Financial reporting transparency, citizens' understanding, and public participation: A survey experiment study

Abstract

This study investigates the conditions under which transparency contributes to citizens' understanding of financial reporting and examines how this enhanced understanding is associated with public participation. To this end, a survey experiment was conducted in which two attributes of financial reporting transparency (i.e., content clarification and

Financial accounting information presented with infographics: does it improve financial reporting understandability?

“…However, research demonstrating that the same benefits are also evident in relation to public sector financial accounting information is still in its infancy. Langella et al (2021) provide evidence that graphical and visual representations increase financial statements' understandability. However, they also evidence that there is no additional benefit in financial reporting understandability when simultaneously providing both explanations of technical jargon and visual aids.…”

“…The layout of popular reports aims to constitute a user-friendly interface which is also achieved by the adoption of visuals. Moreover, the use of visual aids and graphical representations enhances the informativeness of financial reports (Langella et al, 2021). Even JPBAFM 34,6 though the use of infographics has not been yet assessed as a means to convey accounting information, studies have shown that visuals are easier to comprehend and, as a consequence, infographics may provide a superior communication tool to text (Young and Hinesly, 2014).…”

“…Thus, the citizens are left with a sensation of understanding. This corresponds to the individuals' self-perception of their understanding and therefore it is subjective (Langella et al, 2021). This sense does not provide a clear, rational-based explanation of how the information was obtained (Williams and Newton, 2009) but information seems to be easier to comprehend and quicker to digest.…”

“…While governmental financial reporting is considered a suitable medium for public sector organizations to discharge accountability (Ryan et al, 2002), financial reportsdue to their technical naturemake it difficult for people without specific accounting knowledge to understand them . Recent literature analyzes whether alternative presentation formats (Langella et al, 2021), the inclusion of explanations and illustrations (van Helden and Reichard, 2019) or a comprehensive management report and analysis (Stalebrink, 2019) would alleviate such difficulties. In parallel, simplified financial reports addressing citizens, the popular financial reports, have been proposed as an alternative way to meet citizens' financial information needs.…”

Public E-Administration: Understanding the Perception of Taxes by Generation Y and Generation Z

“…They chose any number of options within the multiple-choice question: What would change your perception of taxes? Eight predefined answers were selected based on a literature search (Grimmelikhuijsen & Meijer, 2012;Langella, C. et al, 2021;Kim and Lee, 2012;Brown, 1979;Dahlby 2002) Cochran's Q non-parametric statistical test on the significance level of 0.05 is used to determine whether the proportion of successes of facilitating the perception of taxes is equal across eight groups mentioned above (1)-( 8). H0: The proportion of successes is equal for all the groups.…”