CREATIVE DISCLOSURE: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

This empirical study extends the study conducted by Vladu, Grosanu and Cuzdriorean (2012) and reached similar conclusions. This particular research was conducted with the scope of assessing the impact of: positive bias, persuasive language, creative visual manipulation and performance comparisons over the unsophisticated users of accounting opinion. We have chosen this particular category since retail investors have been identified as relying on the information provided in corporate annual reports for decision making (Wills, 2008). Based on their relative inexperience and limited knowledge of these investors it is plausible that they can be mislead easily comparing to more sophisticated users of accounting information, as financial analysts. The main argument for conducting such a research is the fact that little research was conducted so far and the effects of creative disclosure on investment decision cannot be assessed so far. Based on this, we conducted a laboratory experiment where participants where provided with an informational set of financial data and required to make an investment decision. Our results document that the users perceptions is strongly affected by creative disclosure, contradictory with previous results documented in the literature, that their opinion cannot be influenced since they relay mostly on numerical information and less on the narrative segments of the financial statements. Even if our sample compressed few participants, we consider the results conclusive. A further research can extend the sample and test if our research hypothesis can be validated. Another possible spring of research can deal with the assessing of the opinion of the users of accounting information that are not considered unsophisticated, as financial analysts