IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reacre/v30y2018i2p103-111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial statement comparability and segment disclosure

Author

Listed:
  • Edmonds, Mark A.
  • Smith, David B.
  • Stallings, Matthew A.

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Edmonds, Mark A. & Smith, David B. & Stallings, Matthew A., 2018. "Financial statement comparability and segment disclosure," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 103-111.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:103-111
    DOI: 10.1016/j.racreg.2018.09.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052045718300365
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.racreg.2018.09.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    2. Botosan, CA & Harris, MS, 2000. "Motivations for a change in disclosure frequency and its consequences: An examination of voluntary quarterly segment disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 329-353.
    3. Enrichetta Ravina & Paola Sapienza, 2010. "What Do Independent Directors Know? Evidence from Their Trading," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. C. R. Emmanuel & N. Garrod, 2002. "On the Relevance and Comparability of Segmental Data," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 38(2), pages 215-234, June.
    5. Joos, P & Lang, M, 1994. "The Effects Of Accounting Diversity - Evidence From The European-Union," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32, pages 141-168.
    6. Philip G. Berger & Rebecca Hann, 2003. "The Impact of SFAS No. 131 on Information and Monitoring," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 163-223, May.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    8. Ettredge, Michael & Kwon, Soo Young & Smith, David, 2002. "Security Market Effects Associated with SFAS No. 131: Reported Business Segments," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 323-344, June.
    9. DeFond, Mark L. & Hung, Mingyi, 2003. "An empirical analysis of analysts' cash flow forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 73-100, April.
    10. Clare Wang, 2014. "Accounting Standards Harmonization and Financial Statement Comparability: Evidence from Transnational Information Transfer," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 955-992, September.
    11. Barber, Brad M & Lyon, John D, 1997. "Firm Size, Book-to-Market Ratio, and Security Returns: A Holdout Sample of Financial Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 875-883, June.
    12. Joseph H. Zhang, 2018. "Accounting Comparability, Audit Effort, and Audit Outcomes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 245-276, March.
    13. Ciao‐Wei Chen & Daniel W. Collins & Todd D. Kravet & Richard D. Mergenthaler, 2018. "Financial Statement Comparability and the Efficiency of Acquisition Decisions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 164-202, March.
    14. Maines, LA & McDaniel, LS & Harris, MS, 1997. "Implications of proposed segment reporting standards for financial analysts' investment judgments," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35, pages 1-24.
    15. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    16. DeFond, Mark & Hu, Xuesong & Hung, Mingyi & Li, Siqi, 2011. "The impact of mandatory IFRS adoption on foreign mutual fund ownership: The role of comparability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 240-258, April.
    17. Wang, Qian & Ettredge, Michael, 2015. "Discretionary allocation of corporate income to segments," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-13.
    18. Brennan, Michael J & Xia, Yihong, 2001. "Assessing Asset Pricing Anomalies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 905-942.
    19. Shyam NMI Sunder & Ronald A. Dye, 2001. "Why Not Allow the FASB and IASB Standards to Compete in the U.S.?," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm192, Yale School of Management.
    20. Board, Joseph B., 1976. "Economic Development and the Reponse of Labor in Scandinavia: A Multi-Level Analysis. By William M. Lafferty. (Oslo: Universitets-forlaget, 1971. Pp. 360. NK 48.00.)," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1343-1344, December.
    21. Francois Brochet & Alan D. Jagolinzer & Edward J. Riedl, 2013. "Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Financial Statement Comparability," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1373-1400, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Biswas, Pallab Kumar & Habib, Ahsan & Ranasinghe, Dinithi, 2022. "Firm life cycle and financial statement comparability," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hinson, Lisa & Tucker, Jennifer Wu & Weng, Diana, 2019. "The tradeoff between relevance and comparability in segment reporting," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 70-86.
    2. De George, Emmanuel T. & Li, Xi & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2016. "A review of the IFRS adoption literature," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67599, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Emmanuel T. De George & Xi Li & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2016. "A review of the IFRS adoption literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 898-1004, September.
    4. Fangjun Wang & Zhichao Zhang & Luying Xu, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and financial statement comparability: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1375-1394, May.
    5. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:174-211 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Marcus L. Caylor & Dennis J. Chambers & Sunay Mutlu, 2022. "Financial reporting uniformity: Its relation to comparability and its impact on financial statement users," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1457-1488, October.
    7. Lee, Bryan Byung-Hee & Lee, Jay Junghun, 2024. "Financial statement comparability and analysts’ optimism for accruals," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    8. Afzali, Mansoor, 2023. "Corporate culture and financial statement comparability," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Wang, Yushi & Feng, Yuan & Zhu, Zhangyao & Liu, Jia & Li, Yubin, 2024. "Financial statement comparability and expected default risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    10. Jong‐Hag Choi & Sunhwa Choi & Linda A. Myers & David Ziebart, 2019. "Financial Statement Comparability and the Informativeness of Stock Prices About Future Earnings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 389-417, March.
    11. Chen, Anthony & Gong, James (Jianxin) & Lu, Richard (Hung-Yuan), 2020. "The effect of principles-based standards on financial statement comparability: The case of SFAS-142," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    12. De Simone, Lisa, 2016. "Does a common set of accounting standards affect tax-motivated income shifting for multinational firms?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 145-165.
    13. Jinghui Sun & Liuchuang Li & Baolei Qi, 2022. "Financial statement comparability and audit pricing," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(5), pages 4631-4661, December.
    14. Petaibanlue, Jirada & Walker, Martin & Lee, Edward, 2015. "When did analyst forecast accuracy benefit from increased cross-border comparability following IFRS adoption in the EU?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 278-291.
    15. Christian Gross, 2016. "The Effect of the German Accounting Law Modernization Act on the Comparability of Private Local GAAP and IFRS Firms," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(3), pages 423-460, December.
    16. Zhichao Zhang & Fangjun Wang, 2023. "Managerial short‐termism and financial statement comparability," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(5), pages 5027-5067, December.
    17. Cho, Meeok & Kim, Sehee & Kim, Yewon & Lee, Bryan Byung-Hee & Lee, Woo-Jong, 2021. "IFRS adoption and stock misvaluation: Implication to Korea discount," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    18. Ramnath, Sundaresh & Rock, Steve & Shane, Philip, 2008. "The financial analyst forecasting literature: A taxonomy with suggestions for further research," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 34-75.
    19. Zhang, Zhuang & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2020. "Does accounting comparability affect corporate employment decision-making?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    20. Chan, Ann L.-C. & Hsu, Audrey W.-H. & Lee, Edward, 2015. "Mandatory adoption of IFRS and timely loss recognition across Europe: The effect of corporate finance incentives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 70-82.
    21. Wil Martens & Prem W. S. Yapa & Maryam Safari, 2020. "The Impact of Financial Statement Comparability on Earnings Management: Evidence from Frontier Markets," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-25, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:103-111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/research-in-accounting-regulation .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.