Firms' Disclosure Reactions to Major Social Incidents: Australian Evidence

Craig Deegan, Michaela Rankin and Peter Voght

Accounting Forum, 2000, vol. 24, issue 1, 101-130

Abstract: This study examines the reaction of Australian firms, in terms of annual report disclosure, to five major social incidents. These incidents had significant implications for either the environment, or the safety of both employees and community members. The incidents reviewed are the Exxon Valdez and Bhopal disasters; the Moura Mine disaster in Queens‐land; an oil spill, caused by the Iron Baron, off the coast of Tasmania; and the Kirki oil spill, off the coast of Western Australia.Studies of this nature have previously been restricted to the examination of US company disclosure (e.g. Patten 1992; Blacconiere and Patten 1994), or the stock market reaction to such events in the US (e.g. Blacconiere and Patten 1994). The results of this study indicate that, following four of the incidents, sample firms operating in the affected industries provided more social information in their annual reports than they did prior to the incidents occurrence. These results support a view that organizations utilize their annual report as a means of influencing society's perception of their operations, and as a means of legitimizing their ongoing existence. The strategic nature of voluntary annual report disclosures is emphasized.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (101)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1467-6303.00031 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:accfor:v:24:y:2000:i:1:p:101-130

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/racc20

DOI: 10.1111/1467-6303.00031

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting Forum is currently edited by Carol Tilt

More articles in Accounting Forum from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().