Voluntary Disclosure of Segment Information in a Regulated Environment: Australian Evidence

Based on annual report data for a sample of 118 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, this study provides further empirical evidence of the association between the voluntary disclosure of segment information and a firm’s level of diversification; controlling for firm size, industry membership, the level of minority interest, leverage, and ownership diffusion. The period examined falls between the introduction of the first Australian standard on segment disclosure in 1986 and its subsequent revision in 2001. In particular, the study focuses on segment information that was not required to be disclosed in the original standard but which standard setters subsequently felt sufficiently important to include as part of the mandated disclosure requirements in the revised standard. Consistent with expectations, based on both agency theory and proprietary costs theory, our logistic regression results confirm that greater levels of diversification are likely to be associated with additional voluntary segment disclosure. Copyright Eurasia Business and Economics Society 2011