The rise of non-financial performance measures in annual reports. An analysis of ATX-listed companies

In the past, annual reports only included financial measures. More recently, this shareholder value approach has been criticized of leading to a strategic short-term orientation. Consequently, the use of strategic performance measurement systems, namely the Balanced Scorecard, is proposed to communi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trendy ekonomiky a managementu 2016-05, Vol.10 (25), p.9
Main Authors: Muehlbacher, Juergen, Siebenaler, Tom, Würflingsdobler, Ulrike
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accounting
Annual reports
Balance sheets
Balanced Scorecard
Boards of directors
Business metrics
Corporate governance
Disclosure
Employees
Financial analysis
Financial reporting
Performance evaluation
Principles
Public companies
Social responsibility
Stockholders
Strategic management
Studies
Tax assessments
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Summary:In the past, annual reports only included financial measures. More recently, this shareholder value approach has been criticized of leading to a strategic short-term orientation. Consequently, the use of strategic performance measurement systems, namely the Balanced Scorecard, is proposed to communicate non-financial measures to investors and stakeholders. The purpose of the article is thus to reveal whether Austrian companies disclose their strategic performance measures in their annual reports. Two observation points, 2002 and 2012, were chosen to analyse the annual reports of companies listed on the ATX. The analysis of the annual reports showed a tremendous increase in non-financial measures in the time period between 2002 and 2012, which solely arose from the augmented disclosure activities of the innovation and learning perspective. On the other hand, the customer and internal perspectives decreased in importance. Similar findings in the literature as well as the influence of legal disclosure requirements are discussed.
ISSN:1802-8527
2336-6508
DOI:10.13164/trends.2016.25.9