Do Thi Minh Tam

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study aims to assess the level of financial information disclosure in financial statements and the factors influencing the disclosure level in agricultural cooperatives in the Northwestern provinces of Vietnam. Grounded in key theories, the study first applies a qualitative approach to refine the disclosure index and research model. Then, we employ a quantitative approach using data from the 2023 financial statements and survey responses of 216 agricultural cooperatives operating in four Northwestern provinces of Vietnam. Financial statements were collected and coded in 2024. To assess the disclosure level of each cooperative, we construct an unweighted index of 75 financial disclosure items and count the number of items presented in each entity’s financial statements. To find factors affecting the level of information disclosure, we distribute and collect structured questionnaires and then analyze the data using Cronbach’s Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and multiple linear regression. The findings reveal that the average disclosure index reaches 55.6% of the expected items, and four groups of factors significantly affect the level of information disclosure, including: (1) cooperative-specific characteristics, (2) financial factors, (3) internal control and monitoring, and (4) the legal environment. These results contribute to refining the theoretical framework of financial disclosure within the collective economic sector and provide policy recommendations to enhance financial transparency in agricultural cooperatives in the Northwestern provinces of Vietnam. The implications of this study can also be applied to other countries with similar economic structures or enterprise models to those of agricultural cooperatives in Northwestern Vietnam.