Corporate Reporting on the Internet in Australia: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

orporate reporting is a vital component of the accounting process that seeks to provide deci-C sion-useful information and extend accountability to numerous stakeholders.' In recent times, in addition to financial reporting, there has also been an increase in disclosure of social and environmental issues and corporate governance details, as well as more general issues such as forward-looking information relating to the reporting organisation.Traditionally, print has been the medium for corporate reporting. Printed general-purpose corporate annual reports, and other paper-based documents such as social and environmental reports, have been used to disseminate corporate information to stakeholders. While these paper-based reports have global acceptability (which is often enhanced through an auditing/assertation process), they may not always be as timely, accessible, interactive or sufficiently detailed as some stakeholders may wish. The consequent growth in the use of information technology, especially the personal computer, and computer-tocomputer communication systems such as the Internet, has been phenomenal, transforming many business activities and society at large. The Internet provides many benefits such as graphic presentations of information, twoway interaction, increased information accessibility and mass communication. However, problems such as security, authentication, legal impediments and inequity in access are restricting the rise in the use of these tools (see Trites 1999, FASB 2000.Internet reporting enables information to be disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders in a timely and convenient manner. This new dimension in reporting enhances corporate accountability (see Iadhia 2002b) and overcomes the limitations of periodic general-purpose financial reports by disseminating information to a "broader" range of stakeholders (see Lymer et a1 1999, Lodhia 2002a).It is not surprising that the practice of corporate reporting through the Internet has gained significance. It has also been accompanied by a range of This paper documents a research study on corporate reporting on the Internet by Australian companies. The findings suggest that while corporate reporting on the Internet is emerging in Australia, current practice does not utilise the full potential of the Internet to disclose information to stakeholders. Only limited evidence was found of changes in the reporting practices of companies resulting from opportunities for innovation in in forma ti0 n dissemination offered by this technology.

Climate change accounting and the Australian mining industry: exploring the links between corporate disclosure and the generation of legitimacy

“…Guthrie et al (2004) suggests that preferably all communications should be examined so as to holistically capture all disclosures on an issue. Existing literature suggests that an extensive array of vehicles may provide many benefits for the communication of environmental information (see for instance, Lodhia et al, 2004;Lodhia, 2004Lodhia, , 2005Lodhia, , 2006aLodhia, ,b, 2010Frost et al, 2005;Cho et al, 2009). Lodhia (2006b) highlights the potential for alternative communication media to improve media richness.…”

Users’ Perceptions on Internet Financial Reporting Practices in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Jordan

“…Studies seeking to answer the first research objective were carried out mainly as descriptive surveys to provide empirical evidence on IFR practices by companies listed on a country's stock market. Some of these studies are for instance Lymer (1997); Lymer and Tallberg (1997);Deller et al, (1999);Hedlin (1999); Lymer et al (1999); FASB (2000); and Lodhia et al, (2004), Al-Htaybat and Napier (2006), and Mohamed et al (2009). Studies seeking to answer the second objective went one step further by measuring the level of the two basic dimensions, Presentation and Content, of IFR on companies' websites by using a disclosure checklist and examining company characteristics as explanatory factors of the differences between companies' IFR.…”

Determinants of corporate internet reporting: evidence from Egypt

“…A number of studies examined the determinants of internet financial reporting in developed countries such as New Zealand (Oyeler et al, 2003;Fisher et al, 2004), Australia (Lodhia et al, 2004;Chan and Wickramasinghe, 2006), Canada (Trabelsi et al, 2004;Trabelsi, 2007) and Japan (Marston, 2003).…”