Abstract This article evaluates the segment reporting standard proposed by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The exposure draft represents several firsts for the FASB. It is the first standard to be developed jointly with a standard setting body from another country. It is also the first standard to allow disclosures of accounting information that are not in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Operating segments are disclosed based on a company's internal financial reporting system, even if the internal accounting policies are not in conformance with GAAP. Finally, it arguably represents the first real example in the FASB era whereby users of accounting information go head to head with corporate America on an accounting issue. The FASB has received more than 200 comment letters on the proposed standard. While users are generally supportive of the new approach, corporations criticize the management approach as requiring too detailed information, requiring too many items or items which are not important and requiring disclosures that may put an enterprise at a competitive disadvantage. Despite the shortcomings of the proposed standard on segment reporting, the effort of the FASB and the Accounting Standards Board should not be understated. The proposed standard is an ambitious project which adopts a distinctly new approach for segment reporting to meet the information needs of users and, at the same time, attempt to lower the costs to preparers.
Hermann et al. (Mon,) studied this question.