Why do you speak English (in your annual report)?

Hervé Stolowy (), Cédric Lesage () and Thomas Jeanjean
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Cédric Lesage: GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The dominance of English as a lingua franca in international business exchanges is so commonly accepted that there has been no investigation into the use of English as an external financial-reporting language in non-English-speaking countries. In this study we analyze the factors associated with the publication of an English-language annual report in non-English-speaking countries. Using a sample of 3994 firms from 27 countries in 2003, we find that about 50% of the sample firms issue annual reports in English. Our findings suggest that the decision to publish an English annual report is related to the internationalization process (via foreign sales), language barriers (via language distance and language importance), governance (via ownership structure), and financial concerns (via the need for external financing, capital-market size, and cross-listing).

Keywords: International financial reporting; Annual report; Language; Cost-benefit analysis; Logistic regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in International Journal of Accounting, 2010, 45 (2), pp.200-223. ⟨10.1016/j.intacc.2010.04.003⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why do you speak English (in your annual report)? (2010)
Working Paper: Why do you speak English (in your annual report)? (2008)
Working Paper: Why do you speak English (in your annual report)? (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00528405

DOI: 10.1016/j.intacc.2010.04.003

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