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This chapter focuses on the application of segment reporting under IFRS 8 in the context of the airline industry. It analyses the airlines’ disclosures related to segment reporting considering 11 aspects of segment reporting in the regional and global context. Observations reveal that reporting of segmental disclosures in the airline industry is diverse at different levels. In this regard, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) the nature of segments reported by the airlines is diverse due to methods adopted in preparation of operating segments; (2) factors such as internal reporting system, and nature of business used to identify the airline’s reportable segments were stated by most airlines; (3) types of products and services from which each reportable segment derives its revenues were stated by all airlines; (4) proportion of total revenues represented by separately reportable segments exceeds 75% of the revenue rule of IFRS 8; (5) most segmental performance measures are non-IFRS and diverse; (6) a limited number of airlines use dual reporting currency in segment reporting; (7) most airlines reported segment assets and liabilities for each reportable segment; (8) most airlines reported between 6 and 10 income and expense items in segment reporting; (9) segmental cash flow information is reported by one airline; (10) in terms of entity-wide disclosures, most airlines reported their revenue from major products and services in the revenue disclosures, most airlines reported their revenues on a geographical basis but few airlines reported their non-current assets on a geographical basis; and (11) more than half of the airlines did not declare the identity of the Chief Operating Decision Maker.

Our aim is to investigate the quality of segment disclosures by companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (known as the BRIC economies) that are expanding their operations internationally, and in so doing to assess the extent of convergence with globally recognized standards, that is, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

We examine the financial statements and narrative information provided by the largest BRIC companies. We carry out a content analysis and also apply multivariate regression techniques to evaluate if key firm-specific factors are associated with the number of operating and geographic segments disclosed.

Our results show that the extent of disclosure by the majority of BRIC companies is of a high standard taking into account both quantitative and narrative data. The disclosure of operating segments is commonly based on business lines though most companies also report additional geographic information. As expected, operating segment disclosures are positively associated with the extent of internationalization (percentage of foreign sales) and majority state ownership.

We have examined only the largest companies in each BRIC country and so there are limitations regarding the generalizability of our results. Future research could usefully examine the practices of a wider range of companies within each of the BRIC countries. This could also be extended to a study of disclosure behaviour in other emerging economies.

Our study provides new evidence concerning the quality of corporate financial reporting in the BRIC economies with special reference to a comparative international analysis of the segment disclosure practices of major BRIC companies expanding internationally.

This paper analyzes what factors drive a company’s decision to align financial and management accounting policies as a measure of integration of management accounting and financial accounting at the highest hierarchy levels of a company.

Research hypotheses for six different determinants are developed: company size, number of operating segments and subsidiaries, internationality of the business, business strategy, company life cycle stage, and leverage. The hypotheses are tested using International Financial Reporting Standards 8 (IFRS 8) segment report data from a large sample of 175 German publicly listed companies.

A higher internationality of the business causes companies to choose a lower degree of integration. Companies with a prospector (defender) strategy choose a lower (higher) degree of integration. Companies in later life cycle stages and with higher leverage choose a lower degree of integration as well. Company size does not impact integration.

Companies have to decide whether, and to what extent, to integrate financial and management accounting and align the two sets of accounting policies. German companies have traditionally kept the two sets separate. As the research reported in this paper sheds light on when companies do not consider integration to be beneficial, it is useful for practitioners.

The legal reporting requirements in Germany as well as German accounting traditions make the German setting particularly suited for examining the integration of management accounting and financial accounting. Using the number of adjustments to financial accounting policies made for management accounting purposes is a novel approach, and the number of adjustments is a more fine-grained measure of integration at the highest hierarchy levels of a company than the measures used in prior literature.

Part V analyzes the details of how to assess materiality. It first tackles qualitative versus quantitative criteria and the role of professional judgment. It then analyzes the selection of quantitative threshold, to expand to the choice of benchmarks. It contrasts the whole financial statements with subaggregates, line items, and components.

Specific sections contrast IASB, FASB, SEC, and other guidance on materiality applied to comparative information, interim reporting, and segment reporting.

The section on estimates mingles complex guidance coming from accounting, auditing, and internal control over financial reporting to explain how the management can improve its assessment of materiality concerning estimates.

After explaining the techniques to move from individual to cumulative misstatements, the part tackles verification ex post, and finally summarizes the intricacies of whether immaterial misstatements are permissible and their consequences.

This paper describes how firm characteristics evolve in different industries. In particular, it reports on relationships between industry performance and competitor diversity in the American economy from 1981 to 1997. Industry performance is measured using a prospective measure of performance (Tobin's q) and a measure of performance that reflects historical competence (accounting profitability). Competitor diversity is characterized by differences in size, operating margin, asset composition, and asset utilization. The results indicate significant diversity among competitors in both high- and low-performance industries. The study suggests that low industry performance may be associated with processes of transition in competitor characteristics.

Financial analysts' forecasts serve as a proxy for market earnings expectations, and research provides mixed evidence of the relation between financial analysts' expertise and forecast accuracy. The judgment and decision-making (J/DM) literature suggests that those with more expertise will not perform better when tasks exhibit either extremely high or extremely low complexity. Expertise is expected to contribute to superior performance for tasks between these two extremes. Using archival data, this research examines the effect of analysts' expertise on forecasting performance by taking into consideration the forecasting task's complexity. Results indicate that expertise is not an explanatory factor for forecast accuracy when the forecasting task's complexity is extremely high or low. However, when task complexity falls between these two extremes, expertise is a significant explanatory variable of forecast accuracy. Both results are consistent with our expectations.