The Determinants of More Frequent Disclosure: The Case of Issuing Monthly Sales Reports by Retail Firms

10.6293/AQAFA.2011.09.03

Erik Devos；Andrew K. Prevost；Yiuman Tse

AVoluntary disclosure ； Disclosure frequency ； Retail firms

Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting

9期（2011 / 06 / 01）

53 - 73

英文

Despite the importance of frequent disclosure to market participants (as evidenced by a push towards more frequent disclosure by regulators) the literature is surprisingly silent about firms' motivations for increased disclosure frequency (although there exists an abundant literature investigating the usefulness of disclosure). We investigate the determinants of frequent voluntary disclosure in the form of monthly sales reports by analyzing a sample of 139 retail firms. We find that issuers are mainly more profitable firms that are concentrated in sub-sectors of the retail industry. This suggests that these firms do exhibit conformative behavior and that managers who disclose more often may do so to signal their superior (future) performance.

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