Social Disclosure and the Individual Investor

Abstract

The demand for social information by individual investors is supported by the survey reported in this study. Based on the results of the 1991 survey on the usefulness of annual reports to corporate shareholders, there appears to be a strong demand for information about product safety and quality, and about the company′s environmental activities. Furthermore, a majority of the shareholders surveyed also want the company to report on corporate ethics, employee relations and community involvement. Since there appears to be a strong demand for social information by shareholders, serious consideration should be given to requiring certain social disclosures in annual reports. Furthermore, a large minority of those surveyed would like these disclosures to be audited. It may be in the interest of the auditing profession actively to support those areas of social disclosure that it feels comfortable auditing and to develop the skills to provide such audits. If not, the profession may find itself in the position of being required to attest to something for which it has no expertise.

Exploring the use of online corporate sustainability information

“…Epstein & Freedman (1994) also find that the demand for product quality and environmental information to be significantly higher than information on corporate ethics, community involvement and employee relations amongst private shareholders. Surveying a range of users, Eccles & Mavrinac (1995) find that employee reporting information is considered to be the least important.…”

“…In respect of shareholders and investors, Epstein & Freedman (1994) Gray et al (1995), Mathews (2004), Owen et al (2000).…”

Análise compara tiva sobre informações voluntárias divulgadas: o social disclosure das empresas latinoamericanas listadas na Nyse

“…Neste momento, deve ser novamente ressaltada a quantidade das empresas analisadas, muito embora façam parte do universo proposto. LAVERS, 1995;EPSTEIN;FREEDMAN;.…”

Asymmetric Response: Explaining Corporate Social Disclosure by Multi-National Firms in Environmentally Sensitive Industries

“…Content analyses of website disclosures (Jose and Lee, 2007) and surveys of stock market participants have tended to conclude that CSDs are of moderate relative importance (Belkaoui, 1984;Benjamin and Stanga, 1977;Chenall and Juchau, 1977;Firth, 1979;Epstein and Freedman, 1994) while other ranking studies undertake surveys of potential users to indicate their needs and demands for social information (e.g., Buzby and Falk, 1979;Belkaoui, 1980;Dierkes and Antal, 1985). These studies find CSD to be of importance to users, and, in some cases, at least equally important as financial items of disclosure.…”