Cette thèse contient trois essais distincts sur la publication d’information sectorielle que les entreprises européennes ayant plusieurs secteurs opérationnels effectuent en vertu des IFRS 8 Secteurs Opérationnels. Chaque essai vise à améliorer notre compréhension collective sur la politique de communication financière des cadres dirigeants en examinant diverses caractéristiques des informations sectorielles. Le chapitre I, “L’interaction entre la qualité et la quantité des publications sur l’information sectorielle” examine le choix des cadres dirigeants à l'égard de la quantité et de la qualité, ainsi que l’utilité de ces deux caractéristiques pour les analystes financiers. J’utilise le nombre de segments opérationnels publiés comme mesure quantitative et la variation inter-sectorielle de la profitabilité comme mesure qualitative et soutiens que plus de pouvoir discrétionnaire peut être exercé par les dirigeants sur la qualité que sur la quantité. Je trouve que les cadres dirigeants résolvent les préoccupations liées aux renseignements commerciaux de nature exclusive soit en déviant de a quantité recommandée par la norme, ou, lorsqu’ils suivent la norme, en réduisant la qualité de l’information sectorielle. Les analystes financiers n’apprécient pas toujours la qualité de l’information sectorielle, ce qui suggère que le modèle business crée des difficultés même pour des utilisateurs avertis. Mes résultats informent les normalisateurs lorsque ceux-ci initient le développement d’un nouveau cadre conceptuel et lorsqu’ils semblent envisager l’approche du modèle business pour le reporting. Le chapitre II s'intitule «La non-conformité des secteurs opérationnels à travers des documents d'entreprise. » Les régulateurs de marché examinent des cas de présentations lorsqu'une entreprise fournit des informations différentes sur le même sujet dans différents documents. En mettant l’accent sur les secteurs opérationnels, cet essai utilise des données recueillies manuellement auprès de quatre documents d’entreprise afin d'analyser l'impact de la publication d’information non-conforme sur l’exactitude des prévisions de résultat des analystes financiers. La non-conformité qui découle de la déségrégation supplémentaire des secteurs semble introduire de nouveautés et contribue à l’exactitude des prévisions. La publication des segmentations difficilement réconciliables entraine une exactitude réduite des prévisions. Ces résultats contribuent à notre compréhension des effets de la politique de communication des dirigeants à travers plusieurs documents et ont des répercussions sur le travail les régulateurs. Le chapitre III s'intitule « Prévisions managériales au niveau sectoriel. » Je considère les prévisions au niveau sectoriel (PNS) comme un type d'information désagrégé que les entreprises fournissent ensemble avec leur stratégie de gestion. J’examine l’utilité de cette information pour l’exactitude des prévisions de résultat par les analystes ainsi que l’impact de cette information sur la manipulation du résultat. Je constate que les entreprises de haute technologie réputées pour l’incertitude supplémentaire liée à profitabilité sont moins susceptibles de fournir des PNS et que le PNS est associé à une prévision améliorée. Cependant, alors que la communication de davantage de PNS désagrégé par secteur a tendance à améliorer la précision, plus de précision ne semble pas avoir d’importance. Du point de vue des cadres dirigeants, les PNS les incitent à manipuler le résultat comptable, mais le PNS désagrégé par poste semble décourager la manipulation, fort probablement due à une surveillance supplémentaire. Dans un contexte où une orientation narrative et désagrégée est considérée comme la solution pour empêcher la vision à court terme, comprendre quel type d'information permet d’atteindre cet objectif, et de quelle manière, est tout autant pertinent pour les cadres dirigeants, les investisseurs et les régulateurs. / This thesis contains three stand-alone essays on the operating segment disclosures that European multi-segment companies make under IFRS 8 Operating Segments. Each essay aims to improve our collective understanding about managers’ disclosure strategy by examining various characteristics of operating segment disclosure. Chapter I, entitled “The Interplay between Segment Disclosure Quantity and Quality,” investigates managers’ choices with respect to both disclosure quantity and disclosure quality, and the usefulness of these two characteristics for financial analysts. Focusing on segment disclosures under the management approach, I measure quantity as the number of segment-level line items and quality as the cross-segment variation in profitability, and argue that greater managerial discretion can be exercised over quality than over quantity. I hypothesize and find that managers solve proprietary concerns either by deviating from the suggested line-item disclosure in the standard, or if following standard guidance, by decreasing segment reporting quality. Moreover, financial analysts do not always understand the quality of segment disclosures, which suggests that a business-model type of standard creates difficulties even for sophisticated users. My results inform standard setters as they start working on a disclosure framework and as they seem to consider the business model approach to financial reporting. Chapter II is entitled “Inconsistent Segment Disclosure across Corporate Documents.” Market regulators in the U.S. and Europe investigate cases of inconsistent disclosures when a company provides different information on the same topic in different documents. Focusing on operating segments, this essay uses hand-collected data from four different corporate documents of multi-segment firms to analyze the impact of inconsistent disclosure on financial analysts’ earnings forecast accuracy. Inconsistencies that arise from further disaggregation of operating segments in some documents seem to bring in new information and increase analyst accuracy. However, when analysts must work with different, difficult-to-reconcile segmentations, their information processing capacity and forecasts are less accurate. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of managers’ disclosure strategy across multiple documents and have implications for regulators and standard setters’ work on a disclosure framework. Chapter III is entitled “Management Guidance at the Segment Level.” Prior research has found that managers add information to their earnings guidance to justify, explain, or contextualize their forecasts. I identify segment-level guidance (SLG) as a type of disaggregated information that multi-segment firms provide with their management guidance, and investigate its usefulness for financial analysts’ earnings forecasting accuracy, as well as its influence on managers’ earnings fixation. I further characterize the level of precision (point and range, maximum or minimum estimate, or simply narrative) and of disaggregation of SLG. I find that companies in high tech industries known for increased uncertainty in future performance are less likely to provide SLG, and that SLG is associated with better forecasting accuracy. However, while providing more item-disaggregated SLG improves accuracy, increased precision has no impact on forecast accuracy. From the manager’s point of view, SLG creates incentives to engage in earnings management, and the more precise the SLG is the greater the incentive. In contrast, more item-disaggregated SLG discourages earnings management, perhaps by improving monitoring. In a context where qualitative, narrative, and disaggregated guidance is regarded as a solution to avoid earnings fixation and short termism, understanding which types of information achieve this goal, and how, is relevant for managers, investors, and regulators alike.

Bakgrund: IFRS 8 är sedan 1 januari 2009 obligatorisk för samtliga börsnoterade företag i Sverige. Den stadgar att företagen ska tillämpa ett ledningsperspektiv, vilket innebär att den externa segmentsrapporteringen ska spegla den interna rapporteringen. Detta skiljer sig från tidigare regler i IAS 14, där rapporteringen skulle ske efter övriga externredovisningsprinciper i IFRS. Förespråkare till IFRS 8 menar att det ger en bättre insyn i företaget vilket underlättar för investerare och analytiker att fatta beslut och göra prognoser. Kritiker menar dock att IFRS 8 försvårar jämförelser mellan företag samt leder till att företaget lämnar ut mer konkurrenskänslig information. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om det förväntade resultatet av IFRS 8 har uppnåtts. Studien ämnar även undersöka om företag påverkats av IFRS 8. Genomförande: Som primär data har en kvalitativ datainsamling använts, bestående av intervjuer med sex företag noterade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Den primära datan från den kvantitativa datainsamlingen består av en enkät skickad till 233 företag noterade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Sekundär data har även samlats in genom litteraturstudier. Resultat: Majoriteten av företagen har inte genomfört en förändring av sammansättningen av segment samt segmentsupplysningar. Överlag ansåg inte företagen att användarna fått en bättre inblick i företagens rapportering. De menade dock att det är viktigt att lämna ut information till företagets intressenter. IFRS 8 ledde inte heller till någon kostnadsbesparing för företagen. / Background: IFRS 8 is since 1 January 2009 mandatory for all listed companies in Sweden. It states that companies must implement a management approach, which means that the external reporting of segments should reflect the internal reports. This differs from the previous rules in IAS 14, in which the information should correspond with the other external IFRS accounting principles. Proponents to IFRS 8 argue that the standard gives a better insight into the company which makes it easier for investors and analysts to make decisions and prognosis. Critics argue that IFRS 8 prevents comparisons between companies and force the company to disclose more competitively sensitive information. Aim: Purpose of this study is to examine if the expected benefits of IFRS 8 has been achieved. The study will also examine whether firms is affected by IFRS 8. Completion: The authors used a qualitative data collection consisting of interviews with six companies listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm, and the quantitative data collection consists of a survey sent to 233 companies listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm as primary data. Secondary data was also gathered through literature studies. Conclusions: The study has revealed that the majority of companies have not implemented a change in the composition of segments and segment information. The majority of the companies did not consider the users to have gained a better insight into the corporate reporting. They argued though that it is important to provide information to its stakeholders. IFRS 8 did not lead to any cost savings for companies.

Following a series of reporting scandals in the early 2000s, several researchers studied the gradual shift toward more principles-based accounting systems. There seems to be a general belief that the adoption of international principles-based accounting standards will improve financial reporting quality worldwide, although little evidence is provided for this claim. At the same time several studies claim that heterogeneity in countries’ environmental factors will not lead to harmonized accounting practices and that important differences will remain even though there is common international accounting system. This study contributes to the literature regarding a shift toward more principles-based standards by investigating the effect of increased requirements’ flexibility on disclosure practices in an international environment characterized by harmonized accounting regulations but heterogeneous disclosure practices. The standards that are used are IFRS 8 Operating segment and its predecessor IAS 14R Segment Reporting. IFRS 8 took effect from January 1 2009. The countries included in the study represent the four largest economies in Europe, namely the UK, Germany, France and Italy. The methodology used is quantitative and follows a positivistic research approach. This study investigates the impact that a regulatory change has on disclosure practices by observing data reported in the annual reports and asserts the eventual differences between the two standards and across the four countries. The study provides evidence of only a marginal change in segment disclosure practices after the introduction of IFRS 8. The change is mostly characterized by a loss of key information indicating that more flexible requirements negatively impact accounting practices. This implies that if the purpose of a regulatory change is to assure a certain level of information, more rigid requirements are to be preferred. Further, this study shows that, opposed to expectations; disclosure practices are more heterogeneous under more rules-based standards. However, there is indication that the reason for increased homogeneity is that companies listed in the UK and Germany, presenting a higher amount of segment information under IAS 14R, have decreased the information under IFRS 8. It seems thus that standard enforceability decreases under more flexible disclosure requirements.

Background: Revenue recognition has been a debated issue for a long time. During the 1990s and 2000s, several critical revenue related events took place. These events led to the development of a new standard for revenues called IFRS 15"Revenue from contracts with customers". One year has passed since the adoption in Swedish law and the aftermaths are available for analysis. The implementation of IFRS 15 is expected to affect the revenue reporting and the disclosure requirements referred to them. However, this change is not expected to affect all industries the same way but will likely depend on business model used. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to illustrate how revenue recognition has been affected by the implementation of IFRS 15 from an industry perspective as well as increase understanding of why some industries are affected and others not. Method:IFRS 15 has one single model for all revenuearising from contracts with customers and the standard also includes expanded disclosure requirements. The first approach examines how net sales change in companies when implementing IFRS 15. The reason for this is to determine if the standard has had anyeffect on the company's sales revenue. The second approach in the study is to examine the companies segment reporting to determine whether the implementation have had an effect on the company's financial report, based on the expanded disclosure requirements. Some industries are expected to be affected more than others which is why both approaches are examined from an industry-oriented perspective. Results: Customer serviceand telecom are the two industries that have the most affected net sales in connection with the implementation of IFRS 15. The two industries that showed the biggest impact on changed segment reporting are industrial and health care. Oil and gas and utilities reported no impact on net sales or changed segment reporting.