Assessing Disclosure Quality： A Methodological Issue

The voluntary disclosure studies conducted until today, in social accounting and related fields, use different approaches to evaluate the so-called ＂disclosure quality＂. Disclosure quality is not so easy to measure, and it is derived from the application of different methodologies. In particular, the methodologies to assess the level of disclosure could be classified as subjective or objective. To the first category belong all the ＂tools＂ that are used directly without relying on the analysis of the original source of the information studies （Imhoff, 1992; Coleman ＆ Eccles, 1997; Welker, 1995）. The objective measurements used to assess the disclosure quality are, instead, based on the direct study of the original information source in order to obtain the information required （Krippendorff, 1980; Weber, 1985; Botosan, 1997; Lang ＆ Lundholm, 2000）. The aim of the paper is to give scholars and researchers a brief framework to understand the different methodologies used in accounting literature to assess the disclosure quality, providing examples of the application of the same in different research contexts.

New European Union＇s Requirements and IFRS Practice Statement ＂Management Commentary＂： Does MD＆A Disclosure Quality Affect Analysts＇ Forecasts？

The Management Discussion and Analysis （MD＆A） is a mandatory document under the European Union＇s （EU） law. In 2003, the EU issued Directive 2003/51/EC, which broadened the information that firms have to provide in their MD＆A, and in 2010 the International Accounting Standards Board （IASB） issued the International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） Practice Statement ＂Management Commentary＂, a non-binding guidance for the presentation of this document. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between MD＆A disclosure quality and properties of analysts＇ forecasts. In fact, although most studies found that financial analysts mainly refer to financial statement data in forecasting earnings, there are few researches highlighting the importance of MD＆A disclosures for financial analysts. On this basis, Ramnath, Rock, and Shane （2008） called for researches in order to better understand the relationship between the information really used by analysts and their forecasts. To assess the quality of MD＆A disclosures, we developed a multidimensional measure on the basis of the EU requirements and the IFRS Practice Statement, and then we regressed this variable on both forecast accuracy and dispersion. The findings show that our measure of MD＆A disclosure quality is significantly and positively related to forecast accuracy. We conducted other analyses in order to better understand the previous relationship and we found that, if we analyze the different information contained in the MD＆A statement, financial analysts consider useful accounting and financial data in forecasting earnings. These results enhance our understanding of the role of MD＆A disclosures in the wide set of information that firms provide to financial statement users.

Disclosure Quality in Goodwill Impairment Tests： Turkey Case

The issue of goodwill impairment has been debated in many countries throughout the world. Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） introduced fundamental changes in accounting and impairment methods for goodwill. Since global stock markets went into decline in 2008, there has been much debate over the issue of goodwill impairment in the US and European stock exchange markets, especially on how large the write-downs should be. Complexity of International Accounting Standards （IAS） and IFRS focusing on goodwill and goodwill impairment techniques may lead to inconsistent compliance and varying levels of disclosure quality. The aim of this study is to analyze goodwill impairment during and after the recent financial crisis for companies listed on the Borsa Istanbul （BIST） 100 index and to assist the financial statement users in the assessment of disclosure quality under IAS 36, Paragraph 134d. Tools such as： （1） the period over which management has projected cash flows; （2） the growth rate used for cash flow projections; （3） the discount rate（s） applied to projections; and （4） methods employed to determine recoverable amount are analyzed. Insufficient disclosures on these tools are observed. The findings are of interest to researchers examining the implication of IAS 36, regulators, and policy-setters.

The Effect of Social Responsibility Report Audit on the Quality of CSR Information Disclosure --Empirical Data from Chinese Listed Companies

As an important corporate govemance mechanism, external audit helps to improve corporate economic performance. Social responsibility report audit can supervise and constrain the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information, risk assessment and consulting planning, and improve the quality of information disclosure. Taking 2010-2013 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen as samples for empirical test, we found that social responsibility report audit significantly improved the quality of corporate social responsibility information disclosure. Further study found that the greater the intensity of corporate shareholder oversight, social responsibility report audit on the quality of social responsibility to promote the quality of information disclosure more obvious. In addition, compared with the state-owned enterprises, the supervision of the major shareholders in the private enterprises to a greater extent enhanced the quality of social responsibility information disclosure.

Evaluation and analysis of influencing factors on the quality of carbon disclosure:An empirical study of CDP in China

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of corporate carbon disclosure and to analyze its influencing factors. With the hand-collected carbon information from annual reports, social responsibility reports, sustainability reports and opened CDP questionnaires of the sample of 100 Chinese companies investigated by CDP from 2008-2011, the quality of carbon disclosure is defined by evaluating indicators obtained from factor analysis, and its influencing factors are studied from three aspects including company characteristics, financial features and corporate governance by means of correlation, differences comparison and regression analyses. Findings show that the quality of Chinese companies' carbon disclosure is mainly affected by company characteristics(such as the emission characteristics of one's industry and dual listed) and corporate governance(such as ownership concentration), but in perspective of financial features, there seems to be little relation between the disclosure quality and financing motivations. The practical implication of the paper is to help Chinese companies find out effective ways to improve carbon disclosure quality. The paper contributes to carbon disclosure literature by explaining the connotation of carbon information, providing a set of evaluation indicators of carbon disclosure and exploring the influencing factors from various perspectives.

Quality disclosure strategies for small business enterprises under consumer loss aversion

In this paper,we focus on small business enterprises(SBEs)that usually have low market power but can rely on retailers to transact sales and gain the ability to disclose quality information.Moreover,consumer loss aversion(CLA)is pronounced when buying from SBEs that have yet to develop a strong reputation and uncertain quality.We focus on two competing SBEs with heterogeneous quality levels and discuss their quality disclosure strategiesd whether selling through a retailerd in the context of CLA.We study the interaction between consumers'prior belief in product quality and CLA and how these factors affect equilibrium outcomes.We show that a situation in which low-quality and high-quality SBEs both choose to disclose will not occur under a neutral consumer attitude,i.e.,it happens only when the aversion level is significant.When the aversion level is low,either the low-quality SBE or the high-quality SBE will decide to disclose,and the disclosing party depends on the prior belief.In addition,CLA significantly impacts the monotonicity of both SBEs'and retailers'prices and profits relating to the consumers'prior beliefs.