The impact of corporate governance, future news and level of impression management on forward looking information : an empirical study on companies listed in Egyptian stock exchange

Abstract EN

Extant research to date presents mixed views on whether a forwardlooking disclosure is considered informative or opportunistic.

So, the paper examines the association between disclosure of forwardlooking information in Annual Result Press Releases (ARPRs) and (i) the existence of future news about the firm, (ii) the quality of firm corporate governance, and (iii) the level of impression management.

Prospective disclosure is not the main content of ARPRs, which provides a summary of previous year earnings.

Thus, the inclusion of forward looking information in the ARPR represents a strategic decision.

The paper depends on hand collected ARPRs issued by Egyptian listed companies.

It found that the level of prospective information in ARPRs is positively associated with the level of quantitative impression management in the release.

Fascinatingly, companies with future good news are less likely to include forwardlooking information in their press releases.

This indicates that (positive) prospective information is used as an impression management tool.

The paper shows that negative forwardlooking information is almost nonexistent, and companies prefer qualitative forecasts when they refer to negative results.

Finally, the paper provides evidence on corporate governance mechanisms that are associated to this type of disclosure.