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is 1,480. The company itself
reveals that 87·2% of its shareholders own only 4·8% of its ordinary shares,
an average shareholding of 1,114 shares.
Response rate
Questionnaires were mailed to 300 shareholders randomly selected from
the shareholders’ register. Seventy-six usable returns were received, givingthe corporate report and the private shareholder 251
a valid response rate of 25·3% [compared to L&T’s response rate of 23·5%
(1975a, p. 280)].
Respondent background
The profile of our respondents in terms of gender, portfolio size and
accounting experience, compared to those of the L&T studies, is given in
Table 1.
Perhaps the only noticeable change is the shift in the male/female balance
of respondents, although men still form the majority. There seems to be
little significant diVerence in size of portfolios and accounting experience.
Respondents’ investment decisions
Given their apparent lack of financial knowledge, it is surprising that 84%
of respondents indicated that they made their own investment decisions,
although some may take advice from stockbrokers. This is a considerably
larger majority than the respondents to the later L&T survey, where 69%
of their respondents stated that investment decisions were taken on their
own initiative (L&T, 1977, p.19). Perhaps one explanation of our finding
may lie in the infrequency of our respondents’ investment activity: only 8%
of our respondents indicated that they were active investors, i.e. trading at
least once a month.
Reading of report and accounts
This section examines the readership of the diVerent parts of the annual
report and also assesses their relative importance. Regarding the readership,
Table 2 compares the findings of our study with the L&T results. It must
be noted, however, that we have attempted to produce a matching of
comparative data from the L&T studies and, as a result, the process did
involve an element of subjectivity. For example, the annual reports used by
L&T included an additional item ‘Statistical data’: we have set the results
of this item against our item ‘Additional Financial Information’ since both
concern trends, inter alia. In addition, the company in our study divided its
directors’ report into four sections, rendering a direct comparison with L&T
impossible, and, not surprisingly, the annual report in our study included
many items which were not present in the reports studied by L&T.
Table 2 shows a number of similarities with the findings of the L&T
studies. The most noticeable factor is the marked decline in the general
readership of the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. It is also
noteworthy that the two newer primary statements, the statements of cash
flow and total recognized gains and losses, are more or less ignored by the
majority. This finding is consistent with the work by Anderson & Epstein
(1995, p. 26) in Australia, but conflicts with that of Epstein & Pava (1992,s. a. bartlett & r. a. chandler 252
TABLE 1
Respondent characteristics (all figures shown are percentages)
Gender Portfolio size (number of companies) Accounting experience
Male Female 1–5 6–10 11–20 21+ Book-keeping/ Accounting Attended
financial qualification course
management
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