Financial reporting challenges of small- and medium-capitalisation JSE-listed companies

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Financial reporting challenges of small- and medium-capitalisation JSE-listed companies
 
Creator Brookes, Leigh Burnham, Kayleigh van Zijl, Wayne Maroun, Warren
 
Subject Financial Accounting; Financial Reporting high-quality; relevance; resources; IFRS; small-cap; mid-cap; JSE; financial reporting.
Description Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the financial reporting challenges faced by small- and middle-capitalisation (small- and mid-cap) companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.Design/methodology/approach: Fourteen interviews with auditors, academics, preparers and regulators were conducted and analysed using open, axial and selective coding.Findings/results: Findings reveal that resource constraints, a lower ability to attract and retain talented staff, less interest from auditors and a perception that small- and mid-cap entities’ financial statements are irrelevant, lead to tick-box attitudes towards financial statement preparation. These challenges are partially mitigated by the smaller size and less complex operations of these entities, where less expert accounting knowledge is required and staff feel valued due to their ability to be involved in the entire business and key decision-making, reducing staff turnover and increasing their knowledge of the business.Practical implications: The findings of this research help to complete exchange regulators’ and standard setters’ understanding of the perceived complexity and impact of accounting standards. This improved understand may inform reforms in the financial reporting space.Originality/value: Academics, auditors, preparers, regulators and standard setters maintain that accounting complexity in International Financial Reporting Standards is a significant concern. While there are many articles investigating the impact of complexity in large, listed entities, the impact on small- and mid-cap firms remains largely unexplored. This is despite the fact that small- and mid-cap firms are key to driving economic growth, especially in developing countries. This article begins to address this gap in the existing literature.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-04-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v56i1.4810
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 56, No 1 (2025); 11 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4810/3259 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4810/3260 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4810/3261 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4810/3262
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Leigh Brookes, Kayleigh Burnham, Wayne van Zijl, Warren Maroun https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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