Historical Account of Key Words in Non-Financial Report Titles

Abstract

This paper investigates the history of, and trends in, non-financial reporting, based on titleanalysis. The database consists of the titles of non-financial reports issued by FT 500 corporationsfrom 1989 to 2007. The frequency and development of the three key words environment,sustainability and responsibility (coded as “environmentâ€, “sustainab†and “responsib†to catchrelevant versions) are investigated. The key words were initially applied by a few companies,and then grew in popularity. While “sustainab†and “responsib†are still growing in popularity,“environment†grew, peaked around 2002 and then reduced in frequency as a term in the titles.Based on business theories, the paper discusses alternative explanations for why corporationsintroduced the new key words in their non-financial reports. Whereas issuing non-financialreports can be understood from a legitimacy perspective, the introduction of new key words inthe titles can be explained by a multitude of alternative theories. Copyright © www.iiste.org