O relatório da administração nas sociedades por ações, como instrumento de comunicação empresarial: uma abordagem qualitativa

Abstract

Abstract: The objectives of this study can be divided into two components: on a more general level, it was intended to reflect on the growing importance of communicating business performance to the external environment as a vital and strategic process for today's companies, given the needs of information from its different audiences. On a more specific level, it was intended to identify and classify the information on corporate business, present in the Management Reports of joint-stock companies and from this survey, an attempt was made to discuss the results found in the light of finance theories, especially with regard to to Agency Theory, that is, its importance as a source of evidence of business performance. To achieve this goal, a research methodology called Content Analysis was applied to this type of document. We tried to adapt and apply this methodology of analysis of written information at an exploratory level, and to verify its possibilities of contribution to reading and interpretation, in this type of business communication. The results of the survey of the analyzed companies' reports indicated the existence of several deficiencies in terms of the content considered adequate for this communication space between the company and its shareholders and its various publics. Even so, the qualitative analysis of the content made it possible to establish some important differences in degree regarding the individual position reached in terms of the adequacy of the documents generated by them, regarding the degree of relevance and additional disclosure provided by them. Therefore, this position reflects how much the information contained therein contributed (or not) to minimize the conflict of informational asymmetry between agent and principal, through the monitoring provided by this type of document. The use and results obtained with the content analysis in this research indicated that this methodology is a very promising tool in studies in the area of Finance and Business Administration.