B. DAVIES and G. P. WHITTRED The Association Between Selected Corporate Attributes and Timeliness in Corporate Reporting: Further Analysis I. INTRODUCTION The concept of timeliness in financial reporting has two dimensions. First, there is the frequency of reporting zyxwvut - the length of the reporting period. Second, there is the lag between the end of the reporting period and the date the financial statements are issued. Considerations regarding both of these aspects appear in the legislative and regulatory provisions regarding corporate disclosure. For example, both the Australian Companies (Amendment) Act, 1975 and the Australian Associated Stock Exchanges’ Listing Requirements contain provisions relating to the minimum frequency (interval) and the maximum lag (delay) of various corporate disclosures.’ But reglatory agencies such as the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Associated Stock Exchanges have not been the only bodies to concern themselves with the concept of timeliness in financial reporting. The American Accounting Association’s Committee on Concepts and Standards Underlying Corporate Financial Statements [l] recognized the importance of timeliness in zyxwvu Supplementary Statement zyxw No. 8. The Accounting Principles Board [3] in Statement No. 4 argued that timeliness is, or should be, one of the qualitative objectives of accounting. Kenley and Staubus [lo] adopt a similar view in the Australian Accountancy Research Foundation’s Accounting Research Study No. 3. Still other authors define timeliness as one of the qualitative attributes of useful information; particularly those who believe that optimal choices can be made by comparing the financial reporting alternatives under consideration with a set of predetermined, normative standards. This approach became prominent with the work of the AAA Committee to prepare zyxwvu A Statement of Basic Accounting Theory [2]. The set of four normative criteria established in that work - relevance, verifiability, freedom from bias and quantifiability - has been modified by Snavely [14], McDonald [ l l ] and Staubus [15] to include, amongst other things, the attribute of timeliness. These criteria are also reflected in the present work of the FASB [7]. Irrespective of whether zyxwvu oc? chooses to call timeliness an objective of accounting or an The provisions of the Act together with those of the AASE’s zyxwv list requirements reduce the general reporting requirement for a listed public company to presenting the annual accounts within four months of the company’s financial year-end. B. zyxwvutsrqpo DAVIES is with the audit firm of Kindred, Spanswich, Gilchrist and Associates, Sydney. G. P. WHITTRED is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Accountancy, University of New South Wales. zyx 48