Accounting for Diversity : An Eye on the Listed Companies

Sammanfattning: During the last years “Accounting for Diversity” has become a trendy concept, around which the research interest of scholars and the reports published by of the top rated accounting firms have been increasingly evolving. In this paper, the term “Accounting for Diversity” has been addressed within the societal context of the stakeholder concept, in attempt to explore how the Swedish listed companies account for and communicate the demographic diversity of their society constituents in their disclosure means. In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative approach has been conducted using a content analysis of the disclosed pictures, drawings and symbols in the annual reports and websites of the companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm). The data collected was then statistically analysed through a two-step cluster analysis. The empirical results show a preference for companies to use pictures in disclosing demographic attributes and diversity rather than symbols and drawings. Moreover, companies were found to prefer using their annual reports in disclosing the demographic diversity than their websites. Furthermore and regarding the companies’ behaviour in disclosing demographic diversity; large companies, belonging to high sensitive industries, were found to disclose higher levels of demographic diversity in their disclosure means, than the other small ones belonging to less sensitive industries. The results also show that companies belonging to different industries tend to mostly follow a convergent behaviour in accounting for diversity. Thus, it has been concluded that; the companies’ size seems to play a significant role in diverging and converging the companies’ behaviour in accounting for the demographic diversity in their disclosure means, while industry was not found to play a significantly salient role in that.