Corporate annual reports are continuously getting important in external reporting. The chairman's statement is one of leading section of annual report that provides information beyond what is required by the regulatory frameworks. It is well-known fact that, those who prepare financial statements have motivation to exercise the content of Chairman's Statements. In Sri Lanka, since Chairman's Statement being a prominent requirement of annual report, this research investigates the textual differences of chairman's statement in companies with higher performance and poor performance in terms of market capitalization. The research question is investigated by examining a range of textual characteristics in the chairman's statements of 25 companies with highest market capitalization and 25 companies with lowest market capitalization listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The results of the current study indicate that content of chairman's statement significantly affected by firm's underlying performance. Since, Chairman's statement is one of the most widely read section of the annual reports, the findings of this study will provide guidelines and enhance the understandability of the stakeholders who make informed judgments and decisions regarding organizations by reading the chairman's statement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.