Are recent segment disclosures of Japanese firms useful?: Views of Japanese financial analysts

Since 1990, the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MOF) has required Japanese firms to disclose segment data in annual financial statements. Using a survey instrument, we examine whether Japanese analysts find these segment disclosures to be useful. Our study finds that analysts perceive that segment data aid them in forecasting consolidated sales and net income. However, results also show that analysts are concerned that Japanese firms do not define segments meaningfully and consistently and are arbitrary in the allocation of common costs. Further, the analysts do not believe that the usefulness of segment data improves when it is audited. These results have implications for investors in Japanese stocks and accounting policy bodies, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).     

Additional analyses of recent segment disclosures of Japanese firms

This paper discusses additional issues concerning segment reporting in Japan. Specifically, it discusses what the relevant segment reporting standards are, enforcement issues, the interaction of consolidation standards with segment disclosures, survey biases and response rates and the implications of segment disclosures in Japan for global investors and accounting standard setting bodies.     

Determinants of voluntary disclosure of segment information: A re-examination of the role of diversification strategy

This paper explores the determinants of management's decision to voluntarily disclose segment information. It is an extension of McKinnon and Dalimunthe (1993) who investigate the role of six hypothesised determinants. Their results indicate that firm size, industry membership, ownership diffusion, and the level of minority interest are related to the voluntary disclosure of segment information. However, they find that leverage and diversification into related versus unrelated industries are not related to this disclosure. It is the diversification finding that motivates our work. This paper explores the effect of differences in data, differences in samples, and differences in the measurement of diversification on the McKinnon and Dalimunthe (1993) results. Using an alternative definition of diversification, we find diversification strategy, firm size, and the level of minority interest to be related to segment disclosure while the results for ownership diffusion and industry are mixed. We find no support for a leverage effect.     

Competitive harm and geographic area disclosure under SFAS 131

Prior research documents considerable diversity in the amount of detail provided by companies in complying with the foreign country disclosure requirements of SFAS 131. We posit that the potential competitive harm associated with country specific disclosures provides an incentive for management to avoid making these disclosures. Specifically, we hypothesize that firms with higher potential competitive harm costs will provide less detailed geographic area disclosures. Our results show that, as expected, firms exposed to greater competitive harm costs provide less detailed country specific revenue disclosures. This study helps to explain the diversity in practice with respect to the level of detail provided by companies in their geographic area disclosures under SFAS 131. In addition, it adds to the literature examining the impact of potential competitive harm on disclosures made by U.S. firms, by extending the line of research to geographic area disclosures.     

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.     

The predictive ability of entity-wide geographic sales disclosures: IAS 14R versus IFRS 8

This report examines the predictive value of geographic revenue disclosures under IFRS 8 in forecasting company revenues using four forecast models. The findings show that the predictive accuracy of IFRS 8 entity-wide geographic sales significantly outperform consolidated sales in forecasting consolidated sales one year out. The results indicate that the predictive ability of country specific entity wide geographic sales improves on average by six percent when geographic sales are reported for country of domicile or by each individually material country. The study also finds that geographic sales disclosures by companies located in countries with high and moderate enforcement regimes improve the predictive accuracy of geographic sales by five percent. These results provide evidence that the disclosure of finer geographic sales data is more decision useful and associated with improved predictive accuracy for large listed companies in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.     

Corporate reporting of intellectual capital: Evidence from UK companies

This paper reports the results of an empirical investigation into the intellectual capital reporting practices of UK companies in four distinct sectors. It differs from prior intellectual capital reporting studies in that it analyses a wide range of corporate reports for their intellectual capital content. It finds major differences between the elements of intellectual capital reported in each sector studied. The study also finds that a range of different types of corporate reports were used for communicating intellectual capital information, and that the annual reports were not a good proxy for the proportion of disclosures across all corporate reports analysed in this study.     

Geographic area disclosures under SFAS 131: materiality and fineness

This paper describes and evaluates certain aspects of the enterprise-wide geographic area disclosures provided by Fortune 500 companies in the implementation of SFAS 131, “Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information.” The first objective of this study is to determine how companies are complying with the materiality criterion of SFAS 131 for determining when an individual country is reportable. The second objective is to evaluate whether foreign operation disclosures provided by companies in accordance with SFAS 131 result in a finer set of information than was provided under SFAS 14. The results suggest that there is considerable diversity among companies in the way that materiality is defined, with a majority of companies that provide country-level disclosures using quantitative thresholds less than 10%. For a large percentage of companies, the information provided under SFAS 131 appears to be finer than the information provided under SFAS 14. However, a significant minority of companies has taken a step backward in this regard.     

Shareholders’ requirements for corporate environmental disclosures: A cross country comparison

We survey individual shareholders in Australia, the UK and the US regarding corporate environmental disclosures. In general, respondents in the three countries are interested in, and positively disposed towards, these disclosures. We observe country and gender differences with Australian and female respondents more in favour of environmental reporting than others. Specifically, respondents require disclosure of an overview of environmental risks and impacts, the environmental policy, performance against measurable environmental targets and information on a range of environmental costs. Most shareholders require environmental disclosures to be audited. Shareholders call for environmental information because they believe managers should be accountable to shareholders for their companies’ environmental impacts. Furthermore, shareholders have indicated the uses for specific types of environmental information. Our results imply that legislators, standard setters and companies have to consider the policy implications of these shareholder views.     

The fleeting nature of permanent reinvestment: Accounting for the undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries

Over the last decade, an increasing percentage of the profits reported by U.S. corporations were earned by their foreign subsidiaries and retained outside the United States resulting in the deferral of income taxes. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provided a temporary federal tax incentive to remit such earnings, which resulted in the repatriation of $140 billion by the 30 firms comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average. An analysis of the financial reporting disclosures made by these firms reveals that a tax expense was not fully recognized on a substantial portion of the earnings until repatriation because of an exception for foreign reinvestments deemed to be essentially permanent in duration. The implications of the currently acceptable accounting for undistributed foreign earnings are discussed as well as recommendations to improve the relevancy and reliability of the disclosures required for this exception to comprehensive recognition of deferred taxes.     

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.     

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.