The Relative information content of complementary and supplementary narrative commentary in UK interim reports.

Abstract

The main objective of the research is to investigate the relative information content of complementary and supplementary narrative commentaries in UK interim reports. The study also examines the relative importance of complementary and supplementary narrative attributes. The subsidiary objective of the study is to investigate incremental information content of complementary and supplementary narratives. The study used 309 interim reports of 103 companies for the years 2005 to 2007. The returns used were daily market adjusted cumulative abnormal returns ±5 days around the announcement of interim reports. The disclosure index method was used to capture complementary and supplementary information using disclosure variety (number of information items) and disclosure depth set of attributes (good news, amounts and comparison of current with past performance, reasons for performance and forward-looking). The control variables included financial performance measures of dividend yield, earnings per share and total assets. Event studies based multiple regression models were used to measure information content. The findings in respect of the main objective indicate that supplementary narratives had higher but insignificant infonnation content than complementary narratives for the model based on disclosure variety. However, when disclosure depth is used, complementary narratives have higher and significant relative information content than supplementary narratives. The results also show that complementary good news, complementary amounts and comparisons of current with past performance and complementary reasons for performance were associated with returns unlike their respective counterparts in supplementary narratives. Both complementary and supplementary forward-looking attributes were not associated with returns. The results of the subsidiary objective suggest that the disclosure varit)ty model combining complementary and supplementary narratives when compared with the disclosure variety model having supplementary narratives does not have a significant difference. All other incremental information content comparisons based on either disclosure variety or disclosure depth had significant differences. This study has a number of research and policy implications, especially after the 2007 subprime financial crisis.