Through the eyes of management: A study on segment reporting in Swedish companies and possible implications of IFRS 8

Sammanfattning: Segment reporting disclosures are required by the financial reporting standards for listed companies in Sweden. This information provides a disaggregated picture of entities facilitating users’ understanding of the entities’ different operations. The purpose of this study is twofold; the first is to investigate segment reporting practice under IAS 14R in companies listed on the Large Cap-list on Stockholm Stock Exchange, the second is to investigate possible implications of an implementation of IFRS 8 for these companies. Our main source of data for our empirical study is the 2006 financial reports of the studied companies. Prior research has been the base for our literature study which we used together with empirical information on segment reporting practice and the qualitative characteristics of IASB when discussing possible implications of IFRS 8 for Swedish companies. The current segment information in Sweden under IAS 14R has an overall high quality in terms of consistency and compliance. Our literature based analysis in the light of IASB’s qualitative characteristics suggests the implications of IFRS 8 are increased relevance, increased consistency and decreased comparability. An implementation of IFRS 8 is however expected to have less impact on Swedish companies than the corresponding standard had in the US.