The conservatism as a cultural value that underlies the financial reporting: Empirical evidence from listed companies in European regulated markets

This paper intends to assess the existence of confirmatory variables of conservatism based on the disclosures made in the financial report. Data were collected from the annual accounts for 2013 and 2014 disclosed by 137 listed entities (non-financial groups) in the European Union (EU) stock indexes: Portuguese Stock Index (PSI)-20, Iberian Index (IBEX)-35, Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)- 100, German Stock Index (DAX)-30 e Stockholm Stock Exchange (OMX)-S30. The content analysis was used as a methodology. After applying multiple linear regression models, the findings indicate that the assessment of the conservatism based on relevance is consistent with the associations suggested in the literature. One of the main contributions of this research is the consideration of the impact of culture on financial reporting, namely through the proposal of a new proxy for the measurement of conservatism based on the financial report.