Corporate Internet Reporting Practice in Developing Economies: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract:     
Internet reporting is a recent phenomenon in Bangladesh. This paper investigates the internet corporate reporting practices of listed companies in Bangladesh. For this study, an Internet Disclosure Index (IDI) of 54 items is constructed, which incorporates content and presentation criteria. A total of 93 corporate websites under various sectors are screened, and both partial and aggregates scores were produced. The mean IDI score is 21.33 with standard deviation of 12.89. The disclosure ranges from 5.56 to 51.85. Hypothesis test results show that significant difference exists in the average IDI among the sectors. The results show that Bangladeshi companies have a lot of work to do in order to enhance the investor relations activities on the internet. Still now no company under Food & Allied sector provides any internet disclosure. As more and more people of Bangladesh are connecting themselves to the Internet, companies are expected to change their internet reporting practices, in terms of both content and disclosure.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 17

Keywords: Corporate Internet Reporting (CIR); Investor Relations; Content Disclosure, Presentation Format.

JEL Classification: G39

Accepted Paper Series