International Financial Reporting Standards Compliance, Disclosure and Relevance of Financial Statements as Perceived by Investors with Regards to their Decision Making

Abstract

Purpose:The purpose of this research was to investigate the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) compliance, disclosure and relevance of financial statements as perceived by investors with regards to their decision making. Design/Methodology/Approach: Since the study based its findings on perceptions of investors, a concept that cannot be defined with certainty and is not constant since it varies due to factors such as regulatory framework, country polies, investor experience, technological factors, just to mention a few, the regression model was used to portray the relationship between investment decision making and financial reporting relevance, credibility/reliability and quality of disclosures Findings: Corporate governance, audit form reputation, audit committee and company size have a great impact on IFRS compliance and disclosure in financial statements. Verifiability and understandability help to improve IFRS Disclosure and Financial Statement Relevance. Relevance is considered an important attribute of quality financial information in decision making. Practical Implications: Investors need to make effective and informed decisions on investment. For this to be possible, information provided in the financial statements has to be relevant and faithfully represent the substance of what it purports to represent. Companies should practice voluntary disclosure on information items that influence investment decisions and be required to give a simplified interpretation of the information contained in the annual reports. Originality/Value: The analysis will assist investors in better judging the disclosure and relevance of financial statements of organizations from a thorough knowledge of the two aspects so as to make more informed decisions