Divergence in the public company annual report disclosure: What do Holy Land principles and sustainability issues suggest about corporate performance?

AbstractThis paper reviews current annual reports and federal forms 10-K of selected publicly held companies in the U.S. for possible correlation between specific disclosures and the entity’s performance measured by earnings... [ view full abstract ]

Abstract

This paper reviews current annual reports and federal forms 10-K of selected publicly held companies in the U.S. for possible correlation between specific disclosures and the entity’s performance measured by earnings and stock market price.   The expected findings include the consideration of Holy Land principles and enhancements of environmental sustainability measures are accompanied by positive growth in the company.  The paper also recommends items for future research on disclosure information which can help financial statement users discriminate between companies on overall performance. 

The paper will provide tables of selected companies that either carry the disclosures or have questions asked about these policies in proxy materials.  Comparisons of revenue, earnings, and stock market price over recent periods will suggest whether there are negative or positive effects associated with the additional information.