Exploring an Innovative International Research Database: Swot Analysis Available to Purchase

There is an evolving literature on comparative international accounting (see Meek and Saudagaren (1990) and Wallace and Gernon (1991) for comprehensive reviews). Many of these studies utilise corporate annual reports either directly or indirectly. Direct usage of corporate annual reports has been used to explore a variety of topics. For example, Choi and Bavishi (1982) and Cairns, Lafferty and Mantle (1984) looked at the quantity and nature of corporate financial disclosure; Gray (1978) explored segmental disclosures; and Choi (1973) examined voluntary disclosure. Indirect usage involves data synthesised from annual reports. For example, Datastream and the Financial Times 500, inter alia, provide a selection of data, such as sales and profit figures, extracted from corporate annual reports. This data is then used by a variety of users, such as industrial analysts and academics.