Corporate Financial Disclosure in an Emerging Capital Market: Evidence from Kuwait
type: CreativeWork
description: The importance of disclosure in corporate annual reports has increased over the past couple of decades (Beattie and Pratt, 2002). This increase has been attributed in part to growth in the knowledge economy (Beattie and Pratt, 2002; Beattie, 2012). Disclosure is now accepted as an essential component of financial statements and its place is cemented by recent changes in the regulatory framework which place disclosure matters at the heart of some key accounting standards. In addition the recent financial crisis has further fuelled debate on the need for relevant disclosures but concern is growing about information overload and avoiding ‘clutter’ (Beattie and Pratt, 2002; Beattie, 2012). Disclosure has long been considered essential to economic development and growth particularly in an emerging economy context (Gill and Tropper, 1988). Notwithstanding the importance of corporate financial disclosure and a few notable exceptions, very little is documented in the extant literature about financial disclosure practices in developing countries. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to extend empirical knowledge and contribute to the corporate disclosure literature by providing empirical evidence on corporate financial disclosure in the emerging capital market of Kuwait. Kuwait is of interest because of the remarkable growth in stock exchange activity and the unique business environment faced there. In addition, as Kuwait first adopted IAS/IFRS in 1991 users and preparers should be well-versed in it and the country therefore represents an ideal and fruitful site for analysis. The results of the study are likely to have implications for decision makers, the academic community and accounting standard setters. This thesis has five principal aims: (i) to explore the extent of compliance with IFRS disclosure requirements by Kuwaiti non-financial listed companies; (ii) to investigate the extent of aggregate (mandatory and voluntary) financial disclosure provide by Kuwaiti non-fina…
abstract: The importance of disclosure in corporate annual reports has increased over the past couple of decades (Beattie and Pratt, 2002). This increase has been attributed in part to growth in the knowledge economy (Beattie and Pratt, 2002; Beattie, 2012). Disclosure is now accepted as an essential component of financial statements and its place is cemented by recent changes in the regulatory framework which place disclosure matters at the heart of some key accounting standards. In addition the recent financial crisis has further fuelled debate on the need for relevant disclosures but concern is growing about information overload and avoiding ‘clutter’ (Beattie and Pratt, 2002; Beattie, 2012). Disclosure has long been considered essential to economic development and growth particularly in an emerging economy context (Gill and Tropper, 1988). Notwithstanding the importance of corporate financial disclosure and a few notable exceptions, very little is documented in the extant literature about financial disclosure practices in developing countries. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to extend empirical knowledge and contribute to the corporate disclosure literature by providing empirical evidence on corporate financial disclosure in the emerging capital market of Kuwait. Kuwait is of interest because of the remarkable growth in stock exchange activity and the unique business environment faced there. In addition, as Kuwait first adopted IAS/IFRS in 1991 users and preparers should be well-versed in it and the country therefore represents an ideal and fruitful site for analysis. The results of the study are likely to have implications for decision makers, the academic community and accounting standard setters. This thesis has five principal aims: (i) to explore the extent of compliance with IFRS disclosure requirements by Kuwaiti non-financial listed companies; (ii) to investigate the extent of aggregate (mandatory and voluntary) financial disclosure provide by Kuwaiti non-fina…
author: Dawd, Issa
language: eng
date published: 2014
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:07:52Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee