Secrecy versus Transparency—A Comparative Study of Social and Environmental Disclosure Practice in Croatian and Swedish Corporations

Abstract Both agency, institutional, and cultural factors seem to explain transparency and disclosure practice. The aim of this study is to make a comparative study of disclosure practice among listed corporations in Croatia and Sweden. The study shows that Swedish corporations disclose significantly more social disclosures than Croatian corporations. Size and industry have a strong explanatory power in Sweden. In Croatia, industry has some explanatory power but surprisingly not firm size. However, unlike Sweden, the variable audit firm has an explanatory power in Croatia. KEYWORDS: accounting valuesaudit firmcomparative studycultural dimensionsharmonizationsocial disclosures Acknowledgments The authors appreciate comments from Dr. Timur Umans, Annette Tagesson, and participants at the 14th Annual SNEE Conference: European Integration in Swedish Economic Research in Mölle 2012. The article has also benefited from constructive comments and criticism from two anonymous reviewers and Prof. Anatoly Zhuplev. The research has been partly financed by the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. Notes †Correlation is moderately significant at the .10 level. *Correlation is significant at the .05 level. **Correlation is significant at the .01 level. †Correlation is moderately significant at the .10 level. *Correlation is significant at the .05 level. **Correlation is significant at the .01 level.