2.3.3.2 Analysing corporate documents

The second method in this study involves analysing corporate documents. Primarily, such analysis concerns the company’s annual reports, corporate governance reports and other governance related documents, including rules of procedure of the executive and supervisory boards, resignation and reappointment schedules, remuneration policy, codes of conduct, any whistle-blower procedure, as well as the companies’ articles of association. I used the most recent versions of these documents which were publicly available and downloadable from the corporate website. To be certain that financial statements and articles of association were the most recent ones, my search included the database of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. Most of the financial statements were dated 2012. Finally, I compared the companies’ press releases with news reports in the free press (see paragraph 2.3.3.4).