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Product cover image for The Evolution of the Coca-Cola Company’s Financial Disclosures

The Evolution of the Coca-Cola Company’s Financial Disclosures

Mitchell Stein; Martin Persson

Product #:9B19B004_P
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:Accounting
Setting:United States, 1920-2000
Details:Note (PDF) • 15 pages • 2019-04-18

Subjects:

Financial statementsCorporate disclosureFinance and investingAccounting

Industries:

Goods, trade, and consumer services

Geography:

United StatesNorth America
Your Price:$9.71

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The Coca-Cola Company, founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886, is an iconic American company that sells its products around the world. As the business and financial reporting context has changed over the decades, the company’s financial disclosure practices have also evolved—from its first, two-page, public annual report in 1920 to present-day annual reports that extend to over 150 pages. This note introduces corporate disclosure and the expansion of such disclosures over time. To aid the discussion and contextualize the evolution of corporate disclosure, the note also presents a short history of the Coca-Cola Company and securities legislation in the United States.

Learning Objectives

The note can be used at the introductory or undergraduate level. For students familiar with accounting, the learning objective is to contextualize contemporary financial statements in their historical context. For first-time accounting students, the learning objective is to introduce key parts of the financial statements in a historically interesting way. After reading the note, students will understand the following:
  • A brief history of securities legislation in the United States.
  • The evolution of corporate disclosure from the 1920s to present day.
  • A comparison of historical and present-day elements of an annual report.
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Note: The Evolution of the Coca-Cola Company’s Financial Disclosures | Ivey Publishing