The determinants of corporate internet reporting in Egypt: an exploratory analysis

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide exploratory evidence about the use of the internet for disclosure purposes by non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange – and influences thereon – at two points in time: 2010 and 2011. Selection of these periods permits direct investigation of the extent to which the disruption caused by the popular uprising in early 2011 impacted on practice. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises all of the 172 non-financial listed companies at the end of 2010. A disclosure index was developed to evaluate the content of the investigated websites in 2010 and 2011. Univariate and multivariate analysis is used to examine the cross-sectional determinants of disclosure both in total and in terms of three specific content categories. Findings The study reveals that 40.7 and 42.7 per cent of the sample companies provided some form of financial information via their websites in 2010 and 2011, respectively (i.e. pre and post the Spring 2011 political revolution). The results of the multivariate analysis indicate consistency across the two years in terms of total score determinants, but some variation in the disaggregated evidence. Originality/value This study indicates that Egyptian firms have started embracing the power of the internet as a disclosure channel, but the extent of these practices is still limited, with great variations evident amongst the sampled companies in this regard. Encouragingly, the disruption caused by the political upheaval in 2011 appears not to have caused reduction in the propensity to provide online disclosures.

Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies

“…Because traditional manual content analysis consumes a considerable amount of time and effort, and in line with similar past disclosure studies (Eng and Mak, 2003;Barako et al, 2006;Donnelly and Malcahy, 2008;Ahmed et al, 2017;Anifowose et al, 2017), we collected data on 600 firm year observations from 100 corporations employing the widely used stratified sampling technique based on firm size and industry in each country, as illustrated in Table 1. Noticeably, our sample is much larger than most past accounting and disclosure studies that have been conducted in emerging economies that have employed similar stratified sampling techniques (Barako et al, 2006;Ahmed et al, 2017;Anifowose et al, 2017). Thus, our sampling approach and data arguably constitute a discernible improvement on existing studies, including being distinctively: (i) cross-country; and (ii) longitudinal in nature.…”

Comparing sustainability disclosures on corporate websites: a case study of Newmont Mining Corporation's plant sites in Ghana

“…The few studies available provide evidence that sustainability reporting is at the infant stage in Africa and to a large extent, influenced by institutional factors. Some of these studies are: Ahmed, et al, (2017)-Egypt; Dong, Burritt, Atkins and Maroun (2012) -South Africa; Isa (2014)-Nigeria; Ahmed, et al, (2017), Rahaman et al (2004), and Hinson, Gyabea and Ibrahim (2015)-Ghana. Ahmed, et al, (2017), aimed to provide exploratory evidence about the use of the internet for disclosure purposes by non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange.…”

Análisis comparativo de la divulgación corporativa en sitios web en una muestra de empresas cotizadas del mercado peruano y chileno

“…Los resultados no son alentadores, pues evidenciaron un retraso en el uso de los sitios web de partes de las empresas. Ahmed et al (2017), por su parte, estudian 172 empresas cotizadas en mercado egipcio (EGX), comparando 2 años (2011 y 2010) siguiendo la misma metodología de otras investigaciones a través de un índice para medir el nivel de divulgación en tres categorías: contenido, soporte al usuario y presentación. A juicio de los autores, las prácticas aún son bajas en comparación con sus contrapartes en los países desarrollados.…”