The value added statement: bastion of social reporting or dinosaur of financial reporting?
| dc.contributor.author | van Staden, C. J. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2011-07-28T23:12:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2011-07-28T23:12:53Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2001 | |
| dc.description.abstract | South Africa is at present experiencing the highest incidence of publication of the value added statement reported anywhere in the world to date. In addition research investigating the predictive ability of value added information has been conducted in the USA since 1990, even though the value added statement has not been published there. The research reported in this paper sets out to establish whether the value added statement is a disclosure worth considering by companies around the world, by investigating the South African experience with the value added statement. The social accounting theories of organisational legitimacy and political costs were found to be best suited to explain why the value added statement is published. Surveys among the companies publishing the value added statement indicated that management had the employees in mind when they published this information. However, a survey among users has indicated that very little use has been made of the value added statement. The main reason for this seems to be that the unregulated nature of the value added statement allows for inconsistencies in disclosures, which eventually caused users to suspect bias in the reports. The USA evidence that the information has additional predictive power is not confirmed by a South African study, and is complicated by the limited additional information contained in the value added statement. The South African experience with the value added statement does not make a convincing case for publication. Rather, it highlights the need for unbiased and verified social disclosures that will be useful to all the stakeholders of the company. In addition, it has implications for other voluntary social and environmental disclosures. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10179/2543 | |
| dc.subject | Value added statement | en_US |
| dc.subject | South Africa | en_US |
| dc.subject | Financial statements | en_US |
| dc.title | The value added statement: bastion of social reporting or dinosaur of financial reporting? | en_US |
| dc.type | Working Paper | en_US |