11.vol 0003www.iiste.org call for paper no 1 pp 3-25

Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting
Vol. 3, No. 1 June 2009
Pp 3-25

Internet Financial and Environmental
Disclosures by Malaysian Companies
Ali Saleh Alarussi
Faculty of Business and Finance
International University of Technology Twintech, Yemen

Mustafa Mohd Hanefah
Faculty of Economics and Muamalat
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

Mohamad Hisyam Selamat
College of Business
Universiti Utara Malaysia

Abstract

This paper investigates whether determinants of financial disclosure are similar to environ-
mental disclosure through the Internet. In other words, this paper examines the relationship
between Internet financial disclosure (IFD), Internet environmental disclosures (IED) and six
variables, namely, ethnic of chief executive officer (CEO), leverage, level of technology, listing
status, profitability, and firm size. Six hypotheses formulated in this study were analyzed using
data collected from the websites of 189 Malaysian listed companies in 2006. The results indi-
cate that level of technology, ethnic of CEO and firm size are significant factors in explaining
both IFD and IED. It is also observed that listing status is positively related to the level of IFD
but not IED. On the other hand, profitability is significant factor in explaining the level of IED
but not IFD. Finally, leverage is not significantly related to both IFD and IED.

Keywords: Malaysia, financial disclosure, environmental disclosure, Internet, determinants

Introduction is required to assist users in making de-
cision. In this case, the most valuable
As the financial market is facing global- information is the one that can reduce
ization, liberalization, and economic information asymmetry. Business firms
crisis and downturn, timely information are always looking for a new tool for

Ali Saleh Ahmed Alarussi, Ph.D. is currently assistant professor in International Accounting and Dean of the Faculty of
Business and Finance in International University of Technology Twintech (I, in Yemen and a General Manager in
Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA), email: al_arussi@yahoo.com. Prof. Mustafa Mohd Hanefah is
currently Professor of Accounting and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Ma-
laysia (USIM), email: mustafa@usim.edu.my. Mohamad Hisyam Selamat, Ph.D. is Lecturer in the College of Business,
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), email: hisyam@uum.edu.my

4 A.S. Alarussi, M.M. Hanefah, M.H. Selamat / Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting 1 (2009) 3-25

disseminating information to external have websites, in which 71% of them
users in the most efficient and timely have Internet annual reporting and 37%
manner. One of the tools that is available of them disclose auditor reports on the
in the market is Internet technology. web. Gowthorpe and Amat (1999) ex-
amine 379 companies listed on the Ma-
The rapid growth of Internet technology drid Stock Exchange and found that only
has enabled the firms to disclose their 61 companies (16%) have websites, in
financial information instantly to world- which 34 companies out of 61 compa-
wide users. The level of using such me- nies (55.7%) provide some form of fi-
dia has increased over the last couple of nancial information on their websites.
years in the financial markets
(Wagenhofer, 2003; Sriram and Due to Internet’s capability in dissemi-
Laksmana, 2006). This phenomenon has nating information at a high speed, many
attracted a number of researchers in this companies are now taking advantage to
particular field. Internet is an efficient disclose not only financial but also non-
instrument to communicate information financial information to their stake-
to external users at a minimum cost. The holders. One of the non-financial infor-
information on the Internet can be pre- mation is environmental information.
sented in various forms such as dynamic This is also due to the increase of public
presentations, draws, multimedia, audio, awareness on environmental issues.
video and others (Ettredge et al., 2002;
Ashbaugh et al., 1999). Nevertheless, several empirical studies
highlight a number of limitations that
The most important characteristic of the may hinder the Internet from becoming a
Internet is accessibility to all kinds of perfect medium for information disclo-
information at any time and from any- sure and communication. Some of these
where. Besides low costs of dissemina- limitations are related to securities, au-
tion (Botosan, 1997) and wide coverage thentication, confirmation or proof and
(Adham and Ahmed, 2005), the infor- legal obstacles (Joshi and Jawaher,
mation displayed on the Internet is 2003) and information-based problems
shareable, timeliness, and updateable such as information overload, poor web-
(Joshi and Jawaher, 2003). The Internet site design and advertisement, ambigu-
allows the companies to address diverse ous user preference and competence
needs of a variety of stakeholders at low (Lodhia, 2004). However, as the Internet
information gathering cost (Lodhia, has the capability to build a good rela-
2004). Thus, the use of the Internet en- tionship between companies and their
ables information disclosure to take stakeholders, and enable the stake-
place at a very high level of speed, quan- holders to make fast decision making, its
tity and quality compared to other media usage is on the increasing trend (Sriram
(AICPA, 1994; Wallman, 1995). and Laksmana, 2006).

However, the use of Internet in financial Despite the growth of Internet usage in
reporting and disclosure varies from one the financial market, academic research
country to another. For example, Gray in this area is still in its infancy stage,
and Debreceny (1997) found that 96% of especially in the developing countries
the Fortune 50 companies in the USA like Malaysia (Hassan et al., 1999; Noor

A.S. Alarussi, M.M. Hanefah, M.H. Selamat / Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting 1 (2009) 3-25 5

Azizi et al., 2000; Mitchell and Ho, net as a medium for disclosure, the man-
2000; Khadaroo, 2005). Therefore, this agement can reduce the agency problem
paper intends to investigate the determi- and alleviate information asymmetry due
nants of Internet financial and environ- to its unlimited space, wide coverage,
mental reporting amongst Malaysian easy-access report and real-time infor-
listed companies. The remainder of this mation (Sriram and Laksmana, 2006).
paper is structured as follows. Section 2
provides the theoretical background of In addition, an efficient equity market
Internet reporting, while section 3 re- requires comprehensive and transparent
views the determinants of IFD and IED. disclosures of the firms’ value and their
The research method used in this study performance (Levitt, 1999; Richardson
is explained in section 4. Section 5 pre- and Welker, 2001). Theoretically, the
sents the results of this study. Finally, level of disclosure should assist the
section 6 provides the conclusion and firms to lower the cost of capital. The
recommendations for future research. decrease in the cost of capital may come
from two perspectives. Firstly, higher
disclosure reduces transaction costs for
Internet Disclosure Theoretical Back- the investors resulting in greater liquid-
ground ity of the market and greater demand for
the securities (Diamond and Verrecchia,
The nature and extent of disclosure de- 1991). Secondly, additional disclosure
pend on the targeted users’ needs and reduces the estimation risk or uncer-
the medium of disclosure (Healy and tainty regarding return distribution
Palepu, 2000). The main concern here is (Clarkson et al., 1996). This is parallel to
that accounting information disclosure the requirement of Statement of Finan-
must not misleading (Moonitz, 1961). cial Accounting Concepts No. 1 (1978),
which states that the company should
The agency theory predicates that as provide information that is useful to pre-
conflicts arising from the separation of sent investors, creditors and other users
ownership and control of a firm, share- in assessing the amounts, timing and
holders would like to have assurance uncertainty of investment. Moreover,
that their equity is not exposed to any annual report is a medium through
unethical exploitation or expropriation which a firm would like to present itself
by the management. On the other hand, to other external and internal parties.
the management, in order to alleviate Thus, the more the firm discloses, the
this requirement, undertakes several vol- more the firm will preserve its reputa-
untary actions such as more disclosures tion.
and open investigation (Xiao et al.,
2004; Marston and Polei, 2004). Portes and Rey (2000) argue that al-
though disclosure can eliminate the ef-
The management has to provide and dis- fect of information asymmetry and sub-
close sufficient information in order to sequently reduce the cost of capital but it
minimize the agency gap and to has cost. Managers are now facing the
strengthen the share price of the com- problem of mitigating the costs and
pany (Richardson and Welker, 2001; benefits of different disclosure methods.
Rahman, 2002). In relation to the Inter- The alternative disclosure method in


recent years is information technology 99 out of 125 companies (79%) disclose
(IT), whereby the firms report their fi- their information on the website on the
nancial results via the Internet. This is same day of the announcement. On the
because traditional paper-based disclo- other hand, 10 out of 125 (8%) disclose
sure has its limitations. The increase in the information one day after the an-
global investments results in paper- nouncement. Thus, as long as the firms
based reporting become more expensive update their website faster, the investors
and limited in capacity to timely reach will make decisions quicker compared to
investors. In contrast, Internet disclosure those who do not have such facility. In
is more cost effective, faster, flexible in short, the Internet is an effective means
format, and accessible to all types of of providing timely information.
users nationally and globally (Debreceny
et al., 2002). Thus, the Internet has more Ettredge et al. (2002) examined how fast
benefits than other media of disclosure business firms uploaded and updated
such as newspapers, journals or other their information on their websites. The
printing media. The Internet offers easy results show that on average there is a
and equal access to all users and reduces lag of 30 days between the date the an-
the information advantages to some in- nual report is filed with the SEC, and the
stitutional investors in relative to others, date it is posted to the websites. They
which is in line with the democratization also find that some of the characteristics
of capital markets. are associated with fast or slow website
update. Studies have shown that more
From the aforementioned discussion, it profitable firms update their websites
is clear that the firms use the Internet faster than less profitable ones. In addi-
technology to reach more users than any tion, the firms that provide both PDF
other communication means. In addition, and HTML formats update their finan-
the speed of disclosure is very important cial information quicker and in a regular
to the users because they can exploit the basis than those which are not. They ar-
information that is disclosed by the firms gue that the presentation of both types of
for their own interest. In this case, the formats illustrates a commitment to
shorter the period between producing maintain a high-quality website.
information and displaying them on the
Internet enables investors to make deci- In a more advanced usage of the Inter-
sion faster. The speed of information net, some firms disclose other forms of
disseminated through the Internet has disclosure such as streaming audio and
several push techniques that can be used video on their websites. Streaming audio
to alert users such as email notice and allows interested individuals to listen to
other inbuilt alert systems (Wagenhofer, analysts’ conference classes, annual
2003). meetings and other presentations. Be-
sides that it can be used to broadcast
Petravick and Gillett (1996) examined conference calls in live or to provide an
the speed of one firm in releasing infor- archive of presentations from which the
mation on the website. The study in- Internet user can select. Some firms also
volved 125 of the Fortune 156 compa- provide video together with the stream-
nies that announced their quarter-end or ing audio (Hurtt et al., 2001).
year-end earnings. The results show that


The improvement of disclosure by using nature of investigations. Six determi-
the Internet as a reporting media is not nants are studied in this research and
limited to external parties only, but also discussed in the following six subsec-
improves the availability of financial tions.
information within the firms including
all processes that occur in the remote The Ethnic of Chief Executive Officer
place of the firm’s dispersed information
system. In this case, reporting and con- Race was identified as an important
solidation are improved and expedited. demographic factor in Malaysian disclo-
As a result, reporting frequency is in- sure practices (Haniffa and Cooke,
creased from annually or quarterly to 2002). In Malaysia, there are three major
monthly, weekly, daily or even almost races, namely, Malays, Chinese and In-
simultaneously with the financial state- dians. Malaysian economy is still very
ments announcement (Wagenhofer, much controlled by the Chinese, but the
2003). government is making greater efforts to
help the Malay to actively involve in the
To recapitulate, the use of IFD and IED business world by providing more train-
are becoming significant in the global ing and education. By providing educa-
market and considered beneficial. De- tion and training opportunities to the
spite several regulatory attempts to in- Malay, the government aims to eradicate
crease disclosure in many Asian coun- poverty among them. Thus, the authors
tries, the concern remains about weak find it worth (for academic purpose
level of financial reporting transparency only) to investigate this factor and figure
in the region (Morris et al., 2004). In out its effect on the extent of Internet
order to investigate this phenomenon, financial and environmental disclosures
there is a need to understand the deter- by the Malaysian listed companies. In
minants of Internet reporting especially addition, Malay values are different
in the Asian region. This paper aims to from the Chinese. Hofstede (1991) ob-
fill this gap by examining the determi- serves that Malay is low in individual-
nants of Internet reporting amongst Ma- ism at the ethnic level, more secretive,
laysian listed companies. The definition high uncertainty avoidance and more
and descriptions of these determinants focus on the short-term. They are Mus-
are listed in the next following section. lim and therefore influenced by the Is-
lamic principles and ethical values
(Haniffa and Cooke, 2002).
The Determinants of Internet Finan-
cial and Environmental Disclosure In addition, Chuah (1995) indicates that
race, culture and education are factors
A large number of studies in different that influence Malaysian managers’
countries had attempted to uncover the mind in addition to the type of organiza-
determinants of the extent of online fi- tion they work. Windsor and Ashkanasy
nancial and environmental disclosures. (1996) support Chuah’s (1995) findings
They proposed different determinants by saying that there is a relationship be-
and factors that may affect the extent of tween personal perception and organiza-
disclosure. However, there was no con- tional culture values amongst Malaysian
sistent result and this may be due to the managers, which ultimately influences


their preferences in decision-making. ing the level of voluntary disclosure
which fulfils the requirement of both
Haniffa and Cooke (2002) found that the shareholders and creditors.
chairman acting as non-executive direc-
tor has a negative association with the Previous studies found mixed results in
extent of voluntary disclosure. This re- relation to the association between lever-
sult is against the agency theory sugges- age and the extent of disclosure (Chow
tion that highlights the need for a non- and Boren, 1987; Garcia and Monter-
executive chairman in the company in rery, 1992). Richardson and Welker
order to create check and balance (2001) argue that social and financial
mechanism. Thus, it is interesting to ex- disclosures have similar determinants.
amine the relationship between the race Since there is an association between
of CEO and the extent of financial and leverage and financial disclosure, a simi-
environmental disclosure using a new lar relationship is expected in the case of
distribution media such as the Internet. environmental disclosure. Roberts
(1992) supports this view whereby he
This study therefore intends to examine observes that a high degree of depend-
the impact of CEO race on the extent of ence on debt would encourage a com-
Internet disclosure. The variable is pany to increase social activities and
measured by using a dummy variable disclose more environmental informa-
that is one if the CEO is Malay and zero tion in order to meet its creditors’ expec-
if otherwise. Therefore, the related part- tations on environmental issues. In addi-
ner hypotheses studied are as follows: tion it is also found that the higher the
H1-a: The ethnic of CEO influences the debt to equity ratio, the higher the social
extent of financial disclosure on and environmental disclosure would be
the Internet. made.
H1-b: The ethnic of CEO influences the
extent of environmental disclo- Although a positive association between
sure on the Internet. financial leverage and the extent of vol-
untary social responsibility disclosures is
Leverage revealed, Chow and Boren (1987) and
Ahmed and Nicholls (1994) state that
It is argued that when a company uses there is no significant association be-
large amount of debt, a monitoring prob- tween financial leverage and voluntary
lem arises between shareholders and disclosure. The difference in the associa-
creditors. This is for the following rea- tion between the leverage and voluntary
sons. On one hand, creditors would like disclosure illustrates that leverage might
to ensure that companies invest their be a poor proxy for firm risk (Dichev
fund in less risky investment so the ca- and Skinner, 2002). Ahmed et al. (2002)
pability of companies for paying back state that firms with lower leverage are
the debts is high. On the other hand, more likely to engage in environmental
shareholders would like to maximize reporting as a protective measure to
their wealth by investing the whole maintain a reasonable assessment of its
funds regardless how risky they are financial risk level.
(AICPA, 1994). The involved compa-
nies may solve this problem by increas- In summary, this study will examine the


impact of using external debt by Malay- between the level of technology and the
sian companies on the extent of financial extent of voluntary disclosure through
and environmental disclosures. Previous the Internet. They found a significant
studies define leverage as a ratio be- positive relationship between the level
tween long-term liabilities and total eq- of technology and the level of disclosure
uity (Roberts, 1992; Katsuhiko et al., via the Internet.
2001).Other studies define leverage as a
ratio between long term liabilities and This study attempts to examine the rela-
total assets (Haniffa and Cooke, 2002; tionship between the extent of Internet
Laswad et al., 2005; Alsaeed, 2005). financial and environmental disclosure
This study uses the second definition to and the level of technology in the listed
measure leverage. Therefore, the second firms. This variable is measured as a
identified partner hypotheses are as fol- dummy variable; one if the company has
lows: a technology department and zero if oth-
H2-a: The extent of financial disclosure erwise. Thus, the third partner hypothe-
on the Internet is positively re- ses are as follows:
lated to leverage H3-a: The extent of financial disclosure
H2-b: The extent of environmental dis- on the Internet is influenced by
closure on the Internet is posi- the level of technology.
tively related to leverage H3-b: The extent of environmental dis-
closure on the Internet is influ-
Level of Technology enced by the level of technology.

Jensen and Meckling (1995) argue that Listing Status
the relationship between knowledge
about the industry and agency cost is Wallace et al. (1994) examine the im-
significantly related. One of the factors pact of listing status on the level of vol-
that discourage firms in using the Inter- untary disclosure amongst Spain listed
net is due to the need for the experts. companies. Multivariate regression
The existence of technological services analysis is used to analyze the data. The
that are provided by the department of result shows a significant positive rela-
information systems is benefitting most tionship between listing status and the
of the firms (Lodhai, 2004). The depart- extent of voluntary disclosure.
ment of information system will assist in
preparing the information that is going Bursa Malaysia consists of two boards –
to be displayed on the website. Besides the main board and second board. The
the experiences in using the Internet as a main board companies must have a
modern technology media for disclosure, minimum paid-up capital of Ringgit Ma-
the department of information system laysia (RM) 60 millions while the sec-
will also reduce the cost of using the ond board companies are those that have
Internet such as maintaining, updating, a minimum paid-up capital of RM40
and website monitoring. This will en- millions in order to be listed (Yatim et
courage the firms to disclosure more al., 2006). The companies that do not
information. Debreceny et al. (2002) meet the criteria of main board can ap-
provide empirical evidence on this issue ply to be listed on the second board. Due
whereby they examine the association to the factors of size and capital, the


companies on the main board are in- man and Cooke, 2002; Suda and Ko-
clined to disclose more information on kubu, 1994; Chen and Jaggi, 2000; Gul
the Internet than those that are listed on and Leung, 2004). It is measured by us-
the second board. This is due to the fol- ing number of ratios such as return on
lowing reasons: assets and return on investment
The requirements that the com- (Camfferman and Cooke, 2002; Gul and
pany should fulfill if it wants to be Leung, 2004). However, in this study;
listed on the main board. Those profitability is defined from different
requirements are not similar to angle which is as earning per share
that of second board such as the (EPS). The authors would like to figure
level of transparency (Wong, out whether the differences in EPS
1996). amongst Malaysian companies play any
The competition amongst main significant role on the extent of internet
board companies is stiffer than financial and environmental disclosure.
those on the second board as in-
vestors are keen on them (Abdul Earning per share is a carefully scruti-
Samad, 2002). nized metric that is often used as an indi-
cator to measure a company's profitabil-
This particular variable has not been ity per unit of shareholder ownership. As
tested in the previous studies and thus it such, EPS is a key driver of share prices.
is interesting to examine as to whether Though EPS is widely considered to be
listing status on Bursa Malaysia has any the most popular method of quantifying
influence on the level of Internet disclo- a firm's profitability, it is important to
sure. In other words, this study intends bear in mind that earnings themselves
to examine the impact of an organiza- can often be susceptible to manipulation,
tion's listing status in Bursa Malaysia on accounting changes, and restatements.
the extent of IFD and IED. Dummy vari- For that reason, free cash flow is seen by
able is used to measure this variable; 1 if some to be a much more reliable indica-
the company is listed on the main board tor than EPS. Nevertheless, EPS remains
and 0 if the company listed on the sec- the industry standard in determining cor-
ond board. Therefore, the following hy- porate profitability for shareholders.
potheses are proposed:
H4-a: The extent of financial disclosure It is obvious from the previous studies
on the internet is influenced by that the influence of profitability on vol-
company’s listing status. untary disclosure is significant. Singhvi
H4-b: The extent of environmental dis- and Desai (1971) argue that when the
closure on the internet is influ- rate of return is high and the company
enced by company’s listing achieves a high margin of profit, the
status. management is motivated to disclose
more information in order to prove its
Profitability good reputation to the consumers, share-
holders, investors and other stake-
The profitability is an important deter- holders. On the other hand, if the rate of
minant that was examined in most of the return is low or the company suffers
previous disclosure studies (see for ex- losses, the management discloses less
ample, Ho and Wong, 2001; Camffer- information in order to cover the reasons


for such losses or declining profits. This It is, therefore, interesting to study the
strategy also applied on the case of EPS. impact of profitability on the extent of
Internet disclosure by the Malaysian
In the literature, the results regarding the public listed companies. This is also to
association between profitability and examine whether profitable companies
financial disclosure are mixed. For ex- are more concerned with the environ-
ample, Williams (1992) and Garcia and ment than less profitable companies. In
Monterrey (1992) indicate that profit- this study, profitability is measured by
ability is significantly and positively the percentage of EPS. Thus, the partner
associated with disclosure. However, hypotheses are as follows:
Cowen et al. (1987) observe that highly H5- a: The extent of financial disclosure
profitable companies do not disclose on the Internet is influenced by
more financial information than less the profitability of the company.
profitable companies. Raffournier H5-b: The extent of environmental dis-
(1995) states that no significant relation- closure on the Internet is influ-
ship between profitability and the extent enced by the profitability of the
of financial disclosure. company.

Ahmed et al. (2002) note that profitabil- Firm size
ity and its impact on the extent of volun-
tary disclosure can be analyzed from two The size of a company can be measured
perspectives. On one hand, more profit- in a number of ways such as capital em-
able firms tend to disclose more infor- ployed, turnover, number of employees,
mation than less profitable firms because market value and others. There is no
the management would like to show off particular method that is superior to that
their achievement to others. This is to of others. For example, Firth (1979) uses
sustain their position or gain reward. In sales turnover and capital employed to
short, profitable firms are less secretive measure company size whereas Cooke
than less profitable firms. Profitable (1991) uses number of shareholders,
firms are more enthusiastic to disclose total assets and turnover to measure size
information in order to differentiate of the company. On the other hand, Cra-
themselves from less profitable firms. ven and Marston (1999) uses turnover,
This differentiation gives profitable number of employees, total assets em-
firms indirect benefits in terms of raising ployed and the company’s average mar-
capital from the best available terms. On ket value.
the other hand, it is argued that less prof-
itable firms may disclose more informa- Large companies are often argued to use
tion in order to explain the reasons for Internet reporting for several reasons.
their low performance and therefore Firstly, large companies are under pres-
maintain its integrity. They also practice sure to disclose their financial informa-
early disclosure to disclose bad news in tion to avoid speculative trading of their
order to alleviate the risk of legal liabil- shares. As a result, they are more on the
ity as well as the risk of depreciation of eyes of the public (Ku Nor Izah, 2003).
share capital and loss of reputation Marston and Warney (2003) studied
(ACCA, 2005). Japanese companies and uncovered that
size of a company is positively associ-


ated with the existence of a website, but ety. Their political costs can be reduced
not with the extent of financial disclo- by increasing information disclosures
sure. This means that large Japanese (ACCA, 2005). Cooke (1989) examined
companies have websites but the level of the annual reports of 90 Swedish firms
their financial disclosure is not different (38 unlisted, 33 listed on the Swedish
from the small enterprises. Secondly, Stock Exchange, and 19 listed on both
according to Craven and Marston the Swedish and at least one foreign
(1999), the agency theory and cost- stock exchange during the year of 1985)
benefit analysis indicate that there is a and found out that listing status and size
positive relationship between size and are major determinants of voluntary dis-
disclosure. Large firms are always des- closure.
perate for the external funds. This in turn
increases the agency cost because of the According to Teoh et al. (2003), large
conflicting interests between sharehold- firms are more likely to disclose more
ers, managers and debt holders (Eng and environmental information in order to
Mak, 2003). However, increased disclo- show their concern about the environ-
sures can reduce agency cost and infor- ment to the public. Besides that, they
mation asymmetry (Jensen and Meck- tend to be the subject of public analysis.
ling, 1976; ACCA, 2005). Thus, firm size has been found to have a
significant positive relationship with the
Thirdly, business processes of large social disclosure (Blacconiere and
firms are more complex; therefore, the Patten, 1994). In addition, size is a proxy
users are always asking for more disclo- for political sensitivity and this predic-
sure. The needs of the users of large tion is consistent with the positive ac-
firms' reports are more divergent than counting theory that suggests that politi-
their counterparts in the small firms cal costs are higher in the large firms
(Craven and Marston 1999). Chow and (Watts and Zimmerman, 1986). In this
Boren (1987) examined 52 annual re- study, company size is measured by us-
ports of 52 companies listed on the ing total asset in the company. Thus, the
Mexican Stock Exchange in 1982 and sixth partner hypotheses are as follows:
discovered that large firms voluntarily H6-a: The extent of financial disclosure
disclose more information than small on the Internet is influenced by
firms (twenty four un-weighted and the size of the company.
weighted items were examined). Joshi H6-b: The extent of environmental dis-
and Jawaher (2003) examined the asso- closure on the Internet is influ-
ciation between several company char- enced by the size of the com-
acteristics and internet disclosure pany.
amongst 75 companies in Bahrain and
Kuwait. They observed that the main
influencing factors on the Internet finan- Research Methodology
cial reporting are size and industry
types. This study examined the determinants of
IFD and IED by Malaysian public listed
Fourthly, large firms are more motivated companies. This was undertaken by sur-
to disclose their operational quality be- veying the information disclosed by the
cause they are more visible in the soci- companies on their websites. The data


were obtained from the annual reports of The data for this research was secondary
the 2005 financial year. in nature and collected from the selected
firms' websites. Regression model was
The population of this study was Malay- utilized to analyze the results of this
sian listed companies that have websites. study and this is in tandem with the pre-
After examining the websites of Bursa vious studies (e.g. Chen and Jaggi ,2000;
Malaysia, it was found that 505 out of Camfferman and Cooke, 2002; Archam-
849 Malaysian listed companies (59%) bault and Archambault, 2003; Marston
have websites. Since listed companies and Polei, 2004; Gul and Leung, 2004;
are categorized differently according to Laswad et al., 2005).
industry type and the number of compa-
nies for each industry is not similar, the Results and Discussion
disproportionate stratified random sam-
pling was utilized in this research The results from the descriptive analysis
(Sekaran 2003). According to Sekaran (see table 1) show that 64% of the sam-
(2003), under the jurisdiction of dispro- ple size disclosed more than two finan-
portionate stratified random sampling, cial items out of 24 items (unweighted
the researchers have to include 20% of items) that have been used to measure
respondents from each stratum in the the extent of financial disclosures (see
sample. The sample size for this study is appendix 1 for financial index). In addi-
201 companies, which represent more tion to this, 26.4 % disclosed only 1 or 2
than 39% for each stratum. This high financial items, and almost 9.5% did not
percentage alleviates the effect of any disclose any financial information on
inappropriate information from the se- their websites (see appendix 2 for more
lected sample. However, only 189 com- details about number of companies that
panies were finally selected after exclud- disclose each item in the IFD index).
ing the outliers.

Table 1 Descriptive results for financial information
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent
Percent Percent
Valid no financial disclosure 18 09.5 09.5 09.5
disclose 1-2 financial items 50 26.4 26.4 35.9
disclose more than 2 finan-
cial item 121 64.1 64.1 100.0
Total 189 100.0 100.0

For the environmental disclosure, only on their websites (see appendix 4 for
57.2% of the sample disclosed at least 1 more details about number of companies
environmental item out of 34 items that disclose each item in the IED in-
(unweighted items) that have been used dex).
to measure the extent of environmental
disclosure (see appendix 3 for environ- In tandem with the previous voluntary
mental index). However, 42.8% did not disclosure studies (e.g. Cooke, 1989;
disclose any environmental information Hossain et al.,1994; Raffournier, 1995),


Table 2 Descriptive results for environmental information
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent
Percent Percent
Valid no environmental disclosure 81 42.8 42.8 42.8
environmental disclosure 108 57.2 57.2 100.0
Total 189 100.0 100.0

a multiple regression analysis on each sumptions. Multicollinearity was tested
dependent variable (IFD and IED) and based on the variance inflation factor
six independent variables were used to (VIF). The VIF figures show no signifi-
test the hypotheses. Several assumptions cant multicollinearity exist between the
in regression analysis were firstly tested. independent variables.
The residuals, plots of the studentised
residuals as well as the Q-Q plot analy- Table 3 also provides the results of mul-
ses were conducted to test the homosce- tiple regression analysis. The results
dasticity, linearity and normality as- show that there are several variables that

Table 3 Regression Analysis of Determinants of Internet voluntary Disclosure

Independent variables Dependent Variable Coefficients t- statistics VIF
Ethnic of CEO Financial (1) .145 2.473 * 1.215
leverage Financial -.033 -.572 1.153
environmental .033 .561
Level technology Financial .246 4.230 ** 1.202
environmental .216 3.553 **
board Financial .151 2.512 * 1.294
environmental .096 .516
L firm size Financial .398 5.552 ** 1.832
environmental .349 4.640 **
Profitability (EPS) Financial .070 1.201 1.204
environmental .121 1.987 *

(1) R Squared = .489 (Adjusted R Squared = .472) ** significant at 0.001, * significant at 0.05
(2) R Squared = .439 (Adjusted R Squared = .421)

indicate statistically significant relation- tionship with the IFD and not IED. On
ships with both financial and environ- the other hand, profitability variable
mental disclosures through the internet. shows a positive relationship with IED
These variables include level of technol- but not IFD.
ogy (p< 0.01), ethnic of CEO (p<0.01),
and firm size (p<0.01). However, listing In addition, four variables (status listing,
status variable shows a significant rela- level of technology, ethnic of CEO, and


firm size) show a positive relationship This result is similar to other studies of
with IFD. The variables of profitability, voluntary disclosure where a positive
level of technology, ethnic of CEO, and association between voluntary disclosure
firm size show a positive relationship and size is obtained (Inchausti, 1997;
with IED. However, for both dependent Raffournier, 1995).
variables, there is no significant relation-
ship with the elements of leverage. The Fourthly, listing status is a new variable
explanatory power of both analyses is and has never been tested before in the
quite similar: R2 = 0.489 and Adjusted previous studies. The results indicate
R Squared = 0.472 for IFD, and R2 = that if companies are listed on the main
0.439 and Adjusted R Squared = 0.421 board of Bursa Malaysia they are more
for IED. likely to disclose more financial infor-
mation on the Internet compared to com-
The above findings are not surprising for panies listed on the second board. It is
several reasons. Firstly, since this paper not surprising to observe this phenome-
investigates Internet disclosure (the most non because of different requirements of
advanced communication technology), it Bursa Malaysia in relation to main and
is expected that the firms that have in- second boards. The difference is due to
formation system department are more the companies listed on the main board
likely to disclose more information are large companies (capitalization more
through their websites (financial and than RM60 million) (Yatim et al., 2006);
environmental information). and, therefore capture more public and
government concern in relation to the
Secondly, if the CEO is Malay, the ex- level of transparency and technology
tent of financial and environmental dis- development. However, in terms of IED,
closure is higher. This is because Malay the listing status does not show a signifi-
is Muslim; and, therefore they have to cant relationship because the level of
obey Islamic religious rules such as hon- IED is low in all companies regardless
esty and transparency. The religious of their listing status.
values in one person create a sense of
responsibility to disclose information From the above findings, it can be seen
regarding their companies’ performance, that this research accepts each of these
and not forgetting to protect people, life, hypotheses: (1) H1 (a,b) which shows
natural resources, and environment. that the ethnic of CEO influences both
the extent of internet financial and dis-
Thirdly, firm size shows a significant closure; (2) H3 (a,b) which indicates that
association with the extent of both IFD the extent of financial and environ-
and IED. When firm size is excluded mental disclosure on the Internet are
from the regression analysis, the ex- influenced by the level of technology;
planatory power of the model dimin- (3) H4 (a) which indicates that the extent
ishes. The result indicates that if the of financial disclosure on the internet is
companies grow bigger, they are more influenced by company’s listing status;
eligible to have their own website and (4) H5 (b) which shows that the extent
disclose more information. Therefore, it of environmental disclosure on the Inter-
is possible to conclude that size gives a net is influenced by the profitability
significant impact on the IFD and IED. (earning per share) in the company; and


(5) H6 (a,b), which indicates that the ability shows a positive relationship with
extent of internet financial and environ- IED but not with IFD. The results high-
mental disclosure on the Internet are light a gap between the companies that
influenced by the size of the company. are listed on the main board and the
companies that are listed on the second
However, the study rejects the following board. This gap in turn influences the
hypotheses: (1) H2 (a,b) which specifies level of transparency and the usage of
that the extent of internet financial and advanced technology such as the Inter-
environmental disclosure are not af- net. These findings support the argument
fected with the level of leverage that the that social and financial disclosures have
company incurred; (2) H4(b) which indi- similar determinants. The findings also
cates that the extent of internet environ- provide some evidence that religion has
mental disclosure is not influenced by an important impact on IFD. Future vari-
company’s listing status; and (3) H5 (a) ables that can be considered may include
which shows that the extent of financial ethical values of the management and
disclosure on the internet is not influ- incentives that are provided by the gov-
enced by the profitability of the com- ernment.
pany.

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Appendix 1
Internet Financial Disclosure Index

N Financial Item N Financial Item
1 FHS 13 SHS

2 CPR 14 ARPT

3 CSP 15 HYR

4 SAR 16 QR

5 DMR 17 BSQR

6 BS 18 ICQR

7 IS 19 CFQR

8 CFS 20 ANQR

9 SSE 21 FC

10 AN 22 FR

11 AUR 23 SPC

12 SRR 24 OPR

FHS : Financial Highlights ARPT: Annual report for the past years
CPR : Current press release or news HYR : Half year report
CSP : Current share price QR : Quarterly report
SAR : Summary of Annual report BSQR: Balance sheet in Quarterly report
DMR: Directors’ and Management Report ICQR : Statement of Income in Quarterly
BS : Balance Sheet report
IS : Income Statement CFQR : Cash Flow Statement in Quarterly
CFS : Cash Flow Statement report
AN : Accounting Notes ANQR: Accounting notes in Quarterly report
SSE : Statement of Shareholders’ equity FC : Financial Calendar
AUR : Auditor’s report FR : Financial review
SRR : Segmental report by region SPC : Share Performance chart
SHS : Shareholder structure OPR : Operation review


Appendix 2
Internet Financial Disclosure index
N Financial Fre- Percent N Financial Fre- Percent
characteristics quency characteristics quency
Current Release or 126 64.9 9 Cash Flow State- 80 41.2
1 news ment in Quarterly
report

2 Operation review 122 62.9 10 Accounting notes 66 34
in Quarterly report
3 Summary of An- 118 60.8 11 Current share 47 24.2
nual report price

4 Financial high- 114 58.8 12 Financial review 31 16
lights
5 Annual reports for 99 51 13 Financial calendar 28 14.4
the past years
6 Quarterly report 91 46.9 14 Half year report 24 12.4

7 Statement of In- 82 42.3 15 Share Perform- 15 7.7
come in quarterly ance chart
report
8 Balance sheet in 81 41.8
quarterly report


Appendix 3
Internet Environmental Disclosure index
N Environmental items N Environmental Items
1 GES 19 DEPUL
2 EP&P 20 EFRTREN

3 EPS 21 R&EN

4 EACTV 22 UTIW

5 EMAN 23 IMSTU

6 WTS 24 EAU
7 AWAD 25 ENEFF

8 ELOW 26 R&D
9 SUST 27 ENCON

10 W&R 28 IPE
11 EAEST 29 RENCON

12 POLU 30 IEPR
13 REHB 31 ELITIG

14 EMPW 32 FINPOL
15 LNDR 33 P&COC

16 EEPRG 34 P&CEX
17 EFIN 35 F&CEX

18 SPACT 36 F&COC

GES: General environmental consid- REHB: Rehabilitation tion
eration and statements W&R: Waste & recycling AWAD: Awards
EPS: Environmental policy statement IMSTU: Impact studies SPACT: Support for public or private
EAU: Environmental audit action designed to protect the environ-
WTS : Water treatment system ment
EMAN: Environmental manager/ SUST: Sustainability LNDR: Land reclamation and foresta-
Committee
R&D: Research & Development tion programmes
ELOW: Environmental law
DEPUL: Departments or offices for FINPOL: Financing for pollution
EP&P: Environmental- product and control equipment or facilities
pollution control
process related
IEPR: International Environmental P&CEX: Past and current expenditure
EFIN: Environmental financially for pollution control equipment and
program
related data facilities
ENCON: Energy conversion
EAEST: Environmental aesthetics P&COC: Past and current operating
(facilities, art, restoration). ENEFF: Energy efficiency
costs of pollution control equipment
ELITIG: Environmental litigation R&EN: Recycling and associated &facilities
energy saving F&CEX: Future and current expendi-
E EPRG: Environmental education
programmes UTIW: Utilization of waste materials ture for pollution control equipment
EFRTREN: Efforts to reduce energy &facilities
EMPW : Employee awareness of
environmental policy consumption F&COC: Future and current operating
IPE: Increasing of product efficiency costs of pollution control equipment&
EACTV: Environmental Activities
facilities
POLU: pollution RENCON: Research energy conserva-


Appendix 4
Internet Environmental Disclosure index
N Environmental items Frequency Per- N Environmental Frequency Percent
cent Items
1 GES 100 51.5 19 DEPUL 16 8.2
2 EP&P 43 22.2 20 EFRTREN 16 8.2
3 EPS 40 20.6 21 R&EN 15 7.7
4 EACTV 36 18.6 22 UTIW 14 7.2
5 EMAN 30 15.5 23 IMSTU 14 7.2
6 WTS 29 15 24 EAU 13 6.7
7 AWAD 26 13.4 25 ENEFF 11 5.7
8 ELOW 26 13.4 26 R&D 10 5.2
9 SUST 26 13.4 27 ENCON 10 5.2
10 W&R 25 12.9 28 IPE 9 4.6

11 EAEST 23 11.9 29 RENCON 6 3.1

12 POLU 23 11.9 30 IEPR 6 3.1

13 REHB 23 11.9 31 ELITIG 5 2.6

14 EMPW 22 11.3 32 FINPOL 5 2.6

15 LNDR 22 11.3 33 P&COC 5 2.6

16 EEPRG 21 10.8 34 P&CEX 2 1.0

17 EFIN 18 9.3 35 F&CEX 2 1.0

18 SPACT 17 8.8 36 F&COC 2 1.0

GES: General environmental consid- REHB: Rehabilitation tion
eration and statements W&R: Waste & recycling AWAD: Awards
EPS: Environmental policy statement IMSTU: Impact studies SPACT: Support for public or private
EAU: Environmental audit action designed to protect the environ-
WTS : Water treatment system ment
EMAN: Environmental manager/ SUST: Sustainability LNDR: Land reclamation and foresta-
Committee
R&D: Research & Development tion programmes
ELOW: Environmental law
DEPUL: Departments or offices for FINPOL: Financing for pollution
EP&P: Environmental- product and pollution control control equipment or facilities
process related
IEPR: International Environmental P&CEX: Past and current expenditure
EFIN: Environmental financially for pollution control equipment and
program
related data facilities
ENCON: Energy conversion
EAEST: Environmental aesthetics P&COC: Past and current operating
(facilities, art, restoration). ENEFF: Energy efficiency
costs of pollution control equipment
ELITIG: Environmental litigation R&EN: Recycling and associated &facilities
energy saving F&CEX: Future and current expendi-
E EPRG: Environmental education
programmes UTIW: Utilization of waste materials ture for pollution control equipment
EFRTREN: Efforts to reduce energy &facilities
EMPW : Employee awareness of
environmental policy consumption F&COC: Future and current operating
IPE: Increasing of product efficiency costs of pollution control equipment&
EACTV: Environmental Activities
facilities
POLU: pollution RENCON: Research energy conserva-

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