THE IMPACT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES ON THE INFORMATION QUALITY IN THE LISTED COMPANIES’ FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ON VIETNAM STOCK MARKET

Abstract

Nowadays, the credibility of data (CLTT) disclosed on the financial statements of listed companies on Vietnam's Stock Market emerges as an alarming concern. From 01/01/2018 to 16/04/2018, the financial statements of 540 over 709 listed companies are revealed having difference between net income of unaudited and audited version (Vietstock, 2018). CLTT is directly affected by the Accounting Policy (CSKT) which business preliminarily has chosen and applied. Therefore, how CSKT can impact the CLTT of listed company ‘s financial statement presently attracts a major attention. This study will define which factors of CSKT affecting the information quality in the listed companies' financial statements on Vietnam stock market, as well as how these factors impact on CLTT of financial statement. The mixed method will be used in this research, including: the qualitative research and the quantitative research. The result of this study unveils that there are 3 influencing factors in response to such issue including: accounting policies issued by the State, accounting policies selected to optimize company's value and accounting policies selected not to optimize company's value. In which, accounting policies selected to optimize company's value strongly impact on the quality of financial information in opposite direction; accounting policies selected not to optimize company's value has medium-impact on quality of financial information in opposite direction; and accounting policies issued by the State has low-impact on quality of financial information in same direction. From the result, not only businesses can adjust and improve their quality of financial statement but also the State can provide adjustment and more appropriate policy to improve the information quality in the listed companies' financial statements on Vietnam Stock Market..

Keywords: Quality of financial information, accounting policies, listed company, Vietnam's stock market.