Corporate governance in relationship to value relevance and accounting conservatism: SBF 120 firms

This study examines the relationship between disclosure quality as measured by value relevance and accounting conservatism and the corporate governance mechanisms such as the characteristics of the financial market, board of directors and ownership structure of French companies listed on the SBF 120. The result shows that the companies can have a high value relevance of accounting information or practice the accounting conservatism when they are featuring by the existence of a high number of financial analysts who follow the company, listed on a US stock exchange or have a dispersed structure capital. The findings show also that the significant institutional shareholders, foreign ownership, board with small size, separation of functions as well as the creation of a supervisory board, as well as high performance and a low level of leverage contribute to improving the quality of accounting value.