Investigating the effect of accounting cultural values on the level of voluntary information disclosure: A study on Turkiye's 500 largest industrial enterprises

Voluntary disclosure is the voluntary disclosure of information to users of information in addition to mandatory information without the influence of laws or regulatory bodies. One of the factors affecting the level of voluntary disclosure is the accounting culture. Accounting Culture consists of legal control versus professionalism, uniformity versus flexibility, conservatism versus optimism, and secrecy versus transparency. In this study, it is examined whether the accounting cultural values of Turkey's largest 500 Industrial Enterprises have a significant effect on the level of voluntary information disclosure. A new formative scale was developed and used based on scale created by Chanchani and Willett. The level of voluntary information disclosure was measured by an index created through content analysis. Partial least squares method (PLS-SEM) was used in the analysis. Conservatism versus optimism and secrecy versus transparency have a positive effect on the level of voluntary disclosure, while creating short-term value versus long-term value has a negative effect on the level of voluntary disclosure. It is concluded that the value of secrecy versus transparency positively affects the level of voluntary disclosure, while the value of creating short-term value versus long-term value negatively affects the level of voluntary disclosure. There are significant differences between publicly traded and non-publicly traded enterprises in the voluntary disclosure level score and conservatism versus optimism.