A comparison of non-fi nancial strategy disclosure in the annual reports of South African and Indian listed companies

Abstract

This study focuses on non-fi nancial strategy disclosure in the annual reports of listed companies in South Africa and India. South Africa and India are both developing nations that face similar socioeconomic conditions, including the threats presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and affi rmative action policies and regulations. The fact that integrated reporting is fast becoming a necessity for emerging markets to gain entrance to developed economies validates the contribution of this research. This study, which replicated the studies of Santema and Van de Rijt (2001) and Padia and Yasseen (2011), compared the top 40 listed companies in South Africa with the top 40 listed companies in India based on market capitalisation for the year 2012. The results were statistically analysed using principal component analysis and Hotelling’s t-square tests. The fi ndings concluded that South African companies divulge more information in terms of their non-financial strategy disclosure than their Indian counterparts. In addition, the Hotelling’s t-square test found that there were no signifi cant differences in terms of four of the variables when comparing South African companies with Indian companies. Overall, however, there are vast differences in the levels of non-fi nancial strategy disclosure in both countries, which is attributed to stock exchange regulation in the respective countries.

Key words: affirmative action, annual reports, HIV/AIDS, India, integrated reporting, nonfinancial disclosure, South Africa, strategy