Determinants of goodwill disclosure: a closer look to relations

The paper investigates the determinants of goodwill disclosure on a sample of European companies. The hypothesized relations between the expected determinants and the extent of goodwill disclosure are investigated by adopting a closer spectrum of analysis. In particular we expect that meaningful relations may exist only within a specific range of variance of the dependent and independent variables, even when a general relation is not supported. Likewise, in a general relation, the magnitude of the impacts produced on the extent of disclosure may vary as the value of the expected determinant change. The results, based on a cluster analysis, confirm the original expectations and let us argue that the methodology might be used as a complementary research approach in this field of study. The paper also raises several practical implications.