分部信息披露会计准则的国际比较及启示

以各国相关机构发布的与分部信息披露相关的会计准则为切入点,在对分部信息披露的目的、可报告分部的确认基础、分部信息的披露内容以及披露方式和披露期间进行国际比较分析的基础上,将分部信息以附表的形式在年度报告中予以披露,而且在对可报告分部的确认时应缩小确认标准并出台相关指南给企业以明确指导,尽量减少管理层的专业判断和主观认定.     

行业分部信息的价值相关性研究

本文通过2001年到2003年的上市公司行业分部信息来验证分部信息的价值相关性,实证结果表明我国上市公司多元化发展比较普遍,而这将使会计信息变得更加复杂,多元化发展会对会计信息有用性产生影响.在我国,行业分部信息的披露确实具有价值相关性,因此披露分部信息将能帮助投资者更好地评估上市公司.目前我国行业分部信息侧重于披露盈余信息(损益表信息),但是并不提供资产负债表信息,投资者用于全面评估上市公司的信息还不全面.随着我国企业多元化发展日益普遍以及多元化发展的程度日益突出,上市公司披露行业分部的资产负债表信息会变得很有必要.     

上市公司分部信息披露动因与约束

分部信息的披露主体主要是上市公司.公司出于竞争投资者有限的资金等目的有自愿披露分部信息的动因.由于分部信息披露存在成本,在没有管制的情况下,企业出于自身利益最大化考虑,将通过对收益和成本的权衡来决定分部信息披露.由于分部信息披露的外部性、分部信息分布的不对称性等,不能完全依赖于自愿披露,必须对分部信息披露进行适度的管制,强制公司披露分部信息.     

试论当前我国的企业分部信息披露制度

分部报告是指将企业集团中风险和回报具有显著差别的分支机构的重要财务状况和经营成果按业务的地区标准分解、归类而编制的财务报告。编制分部报告具有多方面的意义。首先，通过编制分部报告，披露分部信息，不但可以向财务报表的使用者提供关于多元化企业不同业务分部和不同地区分部的规模大小、利润贡献和发展趋势的资料，使他们对整个企业的前景作为更为准确的判断，而且能够满足一些与企业中特定分部有着直接利益关系的利益关系人的特殊需要。其次，分部报告可以将不同风险和报酬的产业和地工分开，所披露的信息可以帮助企业管理当局了解各产业或地区的经营成果和财务状况，及时发现经营中存在的问题，着眼于核心竞争能力的培育。在经营产业或地区上有所取舍，从而促使经营策略更加科学合理。     

企业会计准则第××号——分部报告(草案)

第一章总则 第一条为了规范分部报告的编制方法和应披露的信息,更好地理解企业的经营业绩,评价相关的风险和报酬,对企业的经营情况作出全面的判断,根据<企业会计准则第××号--基本准则>,制定本准则.     

商业银行应加快推进业务分部报告信息披露的基础工作

目前以国际财务报告准则（International Financial Reporting Systme，IFRS）为代表的信息披露标准已经获得了世界多数国家的广泛认可。但随着投资者对银行信息披露要求的不断提高，国际财务报告准则对商业银行披露分部报告提出了原则性要求，以体现多种经营模式和企业的风险及回报水平，满足财务报表使用者的需要，帮助投资者更好地了解企业过去的经营业绩，更准确地估定企业的风险及收益，更有效地整体评价企业。国外先进的商业银行已经开始定期披露分部报告，我国在香港上市的中国建设银行、中国银行已经按照国际财务报告准则的要求在招股说明书中披露分部报告，正在准备上市的银行也需要按照规定定期披露分部报告。     

我国分部信息呈报现存的问题与对策

上市公司和投资者对分部信息都有着不同程度的重视。而在对我国分部信息的规范和实际披露状况实施考察之后,却发现分部信息的披露环境无法满足新形势下对分部信息的要求,这促使我们致力于针对报告中的问题改进我国的分部呈报制度,并对我国分部信息中潜在的问题提出对策性的建议。     

关于企业分部财务报告

分部报告向信息使用者提供以经营分部和地区分部为主体的分散财务信息,IAS14《分部报告》(1997)认为,分部信息可以帮助信息使用者：(1)更好地了解企业过去的经营业绩;(2)更好地评价企业的风险和报酬;(3)对整个企业作出更合理的判断。     

我国分部信息披露规范与国际会计准则差异的描述性分析

在对国际会计准则第14号《分部报告的财务信息》和我国有关分部信息披露的会计制度和会计准则（征求意见稿）等内容进行简单描述的基础上,运用实证研究的研究方法对两者之间在分部报告形式、平均分部个数、各分部披露内容等进行了比较分析,从而得到以下初步的结论：我国有关分部信息披露的规范正在迈出向国际会计接轨的重要一步,但在披露内容的广度和深度上两者之间不仅存在一定的差异,而且样本公司也未能完全按照我国的有关披露规范进行完整的列示,这不仅期待着正式准则的出台也说明了今后对于准则的制订工作仍任重道远,而且其执行力度也亟待加强。     

我国企业分部报告的再审视

《企业会计准则第35号——分部报告》和《企业会计准则第35号——分部报告》第五条对我国企业分部报告信息披露作出了统一规范,对规范我国分部会计信息披露起到了积极的促进作用,满足了不同会计信息使用者的要求,有效地弥补了合并报表隐匿跨行业、跨地区财务信息的缺陷。本文拟在上述两个规范的基础上,分析我国现有企业分部报告披露的现状,以期对规范的完善和执行力度的提高有所作用。     

On the Relevance and Comparability of Segmental Data

The recent adoption in the U.S.A. and Canada of the management approach to identify reportable segments places relevance of the disclosed segmental data as the overriding concern over comparability. This study investigates whether relevance and comparability are mutually exclusive or can be simultaneously achieved in segmental disclosure. It is explicitly recognized that both properties are a joint function of segment performance and segment identification, the performance–identification conundrum. By using a data set drawn from the U.K., a jurisdiction that explicitly allows directors' discretion when identifying reportable segments, and a series of tests which remove performance differences, the potential impact of segment identification on the relevance/comparability issue is highlighted. The results of the tests reveal that for a significant portion of the sample the levels of both relevance and comparability are simultaneously low due to the segment identification choices made. These choices appear to match the possible outcomes of following the management approach to identification.By implication, the adoption of the management approach may lead to reduced comparability and relevance in some cases.     

Financial statement comparability and segment disclosure

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) No. 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information (FASB [1997]), reestablishes standards for how public business enterprises report segment information in financial statements. A prevailing criticism of FAS 131 is that it likely reduces financial statement comparability for firms with similar lines of business. This study estimates comparability of accounting disclosures surrounding the implementation of FAS 131 to examine potential variation in comparability associated with the segment reporting regime shift. Financial statement comparability is operationalized following the De Franco et al. (2011) accounting system comparability measure as the degree that firms have similar mappings for economic performance into financial statements. Results indicate decreased comparability for firms following FAS 131 adoption. Specifically, segment information reformulated according to how companies manage their businesses marginally limits this reduction in comparability, but greater segment information disaggregation through an increase in the number of reported segments attributed to FAS 131 application diminishes comparability overall. This study contributes to the standard setting process, as the FASB has assigned comparability to an important position in its conceptual framework and has made the goal of increasing comparability a vital component of its agenda that drives the need for accounting standards.     

Changes in Segment Reporting in the Australian Banking Industry

This paper examines changes in segment reporting in the Australian banking industry following the introduction of the revised AASB 1005 Segment Reporting. We find that the standard has implications for the qualitative characteristics of "understandability" and "comparability". Feedback on the revised standard is timely, as both the AASB and the IASB have recently issued new segmental reporting standards that are based on US GAAP's management approach of determining operating segments.     

When does comparability better enhance relevance? Policy implications from empirical evidence

This study investigates the user-specific contexts under which comparability better enhances relevance of accounting information. We first confirm the intuition in the FASB’s (2010) current conceptual framework by documenting that the short-window earnings response coefficient (ERC) is positively associated with the pre-determined level of comparability. Using the cross-sectional variation in the positive relation between ERC and comparability, we show that the link between ERC and comparability is more pronounced for firms with higher investor sophistication and lower information asymmetry among investors. We further support our predictions using analysts’ earnings forecast revisions and various alternative measures of earnings informativeness. In sum, our paper shows that comparability improves information users’ ability to identify similarities and differences across different firms to a greater extent when investor base is more sophisticated and private information is less prevalent. These results suggest that standard setters, regulators, and practitioners should devote more attention to the role of comparability in firms whose investors are less sophisticated and information environment is more opaque.     

Internal capital market efficiency and the diversification discount: The role of financial statement comparability

This paper investigates how financial statement comparability affects the efficiency of internal capital markets and diversification discounts in multi‐segment firms through monitoring mechanisms. Previous studies suggest that financial statement comparability improves transparency and reduces the cost of information processing, mitigating information asymmetry between managers and shareholders. Using measures of comparability and internal capital efficiency, we find that financial statement comparability has a strong positive influence on internal capital market efficiency. Further, we find that by improving the efficiency of internal capital markets, financial statement comparability indeed mitigates diversification discounts. Especially, the effect of financial statement comparability is more pronounced for firms with high information asymmetry or operating environment volatility. The results support our arguments that financial statement comparability enhances the efficiency of internal capital markets and increases firm value in diversified firms by mitigating agency problems via monitoring and corporate control mechanisms.     

Impact of Segment‐level Natural Resource Operational Risk Reporting on Earnings Predictions

Non‐financial reports alert investors to operational risks associated with issues such as insufficient access to natural resource inputs and related costly interruptions to production, while segment‐level reports alert investors to operational risk distribution across a firm. An important issue, to date unexplored, is how segment‐level non‐financial reporting has an impact on earnings predictions. We report the results of an experiment used to examine how mining company segment‐level water reports affect investors' earnings predictions, where water reports indicate whether the firm and its segments will have access to sufficient water to meet production needs. We find that investors do not change their earnings predictions when firm and segment‐level reports indicate low water risk but they do revise down their earnings predictions when firm and segment‐level water reports indicate high water risk. This is consistent with investors responding to the additional information provided in segment‐level reports confirming that water risk is high across the firm. Regardless of whether firm‐level water reports indicate high or low water risk, when segment‐level reports indicate that one segment is low water risk and another is high water risk, investors revise down their earnings predictions. This is consistent with investors recognizing that natural resource operational risk concentration in one segment can affect earnings more than evenly‐distributed risk. Overall, our findings suggest that belief‐adjustment theory explains how investors react to prospective operational risk information contained in segment‐level water reports according to the similarity of the segment‐level risks, and that this information is factored into earnings predictions.     

A model of forecast precision using segment disclosures: implications for SFAS no. 131

This paper models the use of segment information in forecasting earnings. The model derives four conditions under which segment information is expected to increase earnings forecast precision. Forecast precision should increase with (1) greater differentiation across segment forecast factors (i.e., expected segment growth, expected inflation, political risk), (2) greater disaggregation of earnings, (3) greater predictive accuracy of segment forecast factors, and (4) greater accuracy in measuring the segment weights.The second half of the paper provides a practical analysis of the four conditions. The analysis of each condition includes an important implication regarding the potential contribution of the new standard for segment disclosures, SFAS No. 131, in improving the usefulness of segment information from a forecasting perspective. Two negative and two positive implications of SFAS No. 131 are discussed. Relating the new standard to conditions (1) and (2), forecast precision may have been hindered in certain situations by not defining segments according to risk, return, and growth characteristics and by the materiality guidelines (or lack thereof for enterprise-wide disclosures). Relating the new standard to conditions (3) and (4), forecast precision will likely improve due to the availability of interim segment information and the impact of the management approach increasing the measurement accuracy of individual segments.     

Are Risk Management Disclosures Informative or Tautological? Evidence from the U.S. Banking Sector

Banks experienced increasing risk levels during the latest financial crisis. Investors’ confidence was shaken by the effectiveness of bank risk management practices, which has opened new challenges for bank management in approaching its risk. Understanding and communicating adopted risk management mechanisms is likely to provide insights and enable diagnosis on firm risk exposure. Conveying data that reduces information asymmetry might be reflected on stock performance. Investigating the impact of risk management disclosures content on stock price change and return volatility, using a sample of U.S. national commercial banks during 2009–2010, shows that informative risk management disclosures seems to be valued by investors. This is reflected on current‐year stock prices and reduces the subsequent‐year return variances.     

我国上市公司地理分部的重要性判断问题研究

由于企业跨行业、跨地区经营活动越来越普遍,对于如何确定地理分部问题就日益重要,特别是财政部于2006年2月15日发布了第35号《具体会计准则--分部报告》更是对地理分部披露提出了强制性要求.从实证分析的角度对多元化经营的上市公司的地理分部的研究结果表明,在地理分部信息披露中存在着披露深度和广度上的均衡并出现了广义的地理概念,10%的重要性水平对于改善分部信息披露质量的作用是有限的.     

R&D Accounting and the Tradeoff Between Relevance and Objectivity

We use a simulation model for a pharmaceutical R&D program to examine the tradeoff between objectivity and relevance of accounting information under various methods of R&D reporting. A simple capitalization rule, similar to the successful-efforts method of capitalizing oil and gas exploration costs, provides a stronger relation between accounting information and economic values than immediate expensing of R&D outlays or capitalizing the full cost of outlays. The superior relevance of this "successful-efforts" method persists even when earnings management is widespread.