Determining the importance of the variables influencing financial reporting quality using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

The main goal of this study was to determine the weights of variables affecting financial reporting quality in Iran using the analytic hierarchy process based on fuzzy logic. First, the cause and effect relationship between factors was identified using the DEMATEL method. According to this analysis, the most important variables of reporting quality are information disclosure, management ability, corporate governance, audit committee, audit quality, information asymmetry, internal control system, stock exchange rules and regulations, and conflict of interest. The importance of these variables was determined using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. In general, management ability is the most important financial reporting variable, and audit committee and conflict of interest are also important. Management ability is also very important to audit quality, information disclosure, corporate governance, and internal control system. The audit committee and conflict of interest are very important to information disclosure and the internal control system, respectively. A noteworthy point in this study is that the role of network relationships was such that the corporate governance variable showed itself to be completely dependent on management ability.