Analysis of company annual reports and corporate governance codes: An empirical study in the European context

In this multidisciplinary and internationally oriented paper, we first examine the European directives and the recent corporate governance codes of France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. We define 39 variables in six categories (ethics and corporate behavior, shareholders’ rights, board composition and independence, board accountability, audit committee and risk management and internal control) and then conduct an empirical study using content analysis, on the disclosure practices of a sample of 120 publicly listed European companies in 2008. The overall findings suggest that the recent codes of EC and four selected countries have not significantly changed. Regarding the disclosure policies of companies, there is evidence of the absence of voluntary disclosures in several core areas such as ethics, audit committee, control, risk management, and accountability. Also, there is significant difference in disclosure of selected variables in annual reports within countries.