Explanatory Factors of the Accounting Choices for Investments Under IAS 27 of Listed European Union Entities

ABSTRACT This study aims to analyze the explanatory factors of the accounting choices for investments of entities with securities traded on regulated markets from the European Union (EU) under International Accounting Standards (IAS) 27—Separate Financial Statements (SFS). According to IAS 27, investments in their scope can be accounted for by using the cost, equity method, or fair value, which represents alternative accounting methods commonly known in the literature as accounting choices. To identify the factors that may explain the accounting choices for investments under IAS 27, a logistic regression model is used. The research covers listed entities from 19 out of the 21 EU countries where IAS 27 is required or permitted. The findings highlight that the entities’ size and investment weight likely explain the adoption of the cost method, conversely to the size of the board of directors, which negatively explains its use. Accounting choices for investments under SFS are not yet explored in the literature. Moreover, this research also proposes further explanatory factors in the scope of the literature on accounting choices. This paper can potentially benefit a diverse set of stakeholders, namely the accounting standard‐setters, as they can draw attention to the comparability issues from the use of accounting choices, which may mitigate the financial information usefulness for decision‐making. Furthermore, auditors, supervisors, as well as investors and other users, can have a more comprehensive perspective of the reasons behind the method chosen by entities for accounting for their financial investments.