Disclosure indexes and compliance with mandatory disclosure—The case of intangible assets in the Italian market

Disclosure of financial statements is an important topic both for investors and for preparers as disclosure allows investors to understand the application of the accounting principles used by companies. This research examines the 2010 financial statements under IFRS of 189 Italian listed groups and their compliance with mandatory disclosure on intangible assets and presents an in depth empirical analysis of the Italian market—that belongs to the Continental European accounting cluster. Different variables were tested to analyze the compliance with the mandatory disclosure such as size variables, performance variables, financial interest variables and market variables. Many studies on mandatory disclosure are based on one disclosure index method and results are affected by the different approaches used: Cooke's dichotomous approach, Partial Compliance method, weighted and unweighted. In this paper, the decision was taken to run all the previous methods: results show that the only significant variable for all Dscore indexes is the weight of interests on revenues and this result is a distinctive feature of the Italian market where the role of the banking systems is more important than in other countries.     

Commentary: An International Comparison and Evaluation of Financial Accounting Concepts Statements*

Standard setters in several jurisdictions have adopted statements of financial accounting concepts. Given that concepts statements influence accounting standards, similarities and differences of concepts across jurisdictions will affect the ability of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and other accounting bodies to secure standards convergence. This paper analyzes the concepts statements of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the IASB. Although these statements seem similar at a “broad brush” level, a closer look reveals substantial differences. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate these differences and the extent to which they may impair standards convergence. The paper also proposes broadening the scope of the concepts structure to include normative agency‐theoretic considerations, which would bring the legitimate interests of management into the concepts structure, with the potential to move some of the trade‐offs necessary to secure managers' acceptance of accounting standards into the structure itself.     

Asset Recognition And Probabilistic Judgments

With the issuing of Statement of Accounting Concepts 4 on the definition and recognition of elements of financial statements, research into the possible ramifications of the application of recognition criteria in that statement is timely. Using 60 experienced Australian auditors as subjects, this study provides information on the numerical equivalents of uncertainty expressions such as "beyond any reasonable doubt" and "virtually certain" (as per the asset-recognition criteria of AASB 1020), and "probable" (as per Statement of Accounting Concepts 4). In addition, it compares the decisions made by auditors under the criteria included in AASB 1020 and SAC 4. The results indicate that the regognition criteria in AASB 1020 are a higher test of stringency for the recognition of assets than those adopted in the new SAC 4.     

The Nature and Rationale of a Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting by Islamic Banks

Islamic banks have to abide by the revealed doctrines in Islam in conducting their business and financial transactions. They employ in-house religious advisers—often referred to as Shari'a Supervisory Board (SSB)—who issue a special report to inform users of financial statements whether or not the bank has adhered to the Islamic principles. Recently, a private standard-setting body—the Financial Accounting Organization for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (FAOIBFI)—has been set up to externally regulate the financial reporting by Islamic banks. The FAOIBFI has published two statements on the objectives and concepts of financial reporting to act as a framework in setting accounting standards for Islamic banks. This paper examines the FAOIBFI's approach for developing objectives and concepts of financial accounting and investigates its need for such a theoretical framework. It is argued that the FAOIBFI's objectives and concepts would not be useful in mandating accounting standards on issues that are affected by religious ruling. This does not necessarily mean that such a framework may not be useful in legitimating the FAOIBFI's role and in setting accounting standards for issues that are not governed by revealed moral doctrines although it will be subject to similar limitations to those found by other standard-setting bodies in utilising and applying their framework. However, it implies that the more the FAOIBFI sets accounting standards that incorporate religious ruling, the less it would tend to find its own objectives and concepts useful. The ambiguities that may arise from different interpretations of the religious rules will require resolutions primarily by reference to religious rather than accounting authority.     

CAP Forum on E‐Business: Compromise or Customize: XBRL's Paradoxical Power

Business reports are changing in response to regulatory and market demands. Requests by regulators for electronic filings of financial statements and tax forms are increasing and such filings are rapidly becoming mandatory in many countries. In response, extensible business reporting language (XBRL) is a market‐driven, collaborative effort to make electronic filings more useful to, and to reduce the burden on, both publishers and consumers of business reports. XBRL does much more than simply list data items that can be submitted in an electronic filing. XBRL is a complete set of tools for regulators or groups to fully communicate the meanings of and interrelationships among the business reporting concepts. In addition, core sets of concepts from regulators or groups can be extended, expanded, or otherwise modified for more specific communication by jurisdictions, industries, or individual corporations. This unique customization capability lets companies better present their electronic filings as parallels to their paper filings. A “customizable standard” offers new opportunities and new challenges. This paper discusses XBRL's paradoxical power ‐ the trade‐offs between customizing to better parallel existing paper reports and compromising to more closely match the standards, and the research needed for the transition from freeform to customized reports.     

The CF and Accounting Standards: The Persistence of Discrepancies

The conceptual framework (CF) has introduced a set of ideals and broad criteria for financial reporting focusing on servicing users' information needs. In this article, each concepts statement is considered, in turn, and its consistency with selected accounting standards examined. Particular attention is paid to accounting standards issued for the first time, or in a revised form, subsequent to the release of the concepts statements. It is found that many standards have provisions that are at odds with the CF. These inconsistencies come as no surprise. The CF is incomplete; the issue of measurement remains unresolved, leaving ambiguity in the definitions of concepts such as revenue. The CF project has remained unfinished while standard setters have given priority to other tasks, such as international harmonization, in resolving contemporary financial reporting issues.     

SAC 4: A Source Of Accounting Change

Despite its long gestation, the latest release in the Australian Accounting Research Foundation's conceptual framework, Statement of Accounting Concepts 4 Definition and Recognition of the Elements of Financial Statements (SAC 4), is poorly understood by many accountants. The statement specifies definitions for the elements which form the basis of the information in financial reports and sets out the criteria to be used in deciding when these elements should be recognised (reported) in the reports. Statements of accounting concepts do not attract the same direct legal force as AASB accounting standards. Nevertheless, this statement promises significant reforms to financial reporting. Because of its potential to create far-reaching changes, it is essential that accounting professionals are familiar with its contents and application. This paper describes the structure of SAC 4, comments upon some of its important components and illustrates its operation and key features in the context of one element, “assets”.     

Downlistings in European exchange-regulated markets: The role of enforcement

This paper investigates the potential role of enforcement action in shaping firms’ decisions to opt out of highly regulated stock market regimes. Our analyses are set in the German environment, where firms may choose to “downlist” from an EU-regulated to an exchange-regulated stock market, thereby circumvent mandatory preparation of IFRS financial statements and enforcement oversight. We find that downlisting firms are more likely to have been censured by enforcement bodies for erroneous accounting, compared to a sample of control firms, and that this association is more pronounced for severe or controversial errors. This finding is consistent with enforcement actions creating costs for firms and managers. Event study analyses show that market price reactions to firms’ downlisting announcements are negative in about one out of two cases. This suggests that in quite a few cases, managers, by downlisting, may be protecting private benefits rather than the interests of equity holders. Additional analyses reveals that about half of our sample firms continued to prepare IFRS financial statements on a voluntary basis after the downlisting. Taken together, our results contribute to the literature on the economic consequences of the EU’s IAS and enforcement regulation by suggesting that some firms adopt avoidance strategies to opt out of enforcement supervision.     

The Disciplinary Role of Financial Statements: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions of Privately Held Targets

This study examines whether requiring the disclosure of audited financial statements disciplines managers’ mergers and acquisitions (M&As) decisions. When an M&A transaction meets certain disclosure thresholds, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires the public acquirer to disclose the target's audited financial statements after the merger is completed. Using hand‐collected data, I find that the disclosure of private targets’ financial statements is associated with better acquisition decisions. Furthermore, I find that this disciplining effect of disclosure is more pronounced when monitoring by outside capital providers is more difficult and costly, and when other disciplining mechanisms are weaker. Finally, these findings are robust to several alternative explanations, such as monitoring from blockholders and voluntary disclosures. In sum, the evidence suggests that the ex post mandatory disclosure of private targets’ accounting information disciplines managers’ acquisition decisions and improves acquisition efficiency.     

Objectives of Financial Reporting

Conceptual framework documents can be evaluated in terms of four criteria: clarity of expression, consistency of assumptions with knowledge of commercial practices and the behaviour of external users of accounting information, internal consistency, and comprehensiveness as a guide to financial reporting practice. On this basis, the Australian Accounting Research Foundation's (AARF's) Statements of Accounting Concepts No. 2 (AARF, 1990a), Objectives of General Purpose Financial Reporting , is found wanting. SAC 2 is inappropriately drafted in terms of normative statements, and incorporates considerable ambiguity because of its allusions to inconsistent objectives without guidance as to weightings or how apparently inconsistent statements might be reconciled. Supporting analysis is rudimentary at best and it relies on an inappropriate use of terminology, while statements lack empirical support and are not linked to any analysis of users' needs for information. Six recommendations for the redrafting of a more narrowly focused SAC 2 (concentrating on annual reports by profit-seeking entities) are presented.     

财务报告概念框架的新篇章——评美国FASB第8号概念公告(2010年9月)

本文试图介绍并评论FASB第8号概念公告,这份公告包括两章来自IASB/FASB联合项目的成果。本文肯定了该概念公告的优点和特点,并得出结论,这份概念公告是高质量概念框架的一部分,是财务报告概念框架的新篇章。     

货币观念创新与会计方法改进——对功能货币理论的分析与探讨

本文对美国第 5 2号会计准则提出的功能货币观念进行了分析和讨论 ,并将功能货币的货币计量观念、折算理念、核心观点等进行了深入分析和探讨 ,其目的是为了展示功能货币较深刻的内涵 ,并就我们的观点与我国现有文献中对功能货币观点之间的差异进行分析。同时本文还就功能货币理论与合并报表理论、历史成本原则、会计假设、记帐货币理论等方面的冲突和融合的问题进行了探索 ,提出了我们在研究中的一些见解。     

University Tees: Introducing fundamentals of management accounting in a small business

This case introduces sophomore-level managerial accounting students to pricing decisions. The case also offers an opportunity to discuss the concepts of business strategy, business risk, and cost drivers. Students draw on concepts such as relevant costing, breakeven analysis, and contribution format income statements to recommend price quotes for a small business.¹     

Alcoa: Toward understanding minority interest

In this case students explore the financial statements of Alcoa as an example of a consolidated company with minority interest in order to understand minority interest and the differences among the concepts of accounting for consolidated enterprises: economic-unit, parent-company, and proportionate concepts. Unlike other Fortune 500 companies, Alcoa presents sufficient footnote disclosures to approximate financial statements based on each theoretical concept. Although Alcoa, and most public companies, primarily follow a mix of parent-company-concept and economic-unit-concept, students need to understand all three concepts discussed in FASB Discussion Memorandum Consolidation Policy and Procedures (FASB, 1995) because accounting for consolidated enterprises is changing in the 1990s and will surely continue to evolve during their professional careers. By transforming Alcoa's financial statements to be consistent with each accounting concept and evaluating the usefulness of these statements, students expand their understanding of minority interest and consolidated financial statements from a user's perspective and gain insight into accounting theory.     

Information dissemination on intellectual capital in mergers and acquisitions: purchase price allocations,press releases and business press

In order to reduce information asymmetries in relation to a firm's current decisions and long-term strategy, firms must consistently provide information to stakeholders. This paper investigates intellectual capital (IC) information disclosed in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) provided through three different disclosure channels (voluntary press releases, related newspaper articles and subsequent mandatory corporate disclosures in the notes to the financial statements). For a sample of 215 randomly selected US and European M&As, we analyse 215 press releases, 1025 newspaper articles and 215 purchase price allocations. Our findings suggest that IC disclosure in press releases is not perceived as informative and qualitative forward-looking IC information in voluntary corporate disclosures appears to lack credibility. Moreover, we empirically demonstrate interdependencies across the three disclosure channels. The business press seems to filter IC information provided in press releases. The amount of IC disclosure in the notes to the financial statements is positively associated with prior IC disclosure in newspaper articles, but negatively associated with IC disclosure in press releases. The managements of acquirer firms appear to pay attention to news coverage and public opinion. However, both voluntary and mandatory corporate disclosures appear to substitute rather than complement each other.     

基于事项凭证的会计报表生成流程探析

在转轨经济时代，会计报表依然承载着记录会计信息的历史使命，而信息使用者则愈加关注会计信息的具体内容，事项信息的地位逐渐提升，使得会计报表的生成流程有待改进。本文基于传统会计核算流程的缺陷之处，并结合目前XBRL财务报告体系中的启示，对基于事项凭证的会计报表生成流程进行了探讨，为事项信息的充分运用提供合适的平台。     

Revenue Recognition in the Construction Industry: An Experimental Study

There have been suggestions that loan officers do not consider there is a problem in the availability of alternative revenue recognition methods, provided that sufficient disclosure of recognition procedures is made to enable adjustment of financial statements. On the other hand, the accounting literature on'functional fixity' suggests such adjustments are not made. The functional fixity literature has relied exclusively on testing for an accounting method effect on user predictions and decisions. As a result, the evidence can be interpreted as users being fixated on earnings and ignoring information about accounting methods or alternatively they may have given attention to that information and attempted a transformation although the extent of the adjustment was'inadequate'. This paper suggests that the previous evidence on functional fixity is inconclusive about lenders' suggestions that they adjust financial statements and that different actions may be required by lending institutions depending on which interpretation of the functional fixity literature is made. This study uses the joint methodologies of analysis of variance and protocol analysis to focus on both whether adjustments are made as well as whether alternative methods of recognizing profit from longterm contracts affect the judgements of experienced lenders. The results show that the majority of subjects did not attempt to adjust for alternative methods of recognizing revenues.     

IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts — verbesserte Versicherungsrechnungslegung?

IFRS 4, issued at March 31^st, 2004, represents phase I of the IASB project on insurance accounting enabling insurance companies in the European Economic Area to prepare their financial statements according to IAS/IFRS by providing basic rules. The incentives resulting from the ?temporary“ declaration are rather complex; IFRS 4 contains only few provisions including temporary choices in accounting treatment. Although phase II of the insurance project dealing with insurance liabilities and other actuarial positions is rather well predictable in many respects the IASB keeps a significant scope of discretion for this phase. IFRS 4 does not represent a self-contained accounting concept; the asset and the debit side of the balance sheet are not coordinated, the former is characterized by a significantly higher volatility. IFRS 4 merely aims at ?limited improvements to accounting (…) for insurance contracts“. This moderate objective can be regarded as accomplished. Some of the new mandatory regulations, however, are internationally controversial issues. The effects of IFRS 4 on the price of shares and the cost of capital of insurance companies represent a worthwhile issue for research. Increased transparency, especially due to additional disclosure requirements, and enhanced volatility are opposing each other, and it is rather difficult to assess which effect will predominate under which circumstances.     

An Axiomatic Theory of Accounting Measurement—Part II

Willett (1987) described a transactions based theory of funds accounting. This paper extends the theory to explain asset and profit measurement. Eight axioms are listed which, when interpreted in the context of cost structures, are sufficient to justify the logic underlying the generation of accounting numbers in financial statements. Although the theory is expressed using deterministic concepts, one of its implications is that many derived accounting measurements used in practice (e.g. income calculations) are of an inherently probabilistic nature. The theory identifies the main stochastic variables which determine the statistical characteristics of such accounting numbers.     

英美上市公司内控信息披露制度对我国的启示

本文分析并指出我国上市公司内控信息披露现行规定存在的不足,分析英美两国关于上述问题各自不同做法的背景和原因,借鉴其各自合理的理念和做法,针对"狭义内部控制"和"广义内部控制"信息披露目的的不同,本文建议通过建立一套相互衔接的内控信息披露制度体系分别对前者进行强制要求,对后者则借鉴英国"遵循或解释"的做法予以引导。为统一认识,不同口径内部控制的确切含义应在即将制定的内控框架中予以明确界定。