The main goal of this thesis was to obtain an understanding of the way in which accounting practices that are constantly in transition generate the information that is disclosed in corporate annual reports (CARS). The study shows that CARS may be seen as a product of two main interrelated information processing systems, the first being the mandatory financial information system (MFIS) and the second the discretionary information system (DIS). The MFIS uses accounting practices such as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which include International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Accounting Standards (IASs), JSE regulations and the Companies' Act requirements, in producing the information disclosed in CARS. The needs of users to reduce the uncertainty and risks in their decision making have an influence on the constantly evolving accounting practices. Standard-setting bodies play a major role in the development and refinement of GAAP. On the other hand, the DIS, in order to provide a complete picture of business entities, uses discretionary accounting practices to produce the contextual information contained in CARS. These discretionary accounting practices are also currently in transition. They cater for the production of information on the business environment, and provide an operating and financial review, overview of strategy, forward-looking information, key performance indicators and information on corporate governance and transparency. Standard-setting bodies may be able to use the contextual information contained in CARS to develop and refine the GAAP used by the MFIS. / Thesis (DComm(Accounting Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Financial Management / DCom / unrestricted

Årsredovisningar är ett ofta förekommande objekt inom redovisningsforskningen. Årsredovisningarna är en viktig kommunikationskanal mellan företaget och dess olika intressenter. Rapportens ändamål är primärt att ge intressenterna information om företagets resultat och finansiella ställning. Årsredovisningarnas karaktär har genom åren utvecklats och berikats med bland annat bilder och kompletterande textuella avsnitt. I denna studie har den narrativa delen av årsredovisningar ’VD:n har ordet’ studerats. Avsnittet utgör en viktig del av årsredovisningens frivilliga element, och är en av de mest lästa delarna. Samtidigt är ’VD:n har ordet’, till skillnad från flertalet andra delar i årsredovisningen, oreglerad. Detta ger företaget och den verkställande direktören stora möjligheter att kommunicera ut legitimitetskapande budskap till dess intressenter. Tidigare forskning visar att aktiviteter kopplade till CSR har en positiv påverkan på intressenternas inställning gentemot företaget. CSR är ett rymligt begrepp som innefattar relationen och ansvarstagandet mellan företag och samhälle. Det har visat sig ha stor betydelse för företagen att lyckas signalera dessa aktiviteter till intressenterna. Denna studie syftar till att ge en bättre inblick i hur svenska företag använder ’VD:n har ordet’ för att lyfta fram CSR. Vidare undersöks om det har skett en ökning av CSR-begrepp i ’VD:n har ordet’. Studien uppvisar att det inte finns något samband mellan företagens vinstmarginal och andel CSR-begrepp i ’VD:n har ordet’. Det går inte heller att urskilja ett samband mellan andel CSR-begrepp och andelen begrepp kopplade till resultat. Däremot kunde vi bevisa att det skett en linjär ökning av CSR-begrepp mellan år 2006 och 2015. Begrepp kopplade till resultat har minskat, om än inte linjärt. / Annual reports are a frequently used item in the accounting research. The annual reports are an important communication channel between the company and its various stakeholders. The purpose of the report is to give the stakeholders information about the company's earnings and financial position. The character of the annual reports has evolved over the years and has been enriched with, among other things, pictures and additional textual sections. In this study, the narrative part of the annual reports ‘CEO-letter’ has been studied. The section constitutes an important part of the annual report's optional elements, and is one of the most read sections. At the same time, the ‘CEO-letter’, unlike most other part of the annual report, is unregulated. This fact gives the company and the CEO a great opportunity to communicate legitimacy-creating messages to its stakeholders. Previous research shows that activities related to CSR have a positive impact on stakeholders' attitude towards the company. CSR is a spacious concept that includes the relationship and responsivities between the company and its society. It has been found to be of great importance for companies to successfully signal these activities to stakeholders. This study aims at giving a better insight into how Swedish companies use the 'CEO-letter' to highlight CSR. Further investigations are made if there has been an increase in the use of words related to CSR in the 'CEO-letters’. This study shows that there is no correlation between the company's profit margin and the share of CSR concepts in the ‘CEO-letter’. In addition, we could not discern a relationship between the share of CSR concepts and the proportion of concepts linked to results in the ‘CEO-letters’. On the other hand, we could prove that there has been a linear increase in CSR concepts over the past ten years. Furthermore, concepts linked to results have decreased, albeit not in a linear manner. Please note that the thesis language is in Swedish.

Diploma thesis deals with the issue of statistical reporting Energy regulátory office ČR. The introduction describes the contents regularly published reports on the operation of the electricity system in the Czech Republic. In the thsis deals with the analysis of statistical reports. Processing code in Python and describes its implementation in analytical platform KNIME.

Tidigare forskning har endast fokuserats på företag med begränsningen LargeCap och i denna studie studerar vi vad medelstora företag rapporterar om intellektuellt kapital. Studiens resultat visar på ett liknande trendmönster med tidigare studier som enbart har analyserat LargeCap företag.   Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad medelstora företag rapporterar om intellektuellt kapital, med insamlad data från svenska börsnoterade företag. För att bemöta syftet har litteratur från tidigare forskning och empiriska data från urvalsföretagens årsredovisningar för 2014 samt 2018 använts. Till följd av detta kunde en frågeställning skapas: vilka delar av intellektuellt kapital är det börsnoterade företag redovisar?   Studien visar på att MidCap företag följer samma trend i rapporteringen av intellektuellt kapital som LargeCap företag. Resultatet visar dock på en lägre frekvens av rapporteringen i MidCap företag jämfört med tidigare studier om LargeCap företag.   Studien har bidragit till ett nytt teoretiskt perspektiv för att illustrera företags rapportering av intellektuellt kapital. Studien har bidragit till att skiljaktigheten i företagens rapportering inte är beroende av storleken för att bedöma ett rapporteringsmönster. Ett empiriskt bidrag är att studien har tillfört en ny tillämpningsgrupp i en befintlig teori och det praktiska bidraget är att intressenter informeras om vilka delar företag rapporterar om intellektuellt kapital samt hur företag kan använda denna studie till att anpassa rapporteringen av intellektuellt kapital. / Previous research has solely been focusing on companies with the restriction LargeCap and in this study we have studied what MidCap companies report regarding intellectual capital. The study results show a similar pattern with previous studies that has only analysed LargeCap.   The purpose of this study is to examine what MidCap companies reports about intellectual capital, with collected data from Swedish listed companies. To meet the purpose has literature from previous research and empirical data from the sampled companies' annual reports from 2014 and 2018 been used. Due to this could an issue be established: which parts of intellectual capital are the listed companies reporting?   The study of MidCap companies follows the same pattern in the reporting of intellectual capital as LargeCap companies. However, the result shows a lower frequency of reports in MidCap companies in relation to previous research about LargeCap companies.   The study has contributed to a new theoretical perspective to illustrate companies reporting regarding intellectual capital. The research has contributed to differences in companies reporting are not dependent on the size to assess a reporting pattern. An empirical contribution is that the study has brought a new sample group for an existing theory and the practical contribution is that the stakeholders are getting informed which parts of intellectual capital companies are reporting and also how companies can utilize this study to adjust their reporting of intellectual capital.

Bakgrund: Enligt Kommunallagen (SFS 2017:725) ska kommunernas verksamhet bedrivas med god ekonomisk hushållning. Målet med kommunernas verksamhet är inte att uppnå finansiella resultat utan att genomföra de uppgifter kommunen måste enligt lagar och egna policyer med en ansvarsfull ekonomihantering (Prop. 1990/91:117). Kommunernas goda ekonomiska hushållning står inför utmaningar bland annat i form av en åldrande befolkning där skatteintäkterna kommer minska i förhållande till ökade kostnader för flera av kommunernas verksamheter. Den komplexa situationen kommunerna står inför gör det intressant att undersöka hur kommunerna redovisar den goda ekonomiska hushållningen idag.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kommunernas redovisning av god ekonomisk hushållning och utmaningen med att upprätthålla den när ekonomi och verksamhet sätts på prov. Kommunerna har formellt ansvar för den goda ekonomiska hushållningen men fokus för studien är hur de redovisar det.Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats för att kunna ge detaljerade beskrivningar av hur kommunerna redovisar. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har tolkningar av årsredovisningar från fem kommuner gjorts. Studien framför ett resonemang kring hur kommunerna redovisar och tar sitt ansvar för den goda ekonomiska hushållningen genom att undersöka och tolka kommunernas vilja att förklara och redogöra för vad som gjorts.Slutsats: De slutsatser studien kan dra är att det finns kvalitativa skillnader i hur kommunerna redovisar. De redovisar kring kommande utmaningar men genomgående brister de i utvärdering och analys vilket även resulterar i en brist på redovisning av hur de ska klara av att möta utmaningarna. Kommunerna visar dock ett långsiktigt helhetstänk genom sitt arbete med målstyrning via visioner vilket ger en bra grund för en god strategi för kommunal hushållning. Det som upplevs saknas i årsredovisningarna kan eventuell finnas i andra dokument men för att öka tillgängligheten till information för invånarna bör dessa inkluderas i utvärderingen. / Background: According to Kommunallagen (SFS 2017:725) municipal activities must be conducted with good financial management. The goal of municipal activity is not to reach financial results but to implement the tasks the municipalities are obliged to according to law and own policies with a responsible financial management (Prop. 1990/91:117). The municipal good financial management stand before challenges, for example the effect of an ageing population with lower tax revenue relatively to the increase of costs. The complex situation the municipalities stand before making it interesting to examine how the municipality account for the good financial management today.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the municipalities accounting of good financial management and the challenge of maintaining it when the economy and activity is put to test. Municipalities have the formal responsibility for good financial management, but the focus of this study is how they account for it.Methods: This study used a qualitive approach to enable the possibility to give detailed descriptions of how the municipalities account. To fulfill the purpose of this study interpretations of five municipalities’ annual reports have been completed. This study forwards a reasoning about how the municipals account for and display accountability for their good financial management through examining and interpreting the municipalities will to explain and describe what has been done.Conclusion: The conclusions of this study are that there are qualitative differences in how the municipalities account. They account for future challenges but throughout lack in evaluation and analysis which also result in lack of accounting of future plans of how they intend to deal with the challenges. The municipalities does however show a long-term holistic view through their work with goals according to visions which provide a foundation for a good approach to municipal management. What lacks from the annual reports might be found in other documents but for higher accessibility to information for the citizens this should be included in the evaluation.

Stakeholders have for the past few years been interested in organizations' impact on sustainability, where economic, environmental, and social issues are prioritized. In 2017, the Annual Reports Act was amended. It now requires companies that meet the criteria to report their CSR activities and impact on sustainability-related issues annually. There is a growing demand and expectation for companies to take responsibility for actions that may negatively impact the society in which they operate. However, critics point out that sustainability reports could be used as a marketing tool for corporations to construct a beautified image of themselves. A corporation's social responsibility is a significant challenge for the business, as it requires them to adapt to society's expectations, which is why the amendment was implemented. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to theory on CSR and sustainability reporting by evaluating how mandated reporting has affected the content of Swedish companies' sustainability reports. The thesis includes two different content analyses, one quantitative and one qualitative. The quantitative content analysis showcases the change in the frequency of sustainability-related keywords in sustainability reports, while the qualitative content analysis focuses on more in-depth content developments. The study concludes that there is a strong correlation between the amendment taking legal force and the improvement of all selected companies' sustainability reports. There has been a significant increase in the social and environmental dimensions, while the economic dimension is consistent throughout the period. Lastly, the study also concludes that mandatory reporting improves the information and content communicated in the sustainability reports to relevant stakeholders.

This dissertation reflects the results of a study during which the 2006 annual reports of the top-40 JSE listed companies, were assessed for their disclosure of the required corporate governance statements. Content analysis was used to identify the information. The results obtained indicate that the majority of the JSE's top-40 listed companies adhere to good corporate governance disclosure practices. However, there are areas in which the non-disclosure of information was prevalent. These include the disclosure of information on the selection of external auditors and whistle blowing. Future research, employing sources such as SENS announcements, press releases, trading updates, cautionary announcements and websites together with annual reports should be conducted. / Financial Accounting / M.Com. (Accounting)

Public entities are faced with the problem of increasing the interest of stakeholders in their annual reports. The aim of this study was to identify the stakeholders of AISA who use the annual report, to investigate their perceptions of the AISA annual report and to determine whether it is used for decision making or accountability purposes. Data was collected by using questionnaires sent to a representative sample of the stakeholders and minutes of meetings and audio recordings of the interrogation of the annual report by the parliamentary accountability and oversight body over DST. The study found that the AISA stakeholders use the annual report for accountability purposes and not for decision making and it has a small readership as it is read mainly by internal stakeholders. The study recommends that public entities need to do much to inform the stakeholders of the availability of their annual reports. / Business Management / M. Com. (Accounting)

Paraplybegreppet intellectual capital (IC) innefattar alla former av tillgångar som saknar fysisk substans och som utgör skillnaden mellan ett företags redovisade värde och deras marknadsvärde. Två noterade företag med identiska tillgångar på balansräkningen kan alltså värderas till helt olika priser. Anledningen är att det finns mer abstrakta former av tillgångar som är svåra att kvantifiera och redovisa. I en årsredovisning finns det utrymme för företag att delge information som de anser viktig. Syftet med studien är att redogöra hur svenska företag inom olika branscher rapporterar och kommunicerar förekomsten av IC genom årsredovisningar. Studien baseras på en kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Utifrån resultatet gör vi en ansats att identifiera eventuella mönster inom branscherna och diskuterar om dessa mönster kan förklaras av branschernas olika egenskaper. Den teoretiska modell som används i denna studie utvecklades av James Guthrie. Med hjälp av Guthries kodschema och definitioner för IC identifierar vi skillnader mellan fyra olika branscher inom Sverige. Dessa branscher är läkemedel, IT-konsult, bank samt fastighetsbranschen. IC delas in i tre huvudkategorier, internal capital, external capital och human capital, vilka i sin tur består av ett antal underkategorier. Kategorierna används som begrepp för att representera de tillgångar i verksamheten som inte kan fångas av den traditionella redovisningen. Insamlingen av data gör vi genom en tvärsnittsstudie bestående av ett teoretiskt urval, där vi analyserar fyra företag inom respektive bransch med högst P/B-tal. Resultatet av vår studie leder till slutsatsen att det finns skillnader mellan branscher vid rapporteringen av IC, genom fördelningen mellan olika underkategorier och framförallt i omfattningen av rapporteringen - skillnader som inte alltid är självklara eller uppenbara. Dessa skillnader framträder inte om fokus ligger på antal och fördelningen av de olika kategorier av IC, utan uppkommer vid en djupare nyanserad analys av hur företagen kommunicerar sitt IC. Därför har vi i vår studie presenterat materialet med citat från de olika företagens årsredovisningar, för att belysa hur IC uttrycks samt för att få med dess kontext. Resultatet visar på att svenska företag inom läkemedelsbranschen kommunicerar mest om internal capital och att bank-, It-konsult- samt fastighetsbranschen kommunicerar mest om external capital. Läkemedelsbranschen rapporterar relativt mycket om IC, jämfört med de resterande branscherna. Det största företaget inom respektive bransch är också det som rapporterade mest IC. / The generic term intellectual capital (IC) contains all forms of assets that lacks the aspect of a physical substance and makes the difference between a company’s book value and market value. Two stock-listed companies with identical assets on the balance sheet can thus be valued at notably different share-price. The reason for this is the presence of more abstract forms of assets that are more difficult to quantify and account for. An annual report contains given space for companies to communicate information that they consider important and relevant. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Swedish companies in different sectors report and communicate the occurrence of intellectual capital by analyzing annual reports. The study is based on a qualitative content analysis. Based on the result, we have made an effort to identify any patterns within the sectors and discuss whether these patterns can be explained by the different characteristics of the sectors. The theoretical model used in this study is developed by James Guthrie. With help of Guthrie’s code scheme and definitions for intellectual capital, we examine differences between four different sectors in Sweden. These sectors are pharmaceuticals, IT consultants, banks and the real estate sector. IC is divided into three main categories, which in turn consist of a number of subcategories. The categories are used as a concept to represent the assets in the business that cannot be seized by the traditional accounting. We have collected the data through a cross-sectional study consisting of a theoretical sample, where we analyze four companies within each sector with the highest price to book value. The results from our research lead us to the conclusion differences exists in between the different sectors when it comes to their reporting of intellectual capital, differences regarding the distribution between different subcategories and particularly in the magnitude of the reports. Differences that sometimes do not come across as obvious or self-evident. These differences will not show if one only focuses on how many numbers there are and allocation of the different categories of IC, but arises from a deeper nuanced analysis of how companies communicate their IC. Therefore, in our study, we have presented the material with quotes from the various companies’ deductions, in order to illustrate how IC is expressed and to capture its context. The result shows that Swedish companies in the pharmaceutical sector communicate mostly about internal capital and that the banking, IT consultancy and real estate sector communicates mostly about external capital. The pharmaceutical sector reports relatively much about IC, compared to the remaining sectors. The largest company in each sector is also the one that reported the most IC.

This dissertation reflects the results of a study during which the 2006 annual reports of the top-40 JSE listed companies, were assessed for their disclosure of the required corporate governance statements. Content analysis was used to identify the information. The results obtained indicate that the majority of the JSE's top-40 listed companies adhere to good corporate governance disclosure practices. However, there are areas in which the non-disclosure of information was prevalent. These include the disclosure of information on the selection of external auditors and whistle blowing. Future research, employing sources such as SENS announcements, press releases, trading updates, cautionary announcements and websites together with annual reports should be conducted. / Financial Accounting / M.Com. (Accounting)