RT Journal Article
T1 A readability evolution of narratives in annual reports: A longitudinal study of two Spanish companies
A1 Moreno, Alonso
A1 Casasola Balsells, María Araceli
K1 Readability
K1 Annual reports
K1 President’s letter
K1 Accounting narratives
K1 Longitudinal
K1 Impression management
AB Previous research on the readability of annual reports is based mainly on English narratives and has found them difficult to read. Although the results of such research cannot be generalized to different contexts, accounting narratives written in non-English languages have seldom been analyzed in this respect. More important, few studies have longitudinally examined the evolution in readability of such narratives. This study focuses on the readability evolution of annual report narratives written in Spanish, applying an adapted version of the Flesch readability formula to two sets of documents from different companies over most of the years of the 20th century. The results confirm that the reports are indeed difficult to read but show an improvement in readability over the years. The study tested several variables that might influence readability, including profitability.
PB Sage Journals
YR 2016
FD 2016
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/19977
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/19977
LA en
NO Moreno, A., & Casasola, A. (2016). A Readability Evolution of Narratives in Annual Reports: A Longitudinal Study of Two Spanish Companies. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 30(2), 202-235
NO Departamento de Economía Financiera y Contabilidad
DS RIO
RD May 24, 2026