Usefulness of real-time information: views of professional investors and analysts (2022)

Advances in technology, an explosion in the volume and variety of information available and fundamental changes in the way in which we work and utilise data are transforming the landscape for accounting and reporting.

The Covid crisis was a further catalyst for change, but the transformation in working practices, automation and information needs had already started – and some would say the pace of change in accounting was already lagging some other industries.

While some technology developments come with challenges, they also create formidable opportunities. As technology accelerates and we build on those rapid advances to drive still further innovation, the potential for change is exponential.

The challenge is to maintain visibility and control of the opportunities that these advances can generate and ensure that we, as accountants and stakeholders in corporate reporting, are ready for that pace of disruptive change.

One of those disruptions concerns a corporate reporting paradigm shift, where corporate reports that only include historical financial information are no longer considered sufficient to meet the information needs of all stakeholders.

We increasingly live in a world of Big Data and massive computer processing power, where data aggregators and media channels, such as Bloomberg, Reuters, MSN and others, have the capability to obtain and disseminate information about company performance well before the company itself publishes its results.

But is this faster / more frequent information actually useful, utilised and desired for decision-making by key stakeholders? Against this background, this research project by Subhash Abhayawansa (Swinburne University of Technology), Mark Aleksanyan and Ioannis Tsalavoutas (University of Glasgow, Adam Smith Business School) and Kenneth Lee (London School of Economics and Politics), specifically sets out to:

• Gain an evidence-based understanding of professional investors’ and financial analysts’ perceptions and usage of real-time and quick-time data in their practice of analysis of company performance, equity valuation and investment decision-making
• Assess analysts’, investors’ and other stakeholders’ current and future perceived demand for real-time information in general, and quick-time corporate reporting information in particular and
• Assess users’ perspectives on the need for a new corporate reporting and assurance paradigm, and/or future regulation of real & quick-time data.

This report aims to inform the debate specifically about the relevance of the current corporate reporting paradigm in the era of real-time/quick-time information. In this context "real-time" will be understood as immediately available data, and "quick-time" refers to data which is available well ahead of a company formally publishing it.