This special issue of Journal of Business Communication, on the
Business Communication of Corporate Reporting, started as an idea
between Editor Margaret Graham and John Penrose, was given direction by
the association's Publications Board, which ultimately approved the
proposal for the special issue, and now appears across two issues of
JBC.
In the call for papers for this special issue, we observed that the
past decade has seen substantial changes in the way companies respond to
the public. The largely static, printed prospectus, quarterly and annual
reports, and governmental reports have given way to a highly responsive,
dynamic exchange of information between companies and their
constituencies. For some companies, corporate strategy directs the
media, content, and timeliness of outward messages. These messages as a
whole are considered under the heading of corporate reporting.
Corporate reporting is no longer restricted to only hard copy,
periodic, template-driven financial and accounting reporting that
includes the income statement, the balance sheet, the statement of
retained earnings, and the statement of cash flow but now also extends
to such dynamic media as Internet Web sites and automated telephone
systems.
This special issue elicited 19 submissions of formal articles for
consideration for the special issue and about another dozen articles,
ideas, concepts, and discussions about potential submissions that were
not formally submitted. All 19 submissions were reviewed in our normal
"blind" process by at least two anonymous reviewers, plus the
special issue editor. Eight articles are part of this special issue; all
went through at least two complete "revise and resubmit"
cycles before acceptance.
Based on the strength and number of articles accepted, we have
decided to split the accepted articles into this April 2008 issue and
the July issue of JBC. The "overflow" to the July issue does
not include articles that are in any way weaker than those in the April
issue. Instead, groupings of articles are by theme or research method.
The four articles that appear in this issue of JBC cluster around
traditional corporate reporting media. "The Mission Statement: A
Corporate Reporting Tool With a Past, Present, and Future," by
Linda Williams, uses content analysis to examine mission statements from
higher- and lower-performing firms from the Fortune 1000.
"Corporate Risk Reporting: A Content Analysis of Narrative Risk
Disclosures in Prospectuses" by Rogier Deumes, also uses content
analysis, but his attention is on Dutch firms and their prospectuses.
The next two articles share a common concept: printed annual
reports and, more specifically, the use and misuse of graphs within
them. "Annual Report Graphic Use: A Review of the Literature,"
by John Penrose, examines 25 years of information on the topic.
Frequently cited in this review is work by two of the three coauthors
(Beattie and Jones) of the next article, "Investigating
Presentational Change in U.K. Annual Reports: A Longitudinal
Perspective," by Vivien Beattie, Alpa Dhanani, and Michael John
Jones. They find universal use of graphs in annual reports, with a trend
toward graphs depicting issues other than financial ones and a
continuing public relations effort within the reports.
The July 2008 issue of JBC will have tour articles as part of the
special issue, and they present divergent topics that fall under the
overall heading of corporate reporting. In "Toward a Taxonomy of
Corporate Disclosures," Cynthia Williams structures the various
aspects of the disclosure process and pays special attention to the
voluntary aspects.
Two of the articles in the July issue present data from countries
other than or in addition to the United States. "Considering Bias
in Government Audit Reports: Factors That Influence the Judgments of
Internal Government Auditors," by Laura Palmer, reviews audit
manuals from Canada and the United States and concludes that the manuals
share little guidance to auditors in responding to bias problems. The
second article, "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in South
Africa: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis;' by Cedric Dawkins
and Faith Wambura Ngunjiri, studies CSRR across five dimensions for 100
companies on the Johannesburg Stock Index and the Global Fortune 100.
The fourth article, "Changing Uses of Technology: Crisis
Communication Responses in a Faculty Strike," by Mary E. Vielhaber
and John L. Waltman, is a case study that explores the communications of
a university and a faculty union; it finds that technology diminishes an
organization's ability to control a crisis because of the extensive
number of communication options available to others.
This special issue would not have been possible without the
insightful, timely, and thorough reviews by 37 reviewers. Reviewers were
selected based on their expertise with the respective topic and known
reviewer abilities. They shared in-depth suggestions for strengthening
the revision with the authors, and the resubmitted manuscripts almost
universally acknowledged the value of those reviews. This special issue
of JBC gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following
reviewers.
Randolph T. Barker, Virginia Commonwealth University, United States
Patrice M. Buzzanell, Purdue University, United States
Phillip G. Clampitt, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, United
States
Jonathan Clifton, Antwerp University, Belgium
W. Timothy Coombs, Eastern Illinois University, United States
Dale Cyphert, University of Northern Iowa, United States
Ronald Dulek, University of Alabama, United States
Joan Haas, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, United States
Thomas Hajduk, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Robert L. Heath, University of Houston, United States
Daphne Jameson, Cornell University, United States
Menno de Jong, University of Twente, the Netherlands
Susan M. Katz, North Carolina State University, United States
Charlie Kostelnick, Iowa State University, United States
Denny B. Kramer, Baylor University, United States
Victoria Krivogorsky, San Diego State University, United States
Shirley Kuiper (Professor Emerita), University of South Carolina,
United States
Mohan R. Limaye (Professor Emeritus), Boise State University,
United States
Cheryl L. Lintbicum, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and
University of Texas at San Antonio, United States
Sharon Livesey, Fordham University, United States
Leena Louhiala-Salminen, Helsinki School of Economics, Finland
Jackie Mayfield, Texas A&M International University, United
States
Clive Muir, Winston-Salem State University, United States
Brigitte Planken, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Arlene Plevin, Olympic College, United States
Steve Ralston, Northern Illinois University, United States
Bruce A. Reinig, San Diego State University, United States
Kathryn C. Rentz, University of Cincinnati, United States
Priscilla S. Rogers, University of Michigan, United States
Joseph N. Scudder, Northern Illinois University, United States
William C. Sharbrough, The Citadel, United States
John Staczek, Thunderbird School of Global Management, United
States
James Stratman, University of Colorado, Denver, United States
Judith B. Strother, Florida Institute of Technology, United States
Jim Suchan, Naval Postgraduate School, United States
Charlotte Thralls, Western Michigan University, United States
Craig Waddell, Michigan Technological University, United States
John M. Penrose
San Diego State University
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