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This paper addresses the role of principles-based accounting standards as a potential mechanism for reducing firms' time delay of annual reporting disclosure while improving the timeliness of accounting information. The paper also contributes to the existing literature by addressing the mediating effects of the financial reporting complexity and the audit workload on the link between principles-based accounting standards and the time delay of annual reporting disclosure.

The focus is placed on an unbalanced panel of 20,943 samples over the period of 2007–2017.

The results show that the more principles-based the accounting standards are, the lower the time delay of annual reporting disclosure is, and the timelier the disclosure of accounting information is. The relationship between the two is more significant especially in the first two months after the end of the fiscal year. The findings are all robust after controlling for a series of sensitivity checks and endogenous concerns. From the mediating effect results, the authors find that principles-based accounting standards decrease the financial reporting complexity and the audit workload which in turn can help lower time delay of annual reporting disclosure. In addition, the negative effect of principles-based accounting standards on the time delay of annual reporting disclosure is more significant in the case that the company has “good news” including with no losses and receiving the standard auditing opinions. The results confirm the law of “good news announces early, bad news announces late.” Furthermore, the moderating effect results show that the higher the economic policy uncertainty index and the legal environment index, the lower the benefit of principles-based accounting standards to the timeliness of annual reports. The results of the economic consequences of timeliness suggest that the timely disclosure of accounting reporting will bring greater market reaction and contain more information, and the information of companies that disclose annual reports timely are more transparent.

This paper studies the impact of accounting standards on the timeliness of annual report disclosure, which enriches the literature in the field of macro policies and micro-enterprise behaviors.

This study examines the social and environmental disclosures of BHP Ltd (one of the largest Australian companies) from 1983 to 1997 to ascertain the extent and type of annual report social and environmental disclosures over the period, and whether such disclosures can be explained by the concepts of a social contract and legitimacy theory. This research is also motivated by the opportunity to compare and contrast results with those of Guthrie and Parker, in whose study the social and environmental disclosures made by BHP Ltd were also the focus of analysis. In testing the relationship between community concern for particular social and environmental issues (as measured by the extent of media attention), and BHP’s annual report disclosures on the same issues, significant positive correlations were obtained for the general themes of environment and human resources as well as for various sub‐issues within these, and other, themes. Additional testing also supported the view that management release positive social and environmental information in response to unfavourable media attention. Such results lend support to legitimation motives for a company’s social and environmental disclosures. A trend in providing greater social and environmental information in the annual report of BHP in recent years, and its variable pattern, was also evidenced.

This paper is motivated by the Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA) investigation into reporting delays of New Zealand issuers. The purpose of this paper is to provide regulators with systematic evidence on firm specific characteristics associated with reporting delay. The paper examines the audit report lag (ARL), the financial report lag and the corresponding interim report lags for a large sample of New Zealand listed firms.

Because of the small sample we report bivariate correlations. Together with OLS regression, we examine the association between reporting delay and firm characteristics (e.g., size, complexity, governance) that capture the supply and demand for timely audited financial reports. We choose a period immediately prior to the FMA enforcement of reporting delays to capture the voluntary choice of reporting timeliness by managers.

The audit lag (i.e. balance date to preliminary announcement to the NZX) is longer than the report lag (i.e. preliminary announcement date to the issuance of the report to the NZX). We find that audit risk factors (leverage and finance firms) and busy reporting period are associated with longer audit lag. Whereas, having a Big 4 auditor and an interim review reduces annual audit lag. Investor demand factors are associated with a shorter report lag. Firms with a loss and more segments have a shorter report lag, while firms with high market to book ratio have a longer report lag. These are consistent with agency and proprietary cost explanations. The interim report lag is only seven days shorter than the annual lag. The determinants of annual report lag provide weak explanations for the interim report lags.

Although all listed companies are sampled, the small sample size reduces the power of the analysis and may limit finding significant results at conventional levels.

The factors associated with reporting delays could be used by regulators as red flags to identify abnormal reporting delays. Interim reporting lags appear excessively relative to annual report lags. Therefore, regulators should investigate the reasons for the lack of timeliness of interim reports.

Report timeliness is an important, but often overlooked, component of accounting quality. The major social implication is that timely reporting reduces information asymmetry between managers and shareholders and other stakeholders. Making better, timelier decisions ought to increase the wealth and welfare of investors and other stakeholders.

There are many studies on reporting delay. However, prior evidence on reporting delay in New Zealand is pre-IFRS and pre-recent regulatory reforms (such as the formation of the FMA). Hence, our contribution is to provide more contemporary-relevant evidence. We also distinguish between ARL and the financial report lag and found that different firm characteristics drive these lags. We also examine the interim reporting lag.

This study aims to examine the levels of interim financial reporting (IR) disclosure by listed firms in the Asia-Pacific region and factors influencing these disclosure levels.

Drawing on a sample of 700 interim reports issued in 2012 by the top 100 listed firms in seven Asia-Pacific countries (Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), the author constructed a disclosure index consisting of disclosure items commonly required across the sample countries. Using this index, the study measures the extent to which listed firms in the Asia-Pacific Region comply with IR disclosure requirements. The study performs ordinary least square regression to investigate the influence of the four country-level factors including international financial reporting standard (IFRS) adoption, audit review, reporting frequency and reporting lag.

This research documents that IR disclosure varies significantly across the region. The IR disclosure levels are positively associated with IFRS adoption, audit review and mandatory of quarterly reporting, but negatively associated with reporting lag.

IR regulation varies across the Asia-Pacific region, but there is no existing research on the country-level factors influencing IR disclosure practices. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper providing some insights into IR disclosure levels by listed firms in the region. It also contributes to the disclosure literature by providing empirical evidence on the country-level factors influencing these disclosure levels. Deriving from the findings, the authors offer recommendations for regulators, investors and listed firms on the issue of reviewing the regulation, using information and preparing IR.

This study aims to examine the timing of corporate disclosure in the context of Georgia, an emerging market where a recent reform of corporate financial transparency mandated about 80,000 private sector entities to publicly disclose their annual financial statements.

The main analysis covers more than 4,000 large, medium, small and micro private sector entities, for which the data is obtained from the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. This paper builds an empirical model of logit/probit regression, with industry fixed and random effects to investigate the drivers of the corporate disclosure timing.

Findings suggest that the mean reporting time lag is 279 days after the fiscal year-end, that is nine days after the statutory deadline. Almost one-third (30%) of the entities miss the nine-month statutory deadline, while the timely filers almost unexceptionally file immediately before the deadline. Multivariate tests reveal that voluntarily filing entities completed the process significantly faster than those mandated to do so; audited financial statements take more time to be filed, whereas those with unqualified audit opinion or audited by large/international audit firms are filed faster than their counterparts. The author concludes that despite the overall high filing rates, the timing of corporate disclosure is not (yet) efficiently enforced in practice (but is progressing over time), whereas regulatory incentives prevail over market incentives among the timely filers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that explores corporate disclosure timing incentives in the context of Georgia. This study extends prior literature on the timing of financial information from an emerging country’s private sector perspective, with juxtaposed market and regulatory incentives.

This paper aims to measure mean voluntary intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) quality score for a sample of Australian Stock Exchange-listed biotechnology firms in the 2003, 2006 and 2010 reporting periods. The aim was to use data for the same companies over the whole period to discover whether the quality of voluntary reporting practice was improving over time, measuring lagged-mean ICD quality score against possible determinants of management disclosure practice.

Mean ICD quality score, and associated frequency data, was measured against possible determinants of managers’ disclosure practice. The dependent variable was an 18-item classification of ICD based on Sveiby’s Intangible Assets Monitor (Sveiby, 1997). Data collected from S&P Capital IQ database were used to compare ICD disclosure quality with possible drivers: competition (capital intensity); performance (profit and market returns); monitoring (audit firm and ownership); and control variables (revenue and leverage).

Mean voluntary disclosures of internal capital and external capital lower the quality over time using paired sample t-test comparison against 2003 as a base year. The lowest quality disclosure was about human capital, and the highest quality was about internal capital. Individual disclosure items within internal, external and human capital classification showed that internal capital items (intellectual property, corporate culture, management processes and financial relations) and external capital item (customers) were the significant contributors. Investigation of drivers using Spearman’s correlation against lagged ICD data showed that performance (relative market returns) and monitoring (ownership diffusion) were significant drivers of voluntary ICD, both in expected and unexpected ways.

Voluntary ICD quality and quantity are rarely measured in the same paper. The findings are unique and interesting especially for innovative Australian R&D firms when compared to recent findings for a larger sample of French companies.

This study aims to investigate the effect of national culture (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation) on audit report lag.

The authors use two econometric approaches (ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression) using STATA software for a sample of 1,208 firm-year observations over the period of 2017–2018.

Using Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation), the authors find that masculinity and long-term orientation are positively associated with audit report lag, while uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with the same variable. Quantile regressions suggest that the adverse effect of masculinity on audit report lag is more prevailing for companies communicating companies' annual reports in a timely manner. Furthermore, the positive association between power distance and audit report lag exists only under tardy disclosure regime. Quantile regressions also confirm that the negative (positive) effect of uncertainty avoidance (long-term orientation) on audit report lag is maintained under different timely disclosure regime. Additional analysis conducted with respect to legal system shows that individualism becomes a significant predictor of audit delays with a significant negative effect for common law countries, while uncertainty avoidance has a positive effect on the same variable in civil law countries characterized by high level of discretion and secrecy.

The results of this study suggest that national culture as an informal institution may complement formal institutions (e.g. financial markets) in promoting timely disclosure. For instance, foreign investors may view high uncertainty avoidance scores, in common law emerging economies, as an indicator of transparency and timely disclosure.

This study adds to the extant literature a further understanding of the impact of cultural dimensions on timely disclosure, as proxied by, audit report lag. The use of quantile regression approach shows how different timely disclosure regime may affect the association between masculinity, power distance and audit report lag.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the voluntary annual report disclosures, relating to conflict diamonds, for four of the largest diamond mining companies operating in South Africa can be explained through applying legitimacy theory and media agenda‐setting theory.

Applying legitimacy theory under the assumption of media agenda‐setting theory, the study draws a comparison between the volume of disclosure relating to conflict diamonds made in the annual reports of four of the largest diamond mining companies operating in South Africa and the volume of South African media publications addressing conflict diamonds.

The results of the study suggest that changes in the degree of media attention relating to the issue of conflict diamonds are largely mirrored by the annual report disclosure by one firm, but not by the other firms in the sample. Hence, legitimation motives lend support for only one of the four firms.

It should be noted that in relying upon legitimacy theory to examine variations in voluntary annual report disclosures regarding conflict diamonds, the study does not invalidate the likelihood that other theories, such as stakeholder theory or political economy theory, for example, may also hold explanatory power.

No prior research combining legitimacy theory and media agenda theory to explain voluntary disclosure of conflict diamonds by South African diamond mining companies could be found.

This study investigates the consequences of the key audit matter (KAM) disclosure requirement by considering two salient audit proxies: audit fees and audit report lag. This investigation is relevant because most auditors worldwide are required to expand their audit report including discussion on key matters faced in the audit engagement. However, the emerging literature on the implications of KAM is inconclusive.

Using a distinctive dataset of 601 year-observations for firms listed on the Omani capital market over 2012–2019, this study employs pooled panel data regression with robust standard error.

Results indicate that auditors increased their fees considerably during the period of KAM but substantially shortened audit report lag. Conversely, using the KAM period as a sample, the authors find marginal or insignificant evidence for the effect of the number of KAM on both proxies. In additional analyses, this study shows that entity-level risk KAM is associated with higher fees and shorter audit report lag, while KAM related to account-level risk does not have the same effect. Interestingly, it is observed that KAM disclosure is strongly associated with higher fees and high-quality audit even when the auditors issue their report in a shorter time.

This study contributes to the limited research examining the consequences of KAM in emerging markets. It is also the first to show that KAM is associated with shorter audit report lag.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of ownership structure, board attributes and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on annual financial reporting timeliness of non-financial companies listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST).

To conduct the analyses, the authors used two samples. The main sample consists of 187 companies, while the subsample includes 54 companies in the BIST 100 index. The data set covers the 2010–2018 period. To investigate the influence of ownership structure, board attributes and XBRL on timeliness, panel regression and univariate analyses were used. To explore the factors associated with the likelihood of late filing, panel logistic regression analyses were employed.

The findings provide evidence that companies that have a high level of institutional ownership and women board membership file earlier. In line with prior studies, profitable companies file their accounts faster. Highly leveraged companies are late reporters. Further, XBRL has a positive influence on the filing of financial reports for the BIST 100 companies due to technological agility. Finally, companies that have less institutional ownership and that get qualified audit opinions are more subject to late filing.

The authors acknowledge that this study has certain limitations. First, the results may not be generalized to the entire BIST population due to the exclusion of financial companies from the samples. Future research may explore the financial reporting timeliness of these companies. Second, the study did not investigate the relationship between timeliness and the information content in financial statements and the market reactions they arouse. Third, this study is trying to find out early evidence on the mandatory adoption of XBRL filings, which cover only three-year period due to the recent implementation of this regulatory practice. Thus, it needs further elaboration after the accumulation of data in the forthcoming years by the expansion of the sample beyond the 2016–2018 period. As companies would have more time to become familiar with XBRL, a more reliable conclusion may be drawn. Further, the study particularly focuses on the effect of XBRL adoption on the timeliness among filers. XBRL could also influence investors, auditors and other stakeholders. Future research could investigate the influence of XBRL on different stakeholders to produce more insightful implications.

This study offers several implications for managers, regulators and policy makers. First, companies that do not make timely financial reporting may find it more difficult to attract long-term capital by means of institutional investors. Since these investors view timely reporting as an ideal ingredient in corporate governance, it may have a positive impact on company reputation and corporate sustainability. The results also provide insights for regulatory authorities, policy makers and auditors on the causes of the reporting lag, thereby increasing their awareness and helping them in their decision-making process since improvements in timely availability and accessibility of financial information reduce information asymmetry for users and increase market efficiency. Additionally, companies that reduce their filing timeframe will be able to compare their results with other companies. However, the XBRL mandate could be much more burdensome to smaller firms. This may stem from the fact that larger firms may tend to use the in-house approach for XBRL and can afford more advanced financial reporting systems with automated coding algorithms attached to streamline their XBRL filings, whereas smaller firms are more likely to use the outsourcing approach due to the difference in the level of resources available for XBRL preparation. This finding also lends support to recent concerns that new technology creates an unleveled benefit in reporting efficiency for large companies, but not for small ones (e.g. Blankespoor et al., 2014). This benefit may change the dynamics of the financial market and information environment, leading to further segmentation of the capital markets. The positive effects of XBRL adoption may accrue over time due to the potential benefits of learning curve experience since the XBRL mandate will help companies automate their reporting process and information processing, thereby strengthening internal control over financial reporting (Deloitte, 2013; Du et al., 2013; Li, 2017). Companies may also efficiently incorporate auditor-proposed adjustments by cross-referencing impacted accounts and prepare revised versions of the financial reports, which are automatically rendered in various formats for auditors to assess (Wu and Vasarhelyi, 2004). Finally, investors and other users of financial information benefit from having quicker access to data, since this allows them to make more timely and reliable decisions, leading to greater benefits.

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of adopting XBRL on the timeliness of financial reporting in emerging markets. Second, this study extends the literature and provides evidence on determinants of timeliness, covering both ownership structure and board attributes besides firm-specific characteristics. Hence, it provides valuable insights for companies, investors, auditing firms and policy makers.