| dc.description.abstract | This study investigates how the Swedish stock market reacts to adjustments in accounting for
revenues following the new revenue standard, IFRS 15. Due to prior financial scandals
regarding revenues, criticism and discussions of the earlier revenue standard, as well as
companies changing their way of doing business, a need for a new regulation was developed.
FASB and IASB started the project with IFRS 15 in 2002 and it was released in 2014. The
purpose of IFRS 15 was to develop a new revenue standard that could be used in all
industries and capital markets, to create better transparency and thus better comparability
among companies. Another aim was to create a better guidance on how to account for
revenues. Companies need to apply the new standard in 2018. However, companies who get
quantitative effects due to the standard, need to report these in the last quarterly report of
2017. With that background, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish stock
market reacts to the new information of accounting according to IFRS 15, to tell if the
adjustments following the new standard are perceived as value relevant or not. In addition to
the main purpose, this study also assesses if there is a prominent market reaction within
Telecommunications and IT, an industry where companies are perceived to be more affected
by IFRS 15 than other industries. In order to fulfill the purpose, an event study was
performed. Overall, we do not find any evidence supporting that investors react in the
predicted direction. Therefore, the adjustments in accounting for revenues due to the new
standard cannot be concluded as value relevant for the Swedish stock market. Moreover,
there are no significant results showing that there is a prominent abnormal return within the
Telecommunications and IT industry. | sv |
