Date of Defense

5-24-2013

Date of Graduation

6-2013

Department

Accountancy

First Advisor

Jagjit Saini

Second Advisor

Mingming Feng

Abstract

In this study, the results on the difference between reporting under IFRS 8 “Operating Segments” and under IAS 14 “Segment Reporting” are reported for a sample of foreign publicly traded companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges for the periods of pre- and post-adoption of IFRS 8. Seven aspects related to the comparison are examined: definition of segments, number of segments disclosed, line items reported for each segment, number of items and words reported for segments, number of geographic areas disclosed, definition of geographic segments, and items reported in geographic disclosure. Upon adopting IFRS 8, the majority of the firms remained their operating segments as they were under IAS 14. There was a marginal increase in the number of business segments and the total number of segments disclosed, and a marginal decrease in the number of geographic segments reported. No significant change was discovered in the distribution of number of business segments, geographic segments, and all segments disclosed upon adopting IFRS 8. The majority of the firms did not change the number of segments reported. However, more words appeared in the segment disclosure notes. Most companies presented their geographic segments as the enterprise-wide disclosures. There were more disclosures on individual-level countries/regions than on the broader geographic areas during the after-adoption period. Overall, there were insignificant changes in the geographic segment disclosure. Nonetheless, companies tended to report finer geographic information on individual countries/regions and less line items in their geographic segment disclosure after IFRS 8. In summary, the overall results indicated that the impact on companies’ segment disclosure upon the adoption of IFRS 8 was not significant.

Comments

Powerpoint Presentation accompanying.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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