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ABSTRACT
In accounting studies drawing on stakeholder theory, scant attention has been paid to whether annual reports reliably reflect the main events that are relevant to specific stakeholders. In an attempt to fill this gap, we analyse a qualitative document included in the annual report, the management report (MR), for El Alcázar, a medium-sized Spanish brewery company (1928–1993). This historical period witnessed a unique combination of political regimes (e.g. dictatorships, republic, democracy), which exerted a significant influence on social accountability practices. In this investigation, we focus on three critical stakeholder groups – workers, customers, and shareholders. In addition, we use minutes from the governing bodies in order to validate the main events at the company. Although annual reports traditionally have been focused on shareholders, in this case, the capital structure of the company and the non-standardised content of the document itself make it reasonable to expect a different focus. Additionally, it is also expected that a longitudinal study, in line with the evolution of the context, reflects the transition from the traditional shareholder to a stakeholder approach. Overall, our findings show that the shareholders are the main audience for the MR. It covers only a small fraction of events relevant to workers and only a fair number relevant to customers. However, as social expectations started to change beginning in the 1960s, during the Franco dictatorship, the company became accountable to broader stakeholder groups, in line with the development of the stakeholder orientation.
Acknowledgements
This paper has benefited from comments on earlier drafts at the 18th Workshop on Accounting and Management Control ‘Raymond Konopka Memorial’ held at Baeza (Spain) in 2013, the 36th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association held at Paris (France) also in 2013, and the 9th International Research Seminar on Accounting History held in Seville (Spain) in 2014. We are also very grateful to Cheryl McWatters and the two anonymous reviewers for their help in improving the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. For more information about the impact of war periods on accounting, see the special issue on Accounting and the First World War in Accounting History Review (Funnell and Walker Citation2014).
2. In order to gain access to the archives of El Alcázar, we signed an agreement to examine these records over an extended period.
3. In the case of the MR, the number of paragraphs ranges from 5 (1939) to 38 (1966), with an average of 10.6 paragraphs per year. The readability of this series has been analysed by Moreno and Casasola (Citation2016).
4. Board members were appointed by the Shareholder General Meeting. Its chairman was the chairman of the company. The members received no remuneration until 1940.
5. The MBD average 7.6 documents per year, ranging from 2 (1992) to 12 (1961 and 1962), with an average length of 8.0 paragraphs per document. The MBD book that should contain the minutes from 15 April 1944 to 3 May 1960 is lost, according to a statement in a 1993 internal document of the company. Consequently, we have not been able to query the MBD of that period. The MSGM average 1.5 documents per year, depending on whether there were any extraordinary meetings. The average length is 14.1 paragraphs per document.
6. This group includes the final consumers and the intermediaries, the latter including bars and wholesalers.
7. Moreover, from 1992 to 1998 this individual was the image manager of Grupo Cruzcampo.
8. This interviewee is the son of the founder of the family company (Juan Ruiz Yáñez) and current manager of the successor company (Dibecazorla, SL).
9. Moreover, from 1982 to 1994 this interviewee was the chairman of the National Brewery Association.
10. Interviews were conducted in a room at the Universidad de Jaén, except for the shareholder/general manager, who was interviewed at his residence. The interviews lasted between 75 and 90 minutes each and were recorded.
11. Due to the aggregated presentation of data, it is not possible to determine the company’s exact ranking, but it was between third and eighth.
12. All quotations from the MR, MBD, and MSGM, and also from the interviews are translated from Spanish by the authors.
13. The ranking did not include a factor related to workers/employees.