Perceptual Discrepancy of Different Stakeholders on Accounting Information Quality

• Main Authors: Chin-ying Wu, 吳金霙
• Other Authors: Chung-Kuang Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/19178534465476107314

碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 會計系研究所 === 97 === A Series of major financial scandals have taken place both domestically and overseas and resulted in investors’ loss of confidence in the information quality of business financial statements. Subsequently, these accounting scandals call attention to the importance of accounting information quality. Prior researches have shown that the root cause of these recurring events is that it still exists potential risks in the financial reports which have been reviewed by independent auditors. Currently, coporate governance and information transparency are widely promoted in order to protect the rights of the investors. If the the causes and the effects underlying perception disparities of different stakeholders on accounting information quality can be further probed and given more attention, the negative effects caused by the disparities would be reduced, the accounting information quality would be enhanced, and the investors’ rights would be well protected. Consequently, the modified Delphi method is adopted and interviews with the experts are conducted to expound the perception disparities demonstrated by enterprise financial supervisors, accountants, and directors of banking evaluation in order to propose a recommanded accounting information quality model based on different stakeholders’ viewpoints. The research results are compiled as follows: Enterprise financial supervisors as well as directors of banking evaluation give the greatest importance to ‘neutrality’ while accountants give the greatest importance to ‘completeness’. Enterprise financial supervisors and directors of banking evaluation show significant perception disparities in quality features including ‘predictive value’, ‘representational faithfulness’, ‘feedback value’, and ‘understandability’. Enterprise financial supervisors and accountants show significant perception disparities in quality features including ‘verifiability’, ‘feedback value’ and ‘completeness’. In addition, accounting supervisors, directors of banking evaluation and accountants show significant perception disparities in quality features including ‘predictive value’, ‘representational faithfulness’ and ‘feedback value’. In this study, individual interviews are conducted to explore the causes of the perception disparities in different stakeholders. Financial statement providers generate the financial reports based on the facts that have taken place in accordance with the accounting standards. On the other hand, independent auditors inspect the enterprise financial reports based on the auditing standards and express their opinions regarding the appropriateness of the financial reports. Information users expect that the enterprises ought to provide true and accurate information, and after the auditors’ inspections, the misconducts should be detected and the auditing quality are assured . As each of the three parties takes a different perspectives, depending on their individual needs and the relative importance of the quality features, the significant perception disparities are then appeared. Since different stakeholders take different viewpoints, significant perception disparities are inevitable. An insight into the perception disparities of different parties on accounting information quality will help avoid the negative effects that arise from such perception disparities.