Influence of Fair Value on the Qualitative Characteristics and Decision Usefulness of Accounting Information

Abstract

Expanding the application of fair value is a key initiative of the International Financial Reporting Standards. Previous standards have interpreted the concept of fair value (e.g., IFRS 13, IFRS 9); however, the application of fair value-related measures remains largely up to the discretion and professional judgment of individual accountants. The conceptual frameworks proposed by the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board specifically outline the relationships among the qualitative characteristics of accounting information. In this study, we explore the issue of fair value in a variety of situations to identify potential relationships among relevance, representational faithfulness and decision usefulness. We also investigate whether relevance and representational faithfulness are mutually inclusive or exclusive. Our objective is to elucidate the relationship between fair value information and user decisions.  We obtain responses from 257 students enrolled in Master’s-level accounting department programs at eight Taiwanese universities to determine the fair value of available-for-sale financial instruments. We adopt a 2×2 mixed design in conjunction with ANOVA and SEM to analyze the relationships among the qualitative characteristics of accounting information. Our findings demonstrate that representational faithfulness influences assessments pertaining to representational faithfulness, relevance, and decision usefulness, whereas relevance influences only assessments pertaining to relevance and decision usefulness. Additionally, representational faithfulness and relevance both are significantly correlated with the usefulness of decisions .The results are particularly meaningful because the method use to evaluate fair value indeed influences how the users of financial statements perceive the qualitative characteristics of fair value information (relevance and representational faithfulness).