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The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions
Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613631310462976 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Koornhof, Carolina, 1959- |
| author_browse | Koornhof, Carolina, 1959- |
| author_facet | Koornhof, Carolina, 1959- |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/40210 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:12.888Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/40210 The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions Koornhof, Carolina, 1959- Vorster, Q. (Quintus) Oberholster, J.G.I. (Johan Gerhardus Ignatius), 1962- Financial reporting Shareholders Investigation Complex financial reports South African listed retail companies Investment decisions UCTD Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. Since 2007, several studies have been conducted by international and national role players to establish whether the recent efforts to improve financial reporting have been successful. The respondents to the surveys used as part of these studies have indicated that more concise and less complex financial reports would be more understandable to users of financial reports. In view of the call for shorter and simpler financial reports, the fact that the understandability of financial reports appears to be a problem, as well as the fact that a limited amount of research on the understandability of interim financial reports has been done thus far, it was decided to investigate whether individual shareholders understand the context and content of interim financial reports which, per se, are supposed to be more concise and less complex financial reports presented by companies. The study entailed using a postal questionnaire in a survey of a sample of individual shareholders of three large South African listed retail companies to determine whether individual shareholders understand the context and content of interim financial reports, and whether they use these reports, among other sources, to make investment decisions. The study is based loosely on the high profile studies of Lee and Tweedie in respect of individual shareholders performed in the late 1970s. The primary research objective of the current study was to determine whether individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies understand the context and content of interim financial reports. It was found that understanding of these reports was generally limited. However, there is evidence that experience and training in the field of financial accounting improve shareholders’ understanding of the content of interim financial reports. Apart from questions on the demographics and investment objectives of individual shareholders, a number of other questions were also included in the questionnaire to address several secondary research objectives. The questions relating to the secondary research objectives were designed to gather information, inter alia, on how individual shareholders make investment decisions, sources of information used by individual shareholders when making investment decisions, additional information that should be included in interim financial reports, as well as the medium of communication through which individual shareholders would prefer to receive interim financial reports. The study has shown, amongst other things, that the majority of respondents to this study initiated their own investment decisions, that articles in the financial press are the most popular source of information when making investment decisions, and that individual shareholders still prefer to receive interim reports by post. gm2014 Accounting Unrestricted 2014-06-17T13:01:24Z 2014-06-17T13:01:24Z 2014-04-24 2013 Thesis Oberholster, JGI 2013, The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions, DCom thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/40210> D14/4/89/gm http://hdl.handle.net/2263/40210 en © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | Financial reporting Shareholders Investigation Complex financial reports South African listed retail companies Investment decisions UCTD The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title | The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title_full | The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title_fullStr | The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title_full_unstemmed | The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title_short | The understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of South African listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| title_sort | understanding and use of interim financial reports by individual shareholders of south african listed retail companies for investment decisions |
| topic | Financial reporting Shareholders Investigation Complex financial reports South African listed retail companies Investment decisions UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/40210 |