Over the past few years, public interest in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector has increased. Following NFP-related fund misappropriation scandals making news headlines across the world, concerns have been raised about the extent to which NFPs demonstrate financial accountability in their accounting disclosures. The Australian NFP sector has been no exception to these concerns. The Australian NFP sector is large and diverse with approximately 600,000 NFPs, including 56,894 economically significant NFPs. These economically significant NFPs contribute a total value added of $54.8 billion to the Australian national accounts, by engaging in a range of activities. The four largest NFP sub-sectors operating in Australia are education and research, culture and recreation, social services, and environment: combined, these four sub-sectors account for 69.4% of the economic contributions made by NFPs to the Australian economy and for 65.9% of the goods and services provided by the Australian NFP sector. As a result of the concerns about the financial accountability of NFPs and the size of the Australian NFP sector, the financial disclosure practices of organisations operating in this sector, have attracted a lot of attention. In Australia, NFPs deal with a range of financial reporting requirements, depending on the main activities of the organisation, the jurisdiction in which the NFP operates, the legal form by which the NFP is established, among others. These different accounting disclosure requirements of Australian NFPs, lack uniformity and do not promote financial accountability, even though attempts have been make to harmonise the accounting disclosure practices among Australian NFPs. The complex and diverse financial reporting framework of Australian NFPs makes financial accountability an area of interest in the Australian context. Research related to the financial reporting practices of NFPs operating in Australia is still at its preliminary stage. Existing studies which have explored accountability in the Australian NFP sector have observed the role of annual reports in the discharge of NFP accountability, the external financial reporting environment of NFPs and a potential framework to support accountability in the NFP sector. Some recent studies have assessed the extent of NFP accountability discharged when NFPs make expenditure item disclosures, the potential survival of a national regulator in the NFP sector and the patterns involved in NFP fundraising financial reporting practices. The main objective of this study is to examine the factors which influence the extent of accounting disclosures made in the annual reports of publicly reporting Australian not-for-profit organisations (NFPs), where accounting disclosures refer to mandatory as well as voluntary financial statement information. Given the key purpose of the study, its research question is What factors influence the extent of accounting disclosures made in the annual reports of publicly reporting Australian NFPs?. The research findings associated with the main research question of this study are interpreted using a dual theoretical framework: a framework which is composed of institutional and resource dependence theories. To address the main research question of this study, internal and external factors of Australian NFPs have been considered and some testable hypotheses have been identified. These hypotheses have eventually been used to develop the research model of this study. The finalised model of the study is composed of one dependent, seven independent and three control variables. The research model of the study is explored using a judgement sample of 52 NFPs, where these organisations operate in any one of the four most economically significant Australian NFPs sub-sectors (namely, education and research, culture and recreation, social services, and environment) and also, using time series data which span over 2013 and 2014. The statistical technique which is used in this study is multiple regression, a multivariate technique. This study has observed that NFPs which operate in education and research sub-sector have the highest mean extent of mandatory accounting disclosures in their published annual reports; whereas NFPs which operate in the environment sub-sector make the highest extent of voluntary accounting disclosures in their published annual reports. On the other hand, this study has noted that organisations which operate in the culture and recreation sub-sector have the lowest mean extent of, both, mandatory as well as of voluntary accounting disclosures. The main research finding of this study is that the extent of accounting disclosures made in the annual reports of publicly reporting Australian NFPs is influenced by the revenue concentration of the organisation. This study has also noted that revenue concentration has an inverse relationship with the extent of accounting disclosures and this relationship is consistent with resource dependence theory (RDT) in the NFP context. This study has also observed that in addition to revenue concentration, for the overall study period, extent of mandatory accounting disclosures is influenced by board structure factors whilst extent of voluntary accounting disclosures is impacted by sub-sector. The influence of board structure factors and of sub-sector on each respective type of accounting disclosures aligns with institutional theory. Also, the current study has observed that a support for some of the hypotheses which it has tested, inconsistencies in the research findings across time periods, inverse relationships as opposed to expected positive relationships, and control variables which do not confirm the research findings of this study. The research findings and observations of this study confirm the potential for improvement in the current financial reporting framework of Australian NFPs. By investigating the financial reporting practices adopted by NFPs operating in Australia, this study is original as well as contributes to the literature from four main stances. First, it is the first study to address the factors influencing the extent of accounting disclosures made by Australian NFPs. Second, this study contributes to knowledge and literature about NFP financial disclosures by developing a disclosure index and a disclosure which explore accounting disclosures across different financial statements as well as the notes accompanying these statements. Third, this study considers the most economically significant NFP sub-sectors operating in Australia, compared to previous studies which have adopted a case-study approach, have focused only on service provider NFPs, or examined industry award-winning annual reports.
| Date of Award | 2017 |
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| Original language | English |
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