The significance of human capital disclosures in corporate annual reports of top South African listed companies: evidence from the financial directors and managers

Abstract

This paper reports the research results of survey questionnaire administered on the financial directors and managers (identified as preparers of corporate annual reports) of top South African listed companies. The purpose of the survey questionnaire was to determine whether the financial directors and managers report on the identified human capital attributes and also to determine the extent to which these items contribute to creating value for these companies. The results show that in most cases, this category of preparers of corporate annual reports (CARs) do not provide sufficient information on the majority of the human capital (HC) attributes even though they are perceived to have strong contributions to value creation.