A study of the evolution of community disclosures in a developing country

Soobaroyen, T. and Mahadeo, J.D. (2010) A study of the evolution of community disclosures in a developing country. 6th Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research on Accounting (APIRA) Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

This paper adopts a multi-method approach to analyze the evolution of, and motivations for, community disclosures in a developing economy (Mauritius). We first study the word counts of 82 listed and non-listed companies and carry out a quantitative analysis of the data. Community disclosure narratives are then examined in depth and triangulated with interview data from a sample of company directors. Whilst the analysis of the word counts might, on its own, lead us to conclude that companies disclose community disclosures primarily as a legitimation strategy, we uncover - from the narrative and interview data - a different set of motivations for community involvement and disclosure, centered on one hand on (i) the pursuit of the business case and on the other hand, (ii) on the existence of altruistic attitudes influenced by the country\'s social, economic and political context.

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