An Empirical Investigation of Users’ Views on Corporate Annual Reports in Developing Countries: Evidence from Kuwait

The purpose of this study is to investigate how users of corporate annual reports (CARs) in Kuwait perceive the usefulness and relative importance of Kuwaiti CARs. Moreover, this study explores users’ perceptions of the proposed items for improving the quality of voluntary disclosure in annual reports. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to individuals representing the four groups identified. Descriptive measures, the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) test, and the Mann-Whiteny (M-W) test were used to achieve the study objectives. The study findings show most participants strongly agree that annual reports of Kuwaiti listed companies are an important primary source of information in their decision making; however, the timeliness in publishing annual reports is becoming a matter of great concern. Most respondents did not feel satisfied with the quantity and quality of information provided in CARs and indicated a desire for more information. The findings of this study offer an assessment of the current usefulness of Kuwaiti CARs and provide recommendations that could improve the quality of Kuwaiti CARs.