Determinants of revenue recognition disclosures: the case of Jordanian industrial listed companies

Abstract

The focus of this study is on the extent to which IAS 18 is applied by Jordanian industrial companies. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: 1) to investigate the extent of application of IAS 18 in selected Jordanian industrial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE); 2) to investigate the impact of certain corporate characteristics such as company size, profitability, liquidity, leverage, listed status and ownership on the application of IAS 18 among Jordanian industrial companies. To achieve these objectives, an index comprising of 15 items were employed to study disclosures by 40 industrial companies listed on the ASE. It was found that, on average, the companies published information on approximately 56% of the items included in the index; only 13 companies achieved high disclosure scores however. These results indicate that there is significant scope for additional disclosures under IAS 18 by Jordanian industrial companies listed on the ASE. The results also suggest that company size is significantly and positively associated with the application of IAS 18. The analysis also documents that liquidity as well as leverage are significantly and negatively associated with the application of IAS 18, while profitability is not significantly associated with the level of disclosures under IAS 18.