Comparing the role of accruals and operating cash flows on usersʹʹ decisions on financial statements: A case study of Tehran Stock Exchange

One of the major challenges facing all of individuals and organizations is decision-making based on the information. The issues of priority about cash flows and accruals data in decision-making process for different groups of financial statement users include investors, creditors, shareholders, directors, etc. one of the issues that has been controversial between accrual and cash accounting advocators for a long time. In this study, we survey the role of accruals and operating cash flows in decisions of financial statement users in listed companies on Tehran stock exchange, information content of operating cash flows and accruals in the connection with decision-making criteria used by different groups using financial statement has been examined. In this study, we use eliminating sampling and implied limitations and the sample size includes 203 companies to examine six hypotheses. The results of this research indicate that there is a significant different between accruals and operating cash flows information content in relation to various decision-making criteria but utilizing accruals and operating cash flows supplementary and simultaneously in profit frame depending on the selection criteria may or may not be include information value-added.