An investigation of the relationship between self serving attributions and corporate governance

This work is an initial attempt to investigate a possible relationship between causal attributions in narrative sections of annual reports and a corporate governance index among companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa), for 2006. As a proxy for corporate governance we use the enhanced governance certification seals attributed by the Bovespa. The results show that self-serving attributions can be found in the annual reports, regardless of corporate governance levels indicated by the Bovespa seals. Evidence of a relationship obtained through the use of sentence counts is not corroborated when the proportion of reports dedicated to causal attributions is used. The possible explanation is connected to report length. The conclusion suggests further research, with inclusion of other variables and use of an extended sample, in order to clarify the issue.