The effect of external reporting on managerial decision making: Some antecedent conditions

Behavioral research in accounting has largely been concerned with examining the effects accounting information has on its recipients. One area which has received little attention despite its potential importance, however, concerns the process by which the behavior of the information sender may be influenced by the act of communicating information to recipients. Within this paper, it is hypothesized that the decision impact of the act of communicating information is conditioned by the extent to which information senders perceive external recipients as relying on financial accounting information and by the cognitive style of the information sender. Results obtained from a questionnaire distributed to corporate managers and to independent auditors provide support for accepting both of these hypotheses. Implications for future research are discussed.