Goodwill Disclosure in Europe. Profiles of disclosing companies

The paper investigates the determinants of goodwill disclosure on a sample of European companies. In particular, the factors associated to particular extents of disclosure are examined. The results provide evidence that, determinants coherent with proprietary cost theory significantly affect the extent of goodwill disclosure. Conversely the hypotheses formulated according to the signalling theory are not supported. The methodology adopted provides meaning to relations between variables that might be robust only or particularly within a specific range of variation of the independent variables. Finally, issues of compliance due to the technical complexities of IAS 36 are documented.