AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES, ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE, AND FINANCIAL REPORTING DISCLOSURES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF NON-FINANCIAL LISTED COMPANIES

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the impact of disclosures on managers’ characteristics, business climate information, and key accounting policy variables on financial performance. Data were extracted from the annual reports of the non-financial listed companies on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Fifty-seven companies from eight industries have been investigated over five years. The least-squares method for panel data (Panel Least Squares) was used in estimating eight models that proved to be valid for the Fisher test. The findings showed that a high level of disclosure of information about managers increases performance. In contrast, the increased disclosure of business climate information and the average degree of internal control is leading to lower company performance. From the analysis of key accounting policy variables, the estimated models showed that the overall level of provisions has a significant positive influence on the performance of the companies. In two models also the estimates of decommissioning costs of tangible assets have a significant positive impact on performance. A significant negative impact on performance is exerted by uncertainties in recognition, accounting valuation, or presentation of assets, judgments, and assumptions on contingencies, litigation risks, and R&D innovation costs. The existence of the audit report and the type of auditor do not significantly influence the performance of the examined companies. However, the existence of the corporate governance report is significantly and positively impacting financial performance.