财务业绩报告改革的理论基础——基于“全面收益”理论

20世纪末以来国际会计界一直致力于财务业绩报告的改革,由传统收益表向综合收益表改进已然成了业绩报告改革的必然趋势,这一改革的理论基础便是全面收益理论。鉴于此,本文试从全面收益的概念入手,从经济学、财务学和会计学几个领域诠释全面收益形成的理论基础,然后从"决策相关论"、"总括收益观"、"资产负债观"和"公允价值"计量属性多个层面剖析"全面收益"理论的内容,以求对我国全面收益报告的应用有所裨益。     

财务业绩报告改革的理论基础——基于“全面收益”理论

20世纪末以来国际会计界一直致力于财务业绩报告的改革,由传统收益表向综合收益表改进已然成了业绩报告改革的必然趋势,这一改革的理论基础便是全面收益理论。鉴于此,本文试从全面收益的概念入手,从经济学、财务学和会计学几个领域诠释全面收益形成的理论基础,然后从＂决策相关论＂、＂总括收益观＂、＂资产负债观＂和＂公允价值＂计量属性多个层面剖析＂全面收益＂理论的内容,以求对我国全面收益报告的应用有所裨益。     

关于高质量会计准则和企业财务业绩报告改进的新动向

本文主要评述两个方面的动态 :一是美国财务会计准则委员会 (FASB)对于Arthur·Levitt提出的“高质量会计准则”的反应 ,二是关于财务业绩报告的改进。FASB除同意Levitt的观点外 ,还强调一份高质量的会计准则应当尽量减少以至最终取消备选方案、准则的含义必须十分明确、准则的制订需要有严密的程序。在英美分别提出第四财务报表以后 ,G4+ 1集团则主张把传统的收益表与新增的全面收益表合二为一。G4+ 1集团提出了新的反映全面财务业绩的“财务业绩表”。本文在系统介绍这两个方面动态的同时 ,均根据自己的看法进行必要的评论。     

我国收益报告改革历程与趋势分析

研究收益报告改革发展的规律离不开环境分析,我国收益报告改革发展的不同阶段反映出不同的特征。当前的收益报告充分体现会计准则的国际趋同与等效,但又存在明显差异,这种差异有其深层次原因。收益报告改革的未来趋势与会计目标定位、资产计价与收益确定、会计要素体系的构建等基本问题紧密关联。在决策有用观的目标下,收益报告将更加面向未来,关注预测未来收益及风险的信息,逐步扩大公允价值计量属性运用,在收益确定方面由收入费用观向资产负债观转变。业绩报告改革方向是报告全面收益,而目前会计要素体系建设并没有同步推进,建议在保留资产、负债、所有者权益、收入、费用要素基础上,增设利得、损失要素,取消利润要素,并把业主投资、派给业主款等纳入要素体系。     

从FASB、ASB与IASB相关准则看全面收益理论在我国的应用

会计环境的不断变化,使得会计正面临着前所未有的挑战,而使得传统利润表提供的会计主体的财务状况和经营业绩信息已不能满足信息使用者的要求。世界各国的会计准则制定机构纷纷提出改进财务业绩报告的建议,全面收益报告已成为大势所趋。面对这种形势,我国也积极探索适合我国经济发展情况的收益呈报模式,并于2007年1月1日开始实行的新企业会计准则中明确增加所有者权益变动表,从而在一定程度上体现了企业的全面收益。本文通过比较全面收益与传统收益的差异,比较国内外全面收益理念的应用情况,探讨了在我国推行全面收益表的必要性。     

以全面收益为基础改进我国企业收益报告

全面收益是近年来英美等发达国家会计准则制定机构提出的新概念，以此为基础编制的全面收益报告能够提供更为充分有用的会计信息。我国企业利润表是以历史成本原基础编制的，这种收益报告只反映企业一定期间内已经实现的收益，不反映已确认但未实现的收益，无法满足投资者的决策需求因此，应当在借鉴西方国家全面收益理论与方面的基础上，结合我国实际，对企业收益报告加以改进。     

论财务业绩报告的改进

随着经济的发展和金融衍生工具的出现,财务会计环境已经发生了重大变化,传统的财务业绩报告正暴露出越来越多的缺陷。传统利润表的历史成本计量原则、配比原则、谨慎性原则等因素使其无法准确、及时的提供财务报告使用者所需要的信息。由此,世界各国纷纷进行财务业绩报告的改进,并且取得了一定效果,我国财务业绩报告改进的步伐也刻不容缓。本文通过对已有研究成果的梳理,运用规范性的研究方法,首先分析了财务业绩报告改进的相关理论基础,指出改进的必要性,继而分析了我国目前的财务业绩报告的缺陷并提出了相关建议。     

浅析全面收益表在我国的应用

全面收益观的演进尽管已有半个世纪的历程,但全面收益报告模式作为一项制度化设计并在部分国家中付诸实施的历史并不长。当前西方主要发达国家和国际会计准则理事会几乎都在致力于改进现有的业绩报告,并积极探索全面收益报告的新模式。而我国推行全面收益表还存在着一些必须解决的问题。     

论全面收益及其报告的理论基础

关于全面收益理论的研究由来已久但是很少有人对其理论基础进行深入的探析,本文在分析全面收益概念的同时,从经济学、财务学和会计学的角度对其理论基础进行了探讨。     

论全面收益及其报告的理论基础

关于全面收益理论的研究由来已久但是很少有人对其理论基础进行深入的探析,本文在分析全面收益概念的同时,从经济学、财务学和会计学的角度对其理论基础进行了探讨。     

财务报告质量评价研究:文献回顾、述评与未来展望

信息不对称和不确定性的广泛存在,使得高质量的财务报告对其使用者具有重要意义。同时,对财务报告质量的客观评价也对财务报告使用者具有重要意义。因此,国内外许多专家学者和权威机构都从不同角度对财务报告质量评价进行了探索和研究。本文主要从财务报告质量标准、财务报告质量的衡量方法及财务报告质量评价指标三方面对财务报告质量评价的相关文献进行回顾,着重论述了关于财务报告质量衡量方法的研究,即从财务报告总体质量衡量方法、财务报告质量特征的衡量方法、财务报告透明度及披露质量的衡量方法等三方面对财务报告质量的衡量方法进行归纳,分析了财务报告质量评价研究的现状与不足,并在此基础上,提出进一步研究的方向:建立一套行之有效的财务报告质量评价指数。     

企业可持续发展报告研究述评--基于GRI《可持续发展报告指南》发布后的文献

随着全球报告倡议组织（GRI）的成立及其《可持续发展报告指南》的发布与改进,可持续发展报告在全球范围内得到广泛的推行。现有文献对企业可持续发展报告的研究主要集中在四个方面：可持续发展报告的发展历程、现状与趋势,可持续发展报告评价指标体系的构建与实证研究,GRI指南在我国的应用情况以及可持续发展报告带来的经济后果。现有研究大多是对可持续发展报告评价指标体系与影响公司行为的方式进行理论分析,未来研究方向将集中在企业可持续发展报告的评价以及运用实证方法检验公司行为与可持续发展报告的披露两者之间的关系上。     

Introducing XBRL through a financial statement analysis project

In this project, we introduce business and accounting students to the application of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) through the use of interactive data. Students study the basic concepts and potential benefits of interactive data and XBRL. Students learn to extract the financial reports of two companies in the same industry. Then, using traditional financial analysis techniques (ratio analysis) students can compare the performance of these companies. Thus, the project accomplishes two important objectives: it introduces students to the benefits and features of XBRL-tagged financial reporting and interactive data, and it shows how this medium can be used to facilitate the analysis of financial statements. The project uses free, publicly available interactive data tools to accomplish these objectives.This project is appropriate for any level of financial accounting course in which students use public company financial statements to generate financial ratios and conduct analysis on them. We aim the project at MBA-type introductory accounting courses. In addition, we show how it can easily be expanded to be applied to higher level financial statement analysis courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The project provides some background into how XBRL-tagged financial reporting is generated, while the main focus is on application of interactive data and not the technology itself. Since XBRL is now mandated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for most reporting entities, it is critical for today’s business students to be familiar with this method of communicating financial information.     

会计形式协调与实质协调:文献综述

海外分支机构与母公司合并报表的编制引起了理论界和实务界对不同国家和地区的会计实务差异的比较研究,随着国际证券市场的发展,跨国发行股票融资和跨国股票交易使会计信息的跨国可比性问题成为投资者和理论研究者关注的重点,会计协调也从研究国家和地区的会计准则和实务的差异转向对不同准则下会计信息质量的对比研究。随着国际会计准则影响的日益扩大,国际会计准则与一国会计的形式协调和实质协调将成为研究的热点。实质协调不仅取决于形式协调,更需要配套的会计报告环境的支持。     

Information disclosure and liquidity crisis

We analyze a model in which a firm’s manager privately learns about the expected return on the firm’s project and strategically discloses it to investors (i.e., discretionary disclosure). Based on the manager’s disclosure, investors decide whether to withdraw their investments from the firm. Our analysis indicates that investors’ optimistic prior beliefs in the firm reduce the possibility of their withdrawals and the manager’s incentive of discretionary disclosure, whereas pessimistic beliefs increase them. We further examine the effects of a commitment to reporting of bad news, namely, the conservative disclosure rule. This rule always suppresses the manager’s incentive of discretionary disclosure; however, it increases (reduces) investors’ withdrawals when they are optimistic (pessimistic) about the firm’s project.     

Reporting Performance: Comprehensive Income and its Components

The underlying question raised in this article is: why is the accounting profession's conceptual framework (CF) so authoritative when it is conceptually incoherent? A supplementary question is how can ‘conceptually robust’ accounting standards be derived from an incoherent framework? This article draws on Page and Spira's (1999) contrasting framework metaphors to suggest that the appearance of conceptual robustness is more important than the reality, and illustrates the point with the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB’s) progress report on its reporting performance project. Some inherent weaknesses in the move towards internationally enforceable financial regulations have been acknowledged, but this article suggests the IASB's project demonstrates two additional weaknesses: internal incoherence, and the potential for political ends to drive supposedly technical regulations.     

Real Options: Meeting the Georgetown Challange

In response to the demand for a single, generally accepted real options methodology, this article proposes a four‐step process leading to a practical solution to most applications of real option analysis. The first step is familiar: calculate the standard net present value of the project assuming no managerial flexibility, which results in a value estimate (and a “branch” of a decision tree) for each year of the project's life. The second step estimates the volatility of the value of the project and produces a value tree designed to capture the main sources of uncertainty. Note that the authors focus on the uncertainty about overall project value, which is driven by uncertainty in revenue growth, operating margins, operating leverage, input costs, and technology. The key point here is that, in contrast to many real options approaches, none of these variables taken alone is assumed to be a reliable surrogate for the uncertainty of the project itself. For example, in assessing the option value of a proven oil reserve, the relevant measure of volatility is the volatility not of oil prices, but of the value of the operating entity—that is, the project value without leverage. The third step attempts to capture managerial flexibility using a decision “tree” that illustrates the decisions to be made, their possible outcomes, and their corresponding probabilities. The article illustrate various kinds of applications, including a phased investment in a chemical plant (which is treated as a compound option) and an investment in a peak‐load power plant (a switching option with changing variance, which precludes the use of constant risk‐neutral probabilities as in standard decision tree analysis). The fourth and final step uses a “no‐arbitrage” approach to form a replicating portfolio with the same payouts as the real option. For most corporate investment projects, it is impossible to locate a “twin security” that trades in the market. In the absence of such a security, the conventional NPV of a project (again, without flexibility) is the best candidate for a perfectly correlated underlying asset because it represents management's best estimate of value based on the expected cash flows of the project.     

On the IASB comprehensive income project: an analysis of the case for dual income display

The IASB is presently involved in a project on reporting comprehensive income. Since the IASB accounting model mixes two income determination systems, namely, historical cost accounting and fair value accounting, an interesting question pertains to whether the display of comprehensive income should reflect the existence of these two paradigms. This article scrutinizes, from both the points of view of accounting theory and a valuation perspective, the typical arguments made by proponents of historical cost net income and comprehensive fair value income. It finds that claims for exclusive reliance on a single concept of income are untenable. The analysis provides arguments in defence of an income display that explicitly features both income concepts. Such a dual income display would correspond to a categorization of comprehensive income that is currently investigated in the IASB performance reporting project. However, given the importance of summarization in financial analysis, as is most extremely reflected in the focus on the earnings per share (EPS) number, the case for a dual income display should also be considered at the highest level of summarization of financial performance reporting. In other words, mandatory publication of two EPS numbers, one for net income, and one for comprehensive income, should be considered. Possible effects on perception and actual use of financial reports that should enter such a consideration are suggested as topics for experimental research.     

Extractive Industries Reporting: A Review of Accounting Challenges and the Research Literature

While the extractive industries (EI) are of major significance economically, the reporting of their activities has been the subject of contentious debate posing dilemmas for regulators and standard setters over many decades. In order to ensure alignment with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) research project on EI, we first identify some important economic characteristics of EI and associated accounting challenges together with an overview of how current accounting standards deal with these challenges using International Financial Reporting Standards as the focus. Second, we conduct a review of extant research on EI reporting analyzed around the key areas of: (a) international diversity of accounting practices and the challenges facing information users; (b) standard-setting processes and lobbying behaviour that deals with why the IASB (and other standard setters) have not succeeded in developing rigorous standards for extractive activities; (c) the reporting of oil, gas, and mineral reserves, given that large proportions of the assets of EI firms (the reserves) are off-balance sheet; (d) environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting dealing with how EI firms have increased their reporting of ESG information in response to regulatory demands and pressure for voluntary disclosures; and (e) other EI related topics such as earnings management, risk disclosures, and voluntary disclosure behaviour. Finally, we present some conclusions together with suggestions relating to key areas for future research on EI reporting.     

Internal Audit Quality and Financial Reporting Quality: The Joint Importance of Independence and Competence

In light of the growing importance of internal audit functions (IAF) and the limited archival evidence on internal audit quality, we examine an interactive model of IAF quality (comprised of competence and independence) to better understand the determinants of IAF effectiveness as a financial reporting monitor. Our tests support the hypothesis that the joint presence of competence and independence is a necessary antecedent to effective IAF financial reporting monitoring. In sum, our results show that, the answer to “what is the effect of internal audit competence (independence) on financial reporting quality?” is “it depends on the independence (competence) of the internal auditor.” Our study extends the understanding of IAF quality determinants in the realm of financial reporting as it relates to ongoing discussions by researchers, standard setters, regulators, and practitioners.