The Survey of Effective Factors on the Timeliness of Annual Earnings Announcements in Listed Firms in Tehran stock Exchange

Earnings Announcements is an important and cost-effective source of information for investors and the other users. It has Information Content. On one hand, timeliness of annual earnings announcements adds to the relevance of earnings reporting. On the other hand, Timely earnings announcements reduce information asymmetry between the users. The objective of this study is to present evidence on the timeliness of annual earnings announcements in Listed Firms in Tehran Stock Exchange. Our sample consists of 170 Tehran stock exchange firms and the sample period is during 2006-2010. In this study, multiple regression is used for testing the hypotheses. The possible determinants in explaining earnings reporting timeliness are divided in three categories which are the demand for earnings information, supply constraints and management opportunism and are examined. The findings of this study portray the effect of business combination, firm complexity, financial distress, good or bad news and audit opinion on timeliness of annual earnings announcements.