Ranking of indicators of forward-looking information disclosure by the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

Auditing provides an overall image of the companies’ situation. So, in addition to disclosure of historical information, disclosure of prospective information is needed by the investors, and it leads to an improved quality of reporting and decision making. The reporting variations due to business changes have caused great challenges for firms regarding the preparation of discretionary information disclosure, in particular forward-looking information. Accordingly, this study aimed at determining the significance order of forward-looking information factors and components by the qualitative grounded theory approach. To this end, by distributing a questionnaire among seven financial experts selected through judgmental purposive sampling, the factors were evaluated by the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP). A tool was eventually proposed for weighted components to prepare and assess forward-looking information. According to the results, “predicting and analyzing managers” ranked first with the highest importance coefficient, and “future financial and non-financial information” and “future objectives and strategies” ranked the next places.