The impact of board independence and ownership structure on the timeliness of corporate internet reporting of Irish‐listed companies

By Omneya H. Abdelsalam, Ahmed A. El-Masry. 2008

132 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose - This study seeks to provide valuable new insight into the timeliness of corporate internet reporting (TCIR) by a sample of Irish-listed companies. Design/methodology/approach - The authors apply an updated version of Abdelsalam Findings - It is found that Irish-listed companies, on average, satisfy only 46 per cent of the timeliness criteria assessed by the timeliness index. After controlling for size, audit fees and firm performance, evidence that TCIR is positively associated with board of director's independence and chief executive officer (CEO) ownership is provided. Furthermore, it is found that large companies are faster in posting their annual reports to their web sites. The findings suggest that board composition and ownership structure influence a firm's TCIR behaviour, presumably in response to the information asymmetry between management and investors and the resulting agency costs. Practical implications - The findings highlight the need for improvement in TCIR by Irish-listed companies in many areas, especially in regard to the regular updates of information provided on their web sites. Originality/value - This study represents one of the first comprehensive examinations of the important dimension of the TCIR in Irish-listed companies.

Subfields: Accounting

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a8fb8dc30d14573983e1f3805b2e9b193275771b