An empirical investigation of chairperson's report - A comparison between secretive and transparent value oriented countries

Following Hofstede’s (1980, 1991, 2001) and Gray’s (1988) propositions on the effects of cultural variables on accounting disclosure practices it is expected that annual reports of a transparent value oriented country would provide more voluntary disclosure compared to a secretive value oriented country. This study investigated the proposition that India having more secretive culture compared to New Zealand, the chairpersons’ statements in the annual reports of the Indian companies would disclose less information compared to the chairpersons’ statements in the annual reports of the New Zealand companies. However, the evidence as provided in the study on the contrary suggests that Indian companies in fact, provided more voluntary information in their Chairpersons’ statement compared to their New Zealand counterparts. The study argues that voluntary disclosure (chairpersons’ report itself is voluntary) is a complex phenomenon and cultural variables alone are not capable of predicting voluntary disclosure practices of a country as these practices are also influenced by other organisational antecedents, such as environmental conditions, industry norms and market competition.