Internet Financial and Environmental Disclosures by Malaysian Companies

Abstract

This paper investigates whether determinants of financial disclosure are similar to environmental 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 indicate 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.