Attributional Statements in Annual Report Narratives: The Justification of Organizational Performance

27 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2008 Last revised: 20 Nov 2008

See all articles by Marcelo S. Pagliarussi

Marcelo S. Pagliarussi

School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting at Ribeirao Preto (FEA-RP/USP)

Izabella F. Tessarolo

FUCAPE Business School

Antonio Thadeu M. Luz

FUCAPE Business School

Date Written: November 12, 2008

Abstract

In this paper the nature of organizational discourse is theoretically underpinned by the concept of self-serving attributions, a type of causal reasoning that allows the writer to take credit for good news and avoid blame for bad news. Based on motivational and informational explanations, we incorporate signaling theory in order to develop hypotheses for the expected levels of self-serving attributions in the justification of organizational performance. A sample with 49 companies was selected, both from a bad year and a good year regarding the capital market context. Each company's Letter to Shareholders was content analyzed in order to test our propositions about the roles of different combinations of performance and contextual factors as triggers of self-serving attributions. The results corroborate the theoretical hypotheses advanced, but the sample size is an issue regarding robustness.

Keywords: Self-serving attributes, Corporate Annual Reports, Justification of Performance, Impression Management

JEL Classification: D23

Suggested Citation

Pagliarussi, Marcelo S. and Tessarolo, Izabella F. and Luz, Antonio Thadeu M., Attributional Statements in Annual Report Narratives: The Justification of Organizational Performance (November 12, 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1300664 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1300664

Marcelo S. Pagliarussi (Contact Author)

School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting at Ribeirao Preto (FEA-RP/USP) ( email )

Av. Bandeirantes, 3900
Monte Alegre
Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-905
Brazil

Izabella F. Tessarolo

FUCAPE Business School ( email )

Fernando Ferrari Avenue, 1358
Goiabeiras
Vitória, Espirtio Santo 29075-010
Brazil

Antonio Thadeu M. Luz

FUCAPE Business School ( email )

Fernando Ferrari Avenue, 1358
Goiabeiras
Vitória, Espirtio Santo 29075-010
Brazil

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
188
Abstract Views
1,560
Rank
290,726
PlumX Metrics