The Factors Determining the Transparency of Financial Information: Presentation of a mental model by cognitive mapping technique

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the transparency of financial information by the experts and their understanding of the factors influencing financial transparency. The research methodology is based on qualitative approach and has been done with cognitive mapping technique. The basis of this qualitative analysis is experience, knowledge and expertise of 15 experts and professors of the universities of Mashhad which is conducted with a semi-structured interview. Using structural analysis method, at first 44 factors were identified .In the screening stage, experts had the most consensus among the five factors. And in the last step, the experts compared these five factors in the binary matrix of interaction and from 0 to 3 were valued. Then the MIC_MAC software extracted the cognitive map and its graph and the results were analyzed. The result of this study showed that the company s characteristics, including size of company, ownership, board of directors, financial ratios, profitability, and audit quality of the company have the most impact on information transparency.