Voluntary disclosure after the adoption of international financial reporting standards : a study of companies in the Nairobi Securities Exchange
Date
2013
Authors
Nguyo, Margaret Wairimu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Disclosed reports are usually out of audited accounts and may therefore lack credibility and verifiability. For this reason, they are usually ignored by investors due to their flimsy nature. On the contrary, high quality reports would increase the credibility of disclosed information. Basically, IFRS increase the quality of financial reports making them more credible and verifiable. Thus, the information disclosed based on reports generated from the application of IFRS is more credible and verifiable which in the long run, investors take more seriously and this has urged the management of listed companies to voluntarily disclose information using the IFRS. The study intended to look at the impact of the international financial reporting standard on voluntary disclosure among listed companies the case being the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Among the study objectives included: an establishment of the voluntarily disclosed items by listed companies after the adoption if the IFRS, an identification of the voluntary disclosure determinants among listed companies and finally the industrial implication of voluntary disclosure post IFRS adoption. The scope of the study entailed companies listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange form the year 1996-2011 bearing in mind that IFRS was introduced in the year 2000 thus the breaking point. The research design was correlational in nature while the data was secondary in nature and entailed financial reports from the listed companies.
The study concluded that indeed since the introduction of the IFRS, in the quest for transparency and accountability, listed companies have generally increased their voluntary disclosure levels and are benefiting from its fruits such as information asymmetry and investor confidence. Policies and guidelines that promote voluntary disclosure have also been effected after IFRS adoption regardless of the size of a company, governance structure and also the ownership structure. An industrial implication is also created by the adoption of IFRS since the obligation to disclose information can either impact a company that is listed positively or negatively
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Commerce
Keywords
International Financial Reporting Standards, Financial reporting, Nairobi Securities Exchange, IFRS