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The objective of this study is to investigate the current status quo of online reporting in 2010. Further, this study seeks to explain corporate online reporting in Jordan by using companies' characteristics as explanatory factors for any variations in disclosure. Finally, the current findings are set in the context of prior studies in order to determine the existence of disclosure transformation.

Listed Jordanian companies were investigated to explore the current status of corporate online reporting. An un‐weighted index comprising 70 un‐weighted financial and non‐financial items was employed.

A total of 175 of 272 companies were found with accessible and active websites. The overall average level of corporate online reporting was 70 percent, as measured by the mean of the overall items of the current index. Variations in corporate online reporting were associated with size, performance, foreign ownership and online company familiarity.

This study provides a comprehensive online disclosure index that can be used to inform Jordanian companies about the format and the content of corporate online reporting. It also offers a solid ground for future research on corporate online reporting. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that corporate online reporting had been moved forward but there is plenty of room to further explore the field.

This paper provides evidence on the current status quo of online reporting in Jordan as one of the emerging economies in 2010 as a year with great expectations and predictions. This paper is the first to examine several companies' characteristics by using multivariate analyses. This paper also examines the online companies' familiarity for the first time as a potential factor affecting corporate online reporting in the literature. Moreover, the trend analysis shows corporate online reporting has steadily risen over the past few years, which is evidence of disclosure transformation theory in Jordan as it is in other emerging economies.

Purpose – This paper examines the extent to which Saudi listed companies report online information about their corporate governance practice in light of the guidance issued by the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (SACMA), thereafter.

Methodology – We adopted a content analysis approach, accordingly a corporate governance disclosure index is developed to analyse the content of every company's website.

Findings – We found that the majority of Saudi listed companies utilise the Internet to communicate some information about corporate governance to their stakeholders. We also found that the level of online reporting of corporate governance varies between sectors. In particular, the paper revealed that the banking sector has the highest level of corporate governance disclosure compared with other sectors. On the other side, companies in the industry and service sectors provide very little information about corporate governance on their websites. The results suggest that the nature of control over the sector, the involvement of government in the ownership and management of businesses and some social assumptions could have an impact on companies’ decision to disclose online information about their corporate governance in developing countries.

Practical implications – The importance of investigating online reporting of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia emerges from the fact that SACMA published a guidance in 2006 that recommends the disclosure of corporate governance information by Saudi listed companies. Therefore, it would be worthwhile informing SACMA about the extent of compliance with the guidance of corporate governance. This is essential taking into consideration two facts: first, the recent remarkable growth of the Saudi stock market which was accompanied by significant increase in the demand for additional information by stakeholders; second, the recent increase of the utilisation of the Internet by companies for disclosure purposes worldwide. Further, the results of this research study could add to our limited knowledge about the practice of corporate governance in developing countries.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the limited literature on disclosure practices in developing countries in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular. Our review of the literature revealed that there is no study to date on online disclosure of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia and very limited research has been carried out in developing countries in general. This is important taking into consideration environmental factors of developing countries, which could bring different sight in the issue of the disclosure of corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore who uses narrative reporting information contained within online corporate annual reports and assess the relative use of different types of narrative information.

Web server logs were used to analyse over one million instances where information is successfully delivered to users of the corporate web sites of 15 FTSE 350 companies.

The most frequent users of the online annual report are, respectively, private individuals, those registered under internet service providers, employees and professional investors/creditors. The results suggest that those with greater experience and expertise in preparing and using financial accounts adopt different information preferences with respect to the online annual report. Although experienced users such as professional investors, creditors and accounting firms use the annual report to download predominantly detailed financial accounting data, the widespread availability and accessibility of the online annual report allows narratives to provide a source of general company information for employees and a wider stakeholder audience.

The paper presents the first large‐scale survey into the use and users of online annual reports.

This paper aims to examine the nature and extent of disclosure on the use of big data by online platform companies and how these disclosures address and discharge stakeholder accountability.

Content analysis of annual reports and data policy documents of 100 online platform companies were used for this study. More specifically, the study develops a comprehensive big data disclosure framework to assess the nature and extent of disclosures provided in corporate reports. This framework also assists in evaluating the effect of the size of the company, industry and country in which they operate on disclosures.

The analysis reveals that most companies made limited disclosure on how they manage big data. Only two of the 100 online platform companies have provided moderate disclosures on big data related issues. The focus of disclosure by the online platform companies is more on data regulation compliance and privacy protection, but significantly less on the accountability and ethical issues of big data use. More specifically, critical issues, such as stakeholder engagement, breaches of customer information and data reporting and controlling mechanisms are largely overlooked in current disclosures. The analysis confirms that current attention has been predominantly given to powerful stakeholders such as regulators as a result of compliance pressure while the accountability pressure has yet to keep up the pace.

The study findings may be limited by the use of a new accountability disclosure index and the specific focus on online platform companies.

Although big data permeates, the number of users and uses grow and big data use has become more ingrained into society, this study provides evidence that ethical and accountability issues persist, even among the largest online companies. The findings of this study improve the understanding of the current state of online companies’ reporting practices on big data use, particularly the issues and gaps in the reporting process, which will help policymakers and standard setters develop future data disclosure policies.

From these findings, the study improves the understanding of the current state of online companies’ reporting practices on big data use, particularly the issues and gaps in the reporting process – which are helpful for policymakers and standard setters to develop data disclosure policies.

This study provides an analysis of ethical and social issues surrounding big data accountability, an emerging but increasingly important area that needs urgent attention and more research. It also adds a new disclosure dimension to the existing accountability literature and provides practical suggestions to balance the interaction between online platform companies and their stakeholders to promote the responsible use of big data.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations for and the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) online reporting on organisational identity development and stakeholder relationship management through corporate web communication and information strategies.

A content analysis method is utilised to critique evidence of the use and impact of online CSR reporting in three selected corporate web sites from the automotive industry. In particular, sustainability and environmental social responsibility reporting, evidence of stakeholder engagement and acknowledgement of societal concerns for corporate identity and reputation management are critiqued from a framework of persuasion and credibility alongside organisational role responsibility.

The findings concurred with current research in corporate communication that documents the significant rise in the use of corporate web sites for the reporting of CSR activities and in corporate attempts to acknowledge and respond to changing local/national and global societal expectations concerning business practices. The automotive industry web sites showed recognition of this increase in societal expectations, projection of a desired corporate identity and the subsequent monitoring of a consistent and accessible communication strategy directed at all stakeholders.

While the findings reflect the literature, the evaluation of three selected global web sites within one industry sector only allows for conclusions reflecting generalisations. Future research will necessarily incorporate consideration of both traditional and contemporary national cultures, into such evaluations.

Exploring the traditional and non‐traditional motivations for CSR and their impact on CSR reporting for a globalised world.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, this study analyzes the extent to which banks report online their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; second, it determines the impact of size, ownership structure, multiple exchange listing, and the internationalization of banks on the level of their online CSR reporting.

This study examines the Turkish banking industry’s online CSR communications by performing a content analysis of banks’ online reporting of their CSR practices in four sub-dimensions, namely, environment and energy, human resources, products and customers, and community involvement. A sample of 25 banks in Turkey was grouped according to the criteria of size, ownership structure (listed or unlisted on stock exchanges), multiple exchange listing (listing on home and foreign exchanges), and internationality (local or foreign). This study employs a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test to determine the significance of the differences among these groups.

The results of the study demonstrate that the most disclosed dimension on the websites of the banks is products and customers. In particular, there is a lack of disclosure on items of environment and energy. Further, the findings of the research show that size, ownership structure, and multiple exchange listing are significant in explaining online CSR disclosure level.

Several previous studies have focussed less on the CSR disclosure practices of companies in industries with little direct environmental impact, such as banking and finance. This study extends the previous studies of CSR reporting by gathering data from the banks’ websites rather than their annual reports. This study contributes to the literature by examining the online CSR disclosure practices of banks from an emerging market context and, specifically, that of Turkey.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate upon the notion of counter accounting, to assess the potentiality of online reports for counter accounting and hence for counter accounting's emancipatory potential as online reporting, to assess the extent to which this potential is being realised and to suggest ways forward from a critical perspective.

There are several components to a critical interpretive analysis: critical evaluative analysis, informed to some extent by prior literature in diverse fields; web survey; questionnaire survey; case study.

Web‐based counter accounting may be understood as having emancipatory potential, some of which is being realised in practice. Not all the positive potential is, however, being realised as one might hope: things that might properly be done are not always being done. And there are threats to progress in the future.

Clarification of a notion of counter accounting incorporating the activity of groups such as pressure groups and NGOs; rare study into practices and opinions in this context through a critical evaluative lens.

The purpose of this paper is to provide exploratory evidence about the use of the internet for disclosure purposes by non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange – and influences thereon – at two points in time: 2010 and 2011. Selection of these periods permits direct investigation of the extent to which the disruption caused by the popular uprising in early 2011 impacted on practice.

The sample comprises all of the 172 non-financial listed companies at the end of 2010. A disclosure index was developed to evaluate the content of the investigated websites in 2010 and 2011. Univariate and multivariate analysis is used to examine the cross-sectional determinants of disclosure both in total and in terms of three specific content categories.

The study reveals that 40.7 and 42.7 per cent of the sample companies provided some form of financial information via their websites in 2010 and 2011, respectively (i.e. pre and post the Spring 2011 political revolution). The results of the multivariate analysis indicate consistency across the two years in terms of total score determinants, but some variation in the disaggregated evidence.

This study indicates that Egyptian firms have started embracing the power of the internet as a disclosure channel, but the extent of these practices is still limited, with great variations evident amongst the sampled companies in this regard. Encouragingly, the disruption caused by the political upheaval in 2011 appears not to have caused reduction in the propensity to provide online disclosures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of online corporate reporting in three Latin American emerging markets, Argentina, Mexico and Chile, providing further evidence to test the mediation role of web presence development in the relationship between these determinants and e-disclosure. Web presence development measures the firm's efforts to archive web visibility, web usability and convenience.

Based on a content analysis of corporate web sites, the extent of the information is measured by three internet disclosure indexes. Four constructs which are considered key drivers of a firm's disclosure strategy are identified. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the research model. The sample contains publicly available data on listed companies’ web sites.

The results reveal that the development of a firm's presence on the internet is as important as its characteristics in determining corporate transparency and in mediating the relationship between firm size and cross-listing and e-disclosure.

Companies should be aware that investors are attaching increasing importance to corporate transparency. Consequently, managers should put more effort into improving web sites, which would increase corporate visibility and open up a direct communication channel with their stakeholders. They should also take advantage of web sites to provide information, above and beyond that required by local law. Not only do current and potential investors find this useful, it also increases their confidence in the company.

This paper proposes an integrative model of the determinants of the level of online corporate reporting using constructs that reflect their multidimensional nature. A non-financial latent variable for web presence on the internet is proposed as a mediator in the relationship between e-disclosure and traditional determinants. The SEM approach simultaneously examines the direct and indirect relationships between the proposed latent variables and how these relationships influence the level of e-disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential factors that may affect the level of corporate internet reporting by Egyptian listed companies.

The content analysis approach to examine the information cited by the largest Egyptian companies is used in their web sites. The paper modifies and uses the disclosure index of Xiao et al. Ordinary least square multiple regression analysis is used to examine the determinants of the internet reporting.

It is found that 56 per cent of Egyptian companies report a significant portion of information on their web sites. In addition, the paper finds that some financial characteristics explain the variation in the degree of internet reporting between Egyptian listed companies. In particular, profitability, foreign listing and industrial type (communications and financial services) are the determinants of the amount and presentation formatting of information disclosed on Egyptian companies' web sites. However, other firm characterises, such as firm size, leverage, liquidity and auditor size, do not explain corporate internet reporting.

The research finding is essential as it assists in informing regulators about the characteristics of Egyptian companies that are, and are not, satisfying national and international investors' demand of updated/online information. It also assists current and potential stakeholders to know the drives of corporate internet reporting in Egypt. Consequently, they may further investigate and verify such reporting practices. In practice, online reporting can be used as an effective tool for improving stakeholders' decision‐making process. Therefore, further research can be undertaken to examine the degree to which online reporting provides value‐relevant information for stakeholders.

To the best of the knowledge, there is no study examining the potential drivers of internet corporate reporting practice in Egypt. This paper is the first to examine the potential factors affecting corporate internet reporting in Egypt. The disclosure index used is designed to be suitable for companies working in the Egyptian environment.