A Studying the Accounting Information Decision-Usefulness in Value Relevance Perspective

Objective: Decision usefulness of accounting information as the main aim of financial reporting has recently been questioned. Some Researches have documented the declining path of information usefulness. The evidence reveals a huge gap between the market value of firms and their financial information. This is an issue of concern that follows financial reporting under current theoretical frameworks to what extent it expresses the market value of firms and as a result, it is able to provide information needs of users? According to this many investigations the concern raises that current financial reporting fails to satisfy the information needs for decision making of investors. Due to the importance of this issue, in this research Information usefulness trend from perspective of the relation of accounting information with market value of companies has been investigated.
Method: To examine the usefulness of accounting information collecting data like other empirical researches is based on using archival data such as firm financial information and information about financial markets. In this direction, data from 1210 observation or firm-years of listed firms at Tehran Stock Exchange and Iran Fara Bourse was collected and the data about earnings, net book equity values and market capitals was collected. Using accounting information including net profit and book equity value and examining the explanatory power of this information about the market value of companies is a common method in the value relevance researches. The data analysis then, was performed based on charts of trends and the estimation of multiple linear cross-sectional regression models. In such a way that for more robustness of the research results In addition to regression analysis charts and their interpretations have also been used.
Results: The research results indicate that despite accounting information consist of Net Book Equity Value and Earning per Share are still value relevance and useful in decision making but this usefulness significantly decreased during time and its role in explaining the market value of companies has been declining and diminishing. At the beginning of the study period net income and book value information explains 67 percent of the market value of companies whilst by taking a downward path it has decreased to 30 percent. In the other words the trend of divergence of the firms market value compared to accounting information including net income and book value over time continues to increase and this means reduction in the usefulness of information and its fading in the analysis and valuations of investors. The time series test of adjusted multiple determination coefficients also confirms this matter. In a general conclusion it can be said this results indicates a degradation of position of financial reporting in the analysis and decisions of investors that alarms for the future of accounting and reducing the usefulness of this information can still be a concern of the responsible institutions in the field of accounting policy.
Conclusion: This research has been done due to the increase in criticisms towards financial reporting that the accounting information has lost the feature of being relevant and therefore its usefulness in investors' decisions. Research findings in line with other research conducted in this field, indicates reduction in the ability of financial information of firms in explaining the market values over time and as a result reducing its role in investors' analyzes and decisions. In the other words, The results has highlighted concerns about the reduction in usefulness of accounting information and creates insights that regulators and researchers investigate the root causes of declining information usefulness and if necessary, current Financial Reporting Regulations be revised. In other words according to the results of this research, it can be said that conducting more researches and finding the root causes of the decrease in the usefulness of accounting information seems necessary from the legislative institutions, researchers and academic community. In this regard, paying more attention to improving the quality of financial reports especially the quality of reported profits by firms along with addressing macroeconomic variables can improve the usefulness of accounting information. Also, in order to further investigate the reasons for such a situation research on behavioral financial effects in stock markets also seems necessary. Examining the effect of these factors along with the analysis of the reasons for the decrease in the usefulness of financial reporting will definitely lead to better knowledge and more appropriate policy making. Besides these, paying attention to the views and opinions of financial reporting users and examining the differences in their views with financial reporting objectives and what is now published as general purpose financial reporting can definitely be beneficial for the future of accounting.