Abstract

The main objective of the present study is to identify the extent of corporate internet reporting practices in an emerging economy through the extent of disclosing mandatory and voluntary information on the internet. It also addresses the determinants of such reporting practices. It uses sample from Bangladesh, an emerging capital market with few disclosure studies regarding corporate internet reporting.
To measure the extent of mandatory and voluntary disclosure two self constructed checklists were used. The results of the checklist are analysed in total and by different categories. By using a sample size of 234 companies, both bivariate and multivariate analysis is performed to identify the determinants of mandatory and voluntary disclosure on the internet.
The result indicates that about 90.70% companies have websites and all of them disclose a small amount of corporate information. While the extent of mandatory reporting is 66.24%, the extent of voluntary reporting is 35.46%. The telecommunication sector discloses the highest amount of mandatory information and the banking sector discloses the highest amount of voluntary information on the internet. The tannery sector discloses the lowest amount of mandatory and voluntary information.
The result also reveals that audit firm’s international link, independent directors in the board and dual leadership structure have significant positive association and profitability measured by ROE has significant negative association with the level of disclosing of mandatory and voluntary information by the Bangladeshi companies. Although firm size, multinational parent, and industry type have significant positive association with the level of disclosing voluntary information, they are non-significant in mandatory disclosure. In addition, board size, ownership structure and company age has non- significant association with the level of both mandatory and voluntary disclosure.
By providing the current status of disclosing mandatory and voluntary information on the internet, this study contributes to reduce the existing gap in the literature relating to emerging economies and helps to identify the need for international standards for this type of reporting.