Determinants and consequences of operations-related disclosures

Abstract

The study examines the determinants and consequences of operations-related disclosures. Based on a sample of 39,480 firm-year observations during the period 2003 to 2011, I find that the probability of providing operations-related disclosures is positively associated with the issuance of management earnings forecasts, financing activities, liquidity, and growth opportunity. Moreover, firms with global focus and subject to higher litigation risks are more likely to make operations-related disclosures. In contrast, firms that have better profitability, higher leverage ratio and poor earnings quality are less likely to make operations-related disclosures. To investigate the consequences of operations-related disclosures, this study tests the effect of operations-related disclosures on information asymmetry, analysts following and institutional investor ownership. Results from the analyses show that firms with operations-related disclosures are associated with lower levels of information asymmetry. More frequent operations-related disclosures also result in a decrease in information asymmetry. In addition, firms that provide operations-related disclosures attract more analysts following and institutional investors. The disclosure frequency is positively associated with more analysts following and higher institutional investor ownership. Further analyses suggest that the negative relation between operations-related disclosures and information asymmetry is more pronounced for subsamples with more analysts following, which suggests that the dissemination role of financial analysts may be a potential mechanism linking operations-related disclosures and the degree of information asymmetry. The overall results are robust to a series of sensitivity tests.