JSE listed companies in the food and drug retail sector: A content analysis of financial statements to determine their primary purpose

Abstract

The overall purpose of the study is to analyse financial statements to determine the primary purpose of JSE listed companies in the food and drug retail sector. There were two parts to the analyses. First, the study examines the literature on the three models, namely: neoclassical, conscious capitalism and entity maximisation and sustainability in order to identify themes or major identifiers of each model. Second, it analyses the financial statements (over five years from 2010 to 2014) of JSE listed companies in the food and drug retail sector, in particular the non-financial information. The entire population was analysed as there were only four in the population, namely SPAR, Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Clicks. Annual integrated reports and sustainability reports (where separately published) were analysed using content analyses. Keywords and themes were used to link the attributes of the company to the attributes identified in the literature to determine the model the company used. The content analyses showed that the dominant model was the entity maximisation and sustainability model. However, each company appears to have chosen to focus on a different stakeholder: SPAR on employees, Pick n Pay on customers (with a differentiation strategy), Shoprite on customers (with a low cost strategy) and Clicks on shareholders.

Keywords

• Stakeholder orientation
• sustainability reporting
• profit maximisation
• entity maximisation
• triple bottom line
• food and drug retail sector