The usefulness of fair value: the users' views within the context of the conceptual framework for financial reporting

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) defines the objective of financial reporting as the provision of information that is useful for decision making. Fair value is a prominent measurement basis in the financial reports of financial sector organisations. The current research integrates the concepts of fair value and usefulness in order to ascertain the extent to which fair value is deemed useful. The literature tends to group financial reporting stakeholders into distinct groups such as users, preparers and auditors. This thesis focuses on the perspective of the user whom, prior research has shown, is the least responsive when stakeholders are approached concerning accounting matters. NVivo, a qualitative analysis software, is employed to allow the thematic analysis of twenty semi-structured interviews with financial sector analysts. The results of prior studies are confirmed: fair value is more useful than not. While several studies have indicated that usefulness is impacted by certain factors, the contribution of the current study is its investigation into a comprehensive list of factors that impact fair value’s usefulness in a systematic and detailed way. A further contribution is this study’s extensive use of the Conceptual Framework to measure usefulness. The current study considers analysts’ perceptions of fair value’s usefulness against the qualitative characteristics of the Conceptual Framework. Issues are identified with modelled fair values’ neutrality, accuracy and verifiability. Reported fair values also need to improve in terms of the completeness, understandability and comparability. Fair value under IFRS is deemed both relevant and timely enough to impact decisions. Of the qualitative characteristics, interviewees view faithful representation and comparability as the most important. This should assist standard-setters in prioritising improvements. Finally, this study contributes by allowing users to influence the academic literature through direct quotes. As such, the research bridges the gap between theory and practice.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

mres

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Kluever, Izette

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mundy, Julia

• HF5601 Accounting

Language dc:language

en