Social disclosure: What are the main explanatory factors? An empirical test in the Tunisian context

  • Authors

    • Anis Jarboui ISAAS sfax university
    • Rahma Driss ISAAS
    2014-03-14
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijaes.v2i1.1505

  • The paper constitutes an attempt of enrichment of researches relating to the publication of corporate social information in the annual reports. It aims to clarify the explanatory factors of the social disclosure. In fact, several research studies have focused on topics relating to the social disclosure in developed countries. However, few studies have analyzed this practice in the Tunisian context. Consequently, the paper tries to identify and assess factors that may influence the decision to publish social information in the annual reports of Tunisian companies.  A survey of the literature treating of the topic of social disclosure is carried out and allowing the reformulation of the hypotheses of research.  On the methodology, we made recourse to the technique of content analysis of the annual reports of 23 Tunisian companies during five years (from 2007 to 2011). As for results, we find that Tunisian companies tend to publish more information concerning the category « human resources » in comparison with the other studied informational categories (environment, products and implication in the community).  As for the test of hypotheses, theses relating to the political visibility, leverage, performance, and number of employees are representing the explanatory factors of the social reporting in Tunisia.

     

    Keywords: Social Disclosure; Voluntary Disclosure; Annual Reports; Explanatory Factors; Content Analysis.

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    Jarboui, A., & Driss, R. (2014). Social disclosure: What are the main explanatory factors? An empirical test in the Tunisian context. International Journal of Accounting and Economics Studies, 2(1), 34-39. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijaes.v2i1.1505