جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "readability" در نشریات گروه "حسابداری"

Readability refers to the reader's success in reading and understanding a written text. Based on the extant literature, more readable financial statements due to mitigate information asymmetry between investors and corporate insiders increase investors’ monitoring ability thus preventing managers’ inefficient cash use. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of financial reporting readability on the market valuation of corporate cash holdings. to do so, a sample of 121 firms listed in Tehran Stocks Exchange during the time period 2019 – 2023 was selected and the research hypothesis was empirically tested using the multivariate linear regression analysis based on panel data technique. the research findings indicate that readability increases the market value of corporate cash holdings. In other words, investors place more value on cash held in the firms with more readable financial reports. investors place more value on cash held in the firms with more readable financial reports.

One of the research topics in the world that domestic researchers have considered in recent years is to study the readability of explanatory accounting disclosures. The reason for the entrance of this kind of research to financial and accounting literature is related to the “management obfuscation hypothesis”. Based on this hypothesis, when there is bad news and negative performance, managers tend to complicate the readability of the company's reports so that investors gradually recognize the bad news and negative performance, and as a result, its impact is gradually visible on the company's shares.Much research has been done to measure the readability of explanatory accounting disclosures and to examine the interrelationships between readability and financial reporting. These studies have used common readability assessment models used in foreign research to measure the readability of the text. Using these models in domestic research has two main limitations of non-compliance with Persian and financial languages. Accordingly, this study aims to achieve a readability measurement model with components and indicators most consistent with the Persian language and financial reports. 

In the first stage, an in-depth review of the related literature was conducted to identify the indicators and influential components of the readability of explanatory accounting disclosures. Then, from semi-structured interviews with experts, the identified components and indicators were modified from a local perspective and with the view of domestic experts. In order to validate and reach a consensus on important components and indicators, fuzzy Delphi analysis has been used. Finally, using a correlational research method, and confirmatory factor analysis method, the coefficient of the importance of each of the components and indicators of the model were extracted. 

The results of this study can be divided into two parts; The results of the first part were obtained from the literature review and interview with the experts, which include extracting and identifying components and indicators that can be used to measure the readability of a text. In this stage, 17 interviews took place with experts in accounting and linguistics. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed into written form. Then, the written forms of interviews were coded and analyzed by thematic analysis. In the second part, important indicators were identified after collecting the components and indicators affecting the readability of the text using the Delphi fuzzy method. Delphi fuzzy method is a more advanced version of the Delphi Method. It utilizes triangulation statistics to determine the distance between the levels of consensus within the expert panel. This research uses triangular fuzzy numbers of the five-Likert scale to analyze the experts' opinions. Delphi fuzzy method was conducted on a questionnaire with 35 questions and 83 experts answered. According to the results of Delphi fuzzy, all readability indicators found in the previous part were confirmed. Next, the confirmatory factor analysis method was employed to weigh the readability indicators. In this stage, two indicators of “passive verbs” and “number of pages” were omitted from the model and five indicators of “sentence length”, “tables”, “charts”, “number of letters”, and “number of syllables” were remained in the model.Based on the results of previous research and studies, four components and fifteen indicators were identified. After consulting with experts and performing fuzzy Delphi, seven indicators remained in the model. Finally, after completing the confirmatory factor analysis, the coefficients of each index were determined and three components, along with five related indicators, formed the final research model.

The results show that the three components of “text length”, “graphic signs” and “complex words”, alongside the five indicators of “sentences length”, “table”, “chart” “number of letters” and “number of syllables”, have the greatest impact on the readability of explanatory accounting disclosures. The results of this study can be used as a basis for determining the transparency rank of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Besides, based on the results, researchers suggest using the proposed model of this research in financial and accounting research instead of using past readability assessment models, which are compatible with the local environment and valid. The model of this research can be used by a wide range of actors in the capital market. Measuring the level of readability of financial reports to determine the transparency rating of companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange is an example of the application of the current research model. Another achievement of this research is boosting the readability literature in accounting and finance.

A significant amount of accounting information is provided to users in the form of explanatory and written disclosures. Financial reporting are an integral part of an organization's financial reporting. These disclosures help users of financial information to get management's picture of the company. The literature has pointed out that managers, as the authors of company reporting, have the greatest impact on the writing (qualitative) part of reporting and their readability. By using a new model to measure the complexity of the readability of financial reporting and through the analysis of data related to Management Discussion and Analysis Report and financial statements of 78 companies present in the Tehran Stock Exchange, using correlation and regression analysis methods, to investigate the functional characteristics and the structure of the company deals with the readability of published reporting. The results show a positive and significant relationship between the amount of return on assets and the readability of financial reporting. The results show a positive and significant relationship between the amount of return on assets and the readability of financial reporting. On the other hand, the positive and significant effect of operating cash flows on the readability of financial reporting is supported only at the 90% confidence level. Also, there is a negative and significant correlation between company age and financial leverage with the readability of financial reporting, but there is no significant correlation between company size and the readability of financial reporting.

Managers can deliberately reduce the narrative of information by complicating its readability, thereby reducing the transparency and understanding of financial statement users. Managers complicate the disclosure of information when they perform poorly. This study aims to investigate the effect of economic and accounting performance criteria on the readability of financial reporting. A sample of 152 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange was selected by systematic elimination method from 2012 to 2021. In terms of purpose, this research is of applied type, and in terms of classification according to the method, it is of descriptive type and the method of data analysis is regression analysis and panel data method. The research results indicate that the economic criteria used in this research have a positive and significant effect on the readability of financial reports. Furthermore, accounting criteria such as return on assets and profit per share hurt the readability of financial reports, and return on equity positively affects the readability of financial reports. The test of combined market and accounting criteria, such as Q-Tobin and price-to-earnings, shows that these variables positively and significantly affect the readability of financial reports. According to the results of the research, we expect that the better performance of companies in the form of economic, accounting, and combined market-accounting variables will cause readability and transparency of information in financial reports and they will not have opportunistic behavior in presenting financial reports and facilitate decision making for investors

If rule of approved direct taxes as one of the most important country economic and financial rules hasn`t had enough understanding ability and readability, its use by different groups of users will be encountered with difficulty and contraction. The results of this topic are the existence of direct understanding of rule, being complicated of tax getting level, extending of judgment levels and mass volume of tax files in judgment different level, so readability measure of the texts is one of the instruments which measures complexity degree or text lingual difficulty. The research investigates readability evaluation and direct tax rule understanding by the two most important and authentic users of rule that are tax auditors and financial managers of the companies. This study sample, according to the Cochran Formula in 5 percent error level, includes384 individuals. The research results indicate that based on the Flash Method chapter of exemptions is the most difficult chapter from readability level and order arrangement is the simplest chapter of direct tax rule, moreover; Clocouse Method readability of exemption chapter for tax auditors is in the middle level and readability of order arrangement is in the independent level and the mentioned two chapters are in the middle level for the financial managers.
showed that there was no significant difference between tax risk prior to and after the amendment of the Act..

International financial reporting standards are the common language for globalizing financial activities and matching these standards is essential for the global economy because it benefits investors and reduces the cost of access to capital markets around the world. the present study investigates the effect of philosophical attitude on understanding the readability level of international financial reporting standards. In this regard, the opinions of accounting professors, accountants (as academics) and active auditors (as professionals) were used. To test the hypotheses, the Flash readability index, the Close readability index, and two-sample t-test was used. The results of the studies showed that among professionals, readability of standard texts in the group with a philosophical attitude is higher than the group without a philosophical attitude. Among academics, readability of standard texts is not influenced by philosophical attitudes; there is a significant difference between the simplest and most difficult standards among professionals (both those with a philosophical attitude and those without a philosophical attitude). There is no such difference between academics (both with and without philosophical attitude).

The present study seeks to explain the effect of readability of financial statements on stock price risk and shareholder behavior. Readability of financial statements is expected to reduce the risk of falling stock prices, which can have a positive effect on shareholder behavior.

The statistical population of the present study is Tehran Stock Exchange. The required data has been extracted from Rahavard Novin database, the site of the Exchange Organization and the site of the Codal. Based on the screening, 89 units were selected and studied during the period 1390 to 1397.

The results show that there is a significant relationship between the readability of financial statements with the risk of falling stock prices and shareholder behavior. But the results of testing the third hypothesis showed that readability does not have a significant effect on the relationship between stock price volatility risk and shareholder behavior.

The results of this study suggest that the readability of financial statements affects the behavior of shareholders and this can affect the liquidity of stocks.

Contribution: 

This study can provide a basis for replacing specialized terms in financial statements to eliminate the complexity of words and increase the comprehensibility of financial statements to reduce the risk of stock price falls and improve decision Involve audiences in financial statements.

Subject and Purpose of the Article:

 One of the most important factors in achieving comprehensible information is that one can read it correctly and process it easily while reading. This capability is referred to as readability in the theoretical foundations of the last decade. The readability of financial reports is one of the important factors influencing investors' decisions. On the other hand, conservatism in financial reporting has a historical role in the selection and application of accounting principles and practices and may affect the readability of financial reports. Therefore, this study seeks to study the relationship between conditional and unconditional working environment with financial reporting readability.

The data of 59 companies during the years 2012 to 2019 were tested by combined data analysis method.

The results of the hypothesis testing showed that conditional and unconditional conservatism have a negative and significant  relationship with financial reporting readiness which effect of conditional conservatism has been greater. Conclusion, 

Originality and its Contribution to the Knowledge:

The results of this study double the need to pay attention to the concept of conservatism and the ability to understand financial reports in the public sector.

The goal of this study is to investigate the mediating variables affecting investors’ judgments.

We conduct a 2.2.2 between-subject experiment with accounting students as participants to test our hypotheses. Independent variables that have been manipulated or measured are Language sentiment (positive vs. neutral), Readability (less vs. more) and investor sophistication level (less vs. more sophisticated investors). The dependent variable is investors’ forecasts of firm future earnings. The mediating variables are understanding, processing fluency and credibility of an earnings press release.

Path analysis shows that understanding and processing fluency mediate the influence of positive language sentiment and low readability of an earnings press release on less sophisticated investors’ earnings judgments. Results further show that earnings press release credibility has the same effect on more sophisticated investors’ earnings judgments.

The results of this study show that the use of language sentiment which is compatible with a firm’s quantitative performance together with increasing the readability of qualitative disclosures can play an important role in improving understanding and enhancing the processing fluency of less sophisticated investors. It can be also a cautionary notice to management and warn them that more sophisticated investors’ perception of disclosure credibility may be impaired by manipulating the language sentiment and readability of qualitative disclosures.

Quantitative information by itself provides investors with an incomplete picture of afirm’s economic circumstances. Thus firms also provide qualitative and textualdisclosures in addition to quantitative disclosures which have characteristics such aslanguage sentiment and readability that can have impact on investors’ judgment anddecision-making. The goal of this study is to examine whether language sentimentand readability of an earning press release can affect investors’ judgment andwhether this effect is conditional on investors’ information processing style(sophistication). For this purpose a 2 * 2 * 2 between-subject experiment wasconducted with accounting students as participants. ANOVA analysis showed asignificant relationship between investors’ judgment, language sentiment andreadability. Results also indicated that positive language sentiment and lowreadability affect less sophisticated investors who use heuristic informationprocessing style in a positive way and more sophisticated investors who use rationalthinking style in a negative way. Taken together, the results of this study confirmthat there is a need for regulation to ensure protection for unprofessional investorsand also require companies to apply disclosure tone which is in line with firm’soverall performance and increase the readability of qualitative disclosures

Accounting standards are mandatory rules that reporter units need to use them for the auditor's  acceptable opinion.. auditors should understand the concept of accounting standards correctly for evaluating on the correct use of standards by economic units.Also, accounting students and educators should understand the standards in order to properly teach the concepts and educational headings on the basis of the original text of accounting standards and to prepare for entry into the professional market.The problem of this study is to assess the readability and comprehensibility of accounting standards used by different groups of users.Because if accounting standards are not readable by users, they can’t  play an effective role in the proper reporting..In this research, using  Cloze method  used in assessment readability of two sample standards among several main audience groups of accounting standards, namely, students, professors, accountants and auditors, and the results have been compared and analyzed in different aspects. The results showed that the level of text readability among most of the groups and its overall average was at frustration and stress level and lack of understanding.Therefore, it is imperative that standard-setting authorities revise existing standards or develop new standards to ensure that standards texts allows learning for all user groups.

This research has been conducted with the aim of analyzing the content of Iranian accounting standards and examining their understandability by the two main groups using standards. Content analysis with readability measurement approach is one of the methods for evaluating the comprehensibility of text messages. In this research, Flesch and Cloze methods are used to evaluate readability. The statistical population consists of all the words and sentences contained in Accounting Standards published by the Audit Organization, and the statistical sample consists of three texts from the first, middle and last sections of each standard selected randomly. Also, for implementation of the Cloze method, it is necessary to measure the degree of readability of learners and audiences whose tool is a researcher's test and completed by accountants and auditors. The results showed that, according to Flesch readability, accounting standards are often very difficult or difficult to read in terms of readability. Also, according to the Cloze procedure, standards passages are at the level of psychological pressure for auditors and auditors, which denotes the inability to understand and learn them, which can lead to a lack of proper use of standards and, consequently, a reduction in the quality of financial reporting.

Today, much of the financial information is released through text documents and various groups use the written information to make financial decisions. So far, several studies in the field of analysis and retrieval of accounting documents and texts have been undertaken worldwide which could have an impact on the perception of the users of this information. Given the problems of users in utilizing in financial reports, accessibility and the ability to understand the information and the issues related information retrieval are investigated as the main objectives in this study. Therefore, The present paper examines the present body of literature in two major areas relevant to text analytics and information retrieval in the domain of accounting as follows: 1. the content analysis and readability of accounting narratives, and related text-mining work, and 2. the information retrieval literature stream that addresses the extraction of both text elements as well as quantities imbedded in text from accounting documents. The problem of the lack of a uniform terminology effect of issues about accessibility and ability to understand the information. Finally this study tries to offer a road map for future research in the field of accounting documents and data retrieval that includes 1) the success of standard setters in achieving of their goals, 2) construction of glossary of accounting, 3) identify of new words entered to glossary and 4) standardization of accounting terminology.