Key Performance indicator disclosures by large UK private and public listed companies.

Conference: Bournemouth University, Business School.

Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the degree of compliance by large UK private and public listed companies with the Companies Act 2006 section 417 (6) requirement to disclose KPIs in their annual reports. Specifically, the study investigates the extent of KPI disclosures by 410 UK companies comprising the largest 205 private limited and largest 205 public listed companies. The study also examines whether corporate governance mechanisms and company specific characteristics influence the extent of KPI disclosures in the annual reports of these companies. The extent of KPI disclosures in this study is measured using three indices to quantify KPI disclosures. Some hypotheses for the independent variables were developed and tested using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression method to determine whether corporate governance and company specific characteristics are associated with the extent of KPIs disclosure by private, public listed and the pooled companies. In terms of the extent of disclosure, the results suggest that approximately 51% of private companies and 90% of public listed companies disclose at least one KPI in their annual reports. The OLS regression results indicate that corporate governance mechanisms (proportion of non-executive directors, board size and director share ownership) and company specific characteristics (company size and profitability) are significantly associated with the extent of KPI disclosures by private, public listed and the pooled companies. The frequency of board meetings and multinationality do not significantly explain disclosure extent and comprehensiveness. The overall conclusion of this research is that private companies do not seem to comply with the requirements to disclose KPIs and that corporate governance mechanisms are important in ensuring compliance with the requirement to disclose KPIs. The results have important implications for policy makers and accounting regulators such as the Accounting Standards Board in general, and in particular the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP) which is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that large private and public listed companies comply with extant regulatory framework.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/20762/

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Aylwin Yafele