Key determinants of the voluntary adoption of corporate internet reporting and its consequence on firm value : evidence from Egypt

Abstract

Corporate Internet reporting represents one of the voluntary types which helps to achieve transparency by disseminating various types of timely information by using different presentation types and easily accessible tools. Corporate governance has become one of the most crucial issues in recent years due to the consequent scandals that have happened either in developed or developing countries. Therefore, most stakeholders demand greater transparency within the disclosed information provided by various companies. Consequently, the current study aims to contribute to the disclosure literature by examining the association between corporate Internet reporting and its main components, and corporate governance and ownership structure variables in one of the developing countries, namely Egypt, based on a comprehensive theoretical framework and explore the economic consequences of corporate Internet reporting and its main components. By using a self-construct disclosure index, the study measures corporate Internet reporting based on an un-weighted checklist that includes 100 items. Of the Egyptian listed companies, 343 are surveyed to explore the extent of corporate Internet reporting. The findings reveal that about half of the Egyptian listed companies have a website. However, the level of corporate Internet reporting is slightly low relatively to the developed countries. The results of the empirical findings demonstrate that corporate Internet reporting by Egyptian listed companies is influenced by various variables such as company size, leverage, legal form, asset in place, financial type, foreign listing, audit type, shares volatility, shares activity, shares issuance, block holder ownership, managerial ownership, governmental ownership, institutional ownership, board size and family members on the board. In addition, the study indicates that these determinants vary among the various components of corporate Internet reporting: content, presentation, timeliness and usability. Finally, the study provides empirical evidence that corporate Internet reporting has a positive impact on firm value. Such a finding demonstrates the importance of corporate Internet reporting in the Egyptian context and reveals the motivation for applying such a disclosure medium.