Generally, companies want to disclose information where the benefits of such disclosure exceed the cost. This could lead to a situation where a company tells you the good stuff, but not the bad. Hence, standards are needed. Countries will pass standards based on the influential financers of companies. If financing is primarily private, company info will be kept fairly private.
Different cultures disclose different things.
One of the most important disclosures is the company s accounting policies this is used so that the reader can adjust for different accounting policies across different companies, enhancing comparability. Intermediate I class would be in aggregate. Means showing the individual pieces, not just the net. Intermediate I class would be in an example of segmentation. Further, disclosure of specific industry segments as required by U.S. GAAP is segmentation.