A study of Accounting Policy Change, reasons for these changes and their effect on Company Performance

This study looks at the key research in accounting policy and performance, including a review of agency and stewardship theories, before moving on to review current research on how and why changes in accounting policy occur. After this, data from annual financial reports of the FTSE 350 companies, excluding financial companies is analysed. The results show that performance is affected by several factors, and measures of accounting policy change, such as Discretionary Accruals are affected by several, but not all of the hypothesised factors. Finally, conclusions based on this analysis, including an overview of unexpected effects are extracted before finally finishing with conclusions and suggestions for future research