Table 4.5 above presents the views on the relevance and reliability of accounting information for share investment decision making. Results show that the majority of respondents rely on EPS (82.3 percent), profits (77.5 percent) and asset figures (73.8 percent) because an independent auditor has reported on them. Secondly, 71 percent of respondents rely on EPS, asset figures (64.5 percent) and profits (57.1 percent) due to the fact that they have been prepared under GAAP. Finally, 50.5 percent rely on EPS, profits (41.1 percent) and asset figures (40.1 percent) because they have been reported by directors who are responsible for the correctness and completeness of the financial report.
The findings show that the sources of information that individual shareholders rated as most important when making investment decisions ranked as follows: (1) financial statements; (2) relevance and reliability of accounting information; (3) reputations; (4) financial opinions; and (5) impairment of assets (IAS 36). Furthermore, the other factors in financial reports, which influence decision making by individual shareholders in Thailand, include the chairperson and director’s report and statement, announcements on environment and policies and change of scope of company operations.
Previous studies found considerable differences between countries in levels of compliance with accounting standards: low levels of compliance in countries such as Bangladesh and, on the other hand, high levels of compliance in countries such as