Studies the disclosure choices faced by companies. This work identifies broad categories or value-relevant information for disclosure to analysts and fund managers.

Table of Contents

Foreword i; Acknowledgements iii; Executive Summary v; 1.A Brief survey of relevant research on corporate financial communications and disclosure 1; Outline of the report 3; 2.Research questions and methods 5; Presentation of the model of financial communications and the use of literature 9; 3.The financial communications model - corporate choices between public and private disclosure and secrecy 15; Public mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure 18; Private disclosure: deliberate and voluntary to core fund managers and to influential analysts 20; Secrecy 23; Secrecy and corporate culture and conservatism on disclosure 27; Secrecy and the status of strategic options 28; The variation in secrecy with circumstances 31; Reserves and constraints 32; Costs and benefits in voluntary disclosure choices 33; Changing circumstances and changing disclosure levels 37; Summary 41. 4.Corporate value creation, strategic flexibility and information content 45; The value-creation story and benchmarking 46; Case concepts of flexibility, growth and strategic options 49; Option creation 54; Practical case examples of the continuous option value-creation process 56; Valuation issues in the corporate value-creation process 61; Cash flows at points in the value-creation process 67; Summary 80; 5.Corporate perceptions of fund manager and analyst learning, of barriers to learning and of fragility 81; The interactions and the dialogue 86; Perceived understanding and confidence amongst fund managers and analysts 89; Cost of capital 124; Summary 125; 6.Corporate learning and improvements in financial communication 127; Disclosure content 127; Disclosure choices 132; Disclosure behaviour 134; Disclosure structures and processes 145; Disclosure systems 153; Summary 155; 7.Conclusions and policy implications 159; Field research outcomes 159; Financial communications policy issues for companies 163; Policy implications at the regulatory level 166; Implications for research and theory 172; References 175; Appendix One 181; Appendix Two 183; Appendix Three 185; Appendix Four 205; Appendix Five 213.