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In this paper, we examine the factors that are likely to explain the use of the internet as a vehicle for voluntary financial reporting by companies in Bahrain and Kuwait. A total of 75 companies (Kuwait 42 and Bahrain 33) were investigated to find out if they had websites and presented their financial statements on the internet. For Kuwait, 47.6% and for Bahrain 48.5% of sample companies had their own websites. Six variables were tested to examine their influence on the financial reporting by companies on the internet. A discriminant analysis was performed on the data and the results indicated that size (log of total assets) and industry were the main factors which influenced the financial reporting practices of companies on the internet. These results are in line with prior evidence. There is some indication that risk may also contribute to some extent in such decision. Perceptions of advantages and problems in using this new technology for financial reporting were also examined. It appears that the usage of this technology is still limited and slow in this part of the world, perhaps because of cultural dimensions and constraints.

The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically factors influencing Kuwaiti companies to disseminate their financial reports on the Internet. A regression model is estimated using logit analysis for a sample of 179 Kuwaiti companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange for 2007 to test the hypotheses of the study. The study’s results indicate that an Internet financial report is significantly influenced by the auditor type, company size and industry type. The results, however, do not provide evidence of a significant relation between Internet financial reports and any of the corporate governance attributes that were examined in this study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the ownership of institutional shareholders, the proportion of non-executive members, the percentage of ownership of major shareholders, the duality of the tasks of chief executive officer and chairman of the board of director, financial leverage, the amount of the remuneration of the board of director, the company’s life and the amount of export on internet financial reporting.

For this purpose, the authors surveyed the 301 listed companies on Tehran Stock Exchange in 2015. The statistical method used to test the hypothesis of the study was cross-sectional data.

The results indicate the negative impact of ratio of non-executive members and the positive impact of financial leverage, size, liquidity and the life of the company in stock, over internet financial reporting.

The current study is almost the first study which is conducted in a developing country, and the results may helpful to the other developing nations.

The inherent nature of the Internet affects financial reporting in the sense that information on a website is available to anyone, anywhere and at any time. Financial reporting on the Internet reduces the cost of financial reporting, makes instantaneous reporting a reality, adds breadth and depth to business reporting, allows analytical tools to be used on underlying business data and makes it easier to disseminate reports to any place in the world where there is a computer. A cursory exploration of financial reporting on the websites of South African companies reveals great variations in terms of the amount of content (e.g. summary financial statements vs detailed financial statements), the style of presentation (e.g. similar to paper‐based reports vs inclusion of multi‐media) and the manner in which companies incorporate navigation aids (e.g. hyperlinks, search boxes and others). The advantages of the Internet as a new mode of information dissemination are clear, but Internet financial reporting creates a number of challenges for companies and their auditors as well as for regulatory and standard‐setting organisations. This paper assesses Internet reporting in South Africa. It explores the manner in which financial and certain non‐financial information is presented on companies’ websites and determine whether reporting practices on the websites of South African companies differ fromthose of their international counterparts. The study revealed that although Internet usage in South Africa has expanded as a medium for presentation of financial information via companies’ websites, top South African companies use their websites as a bulletin board with limited real‐time financial information and note disclaimers.

This paper examines international pronouncements on the audit function and Internet financial reporting and assesses whether the practices and policies reflected in these pronouncements are followed by the auditors of top South African companies. As a secondary objective, this study also attempted to determine how South African auditors perceive the influence that Internet reporting may have on the auditing profession in future. The analysis shows that many of the procedures required of auditors and Internet reporting have already been defined by international standardsetting bodies, but that the audit firms which responded to the questionnaire in this study do not yet have well‐established policies and practices regarding Internet reporting. There is still some uncertainty regarding Internet financial reporting in the responding audit firms, as was reflected in their perceptions of the future of Internet financial reporting and its impact on the audit function. The responding audit firms were reluctant to expand their responsibilities with regard to Internet financial reporting.

In recent years accounting standard setters and professional bodies have issued directives aimed at improving the transparency and accessibility of financial reports compiled by government agencies. This study examines the availability and accessibility of local government financial reports on the Internet for a sample of 300 U.S. municipalities of varying size. Results indicate that provision of financial reports is more prominent among larger cities. Cities with higher income per capita and higher levels of accounting disclosure are also more likely to provide financial reports on the Internet. The accessibility of the financial data reported on the Internet is positively related to the number of residents, resident income per capita, and level of debt and financial position of the municipality.

The present study seeks to paint the current state of voluntary disclosure of internet financial reporting (IFR) in Bangladesh as an example of an emerging economy and to investigate empirically some company characteristics as determinants of such practice.

Using a sample of 83 listed companies in Bangladesh in the year 2009 and the disclosure index of Deller et al., Marston, Xiao et al. and Marston and Polei and comments from the users and investors of Bangladesh, the study employs statistical analysis to investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure of IFR.

The findings revealed that only 29.12 percent (83) companies had web sites out of the 285 listed companies and only 33.34 percent (28) companies' provided financial information. Out of seven variables, only big audit firms and non‐family ownership variables were significantly associated with the levels of voluntary disclosure. Another important result revealed that despite the mandatory requirements of having audit committee in Bangladesh, the companies without the audit committee were disclosing voluntary information more and it raised the question on the lack of regulatory enforcement in Bangladesh.

The scope of this study is limited to a single country; it would be interesting to replicate this study to a group of emerging countries which have many similarities to the Bangladesh environment.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no studies have been conducted on IFR in a South Asian emerging country, in particular Bangladesh. The study also is the first of its kind to examine the whole population of a period in any country which enhances contribution to IFR literature. Unlike the prior studies conducted in emerging countries, the study contributes not only to the present state of IFR by the listed companies in Bangladesh but also the connectivity problem between the dream and reality of the digital Bangladesh concept. The study also finds that the companies' IFR practices are not influenced by “Digital Bangladesh” concept.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the determinants of web‐based corporate reporting by French‐listed firms.

The paper is based on a literature review of the determinants of web‐based corporate disclosures and is both descriptive and explicative. It analyzes the use of the internet to disseminate corporate information and examines the extent of web‐based corporate disclosure by developing a set of disclosure indexes. To test the authors' hypotheses, an OLS regression framework was estimated on a sample of 529 French‐listed firms in 2005.

Descriptive analysis shows that French firms are using the internet to disseminate existing rather than timely information. The results show that large‐sized firms, large‐audited firms, firms featuring a dispersed ownership structure, those that have issued bonds or equities and IT industry firms extensively used the web to disclose information to their shareholders. The results also show that voluntary disclosures are more suited for the internet than mandatory disclosures.

The study does not cover all information provided on web sites, particularly those about the impact of IFRS on companies' accounts.

The findings are useful to both managers, wishing to meet actual and potential investors' informational needs and to investors wishing to invest in a richer informational environment and to better assess firm value.

This paper provides a better understanding of the choice of the internet to release information in the French context, where internet corporate reporting is not standardized as in the USA and Canada.

So far, there has been little research on the extent or implications of corporate reporting on the Internet. This paper identifies the type of work which has been done to date in this new field, and proceeds to outline some possible areas and questions for future research work. The discussion falls into the five following principal areas: Corporate governance, and the nature of the stakeholder/company relationship; The company’s viewpoint: incentives and disincentives for expanded financial reporting; Verification: the changing role of audit; Information/communication issues; Ethical, behavioural and philosophical aspects.

Research reveals that there is little empirical evidence of the internet financial reporting (IFR) phenomenon in the Gulf Co‐operation Council (GCC) region. This paper attempts to fill some of the gap in our knowledge of IFR practices in Qatar. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is two‐fold. First, it documents the extent and variety of practices of IFR by the 43 companies listed on the Doha Securities Market (DSM). Second, it seeks to examine the key factors that affect the engagement of IFR by the DSM‐listed companies. The findings of the descriptive analysis indicate that 39 of the 43 listed companies operate websites, of which only 28 provide financial information on their websites. Of these 28 companies, 25 provide a complete set of financial statements (including footnotes and the auditor’s report) for two‐year periods or more. The results also show that the majority of the Qatari companies (25 out of 28) use the PDF format to disclose their financial information, and few companies choose to use the internet to provide additional financial highlights, in the form of HTML and MS PowerPoint. The empirical analysis also finds a significant relationship between the engagement of IFR and company size, profitability, and ownership structure. The overall conclusion is that there is a seemingly limited use of the internet for IFR purpose and that IFR is still at an embryonic stage in Qatar, with many opportunities and challenges for all stakeholder parties in corporate reporting. The applicability and implications of the underlying research findings should be of value to the accounting regulators and standard‐setters in the region, particularly the Gulf Co‐operation Council Accounting and Auditing Organization (GCCAAO). The overall findings justify, in the very least, a wider and more detailed study by GCCAAO of important issues such as the major audit implications of IFR and the state of regulation on IFR in the GCC region.