A Comparative Analysis of Students' Attitudes towards Financial and Corporate Social Reporting among Japan, China and South Korea (2011)

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to characterize the differences in students ' attitudes towards financial and corporate social responsibility reporting among three East Asian countries: Japan, China and South Korea. The questionnaire concerning stakeholders was carried out from 2006 to 2007. Descriptive statistics and Pearson 's independent coefficient were used. According to the obtained results, their attitudes differ among these three nations. Japan would like its traditional reporting to be maintained. China orients financial reporting in order that a shareholder can control an entity in the capital market or that an employee is given a chance of success, while South Korea is directed to social reporting to protect a customer or retain an employee. On the other hand, it is common for respondents from these three countries to acknowledge the importance of female management and a superiors ' age and that community services weigh the impact on the environment. INTRODUCTION While it is the International Financial Reporting Board (IASB) that is expected to develop a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted financial reporting standards at present (G20, 2009, p. 6; IASB, 2011), other international organizations were also engaged in international harmonization of accounting several decades ago (Daley & Mueller, 1982, p.42; Choi & Mueller, 1984, pp.498-499; Kuroda, 1989, pp.7-23). Among these organizations, in particular, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN), which were members of the Consultative Group of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC, the predecessor of the IASB), had been concerned with non-financial information as well as financial information in usable form about the activities of multinational enterprises referred to by the OECD and transnational corporations named by the UN. Internationalization of accounting standards has been a cause of conflicts. The UN General Assembly was eager to provide political power among its 153 member nations, especially with respect to controlling the activities of transnational corporations. The OECD with 24 member countries represented the industrialized Western nations in order to establish, if nothing else, a counterweight to the UN (Choi & Mueller, 1984, pp.470-476). The UN's reporting standards were embodied in the annexed lists of minimum-disclosure items for a transnational corporation and its member companies (UN, 1977, pp. 45-79). The lists are divided into two parts, financial information and non-financial information, and each part has two sections, enterprise as a whole and individual member company. The list of minimum items of the first section of the second part required information on labor and employment, production, investment programs, organizational structure and environmental measures at the international level. The list of the second section of the second part required the same five items as the first section and the first item of labor and employment was even more detailed than in the first section: description of labor relations policy, number of employees at year end and annual average, number employed by function, number of women employees by function, number of national employees by function, average hours worked per week, annual rate of labor turnover, absenteeism, accident rate, description of health and safety standards and employee costs. The OECD issued its Declaration on Investment in Multinational Enterprises in 1976. The annex to this Declaration contained reporting guidelines for multinational enterprises. The guidelines on Disclosure of Information in 1976 indicated that enterprises should publish financial statements and other pertinent information relating to the enterprises as a whole, comprising in particular: structure, geographical areas, operating results and sales by geographic area and sales in the major lines of business, significant new capital investment by geographic area, a statement of the sources and uses of funds, average number of employees in each geographic area, research and development expenditure, policy of intra-group pricing and accounting policies (OECD, 1986, pp. …