Third sector accounting and accountability in Australia : anything but a level playing field

Abstract

All entities in Australia have to comply with the disclosure requirements of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. However, the privilege accorded to some NFPs exempts them from any duty of general disclosure. Most NFP entities make voluntary disclosures above and beyond their basic statutory obligations. The research which the presenters have begun is designed to find out what are the factors that drive additional disclosure to be made. After a search of the disclosure literature in the commercial sector, we found institutional and stakeholder theories to offer the greatest promise of insight, partly because their applicability is not dependent on any one governance or managerial structure. The presentation will convey the key findings in the desk research and will outline the design of the empirical phase and seek feedback on our proposed hypotheses and their testing