INFORMATION RISK DISCLOSURE: A CASE OF LARGE COMPANIES IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN IN THE FOOD RETAIL SECTOR

Risk management is an activity recognized as essential, especially in contexts of great uncertainty such as the present one. However, the effectiveness in carrying out this activity depends, among other things, on the availability of information. The aim of this study is to analyse information risk disclosure in the annual accounts of large companies inserted in the food retail sector, in Portugal and Spain, during the period from 2008 to 2010. We intend to verify whether there is a relationship between size and risk variables and the level of information risk disclosure made in the annual accounts of these companies. With this objective in mind we use both the case study method and the content analysis of the documents already mentioned. It appears that among the companies analyzed, the Portuguese ones disclose the most. It, also, appears that all the companies show a greater level of disclosure of financial risk information than about non-financial risk information and that there seems to be no relation between size or risk level and information risk disclosure.