Information versus adverse Anlegerbeeinflussung: Befund und Implikationen der empirischen Rechnungswesenforschung zur Publizität von Pro-forma-Ergebnisgrößen

Pro forma earnings represent voluntarily disclosed performance metrics that modify the mandatory (GAAP) income number. Motives discussed to explain this disclosure phenomenon are to increase the informativeness of earnings (information), or to influence investors in an adverse fashion (opportunism). The objective of this paper is to survey the extant US and German literature pertaining to pro forma earnings disclosures, with a special emphasis on the ensuing regulatory discussion, to point out promising avenues for future research. Extant studies, on the one hand, demonstrate evidence in favour of (incremental) informativeness (value relevance, information content) of pro forma earnings. On the other hand, they find evidence that small investors in particular tend to process pro forma earnings information in an undue fashion. In the light of evidence that demonstrates extensive use of pro forma earnings disclosures by large German corporations, this research literature lends support to recent concerns voiced by European securities regulators, and points at avenues for future research into capital markets reception of pro forma earnings disclosures both on the German capital market and in an EU/IFRS context.     

The Value-relevance of Geographic Segment Earnings Disclosures Under SFAS 14

This study examines whether geographic segment earnings as reported under the requirements of SFAS 14 provide value-relevant information. The FASB recently issued SFAS 131, which drastically changes the segment reporting requirements for US firms. Firms are required to disclose segment information by operating segment. For those firms that define operating segments along industry lines, disclosure of geographic segment earnings is no longer required. If geographic segment earnings provide value-relevant information, a potentially valuable source of information may be lost.
In this study, geographic segment earnings coefficients are estimated by (1) regressing unexpected security returns on unexpected geographic segment earnings and (2) regressing leading-period returns on current geographic segment earnings. Leading period returns involve extending the return interval to include the returns for prior years. The results show that unexpected geographic segment earnings relate differentially to unexpected security returns. For the leading-period returns model, little significant evidence is found for the market's differential valuation of geographic segment earnings coefficients for one- and two-year return intervals. When the return intervals extend to three years or more, significant evidence is found that the market values geographic segment earnings differently, which suggests that such disclosures reflect information used by market participants in setting security prices. The FASB may want to reconsider or amend its segment reporting requirements.     

Strategy,Valuation, and Forecast Accuracy: Evidence from Italian Strategic Plan Disclosures

Using a sample of 264 strategic plan presentations by Milan Stock Exchange firms during 2001–2012, we present evidence of both a security price reaction and an increase in the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts pursuant to plan disclosure. In the cross-section, the information content of the plan disclosures and the accuracy increase are incrementally associated with the extent of forward-looking narrative disclosures in the plan, after controlling for other disclosures within and outside the plan presentation and the fact that the firm has self-selected into the sample. Both quantitative and qualitative narrative disclosures are informative to investors and analysts. The results are driven by narrative disclosures about company strategy and action plans rather than about the business environment in which the company operates. Our study informs the current debate on the use of voluntary comprehensive, integrated, long-run-oriented strategic plan disclosure as a potential complement for disclosures such as quarterly earnings forecasts that have been described as an example of ‘short-termism’.     

The Relative Relationship Between Systematic Risk and Value Added Variables

The objective of this study is to determine whether value added variables possess incremental information beyond both accrual earnings and cash flows in the context of explaining market risk. The evidence points to the superior explanatory power of value added variables in explaining the variability in market betas. A case can be made for the disclosure of value added reports.     

Corporate Nonfinancial Disclosure Practices and Financial Analyst Forecast Ability Across Three European Countries

This paper presents evidence that companies across three continental European countries (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands) provide varying degrees of analyst recommended nonfinancial disclosures to the marketplace. This study is the first to examine the relationship of Jenkins Committee nonfinancial disclosure levels with the accuracy and dispersion of financial analysts' earnings forecasts. Seemingly unrelated regression tests show that larger companies and companies with a global focus voluntarily provide higher levels of both forward looking and historical nonfinancial disclosures. Additionally, higher levels of forward looking nonfinancial disclosures are associated with lower dispersion and higher accuracy in financial analysts' earnings forecasts.     

Introduction of International Accounting Standards,Disclosure Quality and Accuracy of Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

We examine whether the introduction of international accounting standards by German companies has improved the accuracy of analysts' forecasts, and what role changes in the quality of disclosures have played in this process. We develop a structural equation model that allows us to separate the effects of changes in disclosure quality from other effects of the introduction of international accounting standards on forecast errors. Our sample comprises 1,908 firm-years covering the period from 1997 to 2005. We measure disclosure quality with data from a yearly annual-report competition. We find that the introduction of international accounting standards has been associated with a significant improvement in forecast accuracy. Increases in the quality of companies' disclosures appear to have contributed to this improvement. However, the disclosure effect, while significant, explains only a small portion of the overall improvement in forecast accuracy. Further analyses show that differences in disclosure quality are more relevant for German GAAP companies than for IFRS/US GAAP companies. Moreover, only the quality of notes to companies' financial statements appears to matter to analysts; the quality of management reports appears to make no difference. Our results are robust to a variety of tests concerning the sample composition, the operationalisation of variables and the estimation procedure.     

上市公司信息披露质量解释能力研究——基于收益透明度视角

本文以深市341家上市公司的数据为基础,运用回归分析的方法,研究了收益透明度指标体系对我国上市公司信息披露质量的解释能力。结果表明,收益透明度对信息披露质量有一定的解释能力,其中收益激进度和收益平滑度指标的联合解释能力优于单指标变量。通过对收益透明度指标体系进行相应调整,与原指标体系进行对比,验证了调整后的指标体系在我国有更好的适用性。     

The Value Relevance of Foreign Income: an Australian, Canadian, and British Comparison

In this paper we examine the value relevance of geographical earnings disclosures for firms listed and domiciled in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. We find that foreign earnings in all three countries are valued differently than domestic earnings. The estimate of the association coefficient for foreign earnings changes with returns is positive in all three countries and statistically larger than the association coefficient for domestic earnings changes in Canada and the United Kingdom. Further tests show that this difference is related to relative growth opportunities of overseas operations to domestic operations. These findings are similar to results for foreign earnings association coefficients for American‐based multinationals found in Bodnar and Weintrop (1997). These results indicate that across countries the market perceives the results of foreign operations as value relevant and suggests that greater emphasis should be placed on the required disclosure of segmental data rather than on the concern that all countries prepare the segmental information using a common GAAP.     

Environmental and Social Policy and Earning Persistence

In recent years, the effect of disclosure on environmental and social information has been the subject of much research in an Anglo‐Saxon context. The European field, and especially the French companies, have not been sufficiently discussed. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between social and environmental disclosure and earning persistence (as a proxy of earning quality). We use the content analysis method with annual reports as a measure of social and environmental disclosure; the empirical validation is applied to the companies listed in the SBF 250 French stock market index over the 2005–2010 period. To measure earning persistence we opt for a regression of a time‐series model on panel data. The findings show that French companies are characterized by a high level of social and environmental reporting; this situation may affect positively the quality of earnings such as more persistent earnings. This means that companies with a higher level of social and environmental commitment are more likely to take benefits and to communicate more persistent earnings and be desirable to investors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The information content of earnings and turnover announcements in France

Annual net income is seen by shareholders as the most important figure, since it is, for individual accounts, the basis of appropriation of profit by the shareholders' general meeting. However, firms publish interim figures at a higher frequency to allow investors to react quickly to frequently updated information that gives them a more accurate view of the evolution of the firm. In the United States, according to regulation S-X, the interim quarterly reports must disclose the net income. In France, firms must publish their quarterly turnovers and their half-year income statements in addition to their annual accounts. Whereas American publications are practically homogeneous in nature in terms of earnings disclosure, the information content of French quarterly reports differs from that of the half-year and annual accounts. Such French irregularities in information content mean that interim and annual announcements do not have the same value for the shareholders. Because of the heterogeneous nature and the time frame of the disclosed information, one may wonder if French market reactions to the announcements of interim publications exhibit significantly different characteristics from those observed for quarterly releases in other countries. This can only be appreciated through a differential analysis of French market response to interim and annual announcements.     

On the Relationship between Voluntary Disclosure,Earnings Smoothing and the Value-Relevance of Earnings: The Case of Switzerland

Abstract

This paper examines whether voluntary disclosure by Swiss firms constrains the use of discretionary accruals to smooth earnings, and explores the effect of voluntary disclosure on the value relevance of earnings. We focus on Swiss firms because Switzerland's financial reporting system provides managers with extensive discretion in corporate disclosure, and there are important variations in the level of information provided in their annual reports. We consider that managers can choose two different ways to voluntarily convey information, either through the quality and quantity of annual report disclosure or, through compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Relying on a simultaneous equations approach, our results suggest that Swiss firms use discretionary accruals to smooth earnings. However, this relation is reduced for firms that voluntarily disclose more information in their annual report or comply with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP. Moreover, we show that discretionary accruals of high disclosers or of firms voluntarily complying with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP receive a lower valuation weight.     

A Study of Corporate Disclosure Practice and Effectiveness in Hong Kong

The recent economic turmoil in Asia has led to a wider recognition of the importance of corporate transparency and disclosures in financial dealings. The objective of this study is to provide comprehensive and up-to-date evidence of current practice and perceived effectiveness of corporate disclosure of listed companies in an emerging economy—Hong Kong. The study compares the perceptions of chief financial officers (CFOs) and financial analysts about a variety of information flow, disclosure and capital market efficiency issues. It also seeks to determine whether there is a perceived need for increased financial reporting regulations and to what extent this and other alternative means might improve market functioning. While both subject groups believed that a majority of firms only adopt a conservative one-way disclosure strategy and the existence of a communication gap, analysts perceived a much higher need than CFOs for increased financial reporting regulations. Neither group thought that enhancing disclosure requirements alone would suffice to close this gap. Instead, they suggested an improvement in the quality of the communication and disclosure processes through means such as choosing more appropriate communication media, formulating a more proactive disclosure strategy, enhancing investor relationship, and voluntarily reporting more information desired by users.     

Corporate Compliance with Non-Mandatory Statements of Best Practice: The Case of the ASB Statement on Interim Reports

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to our understanding of compliance with non-mandatory statements of best practice. Specifically, we examine the efficacy of agency-related mechanisms on the degree of disclosure compliance with the ASB Statement on interim reports. Using data drawn from a sample of 259 UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, we show that although overall disclosure compliance is high (74.5% of the items of information being disclosed), companies do not fully comply with the ASB Statement on interim reports. We employ an ordinary least square (OLS) regression model to establish whether selected company-specific and corporate governance characteristics (proxying for agency-related mechanisms) are related to the degree of disclosure compliance. Our results indicate that multiple listing, company size, interim dividend and new share issuance are positively associated with the degree of compliance. We also find that the degree of disclosure compliance is positively associated with auditor involvement, audit committee independence and audit committee financial expertise. These results have important implications for policy because they suggest that whilst agency-related mechanisms may motivate compliance with best practice non-mandatory statements, full compliance may be unattainable without regulations.     

The Effect of Conference Calls on Analysts' Forecasts – German Evidence

This study examines whether conference calls provide additional information to analysts. For a large sample of conference calls, hosted by German firms between 2004 and 2007, our results show that conference calls improve analysts' ability to forecast future earnings accurately. This suggests that additional information is released during conference calls. The reduction in forecast error is economically significant and larger in magnitude when compared to results for the US (Bowen et al., 2002). These findings are consistent with the notion that committing to additional disclosures is likely to yield greater effects in a less stringent disclosure system (Verrecchia, 2001). Since the majority of our sample firms conduct conference calls as closed calls, the evidence of this paper suggests that conference calls may contribute to an information gap between call participants and non-invited parties. Our findings should be of substantial interest to European regulators seeking to level the informational playing field for all investors.     

公允价值计量、信息披露质量与价值相关性

新企业会计准则中的公允价值计量对信息披露产生了重要影响。以2006年至2008年深市A股上市企业为样本进行的研究发现,公司受到公允价值计量的积极影响越多,信息披露质量就会越高。高质量的信息披露能够使会计信息的价值相关性得到显著提高,而公允价值计量则能够进一步提高信息披露质量对会计信息价值相关性的改善程度。     

The Association between Board Composition and Different Types of Voluntary Disclosure

Abstract

This study examines the association between board composition and voluntary disclosure in annual reports. In particular, it addresses the incentives within the agency theory framework for both inside and independent directors to disclosure additional information voluntarily. Further, it provides evidence on the relation between the overall total voluntary disclosure and the components of voluntary disclosure, such as forward looking, strategic, non-financial and historical financial disclosures and board composition. Our sample is based on 181 Australian companies. We have developed and hand-collected 67 items from annual reports to develop the total voluntary disclosure index and the sub-indices of voluntary disclosure. Using two-stage multivariate analyses, our results provide some important insights. First, we find that there is a positive association between board composition and the voluntary disclosure of information in annual reports. Second, we also find that independent boards provide more voluntary disclosure of forward looking information and strategic information. However, board structure has no bearing on the voluntary disclosure of non-financial and historical financial information. Our findings are enhanced by different empirical specifications and sensitivity tests.     

台湾企业信息透明度与债券发行资金成本关系实证研究——蒙地卡罗模拟法之运用

本文探讨了企业信息透明度与债券资金成本间的关系。研究样本涵盖1996年至2001年间,共103家发行公司债的台湾上市公司,对其年报自愿性披露水平进行了分析。结果发现,企业发行公司债增额举债成本与其年报自愿性披露水平间呈显着负相关,显示信息的充分披露能获得较低的举债成本。而依市场风险高低所作的分组测试,则显示具有高市场风险的企业,披露水平与债券发行资金成本间关联性并未较低市场风险的企业密切,且高市场风险组的企业,年报中所披露的策略性信息,与债券发行资金成本间的关系并未达显着水平,此也反映出投资人评估企业信息披露是"质"、"量"并重的。     

Analysts' Earnings Forecasts and the Value Relevance of 20-F Reconciliations from non-U.S. to U.S. GAAP

This study extends existing research into the value relevance of reconciliations to U.S. GAAP by examining the role of analysts' earnings forecasts in explaining potential market reactions to the earnings reconciliation. One possible reason why the evidence on the value relevance of the earnings reconciliation is weak is that earnings are forecast by analysts. Their forecasts may pre-empt some of the information content of the earnings reconciliation disclosures. Our findings indicate that analysts' forecasts are value relevant and that they play a pre-emptive role for some firms. For others, however, the earnings reconciliation has information content that is not pre-empted by analysts' forecasts.     

企业社会责任信息披露的市场反应——基于我国上市公司发布社会责任报告的事件研究

本文采用事件研究法,研究我国上市公司发布社会责任报告的市场反应.研究结果表明,社会责任报告发布的市场反应不显著.企业社会责任报告的质量影响到投资者对企业的社会责任行为是否真诚的判断,进而影响市场反应.我国企业社会责任报告的整体质量不高,投资者认为企业的行为不够真诚,导致企业没有取得显著的市场反应.回归分析结果表明,企业社会责任报告的质量显著正向影响市场反应.为了有效平衡财务目标和社会目标,企业应提高社会责任报告的质量,全面、客观披露绩效等关键信息.     

Market Implications of the Audit Quality and Auditor Switches: Evidence from China

Independent audits enhance the credibility of corporate financial reports and assist investors to make rational decisions in the capital market. Nonetheless, the utility of the auditing function depends upon the quality of audits, which is determined by the independence and expertise of auditors. Hence, auditor choice and switch will not only affect an audit's quality, but will also influence decisions made by investors and other market participants. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how investors respond to the quality of audits and auditor switches in the Chinese context. Empirical results show that the quality of an audit and switching to a larger auditor have a positive (negative) impact on earnings response coefficients (ERCs) for firms with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. In contrast, switching to a smaller auditor has a negative (positive) impact on ERCs for firms with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. These results suggest that large auditing firms (Top 10) in China are perceived as more effective for curbing income-increased earnings management, which leads to higher (lower) ERCs for clients with positive (negative) abnormal earnings. Firms' switching to a larger auditor may signal high-quality earnings. Therefore, investors more often increase stock prices when firms have positive abnormal earnings and less often depreciate prices for negative abnormal earnings. Similarly, switching to a smaller auditor may signal lower earning quality, resulting in opposite market responses. In general, the empirical evidence suggests that audit information is valued by the capital market in China. Large auditing firms have been able to product-differentiate themselves within the Chinese stock market.