Attributes of the Quality of Accounting Information in Firms that Participate in the Brazilian Stock Market

Resumo

The objective of this study is to analyze the quality of accounting information in companies participating in the Brazilian stock market. The sample studied consists of 101 non-financial companies listed on the BM&FBovespa, from 2003 to 2014. The study is descriptive, using documentary research and quantitative analysis. Based on the individual calculation of the attributes of persistence, predictability and profit smoothing for each company, we developed a ranking of the quality of accounting information using the multi-criteria analysis method TOPSIS and entropy. Then the determinants of company positioning in the ranking of accounting information quality were analyzed using the t test for means and multivariate linear regression. By separating the companies into two groups, the business characteristics of sales growth, level of corporate governance, return on assets and issuance of ADRs presented means with statistically significant differences. However, in explaining the positioning of companies in the ranking of quality of accounting information, only sales growth showed a statistically significant negative relationship, confirming existing empirical evidence that companies with high growth have lower persistence of profits.