An Empirical Investigation of Factors Influencing Voluntary Disclosure of Financial Information on the Internet in the GCC Countries

Abstract:     
This paper examines the extent of financial information disclosed on the Internet by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. We collected data from listed companies in stock market of a representative group of GCC countries, to test research hypotheses related to the association between company characteristics and the voluntary dissemination of financial information on the Internet based on industry type and country.

A cross-section of all 128 companies currently listed on the stock exchange of the selected GCC countries were determined. A hierarchical forward stepwise in logistic regression was undertaken to assess whether voluntary dissemination of financial information on the Internet was related to firm size, leverage, and profitability. Our results revealed that the probability of a firm to publish financial information on the Internet does not only depend on individual characteristic, but on a combination of interaction effects among firm characteristics (size, leverage, and profitability), industry type, and country.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 27

Keywords: voluntary disclosure, web financial information, financial reporting, GCC stock market, logistic regression

JEL Classification: M41 M45, O16, M14

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