Usefulness of Corporate Annual Reports to Shareholders in Australia, New Zealand and the United States

Prior evidence on corporate annual reports; research methodology and the demographics of the corporate shareholder; investors' investment objectives and their information sources; the readership and usefulness of corporate financial statements; the readership and usefulness of non-financial statement items; the effect of sophistication on the use of annual reports; the shareholder's demand for inproved reporting; the expectation gap and the auditor; shareholder's use of the auditor's report; shareholder views on auditor independence and conflict of interest; shareholder perceptions of the financial reporting responsibilities of auditors, management and Board of Directors; the future of the Corporate Annual Report in responding to the shareholder's demand for accountability; appendix a - surveying methods and results; appendix b - chi-square test for nonresponse bias.