Corporate reporting: study on voluntary disclosure of information across sectors

Abstract

The rising role of technology, the increased importance of intellectual assets, and the integration of national economies, have together had an unprecedented impact on the way global business is done and the manner in which companies transact. These changes in the business world have not been accompanied with changes in the manner in which corporates report data to investors, management and other stakeholders. Though the reporting model has been improved in many important ways, it has also become vastly more complex. However, the model is yet to keep pace with the extraordinary changes in how executives manage their companies in strategy, organization, technology, and human resources. Investors need more reliable, relevant, and useful data. To that end, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) sponsored a study that came up with a comprehensive business reporting model indicating the types of information that investors need to value and assess the risk of their investment. Many companies around the world have got on board on this journey towards voluntary disclosure and trying to garner its proposed benefits like lower average cost of capital, increased management credibility, long term investors, Analyst following, access to capital markets and better share values. FASB study has built upon the comprehensive business reporting model developed by AICPA special committee and came up with six categories under which disclosure information can be represented. In line with those categories, FASB study has conducted survey in the below industries and identified the informative and impact full disclosures that are being done - v Automobile industry v Chemical industry v Computer systems industry v Food industry v Oil-integrated domestic industry v Pharmaceutical industry v Regional banks industry v Textile apparel industry As part of this project, we look at the disclosures being made by Indian companies across the above sectors in light of the FASB framework and also extend the framework to a new sector that is not being covered by the current FASB study.