IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v62y2024i1d10.1007_s11156-023-01205-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial statement relevance, representational faithfulness, and comparability

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Neel

    (University of North Texas)

  • Irfan Safdar

    (Widener University)

Abstract

One approach to achieving comparable financial statements is to adhere to identical (or converged) standards, methods, models, and estimates. However, adherence to identical standards, methods, models, and estimates is impractical and contrary to current trends in standard setting. As an alternative, the FASB has proposed that satisfying the fundamental characteristics of relevance and representational faithfulness should result in higher comparability. Under this assumption, a focus on increasing the quality of the financial information that is generated by firms would be an effective means of improving comparability in financial reporting. We inquire whether this proposition is reflected in the practices of U.S. firms. Our analysis corroborates the intuition of the FASB and the notion that distinct characteristics of financial information influence accounting comparability. Our results also suggest that accounting principles can enhance comparability by encouraging high-quality valuations across diverse asset and liability classes on balance sheets and high-quality estimates of operating performance in income statements.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Neel & Irfan Safdar, 2024. "Financial statement relevance, representational faithfulness, and comparability," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 309-339, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:62:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11156-023-01205-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-023-01205-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-023-01205-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-023-01205-9?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. David Hirshleifer & Kewei Hou & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "The Accrual Anomaly: Risk or Mispricing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 320-335, February.
    3. Holthausen, Robert W. & Watts, Ross L., 2001. "The relevance of the value-relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 3-75, September.
    4. Medhat Endrawes & Zhuoan Feng & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan, 2020. "Audit committee characteristics and financial statement comparability," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2361-2395, September.
    5. Beaver, Wh, 1968. "Information Content Of Annual Earnings Announcements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6, pages 67-92.
    6. Ball, R & Brown, P, 1968. "Empirical Evaluation Of Accounting Income Numbers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 159-178.
    7. Richardson, Scott A. & Sloan, Richard G. & Soliman, Mark T. & Tuna, Irem, 2005. "Accrual reliability, earnings persistence and stock prices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 437-485, September.
    8. Mashruwala, Christina & Rajgopal, Shivaram & Shevlin, Terry, 2006. "Why is the accrual anomaly not arbitraged away? The role of idiosyncratic risk and transaction costs," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 3-33, October.
    9. Allen, Eric J. & Larson, Chad R. & Sloan, Richard G., 2013. "Accrual reversals, earnings and stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 113-129.
    10. Najah Attig & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Jungwon Suh, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Credit Ratings," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 679-694, November.
    11. Patricia M. Dechow & Scott A. Richardson & Richard G. Sloan, 2008. "The Persistence and Pricing of the Cash Component of Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 537-566, June.
    12. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    13. Lisa Hinson & Jennifer Wu Tucker & Diana Weng, 2019. "The tradeoff between relevance and comparability in segment reporting✩," Journal of Accounting Literature, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(1), pages 70-86, November.
    14. Jiang, Yan & Luo, Le & Xu, JianFeng & Shao, XiaoRui, 2021. "The value relevance of corporate voluntary carbon disclosure: Evidence from the United States and BRIC countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3).
    15. Benjamin C. Ayers & Stacie Kelley Laplante & Sean T. Mcguire, 2010. "Credit Ratings and Taxes: The Effect of Book–Tax Differences on Ratings Changes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 359-402, June.
    16. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    17. Dichev, Ilia D. & Tang, Vicki Wei, 2009. "Earnings volatility and earnings predictability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1-2), pages 160-181, March.
    18. Duh, Rong-Ruey & Hsu, Audrey Wen-hsin & Alves, Paulo Alexandre Pimenta, 2012. "The impact of IAS 39 on the risk-relevance of earnings volatility: Evidence from foreign banks cross-listed in the USA," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 23-38.
    19. Chen, Anthony & Gong, James Jianxin, 2019. "Accounting comparability, financial reporting quality, and the pricing of accruals," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    21. Benjamin C. Ayers & Stacie Kelley Laplante & Sean T. Mcguire, 2010. "Credit Ratings and Taxes: The Effect of Book–Tax Differences on Ratings Changes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 343-343, June.
    22. 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.
    23. Steve Lin & William N. Riccardi & Changjiang Wang & Patrick E. Hopkins & Gary Kabureck, 2019. "Relative Effects of IFRS Adoption and IFRS Convergence on Financial Statement Comparability," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(2), pages 588-628, June.
    24. Kothari, S. P. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 1995. "Price and return models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 155-192, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. S. P. Kothari & Charles Wasley, 2019. "Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(5), pages 1117-1159, December.
    2. Rolf Uwe Fülbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2023. "Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1089-1124, August.
    3. Terry Shevlin, 2013. "Some personal observations on the debate on the link between financial reporting quality and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(3), pages 447-473, December.
    4. Simlai, Prodosh E., 2016. "Time-varying risk, mispricing attributes, and the accrual premium," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 150-161.
    5. Melik Ertugrul & Volkan Demir, 2018. "How Does Unobserved Heterogeneity Affect Value Relevance?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(2), pages 288-301, June.
    6. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    7. 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.
    8. Misund, Bård, 2015. "Vertical Integration and Value Relevance: Empirical Evidence from Oil and Gas Producers," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2015/14, University of Stavanger.
    9. Richardson, Scott & Tuna, Irem & Wysocki, Peter, 2010. "Accounting anomalies and fundamental analysis: A review of recent research advances," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 410-454, December.
    10. Georgios A. Papanastasopoulos, 2014. "Accounting Accruals and Stock Returns: Evidence from European Equity Markets," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 729-768, December.
    11. 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.
    12. Veith, Stefan & Werner, Jörg R., 2014. "Comparative Value Relevance Studies: Country Differences Versus Specification Effects," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 301-330.
    13. Mei Luo & Shuai Shao & Frank Zhang, 2018. "Does financial reporting above or below operating income matter to firms and investors? The case of investment income in China," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1754-1790, December.
    14. Tae Choi & Jinchul Jung, 2008. "Ethical Commitment, Financial Performance, and Valuation: An Empirical Investigation of Korean Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 447-463, August.
    15. Filip, Andrei & Raffournier, Bernard, 2010. "The value relevance of earnings in a transition economy: The case of Romania," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 77-103, March.
    16. David Hirshleifer & Kewei Hou & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "The Accrual Anomaly: Risk or Mispricing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 320-335, February.
    17. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    18. Dmitri Byzalov & Sudipta Basu, 2016. "Conditional conservatism and disaggregated bad news indicators in accrual models," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 859-897, September.
    19. Nguyet T. M. Nguyen & Abdullah Iqbal & Radha K. Shiwakoti, 2022. "The context of earnings management and its ability to predict future stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 123-169, July.
    20. Javier Gómez Biscarri & Germán López Espinosa, 2008. "Fundamentals and the accruals puzzle," Faculty Working Papers 02/08, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    FASB; Comparability; Relevance; Representational faithfulness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M4 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:rqfnac:v:62:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11156-023-01205-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    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.