| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防管理學院 === 國防財務資源研究所 === 91 === Information Asymmetry has been of major concern to policy setters. Previous studies, however, indicate that companies in situations of financial distress might exercise greater opportunism in dealing with corporate disclosure. In an attempt to examine disclosure behavior of firms receiving a going-concern audit report (thereafter, GC companies), this study employs a content analysis method to measure extent of disclosure in annual reports. Using a sample of 36 first-time GC companies, this study reaches the following major conclusions. First, GC companies have lower degree of disclosure, in terms of voluntary or mandated disclosures, compared with non-GC companies. Second, GC companies in the period of receipt of a going-concern uncertainty opinion have lower degree of disclosure than during receiving a clean report. Third, sales forecasts made by both GC and non-GC companies are largely inaccurate and tend to be optimistically biased. Finally, my results in the GC company tests show that Return on Assets (ROA) is positively associated with degree of voluntary disclosure, and that Debt Ratio (D/A) is negatively related to degree of regulated disclosure. Overall, my findings lend support to the notion that stressed companies are less likely to make full disclosures, which might prevent from failure via a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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