THE GENERAL PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF DECISION USEFULNESS APPROACH TO FINANCIAL REPORTING: A REPLECTION FROM ACCOUNTANCY DEPARTMENT, MAUTECH, YOLA, NIGERIA
Keywords:
General public, Decision Usefulness, General Purpose Financial Statement, Single-User, Relevance and ReliabilityAbstract
The Thrust of this study is to examine the extent to which members of the general public, being major contenders in accounting constituents find financial reporting useful with a view to make good and informed decisions that will bring about environmental improvement. To achieve this objective a nine item close-ended questionnaire was administered to the 14 academic staff and 21 Post Graduate students currently in the Department of Accountancy, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria out of which 19 questionnaire were duly filled and retrieved. Descriptive statistics (simple percentages, mean, mode and standard deviation) was utilized in analyzing the responses of the respondents while T-test and ANOVA were used for testing the hypothesis formulated. Factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha were used in reducing the repetitive variables and ensuring internal consistency of the instruments. The study reveals that members of the general public do not find financial reporting to a large extent useful in making environmental management decision which could be attributed to the inert attitude of the members of the public towards appreciating the contents of the financial statements as a result of lack of confidence in the preparers of such reports. Thus, the study recommends that there is absolute need to put the interest of the general public a head of those of the creditors in the preparation of financial statements, if the objective of sustainability accounting is to be attained to in Nigeria and beyond.
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