Aggregate financial disclosure practice: evidence from the emerging capital market of Kuwait

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Issa Dawd

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the mandatory and voluntary disclosure practice and its determinants in Kuwait, an emerging market that applies International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).Design/methodology/approachThe study employs two main methods: an index-based analysis of mandatory, voluntary and aggregate disclosure as well as univariate and multivariate regression analysis of the determinants of disclosure levels.FindingsThe results show that the average aggregate disclosure level is 44 per cent. None of the sample companies complied fully with the disclosure requirements of IAS/IFRS. The extent of voluntary disclosure is also relatively low, although the documented amount represents an increase on that revealed in earlier studies in Kuwait. The multivariate regression results reveal that firm size is positively associated with voluntary disclosure, while mandatory disclosure is negatively linked to profit.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on evidence from a single country and further work is needed to ascertain the extent of generalisability.Practical implicationsThe results of the study have implications for policy makers, professional accounting bodies and regulators as they contribute to the debate on to develop and encourage both compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements and voluntary practice. The evidence also has implications for attempts to derive full understanding of the factors driving disclosure practices in the developing world, and how these differ from behaviour in the world’s richest nations.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the existing literature in the area in two main ways. First, as compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements in developed countries is total (or near to total) in most cases, it has been the subject of little empirical enquiry. By focussing instead on a developing nation – one that has adopted IFRS – the analysis facilitates the provision of novel evidence regarding both the nature and determinants of failure to follow disclosure rules. Second, prior studies generally fail to distinguish between financial and non-financial firms, despite differences in reporting standards and norms across the two groups; the present study makes this distinction.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1371-1392
Author(s):  
Yosra Mnif ◽  
Hela Borgi

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the association between two corporate governance (CG) mechanisms, namely, the board of directors and the audit committee (AC) and the compliance level with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements across 12 African countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a self-constructed checklist of 140 items to measure the compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements (here after, COMP) of 202 non-financial listed firms during the 2012–2016 period. This paper applies panel regressions. Findings The findings reveal that CG mechanisms play an important role in enhancing compliance with IFRS in the African context. The results show that board independence, AC independence and the number of meetings held by the AC are positively associated with COMP. Regarding expertize, this paper find that AC industry expertise along with accounting financial expertise is associated with a higher level of COMP than accounting financial expertize alone. These results show the importance of the CG mechanisms to enforce African companies to fully comply with IFRS required disclosures. Practical implications The findings should give a signal to supervisory authorities that more effort is necessary to enforce IFRS across African countries if the introduction of IFRS is to bring the expected benefits to investors and other users. Hence, the lack of full compliance should remain a concern for regulators, professional accounting bodies and policymakers. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by providing further insights that, within the African region an understudied context, extend current understanding of the association between CG mechanisms and COMP.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Ufuk Misirlioglu ◽  
Jon Tucker ◽  
Helmi Abdulhameed Boshnak

Purpose This paper aims to investigate firm-level variations in the extent of mandatory disclosures and address the drivers of mandatory disclosure using data from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region. Design/methodology/approach The extent of mandatory disclosure is examined using a disclosure index created with reference to 24 International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). Findings The authors find that the extent of mandatory disclosure required by applicable IFRSs/International Accounting Standards increases with international presence, group firms, the level of voluntary disclosure, firm age and the education level of company financial controllers. It decreases with firm size and the proportion of institutional share ownership. The degree of board independence is positively related to the level of mandatory disclosure in firms with no state ownership. Profitability positively affects the level of mandatory disclosure to a greater extent in more liquid GCC firms. The results confirm that there is a greater sensitivity of mandatory disclosure to loss than to profit. Loss increases, whilst profit decreases, the extent of mandatory disclosure. Research limitations/implications The results promote further understanding of international financial reporting differences in an emerging country setting. Practical implications The findings provide a detailed insight to investors, financial analysts, practitioners and academics. Originality/value The authors develop a highly granular mandatory disclosure index in a developing country setting and identify key drivers of such disclosure.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Tsalavoutas ◽  
Dionysia Dionysiou

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address recent calls for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (cf. Hassan et al., 2009; Leuz and Wysocki, 2008; Schipper, 2007). Design/methodology/approach – The paper measures compliance with all International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements for a sample of firms. The paper subsequently explores whether the compliance scores (i.e. the mandatory disclosure levels) are value relevant and whether the value relevance of accounting numbers differs across high- and low-compliance/disclosure companies. Findings – The paper finds that the levels of mandatory disclosures are value relevant. Additionally, not only the relative value relevance (i.e. R2) but also the valuation coefficient of net income of high-compliance companies is significantly higher than that of low-compliance companies. Research limitations/implications – This paper is an indicative single country case study that focuses on the IFRS adoption year (2005) in the EU. It forms a new avenue for research regarding the valuation implications of mandatory disclosure requirements. It remains to future research to examine whether the findings also hold in other countries and periods. Practical implications – These findings are expected to be particularly relevant to standard setters and regulatory bodies that are concerned about the implications of mandatory disclosure requirements (Schipper, 2007). Originality/value – To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the value relevance implications of IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements, focusing on European country after 2005. The authors indicate that IFRS mandatory disclosures do lead to more transparent financial statements (cf. Pownall and Schipper, 1999), mitigating concerns about companies’ fundamentals (cf. Anctil et al., 2004).


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1183-1198
Author(s):  
Gaurav S. Chauhan ◽  
Pradip Banerjee

Purpose Recent papers on target capital structure show that debt ratio seems to vary widely in space and time, implying that the functional specifications of target debt ratios are of little empirical use. Further, target behavior cannot be adjudged correctly using debt ratios, as they could revert due to mechanical reasons. The purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative testing strategy to test the target capital structure. Design/methodology/approach The authors make use of a major “shock” to the debt ratios as an event and think of a subsequent reversion as a movement toward a mean or target debt ratio. By doing this, the authors no longer need to identify target debt ratios as a function of firm-specific variables or any other rigid functional form. Findings Similar to the broad empirical evidence in developed economies, there is no perceptible and systematic mean reversion by Indian firms. However, unlike developed countries, proportionate usage of debt to finance firms’ marginal financing deficits is extensive; equity is used rather sparingly. Research limitations/implications The trade-off theory could be convincingly refuted at least for the emerging market of India. The paper here stimulated further research on finding reasons for specific financing behavior of emerging market firms. Practical implications The results show that the firms’ financing choices are not only depending on their own firm’s specific variables but also on the financial markets in which they operate. Originality/value This study attempts to assess mean reversion in debt ratios in a unique but reassuring manner. The results are confirmed by extensive calibration of the testing strategy using simulated data sets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Amal Yamani ◽  
Khaled Hussainey ◽  
Khaldoon Albitar

Although there has been considerable research on the impact of corporate governance on corporate voluntary disclosure, empirical evidence on how governance affects compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements is limited. We contribute to governance and disclosure literature by examining the impact of corporate governance on compliance with IFRS 7 for the banking sector in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). We use a self-constructed disclosure index to measure compliance with IFRS 7. We use regression analyses to examine the impact of board characteristics, audit committee characteristics and ownership structure on compliance with IFRS 7. Using a sample of 335 bank-year observations for GCC listed banks over the period 2011–2017, we report evidence that corporate governance variables affect compliance with IFRS 7. However, the significance of these variables depends on the type of the regression model used. Our findings suggest that governance matters for mandatory disclosure requirements. So to improve the level of compliance, regulators, official authorities, and policymakers should intensify their efforts toward improving corporate governance codes, following up their implementation and enhancing the enforcement mechanisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Manogna R.L. ◽  
Aswini Kumar Mishra

Purpose The study aims to analyze the impact of Research & Development (R&D) intensity on the firm’s performance, measured by growth of sales in the emerging market like India. Innovation strategy and its outcomes for firms may be different in developing countries as compared to developed countries. Thus, a study that focuses on the emerging economy like India, with a majority of the population dependent on agriculture, is of prime importance to the firm performance in the food and agricultural manufacturing industry. For this study, the broader focus will be on one widely recognised factor which may influence the growth rate of firms, i.e. investment in innovations which is in terms of R&D expenditure. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the relationship between the R&D efforts and growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry during 2001–2019. To empirically test the relationship between firm’s growth (FG) and R&D investments, system generalised method of moments technique has been used, hence enabling to avoid problems related to endogeneity and simultaneity. Findings The findings reveal that investments in innovations have a positive effect on the growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry. Investment in R&D also enables the firms to reap benefits from externalities present in the industry. Further analysis reveals that younger firms grow faster when they invest in R&D. More specifically, this paper finds evidence in the case of the food and agricultural industry that import of raw materials negatively affects the FG and export intensity positively affects the growth in the case of R&D firms. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that the government should encourage the industries to invest optimally in R&D projects by providing favourable fiscal treatments and R&D subsidies which are observed to have positive effects in various developed countries. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, the current paper is the first to analyse the impact of innovation in food and agricultural industry on firm’s performance in an emerging economy context with the latest data. This paper agrees that a government initiative to increase private R&D expenditure would have favourable effects on FG as growing investments in R&D lead to further growth of the firms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 1566-1584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaista Wasiuzzaman

PurposeThe management of liquidity has always been seen as a critical but often ignored issue in finance. Despite the abundance of studies on liquidity management, these studies mainly focus on developed countries and on large firms. Liquidity is critical for the small firm but studies on liquidity management in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are lacking. The purpose of this paper is to examine the firm-level determinants of liquidity of SMEs in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachData are collected for a total of 986 small firms in Malaysia from 2011 to 2014, resulting in a total of 2,683 observations. Firm-specific variables and the effect of the economy are considered as the possible determinants of liquidity. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis with standard errors adjusted for firm-level clustering and quantile regression analysis are used for this purpose.FindingsAnalysis using OLS regression technique indicates that a firm’s profitability, its growth, asset tangibility, size, age and firm status are significant factors in influencing its liquidity decision. Leverage and economic condition are not found to have any significant influence on liquidity. However, quantile regression analysis provides a different picture especially for SMEs with liquidity at the quantile levels ofθ=0.10 and 0.90. Atθ=0.10, only profitability, tangibility and firm status are significant, while atθ=0.90, tangibility, size, firm status and, to some extent, age are significant in influencing liquidity levels.Originality/valueTo the author’s knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the liquidity decision of SMEs in an emerging market such as Malaysia. Most studies on liquidity management of SMEs are focused on developed countries due to data availability but these studies are also only a handful. Additionally, this study uses quantile regression analysis which highlights the need to analyze financial decisions at different levels rather than at the aggregate level as done in OLS regression analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Atef Oussii ◽  
Neila Boulila Taktak

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any relationship between the effectiveness of an audit committee and the financial reporting timeliness of Tunisian listed companies as proxied by external audit delay (AD). Analysis focuses on five audit committee characteristics: authority, financial expertise, independence, size and diligence. Design/methodology/approach Empirical tests address 162 firm-year observations drawn from Tunisian listed companies during 2011-2013. Findings Multivariate analyses indicate that audit committees with members who have financial expertise are significantly associated with shorter AD. Thus, the results suggest that audit committee financial expertise contributes to the improvement of financial statements’ timeliness. Research limitations/implications The audit committee attributes examined in this study were based on DeZoort et al. (2002) framework. There could be other aspects of audit committee effectiveness such as audit committee tenure and audit committee chair characteristics, which were not addressed in the present study. Thus, future research may consider and examine these other components of audit committee effectiveness. Practical implications Findings have managerial implications. Companies can re-look into how to further improve audit committee composition in order to enhance the timeliness of financial reporting. The issues of audit committee effectiveness and timely reporting also affect regulators and policy makers since they need to play a role in the establishment of effective audit committees and the improvement of financial reporting timeliness. Originality/value This study is one of few that have examined the impact of audit committee effectiveness on ADs in an emerging market country. Findings lend credence to the belief that audit committee members’ financial expertise enhances the quality of financial reporting by firms in a North African market criticized for the lack of maturity of its corporate governance system (Klibi, 2015; Fitch Ratings, 2009).


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bashir Tijjani ◽  
Shafiq Ur Rehman ◽  
Zachariah Peter ◽  
Ishtiaq Ahmad Bajwa ◽  
Muhammad Ajmal Khan

Purpose This study aims to examine the quantitative research productivity of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) globally by using the bibliometric approach. The method was applied to articles indexed in the Scopus database to analyze the publication patterns, trends and research productivity of the selected papers. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analysis is applied to analyze research productivity of IFRS from 2003 to 2020. The method was applied to articles indexed in the Scopus database to analyze the publication patterns and research productivity of the selected papers. Findings This study finds that a good number of articles have been published on IFRS, the top five countries are the USA, UK, Australia, Germany and Canada. This clearly shows that developed markets have the highest number of publications on IFRS. This could be as a result of the early adoption of IFRS by those economies and owing to the interest of researchers in those markets. Most of the studies are quantitative in nature; this study indicates that publication on accounting standards is popular as the number of citations is significant; most of the articles have two or more authors and were published in top-ranking journals. Practical implications This study provides up-to-date literature on the global research productivity of IFRS; as a result, it supports the development of policies by the users of this accounting standards. The findings of this study also serve as a reference point for firms and regulators around the world. Given the thoroughness of the methodology of this study, the results make it easier to effectively identify the direction of research on the implementation of IFRS in organizations. Originality/value This study provides a more comprehensive bibliometric analysis on the growth of IFRS literature (2003–2020) in the Scopus database; most of the prior studies have covered relatively few areas of focus as well as a fewer number of high impact factor journals. The relevance of this finding is in uncovering different areas of IFRS research productivity globally.


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