate reports, including the annual financial statements, integrated reports and market announcements. The paper contributes to the limited body of literature on impression management from emerging economies.

Originality/value

A comparison of the complexity measures to the average education level of South Africans indicates that most corporate reports are not readable to the layman investor. Thus, despite there being no definitive relationship between complexity and performance, there is impetus to simplify corporate reporting.

Details

Accounting Research Journal, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1030-9616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2022

Michael Harber and Gizelle D. Willows

This paper aims to extend our understanding of how mid-tier firm auditors legitimise and institutionalise the logic of commercialism within their profession. This paper is…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to extend our understanding of how mid-tier firm auditors legitimise and institutionalise the logic of commercialism within their profession. This paper is responsive to research that shows how Big Four auditors have restructured the market and re-cast the relationality between the two logics to forge an identity that suits them commercially. Such research provides insight into auditor agency and intentionality, illustrating how auditors maintain and indeed grow their status and role within society.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews with audit executives situated in a strategically challenging regulatory context are interpreted through a theoretical framework developed from institutional complexity theory, coupled with the understanding that institutional logics are a socially constructed phenomenon.

Findings

Mid-tier auditors appear to be as commercially orientated as their Big Four counterparts, expressing the logics of professionalism and commercialism as highly complementary. In response to competitive pressures and the difficulty of replicating the multi-disciplinary practice business model of the Big Four, mid-tier auditors present a competitive and contrasting identity as “more devoted experts”, using various legitimation techniques and “heroic” representations. This identity representation is strategic, allowing them to forge a consistent and coherent “collective identity defining story” designed to counter the “versatile expert” identity of the Big Four and establish social legitimacy with their potential client base.

Originality/value

These findings contribute to our understanding of how mid-tier auditors are “catching up” to the Big Four in the construction of their commercial business model. By shedding light on the rhetoric and “identity experimentation” of auditors, the findings can aid legislators and regulators to exercise democratic control over the profession and promulgate regulations that better align auditors’ interests with the public interest. As regulators encourage mid-tier firms to compete with the Big Four and lower supply concentration in the market, this study believes the tensions inherent in the logics, as well as the strategic necessity for firms to represent themselves in a favourable manner, will become more prominent.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2016

Gizelle Willows and Megan van der Linde

By looking at both theoretical and empirical findings, this study aims to investigate whether gender diversity results in improved corporate governance and financial performance…

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Abstract

Purpose

By looking at both theoretical and empirical findings, this study aims to investigate whether gender diversity results in improved corporate governance and financial performance for companies.

Design/methodology/approach

An analysis of the board composition of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Top 40 companies as at 30 June 2013 and a comparison of the financial performance of the company were conducted.

Findings

Female directors were found to make up, on average, 18.78 per cent of the board of directors, with the majority of these women being in non-executive positions. Women representation appears to influence company performance positively when using accounting-based measures of performance (such as return on assets and return on equity), but negatively when using market-based measures (such as Tobin’s Q). The critical mass concept is also assessed and is found to have a positive effect.

Originality/value

These findings are of relevance to the boards of directors adhering to corporate governance requirements by challenging the role of women on the board of directors, as well as that of investors and those in practice, to understand the current status of women representation.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Caitlin Mongie, Gizelle Willows and Shelly Herbert

This study investigates the impact of the Paris Agreement (and other factors) on carbon information disclosures to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the impact of the Paris Agreement (and other factors) on carbon information disclosures to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

Design/Methodology/Approach

A sample of South African listed companies was selected and data analysed from 2013 to 2017. A random effect panel data model using SPSS was used to determine whether the Paris Agreement had an effect on carbon information disclosure.

Findings

The results indicate that (1) the Paris Agreement, as an example of an intergovernmental coordination initiative, is significant in creating awareness and increasing the carbon disclosures to the CDP. Furthermore, (2) in terms of the other factors examined, providing incentives for managing climate change and assessing climate risks further into the future improves disclosure quality, while no relationship was found between the CDP score and the approval by key management personnel.

Originality

This research examines CDP disclosures for an emerging market before and after the signing of the Paris Agreement.

Practical Implications

This research shows the importance of supportive government policy. Furthermore, a commitment to climate change disclosure is manageable and achievable and needs to be implemented at the management level.

Details

Green House Gas Emissions Reporting and Management in Global Top Emitting Countries and Companies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-883-8

Keywords

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