Voluntary Disclosure
Concept of voluntary Disclosure
The law requires all companies to disclose their financial information, together with additional information either in annual, half-yearly and quarterly financial reports. In this case, the description that best fits such law a requirement is a typical example of mandatory disclosure of information. Apart from the mandatory disclosure of information, the annual report contains the voluntary disclosure of information. Notably, there are other opportunities that can be used for voluntary disclosure including conference calls, press releases, websites, and other corporate reports (Sharma, 2013). There are several definitions on voluntary disclosure, but this paper borrows a definition postulated by a FASB committee, which defined voluntary disclosure as, disclosures, mainly outside financial statements, which are not explicitly required by GAAP or an SEC rule.
Notably, in practice, the difference amid mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure is not crystal. For instance, it is possible for companies to be under obligation by law to disclose information concerning environmental issues, but such information required for disclosure may not be defined. Owing to the definition provided by FASB, such disclosure requires a voluntary drive because the information that requires disclosure does not have a detailed description. It is possible to argue that there is an obligation to disclosing the information, which suggests that disclosing is a mandatory practice. In addition, information disclosure qualifies as information publicity, and the motive is to publicize information on securities in respect to the method of providing stocks, listing on the market as well as trading (Tian and Chen, 2009).
When companies issues security publicly to execute the information disclosure system, they act in line with the requirements of modern securities in the market. The disclosure system covers the whole process of securities' issue and circulation. Notably, prior to the issue of stocks, the firms publicize stock-issuing introductions, listing announcements, interim reports, annual reports, and grave affair reports, which primarily include the firm's operations and financial statements. Currently, voluntary disclosure is dominating in the securities market, primarily due to the interests, participator's trading activities that made the securities identify a balance where disclosure of information completely and effective allocation of resources. Most importantly, the compulsory disclosure of information suggests that relevant laws and rules, clearly regulate the listed firms must actualize information disclosure.
In the case of voluntary disclosure, companies disclose the information voluntarily as a way to protect the company's images, investors and avoid risks concerning accusation. The aim of voluntary disclosure is to introduce and elaborate the companies' capabilities to the investors, drive the fluidity of capital market, decrease capital costs and guarantee effective allocation of capital. Nevertheless, the development of the information disclosure system suggests, voluntary disclosure of information emerges after compulsory disclosure of information. In this context, voluntary disclosure appears to be an extension and complement of the mandatory information disclosure. Historically, the two appeared to have different concepts; however relevant laws and regulations, comment that it is possible to transform the two mutually.
Nevertheless, in different economic, political, legal, and social settings, different states may face varied conditions in relation to voluntary disclosure mainly because of the different relevant laws. Notably, compulsory disclosure can influence the voluntary disclosure, although it cannot stop the disclosure of invalid information (Sharma, 2013), it can restrain the voluntary disclosure. Owing to this, it is possible for companies to adopt a partial disclosure strategy, which will give them a privilege to disclose positive or negative news, at their convenience. Compulsory disclosure and relevant market laws can influence voluntary disclosure in the following ways; firstly, reduce listed companies' voluntary disclosure. This means that if companies' should disclose additional information the voluntary disclosure will increase the costs incurred by the company, owing to processing of information, accusation risks, and loss of competitive advantage.
Secondly, poor quality of compulsory disclosure and inadequate market laws, company managers may adopt voluntary disclosure to send signals to the market, hoping to get positive feedback, which makes them disclose more information voluntarily. In addition, some scholars have studied the credibility of voluntary disclosures; the results suggest that along with progress on the quality of information in compulsory disclosure the quality of information on voluntary disclosure will also improve. In addition, if the period is long, punishment is effective, and the quality of information in compulsory disclosure can work well to evaluate the standards for the voluntary disclosure, which will make the company's manager to provide valid information voluntarily (Tian and Chen, 2009).
Theoretical Framework
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