Open AccessTimeliness and Relevance of Financial Reporting in Nigerian Quoted Firms
Author(s) -
John Ohaka,
Fyneface N. Akani
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
management and organizational studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2330-5509
pISSN - 2330-5495
DOI - 10.5430/mos.v4n2p55
Subject(s) - accounting , stock exchange , business , relevance (law) , multicollinearity , enforcement , test (biology) , actuarial science , regression analysis , finance , statistics , political science , law , paleontology , mathematics , biology
Financial accounting standards emphasize timeliness as one of the key components of decision-driven informationalrelevance. Accordingly, if information is not available as and when due but rather made available so late that it bears novalue for future action, then it is operationally irrelevant. To fulfil their primary objective and be useful, therefore,financial reports are expected to be characterized by relevance, reliability, completeness, and timeliness. Against thisbackground, this study examined the relationship of firm size and board independence respectively to the timeliness offinancial reporting in companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Secondary data pertaining to the firmswere derived from their annual reports and the NSE Fact Book for 12 years (2000-2011). Analysis of the research datainvolved test of multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity, and autocorrelation; while the multiple regression techniquefacilitated the test of research hypotheses. The results established a significant relationship between firm size andtimeliness of financial reporting; while in the case of board independence, the relationship was not significant.Consequently, it is recommended that regulatory bodies should ensure better of enforcement of standards relating totimeliness so that financial reports of the firms will be of higher value to key stakeholders.