Characteristics of Financial Reporting Quality: A Holistic Assessment of Financial Outcomes and Communication Practices

Abstract

This study develops an empirical holistic assessment model that enables the evaluation of financial reporting quality at an individual firm-level. This assessment model is subsequently applied to a sample of large industrial firms in Australia that are included in the ASX200 index. The results are used to demonstrate that the model is able to detect meaningful quality differences. Following this initial assessment, the quality behaviour of the analysed sample of firms during the Australian IFRS adoption is evaluated. The development of a holistic financial reporting quality assessment model is significant because financial reports are important information sources for a large number of different user groups, and each user group is likely to have specific quality expectations and information needs that should be satisfied if financial reports are of high quality. A holistic quality assessment model reflects these expectations because it incorporates a large number of relevant quality perceptions. Prior literature has been unable to evaluate the quality of financial reports from a holistic firm-level perspective because no adequate quality assessment model has thus far been available.