ROMANIAN COMPANIES’ WEB-BASED DISCLOSURE CHOICES AND CAPITAL MARKETS

This article aims to investigate the web-based disclosure choices andpractices among Romanian companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange. Web-based disclosure offers advantages that are absent in paper-based voluntarydisclosure: it can be accessed globally at much lower costs and it can be updatedmuch more timely also at much lower costs. Another goal of the paper is to establishthe criteria in order to select properly the sample companies. After presenting theadvantages and eventual risks of Internet Financial Reporting and analyzing previousinvestigative reports and articles, this paper investigates the degree to whichRomanian listed companies to disclose financial and non-financial information areusing the Internet. The web sites of these companies were examined throughout May2007 to May 2008, with a view to determining which companies present voluntaryfinancial or non-financial data in addition to the Annual Report and Accounts.internet financial reporting, mandatory and voluntary disclosure, capital markets,listed companies

The determinants of web-based investor relations activities by companies operating in emerging economies : the case of Jordan

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The Expectation Gap in Internet Financial Reporting: Evidence from an Emerging Capital Market

The development of the internet as a global medium has significantly impacted financial reporting environment of the companies. Recently, companies have started reporting their financial results and other information relating to business on their web pages. The internet offers the facility to provide all interested groups with information to make well-informed, timely investment decision thus reducing the information advantages of institutional investors and information intermediaries. This study examines the level of internet financial reporting in Turkey. Furthermore, it tries to find out whether there is an expectation gap in internet financial reporting. In this study, “expectation gap” refers to the difference between (1) what financial statement users perceive important in decision making process to be and (2) what companies actually disclose or present in their web pages. Our findings indicate that an expectation gap exists; financial statement users have higher expectations for various facets than what companies actually report in the areas such as; reports of analysts, phone number to investor relations, segmental reporting, financial data in processable format, and summary of financial data. Our findings serve as evidence that the companies should engage in appropriate actions to reduce this expectation gap.Internet, Financial Reporting, Turkey

VOLUNTARY INTERNET FINANCIAL REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE – A NEW CHALLENGE FOR ROMANIAN COMPANIES

The majority of IFR and disclosure studies are focused on USA and European developed countries. Only a few studies have been carried on CEE countries. This paper examines the extent of voluntary internet financial reporting and disclosure of the Romanianfinancial reporting, Internet, voluntary disclosure, listed companies

Exploring the use of online corporate sustainability information

Whilst the supply, exclusivity and prominence of online corporate sustainability information has increased in recent years, comparatively little is known about what information is used by whom. This paper explores which user groups access online corporate sustainability information, and assesses the relative use of sustainability reports and other forms of social and environmental information disseminated on corporate Websites. To collect the necessary empirical data, the paper analyses 4,652,471 successful requests for information made by the users of 10 UK FTSE 350 corporate websites. \ud \ud The paper finds that the majority of requests for online sustainability information originate from the reporting company indicative of an inward focus to sustainability reporting. In examining access to different online information sets, distinct profiles of corporate Website users begin to emerge. Requests from employees, private individuals, ISPs and consultants represent the vast majority of the online sustainability reporting audience and the corporate website in general. Contrastingly, a professional financially-orientated profile of users characterised by professional investors, creditors, accounting firms and lawyers make significantly more use of the Annual Report but significantly less use of sustainability reporting information and other online disclosures. Although prior literature notes how companies have yet to utilise the potential of the online medium in disseminating corporate sustainability information, disclosures are found to attract approximately a tenth of all corporate website requests. Environmental and ethical disclosures outside the Annual Report are the most popular sources of online corporate sustainability information whilst ‘standalone’ Sustainability and/or Ethics Reports attract comparatively few requests

The Determinants of Financial Reporting on The Internet: The Case of Companies Listed in The Istanbul Stock Exchange

The objective of this article is to explore the practices of Internet financial reporting by Turkish companies listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange  (ISE). For this purpose, the study investigated the the association between key firm characteristics and the level of internet financial reporting by Turkish companies. The sample which was examined contains 263 publicly traded Turkish companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The sample of the study contains companies with web sites as of December 2012. To achieve the purpose of the study descriptive analysis, multicollinearity analysis and regression analysis were employed. The findings of the study show positive relationships between the Internet financial reporting (measured by disclosure index) and the 4 independent variables which are size, leverage, profitability and liquidity. Furthermore,  the findings reveal that the size of the firm and profitability variables are statistically significant at the 5% level while the liquidity and leverage variables appeared to be statistically insignificant at the 5% level. Keywords: Internet, financial reporting, disclosure index

The Determinants of Financial Reporting on The Internet: The Case of Companies Listed in The Istanbul Stock Exchange

The objective of this article is to explore the practices of Internet financial reporting by Turkish companies listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). For this purpose, the study investigated the the association between key firm characteristics and the level of internet financial reporting by Turkish companies. The sample which was examined contains 263 publicly traded Turkish companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The sample of the study contains companies with web sites as of December 2012. To achieve the purpose of the study descriptive analysis, multicollinearity analysis and regression analysis were employed. The findings of the study show positive relationships between the Internet financial reporting (measured by disclosure index) and the 4 independent variables which are size, leverage, profitability and liquidity. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the size of the firm and profitability variables are statistically significant at the 5% level while the liquidity and leverage variables appeared to be statistically insignificant at the 5% level

Factors Influencing Companies to Engage in Voluntary Internet Financial Reporting: A Review

This paper aimed to survey the accounting literature for the supporting factors of voluntary internet financial reporting by corporations. It is generally and widely believed that the Internet may encourage companies to disclose more information and to develop websites for that purpose. However, these tendencies are limited by many concerns on the part of companies and users of companies’ financial information.     Thus, this study surveys the literature for the studies that may fall under any of the two categories. However, Studies that come under the first category have identified various factors that support voluntary internet financial disclosure. These include timeliness and updatability, cost savings, presentation flexibility and feedback, widening information provision among many others. The other category of those studies identified discouraging factors of internet financial reporting that include boarder problem, information overload, reliability, integrity, confidentiality of disclosed data, lack of regulations, access problems among other hampering factors. &nbsp

Investor relation internet disclosure and the cost of equity capital: an empirical analysis

This dissertation contributes to the academic literature by examining two issues in relation to corporate Internet disclosure. First, we make a detailed content analysis of the investor relation section on the Web sites of US companies to gain insight into the type and amount of information provided to investors on corporate Web sites and to establish a measure of the Internet disclosure level. We find that companies are not exploiting the full potential of this disclosure medium. In a second study, we examine the relation between the cost of equity capital and the disclosure level of information in the investor relation section of corporate Web sites. We regress the cost of equity capital, obtained from a comprehensive discounted cash flow model, on the disclosure measure from the content analysis study to examine the relationship between these two variables. For a cross-sectional sample of 141 non-financial US companies, we find a negative and highly significant association between the cost of equity capital and level of Internet investor relation disclosure. The results remain significant after controlling for potentially influential variables such as different risk characteristics and firm size. The results indicate thus that Internet disclosure is useful to investors

Internet financial reporting quality and corporate characteristics : the case of construction companies listed in Greek and Cypriot stock exchange

This study examines the role of the Internet in the financial reporting practices of publicly traded Greek and Cypriot construction companies. Its key contribution is the development of a relevant index that is assessed against key business characteristics: profitability, leverage, audit firm size, firm size, ownership dispersion, time length of operations, and market to book value. The association between the proposed index and firm characteristics was examined with the use of multiple regression analysis. Our findings indicate, among others, that Internet-related financial disclosure is significantly associated with profitability, leverage, firm age and ownership dispersion.peer-reviewe