Research On Industry Competitiveness,Enterprise Life Cycle And MD&A Forward-looking Information Disclosure Quality

As an important means to alleviate the problem of information asymmetry,enterprise information disclosure has always been the focus of regulators and stakeholders;In recent years,with the development of China’s capital market and the intensification of the industry competition environment,the annual report of enterprises has shown the trend that non-financial information exceeds financial information.At the same time,the forward-looking information in non-financial information has become the top priority of investors.MD&A is known as the "soul" of the enterprise’s annual report.The future development and Prospect of the enterprise is an important carrier to prospect and predict the future development of the enterprise from the perspective of managers,and it is also a concentrated embodiment of the disclosure of forward-looking information in the enterprise’s annual report.According to the newly revised annual report standards in 2015,the contents of MD&A forward-looking information disclosure should be clearly divided into four parts: industry pattern and trend(hereinafter referred to as M1),enterprise development strategy(hereinafter referred to as M2),enterprise business plan(hereinafter referred to as M3)and possible risks faced by the enterprise in the future(hereinafter referred to as M4).This provides a new perspective for us to further study the forward-looking information disclosure of MD&A.The industry competitive environment is an important factor affecting the quality of enterprise information disclosure,but in the existing research,there are few studies on the relationship between the industry competitive environment and the quality of enterprise MD&A forward-looking information disclosure,and most of the research angles are limited to the relationship between the industry competitive environment and the overall level of MD&A forward-looking information disclosure.What is the relationship between the industry competitive environment and the disclosure quality of each part of enterprise MD&A forward-looking information,What are the impact mechanisms,this paper carries out targeted research..In the theoretical research,based on Porter’s competition theory,proprietary cost theory and signal display theory,this paper analyzes the mechanism of the relationship between the degree of industry competition and the quality of MD&A forward-looking information disclosure,considers the phased development strength of the enterprise,puts the enterprise life cycle theory into the analysis framework,and puts forward targeted assumptions.In the empirical research,we select the listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 index from 2016 to 2020 as the sample,use the content analysis method to quantify the quality indicators of MD&A forward-looking information disclosure,and use a variety of empirical analysis methods to test the hypothesis.The research conclusion shows that the degree of industry competition has a positive correlation with M1 and M4,a negative correlation with M2,but no significant correlation with M3;Considering the stage factors of enterprise life cycle,it is found that the positive relationship between industry competition and M1 is the most significant in growing enterprises,followed by recession and maturity;The negative relationship between industry competition and M2 of growing enterprises is the most significant,followed by recession and the weakest in maturity;The correlation between industry competition and M3 of enterprises in growth,maturity and decline is not significant;The positive relationship between industry competition and M4 of enterprises in recession is the most significant,followed by growth period and the weakest in maturity period.Further,this paper finds that the impact of industry competition on the quality of MD&A forward-looking information disclosure is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises,small-scale enterprises and enterprises with weak profitability.Finally,based on the existing conclusions,this paper puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions for enterprises,investors and the CSRC,hoping to provide theoretical support and decision-making reference for the relevant subjects of the capital market.