THE SEMANTICS OF ANNUAL REPORTS.
According to public opinion polls taken in recent years, many people actually think that corporations make a profit of 25% on sales. They say a profit of 10% would be about right. And many people still identify ownership with management, and think the boss gets all the money. It is interesting that whether polls cover industry in general or a specific industry, whether they cover the general public or employees, the results as to these points are just about the same. In other words, the misconception as to profits, and who gets the profits, is well-nigh universal. If a company is not bound by past precedent, the problem is fairly simple. Take the case, for instance, of a company which is not publicly owned. Such a company is not compelled to issue any report at all. But nevertheless some companies, not publicly owned, are issuing financial reports to their employees because they consider it good employee relations as well as good public relations. In this connection, the author certainly hopes that in formal reports some method can be devised whereby the item of Net Profit can be broken down into its component parts: namely, dividends paid out, and money reinvested into the business.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-7054614
- Volume
- 22 (4)
- Pages
- 360-366
- Language
- en
- Export
- BibTeX
- Sources
- openalex crossref