Audit and reporting delays: Evidence from an emerging market

This article reports the results of an empirical investigation of the timeliness of annual reports of an unbalanced panel of 231 firms-years of financial and nonfinancial companies listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. It is found that the determinants of timeliness of annual reporting are company size, profitability, and leverage. No evidence was found to support the effect of accounting complexity or auditor type (Big Four or non-Big Four). Furthermore, the corporate governance proxies were found to be the determinants of the period between the auditors' signature dates and the publication dates.     

THE TIMELINESS OF CORPORATE REPORTING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOUTH ASIA

This study examines the timeliness of corporate annual reporting in three South Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Based on a large sample of 558 annual reports for the year 1998, it is found that around 90% of the companies’ balance sheet end date falls in June and December in Bangladesh, March in India, and June and September in Pakistan. The audit lag is 162 days, 92 days and 145 days in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, respectively. While the audit lag, preliminary lag and total lag are significantly lower in India compared to Bangladesh and Pakistan, a substantial proportion of companies take more time than allowed by the Companies Act in each country. A multivariate regression analysis indicates that financial year-end date is a significant determinant in each country. The size of the audit firm, as measured by the factor loading of audit fees, number of reporting entity audited by an audit firm and international linkage, indicates large audit firms take significantly less time in India and Pakistan. Profitability and corporate size are significant determinants only in Pakistan. There is no statistical evidence to support monitoring hypothesis, as proxied by Zmijeski’s financial condition index. The 2nd stage regression results suggests that only audit lag is significantly associated with the time taken by companies to submit their annual reports to the Stock Exchange and to hold the annual general meeting in each country. The results suggest that timeliness can be improved by reducing the delays in verifying the year-end accounts. Possible explanations for these findings along with limitations and implications are provided.     

Timeliness of corporate and audit reports: Some empirical evidence in the French context

The issue of timeliness of financial reporting, an important qualitative characteristic of accounting information, has received much attention from regulatory and professional bodies in France in recent years. The increasing presence of international investors, particularly from the US, on the Paris Stock Exchange adds to the importance of this issue. The timeliness of corporate and audit reports in the French context is analyzed by examining the trend in reporting delay of companies, the effect that qualified reports have on the timeliness of corporate reporting, and the relationship between reporting behavior and types of audit reports over a 10-year period. The data are taken from more than 5000 annual reports of French publicly held companies for the years 1986-1995. These bear witness to an improvement in timeliness of corporate and audit reports. This improvement is greater for reports from consolidated accounts of groups than those from annual accounts of companies. There is also evidence that qualified audit opinions were released later than unqualified opinions and that, in general, the more serious the qualification, the greater the delay.     

及时披露能抑制信息泄露吗?

以深交所2007-2009年披露年报的A股上市公司为样本,本文实证研究了我国上市公司信息披露的及时性对抑制信息泄露与内幕交易的现实效果。研究表明,年报披露及时性逐年提高,披露及时性与信息泄露程度显著负相关,及时披露对抑制信息泄露具显著效用;信息质量与及时性在抑制信息泄露方面具协同作用;与信息质量较好的公司比较,信息质量较差的公司因及时披露对信息泄露的抑制效果更显著,表明及时披露在抑制信息泄露方面对信息质量具替补作用。     

Corporate governance and the timeliness of corporate internet reporting by U.K. listed companies

This study is an examination of the timeliness of corporate internet reporting by U.K. companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The research examines the significance of several corporate governance and firm-specific characteristics as potential determinants of the timeliness of corporate internet reporting.Our primary analysis provides evidence of a significant association between timely corporate internet reporting and the corporate governance characteristics of board experience and board independence. Our findings provide evidence that boards with less cross directorships, more experience in terms of the average age of directors, and lower length in service for executive directors provide more timely corporate internet reporting. We find that board independence is negatively associated with timely corporate internet reporting.Follow-up analysis provides additional evidence of a significant association between the timeliness of corporate internet reporting and board experience. The evidence indicates that role duality and block ownership are associated with less timely corporate internet reporting.Our findings also reveal strengths and weaknesses in the Internet reporting of U.K. listed companies. Companies need to voluntarily focus on improving the timeliness dimension of their corporate internet reporting so that the EU and U.K. accounting regulators do not replace recommendations with regulations.     

会计估计变更的动因分析——来自中国A股上市公司的证据

本文以2001—2004年沪深股市出现“会计估计变更”的A股上市公司为样本,在控制相关变量的影响后,研究发现:发生会计估计变更公司与未发生会计估计变更公司的特征存在系统性差异;公司“会计估计变更”受债务水平、公司业绩及事务所变更的影响。     

中国上市公司年度报告披露及时性实证研究

年度报告作为投资者决策的重要信息源之一,其及时性受到了监管部门和市场研究者的关注。本文通过对中国上市公司1993～2003年间公布的8294份年度报告披露时间进行多元回归分析,发现除盈利公司比亏损公司更及时地公布其年度报告外,标准无保留审计意见公司也较非标准无保留意见的公司更及时地披露其年度报告,证实了中国股票市场存在“好消息早,坏消息晚”披露的基本规律。而且,随着时间推移,我国上市公司年报披露的及时性在逐步提高。     

The effect of fair disclosure regulation on timeliness and informativeness of earnings announcements

This paper examines the effect of Korea’s fair disclosure regulation on the timeliness and informativeness of earnings announcements. The present regulation for Korean listed firms requires that if a company’s sales revenue, operating income (or loss) and net income (or loss) have changed by over 30% compared to the prior year, the firm must disclose this information through a preliminary financial report (PFR) even before the company is audited by external auditors. To analyze the effects of this policy, we first investigate the timeliness of preliminary financial report disclosures. We examine the extent to which Korean listed companies actually comply with the requirement for prompt notification of information concerning material changes in financial performance. Second, we investigate the informativeness of preliminary financial reports by analyzing differential stock market reactions to different timings of preliminary financial report disclosures. Our empirical results reveal that more than half of our sample firms release their preliminary financial reports after external audits are completed, thereby potentially invalidating the effectiveness of the regulation. In addition, we find that preliminary financial reports have information value only if they are disclosed prior to annual audit report dates. This finding supports the notion that timeliness increases the informativeness of preliminary financial report disclosure by curbing insiders’ ability to potentially profit from their information advantage.     

产融型企业集团规模经济效应度量模型的构建及其实证研究

在分析产融型企业集团经济效应的表现及形成机理的基础上,对产融型企业集团规模经济效应的度量进行了方法设计,依据国内上市产融型企业集团及其参股金融企业,运用广义超越对数成本函数度量产融型企业集团规模经济效应,实证结果表明,参股金融的产融型企业集团能够较好地实现规模经济效应,其规模经济系数大多超过了1,表明产融型企业集团这一运营模式是具有效率的。     

The impact of corporate attribites on the extent of mandatory disclosure and reporting by listed companies in Zimbabwe

This article reports the results of an empirical investigation of the degree of influence of eight corporate attributes on the extent of mandatory disclosure and reporting of 49 listed companies in Zimbabwe. Using a disclosure index which consisted of 214 mandated information items, the extent of mandatory disclosure be each sample company was quantified, and was used with other data specific to each sample company to test the relational hypotheses. Although several alternative specifications of multivariate regression models were developed and estimated, only the results of a robust regression analysis which indicated that company size, ownership structure, company age, multinational corporation affiliation, and profitability have statiscally significant positive effect on mandatory disclosure and reporting practices of the sample companies were reported. The quality of external audit, industry-type and liquidity were statistically insignificant.     

A study of human capital reporting in the United Kingdom

Recently, there have been attempts at increasing human capital (HC) reporting in the United Kingdom (UK) through the introduction of government legislation and other initiatives. This paper assesses the current state of HC reporting in the UK by analysing the annual reports of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 companies before and after relevant amendments to the Companies Act 2006. The findings show that most of the companies analysed have been increasing their HC reporting, going beyond their statutory duties and moving away from wider intellectual capital disclosures to focus more on HC issues. However, these changes were not universal.     

Quality of financial reporting: evidence from the listed Saudi nonfinancial companies

This study assesses the quality of information disclosed by a sample of nonfinancial Saudi companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. The study also compares the extent of corporate disclosure before and after the creation of the Saudi Organization of Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA). We classify information disclosed in the annual reports into three main categories: mandatory; voluntary related to mandatory; and voluntary unrelated to mandatory disclosure. The sample provided 63% and 66% of the total population of companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange in the years 1992 and 1999.In departure from most previous studies conducted in this area of research, we weighted the indexes of disclosure by the mean and median responses of seven users of the annual reports in Saudi Arabia. The results of both unweighted and weighted indexes are reported. The outcome of the analysis indicated a relatively high compliance with the mandatory requirements in all industries covered by the study, with the exception of the electricity sector. As for the voluntary disclosure, whether related or unrelated to mandatory disclosure, the analysis revealed that Saudi companies disclose information more than the minimum required by law. The level of voluntary disclosure, however, is relatively low. The analysis also showed that the creation of SOCPA has had little impact on corporate reporting in Saudi Arabia.     

THE INFORMATION CONTENT OF ASX SUSPENSION THREAT ANNOUNCEMENTS

This paper presents an empirical investigation of share price returns for companies threatened with suspension by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) for failing to either (1) pay their annual listing fees or (2) lodge a required report on time. The threatened companies experienced an average return over the event window that was significantly below the average return for both a market index and a similarly sized control portfolio. This suggests that the threat of suspension has information content. Interestingly, the major impact came from those companies that avoided suspension by lodging interim reports subsequent to the threat announcement indicating that significant new negative information was conveyed to the market in the week following the threat.     

沪市公司年报对公司实际控制人的披露情况分析

绝大部分沪市上市公司均按规定在2008年报中对实际控制人的情况进行了披露,但也有一些上市公司未按或未完全按年报准则关于实际控制人的披露要求履行披露义务,无助于广大投资者了解其产权和控制关系状况。针对披露中存在的问题,我们建议:进一步明确界定实际控制人的含义、类型及其控制形式,充实和完善对实际控制人应予披露的内容,加强对法人控股股东和中间层级控制主体的披露;出台专门的实际控制人披露指引,规范披露的内容和形式;严格上市公司及其控股股东、实际控制人未按规定如实、准确、完整披露的责任。     

分析师预测准确度影响因素的研究

文章以我国2010-2012年深交所数据为样本,基于公司因素的角度对我国分析师预测准确度进行了实证研究。研究发现,分析师所提供的盈余预测偏于乐观,盈余波动性越大以及上市公司信息披露质量越好,则预测准确度越高;而公司规模越大、盈余管理动机越强以及盈余可预测性越差,则伴随着较低的预测准确度。本文的研究结果为提高我国公司财务报告质量、规范分析师行业提供了相应的思路。     

Risikoberichterstattung von Versicherungsunternehmen — Analyse der Risikoberichte im Zeitablauf

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study of the development of risk reports of German insurance companies from 1999 until 2003. The empirical study is based on formal aspects and a detailed content analysis of risk reports which companies have to publish by German Commercial Law (HGB). The analysis is based on generally accepted accounting principles for management reports in annual financial statements and GAS 5-20. The goal is to collect formal and qualitative information about changes in risk reports and their performance in terms of fulfilling industry-specific supervisory risk regulations over time. The sample shows a significant continuous improvement of risk reports from 1999 until 2003. The results of the paper lead to further implications regarding the specification of Solvency II: Improvements have to be made especially in terms of specifying and quantifying company risk. Finally the paper offers suggestions for improvements in risk reporting which should be considered in the development of european standards.     

DISCLOSURE IN JAPANESE CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORTS

This paper reports the results of a survey of disclosure in the annual reports of unlisted and listed corporations in Japan, a country that many argue has a unique environment. The paper attempts to investigate differences between companies in the extent of disclosure in their Commercial Code (CC) and Securities and Exchange Law (SEL) accounts respectively. The survey finds that there is a significant difference in disclosure by multiple listed companies in their CC accounts compared with domestically listed corporations and unlisted enterprises. It is also found that there is a significant difference in disclosure between multiple listed and domestically listed entities in their SEL accounts. However, there was no significant difference in disclosure between the TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) group and the unlisted group in their CC accounts.     

国际四大与高审计质量——来自中国证券市场的证据

本文采用2007—2009年沪、深两市A股上市公司公开披露的3874份年报数据,基于盈余管理的视角,对施行新会计准则和新审计准则后国际四大会计师事务所提供审计服务的质量进行了实证研究。结果表明,国际四大与非国际四大在审计质量上并不存在显著的差异,某些年度国际四大甚至比非国际四大更差。最后,借鉴Basu(1997)的思想,构建关于盈余管理的稳健性模型,进一步验证了本文的结论。     

内部控制缺陷信息披露的影响因素分析

本文以上海证券交易所2003-2006年年报中披露内部控制缺陷信息的33家公司为样本,同时选取54家公司为控制样本考察内部控制缺陷信息披露的影响因素,研究发现,报告和披露内部控制缺陷的影响因素是报告年度的分部数目、公司的规模。最后基于上述发现提出了政策建议。