142 Int. J. Management Practice, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2016 Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Risk disclosures in the annual reports of firms in Ghana Kwadjo Appiagyei, Cletus Agyenim-Boateng* and Joseph Mensah Onumah Department of Accounting, University of Ghana Business School, Legon, Ghana Email: kappiagyei@ug.edu.gh Email: cagyenim-boateng@ug.edu.gh Email: jmonumah@ug.edu.gh *Corresponding author Abstract: This study examines risk disclosure of firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) pre and post adoption of IFRS. Despite calls for the study of risk disclosure in different cultural context, the effects of IFRS adoption on risk disclosure remain an issue. Content analysis is employed to examine the annual reports of listed firms from 2004 to 2011. A paired t-test is then used to test the differences in risk disclosure pre and post IFRS adoption. To assess the reliability of the results, the study also employed a regression model to test the effect of IFRS adoption on risk disclosure. The study reveals that the amount of risk information disclosed by listed firms in Ghana is low although there have been significant improvement after the adoption of IFRS. The study contributes to the debate that the adoption of IFRS leads to improvement in financial reporting from a developing country context. Keywords: risk disclosure; annual report; accounting standards; IFRS adoption; institutional theory; institutional change; isomorphism; strategic responses; content analysis; developing country; Ghana. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Appiagyei, K., Agyenim- Boateng, C. and Onumah, J.M. (2016) ‘Risk disclosures in the annual reports of firms in Ghana’, Int. J. Management Practice, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.142–158. Biographical notes: Kwadjo Appiagyei is currently an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Accounting of the University of Ghana Business School. He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Accounting and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Ghana. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana. His research interests are financial reporting and disclosures, auditing, corporate governance, and public sector accountability and governance. Cletus Agyenim-Boateng has a PhD in Accounting and Finance from Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, an MSc in Development Finance from the University of Manchester and a BSc (Business Administration, Accounting Option) from the University of Ghana Business School. He is a Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA), an Accounting, Corporate Governance, Financial Accountability and Public Accountability Academic and currently, a lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School. He has written on PPPs in the UK. He has research experience in PPPs and has applied Giddens’ structuration theory to the financial accountability and