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This paper aims to examine the effect of Web-based financial reporting and social media platforms on the proxies of information asymmetry in the Saudi Stock Exchange.

The sample of this paper consists of 133 Saudi listed non-financial companies for the year 2019. Web-based disclosure level was measured using 25 items, and the social media platforms examined in this study are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The information asymmetry proxies are measured using the relative spread and the time-weighted average bid-ask spread.

The empirical results have shown that there is a negative and significant relation between Web-based financial reporting and the adoption of social media platforms and the proxies of information asymmetry. Indeed, the relative spread and the time-weighted average bid-ask spread decreased with increased Web-based reporting levels. Among three platforms (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), the results show that only the use of Twitter as a channel for information disclosure has a negative and significant effect on information asymmetry proxies. Consequently, in the Saudi context, the authors demonstrate that the assumptions of the agency, stewardship and signaling theories are supported. Also, results reveal that the effect of information disclosure through websites and social media on reducing information asymmetry is stronger for large companies than small companies.

The paper provides new insights into the role played by websites and social media platforms in the reduction of the information asymmetry in the stock market. Consequently, investors and regulatory authorities in the Saudi financial market must give great importance to online information disclosure and its implications for lowering information asymmetry. This empirical study informs regulators in Saudi Arabia to conduct the better practice of Web-based and social media financial reporting and to regulate the current practice of information disclosure. Besides, the obtained results have the potential to convince firms’ managers to improve online information disclosure to benefit from the reduction in information asymmetry.

Unlike previous studies, this study investigates, simultaneously, the effect of Web-based and social media information disclosure on the proxies of information asymmetry in a developing economy. In addition, the hypotheses of this study are developed based on a set of theories (the agency, signaling and stewardship theories), to verify the applicability of these three theories in the Saudi context.

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.

Web‐based corporate reporting has emerged as a new mode of communication between companies and stakeholders. The purpose of this research is to assess the perception of various stakeholders on adequacy, usefulness and the future of web‐based corporate reporting.

A questionnaire was administered to 255 respondents and factor analysis was applied to analyse the data.

Factor analysis identified eight factors, which describe stakeholders’ perceptions about web‐based corporate reporting. These include usefulness of web reporting, future prospects, legal acceptability, adequacy of information, usefulness for investment decision, standardisation of content, mandatory requirement and substitute for traditional reporting.

The research findings will guide companies, regulators and service providers to deliver better information to stakeholders through disclosures on corporate websites.

The paper provides an insight into stakeholders’ beliefs and perceptions with respect to web reporting practices by companies and the future of these practices.

While the idea of control packages goes back to the early 1980s, empirical management accounting researchers have been reluctant to examine this broader view of management control. Past research has addressed the use of management control for the organization as a whole, as well as for specific objects of control. While those objects of control typically involve information available for internal uses, we do not know much about the role of management control when the object of control is comprised of information intended to be disclosed outside the organization. This study aims to examine the role of a control package to manage web-based corporate reporting. More specifically, this study aims to examine the antecedents and consequences of a management control package related to web site content. The results suggest that perceived environmental uncertainty and stakeholder orientation are key factors that influence the extent of use of the management control package. Moreover, the extent of use of a management control package is associated with the quality of web site content but not the quantity of information disclosed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of web-based Online Financial Reporting Disclosure (OFRD) in Islamic banking in Oman.

A checklist was developed to measure the level of Web-based Online Financial Reporting Disclosure in Islamic banking consist of 70 items (Appendix). The sample of the study consists of Islamic banking in Oman.

The findings of the descriptive analysis indicated that the overall level of web-based online financial reporting disclosure was 69%.

The practical implication of the results are helping the authorities to put more efforts toward the quality of web-based online information to satisfy all parties.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no similar research done to explore the level of web-based online financial reporting Disclosure (OFRD) in Islamic banking in Oman

Company disclosures on the web are a useful tool to promote the efficiency of financial markets. Moreover, they can be a source of strategic financial communication. The objective of the study reported in this paper is to make an inventory of the information published on the web sites of companies listed in the Moroccan and Tunisian stock exchanges, and to compare the practices of those companies with those of their European counterparts. The study also seeks to identify the determinants of these disclosures.

The study develops a composite scale to measure the quality of web site disclosures. This scale is used to score the web sites of the top 91 companies listed on the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges in 2007. The quality of those web sites is compared with the quality of some web sites of European companies. A number of hypotheses relating to the determinants of web site quality are then tested using linear modeling techniques.

Two thirds of the firms listed in the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges have a web site (www.casablanca‐bourse.com). An average of 39.7 percent of Moroccan web sites and 19.4 percent of those from Tunisia meet the benchmark quality criteria used by this study, compared with between 48 percent and 61 percent for European firms. The average extended score is 32.80 percent; Moroccan firms score 38.34 percent on average, while Tunisian firms score 28.12 percent. The determinants of this information level are found to be accounting performance and the proportion of shares held by foreigners. Web site quality is also linked to firm size. Apart from those characteristics, no effect of the economic sector, the country or market performance could be detected.

The study presents an international comparison (north/south) and builds a novel scale in order to explain web disclosures. This is an area that has not previously been explored, and includes some financial markets that are under‐researched.

The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed descriptive account and analysis of corporate internet reporting (CIR) practices among non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) at two points in time – December 2010 (pre) and December 2013 (peri) political and social unrest in Egypt.

The study developed a disclosure index to determine the extent of CIR practices among all non-financial companies listed on the EGX in December 2010 and December 2013. The study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and isometric log-ratio transformations for compositional independent variables to empirically examine the factors affecting CIR in Egypt using a modern institutional theory lens.

The findings of this investigation suggest that listed companies in Egypt have started embracing the power of the internet as a disclosure channel, but the extent of these practices increased significantly over the investigated period, with great variations evident among the sampled companies in this regard. Such variations were chiefly dependent on the changing institutional actors over the two time frames. Additionally, the findings show that the time factor is particularly important for a given institutional field to induce a sufficient diffusion of corporate practices, especially in periods with drastic institutional change.

The evidence presented reflects the voluntary nature of CIR practices and the absence of a reinforced regulatory framework for organizing and monitoring such practices, with companies having discretion in terms of the amount and type of information disclosed via their websites. The results should, therefore, provide useful guidelines for regulators and standard-setters in identifying best practices, which, in turn, should allow CIR practices to become more consistent, making them easier to monitor and govern.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines CIR practices at two points in time using a comprehensive disclosure index and a modern institutional theory lens.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of financial reporting on the internet by companies operating in an emerging economy, namely Jordan.

The paper surveys 127 companies listed in the first market of Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) for the year ended 2008/2009. The primary sources of the data used in this study are the global and the Jordanian electronic web sites. The paper employs descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests to explore the internet financial reporting (IFR) practices among Jordanian companies.

The results show that 87 Jordanian companies (69 percent) possess web sites with about 51 percent (44 of the 87) include financial reports and 32 out of 44 companies (about 73 percent) disseminate all their financial information on their web sites. The paper also finds that the extent of disclosure of the corporate financial and nonfinancial information on the ASE web site is statistically different form the companies’ web sites. Furthermore, the current paper reveals that some firm-specific characteristics such as firm size; financial leverage, age, and ownership concentration may distinguish those companies who engage in IFR from their counterparts. Finally, the results suggest that the financial sector is more advanced in terms of using the internet to disseminate information when compared to the industrial and services sectors.

In the context of Jordan, there is limited number of studies attempted to address corporate financial reporting on the internet. Therefore, the present study makes significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge by shedding more light on the status of financial disclosure on the internet by companies operating in an emerging economy like Jordan. Also, the current paper explores the extent of corporate information disclosed on both the official web site of ASE and companies’ web sites.

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 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.