THE SEMANTICS OF THE RESULT: AN ANALYSIS OF TERMS ASSOCIATED TO THE PROFIT AND THE LOSS IN INDUSTRIAL BRAZILIAN COMPANIES

Abstract

To tell positive results or profit, as synonym of the success of the administration of a company it is something much more attraction than the report of negative results or loss In that perspective the communication process in accounting would focus in the good news and it would relegate the bad news. However, in if treating of generation and trust maintenance among speakers, the omission or deficient explanation, for the user, of reasons and decisive circumstances of the negative result, it sends for the weakness of the syntony of the communication channel, being redundant in aggravation of the asymmetry information. The objective of this work is to analyze explanatory categories for the occurrence of damages and present profits in Reports of Administration of industrial Brazilian companies. Starting from the data of the Standardized Financial Demonstrations (DFP), it is classified industrial companies with 4 (four) published financial exercises, regarding the years of 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. 820 demonstrations and reports of the administration of 205 companies were analyzed.  The results demonstrate that the narrative "internal factors" prevails in the reports of the administration when the result is positive, when the result is negative the narrative "external factors" has the largest absolute frequency. The found results, in this research, they are going to the encounter of the studied literature. The companies that obtained profits try to explain these results starting from internal reasons, rewarding like this their actions. On the other hand, when the results are negative, the causes are established in external factors, justifying his/her "little" control in the administration of external factors.