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Signaling theory and the determinants of online financial disclosure

Article  in  Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences · July 2018

DOI: 10.1108/JEAS-10-2017-0103

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 Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences
Signaling theory and the determinants of online financial disclosure
Abdalmuttaleb Musleh Al-Sartawi, Sameh Reyad,
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Signaling
Signaling theory and theory and the
the determinants of online determinants
of OFD
financial disclosure
Abdalmuttaleb Musleh Al-Sartawi and Sameh Reyad
Department of Accounting and Economics, Ahlia University, Manama, Bahrain
Received 31 October 2017
Downloaded by Doctor ABDALMUTTALEB MUSLEH ALSARTAWI At 15:40 04 August 2018 (PT)

Revised 16 April 2018

Accepted 13 June 2018
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and report on the extent and firm characteristics that
determine the practices of online financial disclosure (OFD) by the Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) countries.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using the websites of 48 Islamic banks listed on the
stock markets in the GCC countries. Moreover, the study used the websites of the stock markets to get more
financial information which was not found on the websites of the banks. The study covered a period of three
years from 2015 to 2017. A checklist was used to compute the total level of OFD.
Findings – This study found that the overall level of OFD in the GCC by Islamic banks is 72.4 percent. The
results also report a significant and positive relationship with firm size. On the other hand, the results show
an insignificant relationship with profitability (ROE and ROA), leverage and age.
Practical implications – The paper provides awareness regarding OFD that might prove beneficial to the
various stakeholders of the banks including investors, regulators and preparers of financial statements.
Originality/value – This paper is an important contribution to filling the gap in the literature, as there are a
negligible number of studies dealing with OFD from an Islamic perspective.
Keywords GCC, Islamic banks, Signaling theory, Firm characteristics, Online financial disclosure
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The effective functions of capital markets depend on how corporate information is shared
among stakeholders (Ho and Wong, 2001). For the last few decades, the quality of information
provided by corporate companies in their annual reports has attracted a significant interest
among scholars, regulators and market participants around the world (Bhasin et al., 2012).
The signaling theory addresses information asymmetries between the management
and stakeholders, where the sources of asymmetric information are largely concerned
with information about intent or quality (Stiglitz, 2000). In this context, quality refers to
the way one party shows its unobservable traits in exchange for a premium from the other
party (Spence, 1973). Intent, on the other hand, relates to reducing the moral hazards
that might potentially result from the behavior of exchange parties (Holmstrom, 1979).
The signaling theory further assumes that efficient companies provide investors with
relevant and better information than less efficient companies in order to raise capital
(Al-Sartawi, 2016).
Online financial disclosure (OFD), that is, reporting financial reports through the internet,
is potentially an efficient means for management to communicate firm performance and
governance to outside investors (Sanad and Al-Sartawi, 2016). According to Bini et al. (2011),
the most profitable companies will provide complete and better information for the market.
Despite the widespread use of OFD, there are differences between the companies with
regards to the level of information disclosed. However, based on Agyei-Mensah (2012), some
companies either do not have a website, or are not using their website to present such
information. Therefore, to understand how this role has been enhanced, researchers from
Journal of Economic and
Administrative Sciences
The authors of this paper have not made their research data set openly available. Any enquiries © Emerald Publishing Limited
1026-4116
regarding the data set can be directed to the corresponding author. DOI 10.1108/JEAS-10-2017-0103
 JEAS various countries have examined the determinants of the level of internet disclosure
(Adebimpe and Ikenna, 2013).
With regards to disclosure, Islamic banks are under greater scrutiny as opposed to
conventional banks and are demanded to disclose more information to fulfill the Sharia’s
(Islamic law) ethics and principles. Majid and Ismail (2008) argued that insufficient disclosure
leads to wrong decisions and mitigates the performance of Islamic banks. Therefore, in order
to overcome such disclosure issues, OFD can be used to provide the users of financial
information with adequate and useful information for making sound decisions.
The determinants of OFD were investigated by previous studies in developed countries
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(Ashbaugh et al., 1999; Marston, 2003; Oyelere et al., 2003; Abdelsalam et al., 2007). With
regards to developing countries, previous studies have been conducted by Elsayed et al. (2010)
(Egypt), Hossin et al. (2012) (Qatar) and Adebimpe and Ikenna (2013) (Nigeria). However, this
study aims to investigate the determinants of OFD in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The GCC is considered as a hub for the Islamic banking industry. As the GCC countries are
calling for economic diversification, they strive to move beyond their oil-based economies by
attracting investors and global businesses. They have recently introduced their own corporate
governance codes to enhance the social and regulatory environments, hence attracting more
investors by encouraging voluntary disclosure. The GCC, a financial center, has become an
intended destination for many foreign investors. These investors ask for financial information
and carry on certain decisions whether to continue with a certain company or not, and this is
provided through OFD. Basuony and Mohamed (2014) agreed that the GCC countries have a
low uptake of OFD. They attributed this to the “novelty” factor of using websites to publish
financial reports. However, they concluded that if that is the case, the region is likely to witness
an upsurge in OFD over the next few years. Therefore, this research finds it interesting to
investigate the level of OFD after the period of 2014 up to the current period (2017).
A negligible number of studies have undertaken the relationship between OFD and the
firm characteristics of Islamic banks in the GCC countries, this research aims to determine the
extent of OFD by the GCC listed Islamic banks and empirically investigate the relationship
between OFD and firm characteristics, with a main focus on the signaling theory. Hence, the
researcher offers recommendations that will help standard setters for and regulatory bodies
for Islamic banks in the GCC to formulate strategies to encourage OFD. Thus, attracting
investors, reducing the cost of capital and enhancing performance. Additionally, this paper
provides financial information on Islamic banks that might be useful to the GCC governments.
This paper offers contributions from an academic perspective as well as from a practical
perspective. From an academic point of view, this paper contributes to the empirical literature
on Islamic banking by investigating the relationship between OFD and the firm characteristics
of Islamic banks for the period 2015–2017. This research might form a basis for further studies
in this field where it would contribute to more knowledge to future research.
From a practical perspective, such research is significant for preparers and users of
financial information and raises awareness of regulations in the GCC countries.
Consequently, if regulators require firms to disclose online, this will result in reducing
the monitoring costs and lead to a better delivery of information to stakeholders. Thus,
increasing the chance of making healthier and economically sound decisions regarding their
investing activities. Policy makers and regulators can also make use of information from
this research in setting new policies on OFD with regards to Islamic banks.

2. Literature review
2.1 Context of the study
As Muslim countries, Islamic banking is an imperative feature of the financial sectors in the
GCC countries. The GCC was formed on May 25, 1981 by oil-exporting nations, headquarters
in Riyadh. The GCC countries have common faith in the religion of Islam. On a per capita
 basis, they are among the richest countries in the world. The countries include: The Kingdom Signaling
of Bahrain, Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the theory and the
United Arab of Emirates. determinants
Based on the Central Intelligence Agency (2017), the following information has been
provided per country in the GCC. First, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the smallest GCC country has of OFD
a population of 1.4m people enjoy a GDP per capita of $51,800. Second, Kuwait has a
population consisting of 2,875, 422 residents. They enjoy the tenth highest standard of living
($69,700 per person). The country holds 6 percent of the world’s oil reserves with about 102bn
barrels of crude oil reserves. On the other hand, The Sultanate of Oman, with a GDP per capita
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of $40,139 and its declining oil reserves means it is increasingly relying on tourists to improve
the lifestyle of its 3m residents. Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world, has a GDP per
capita of $124,900 for its population which consists of 2,314,307, where non-Qataris represent
88.4 percent of the population. It has 25bn barrels of proven oil reserves and 14 percent of the
world’s natural gas reserves. The largest of the GCC countries, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(28m people) has 16 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and plays a leading role in the
OPEC. Its GDP per capita is $55,300. Finally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a
population of 6.1m people who enjoy a per capita GDP of $68,200 thanks to a diversifying
economy that includes Dubai and the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai Khalifa. The first
Islamic bank, the Dubai Islamic bank, was founded in the UAE in 1975.

2.2 Defining variables

Many studies investigate the potential effect of using the internet for disclosing
information on corporate websites. This paper examines the determinants of OFD through
the lens of the existing literature regarding Islamic banks. Guided by Shariah principles
which prohibit interest payment known as riba, Islamic banks use profit-and-loss sharing
(PLS) instruments which do not guarantee a pre-determined profit to depositors (Mohanty
et al., 2016). Similarly, justice and equality constitute Islam’s moral core. These values
encourage people or firms to seek the interests of others like seeking their own interest
(Al-Sartawi, 2017). Islam also stresses trusteeship in its teachings, and businesses are
generally regarded as a divine trust and commitment with managers (Ullah and Jamali,
2014). Accordingly, the application of Islam principles in Islamic banks must lead
managers to disclose information in order to overcome the problem of information
asymmetry. Majid and Ismail (2008) added that Islamic banks required to fulfill the
concept of accountability and ethics thus, the duty to disclose and the extent of disclosure
should be more when compared to conventional banks.
According to Basuony and Mohamed (2014), the current level of technological expertise
and development in the GCC countries is more than adequate for the creation, operation and
maintenance of corporate websites for the uses of OFD. However, notions about cost and
technological expertise may be limiting the widespread implementation of OFD among
companies in the GCC countries. From the review of the literature, this study will have a
closer look at the determinants of OFD in the gulf.
2.2.1 Profitability (ROA/ROE). However, based on Singhvi and Desai (1971), companies
disclose more information when its profitability is above industry average in order to signal
to the owners about its strong position to survive. Many studies have examined the
relationship between profitability and the level of OFD (Oyelere et al., 2003; Agboola and
Salawu, 2012; Agyei-Mensah, 2012; Adebimpe and Ikenna, 2013). Meanwhile, Ashbaugh
et al. (1999), Ettredge et al. (2002) and Xiao et al. (2004) found contradictory results that do
not support this relationship.
2.2.2 Firm size. With regards to firm size, empirical evidence by Ashbaugh et al. (1999),
Debreceny et al. (2002), Ferguson et al. (2002), Hossin et al. (2012) and Omran and Ramdhony
(2016) suggests firm size as a determinant to explain OFD. According to Agboola and
 JEAS Salawu (2012), larger companies are more perceptible, and as a result, may be more likely to
disclose more information. Similarly, Adebimpe and Ikenna (2013) argued that large
companies usually operate over wide geographical areas and undertake many products
along with several divisional units. Hence, it is assumed that they have well-built
information systems that enable them to trace both financial and non-financial information
for operational, tactical and strategic purposes. Moreover, Agboola and Salawu claim that
the arguments in the literature lend support to higher disclosure by larger firms.
2.2.3 Leverage. As for leverage, Agboola and Salawu (2012) stated that companies depend
more on debt in their capital structure, thus leading to higher leverage and larger obligations
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to satisfy the needs of their long-term creditors for accurate and timely information. Ferguson
et al. (2002), Xiao et al. (2004) and Omran and Ramdhony (2016) found a positive relationship
between leverage and OFD, while Debreceny et al. (2002) found a negative relationship. Based
on Jensen and Meckling (1976), highly leveraged firms incur higher monitoring costs. As such,
management may adopt various forms of voluntary disclosures, including the OFD, to reduce
such high monitoring costs (Agboola and Salawu, 2012).
2.2.4 Age. Finally, with regards to age, previous studies reveal that there is a positive
relationship with the level of OFD: Akhtaruddin (2005) and Al-Shammari (2005). Older
companies may be more motivated to disclose such information, as the disclosure is less
likely to hurt their competitive position (Agboola and Salawu, 2012). Therefore, older
companies might have better and established reporting systems than newer companies.
Accordingly, this study would be an important contribution in filling the gap in the
current literature by determining whether there is a relationship between OFD of the Islamic
banks that are listed in the GCC Bourses and firm characteristics such as profitability (ROE
and ROA), size, leverage and age.

3. Methodology
The empirical study of the current research depends on a population which consists of all
the listed Islamic banks in the GCC bourses from 2015 to 2017. The required data were
gathered from the annual reports through the official websites of 48 banks out of 52 banks
listed as Islamic banks. Additional information, such as return on assets (ROA) and return
on equity (ROE), was collected from the website of the GCC countries’ stock exchanges.
However, the reason for excluding four banks is that while two banks had no official
websites, the other two were excluded as they did not have an “Investor Relations” section
on their websites.
With regards to computing the total level of OFD by the Islamic banks in the GCC, this
study adopted the checklist used by Al-Sartawi (2016) (see the index attached), where the
total earned scores of the bank were divided by the total maximum possible score
appropriate for the bank. Therefore, to test the relationship between banks characteristics
and the level of OFD, the following regression model was developed using OFD as the
dependent variable and the banks characteristics such as profitability (ROE and ROA), size,
financial leverage and age as independent variables (Table I):
OFDi ¼ b0 þb1 ROAi þb2 ROEi þb3 LFSZi þb4 LVGi þb5 AGEi þei :

4. Data analysis
4.1 Descriptive analysis
As mentioned earlier, the level of online financial disclosure is measured by dividing the
total score of every bank by the maximum probable scores. The Financial Accounting
Standard Board (2000) identified the two dimensions of financial reporting as both the
content and presentation of information disclosed by companies’ websites. Consequently,
 Label Variable name Measurement
Signaling
theory and the
Dependent variable
OFD Online financial disclosure % Total scored items by the bank/Total maximum scores
determinants
of OFD
Independent variables—bank characteristics
ROA Return on assets % Net income/Average total assets
ROE Return on equity % Net income/Shareholder’s equity
LFSZ Firm size Natural logarithm of total assets
LVG Leverage % Total liabilities/Total assets
AGE Firm age The difference between the establishing date of the firm and
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the report date Table I.

εi Error Variables

based on the adopted index, the maximum score of the OFD was 90 items constituting
content dimensions of reporting and presentation dimensions. Where the content dimension
included 71 items, the presentation dimension included 19 items.
The results shown in Table II suggest that the level of online financial disclosure by
Islamic banks differed between GCC countries. The highest level of total online financial
disclosure was 83 percent by Qatari banks and the lowest one was 51 percent by Bahraini
banks. Overall, the results show that the level of online financial disclosure by Islamic banks
was 72.4 percent which can be considered as a fairly good level of reporting by the GCC
Islamic banks. However, when Basuony and Mohamed (2014) investigated the level of OFD,
they found that KSA had a 69 percent level of OFD, and Oman had a 53 percent of OFD.
We can therefore assume that the usage of internet to publish financial information in the
GCC has improved significantly, as these results can be generalized to include the other
countries as well.
Additionally, the descriptive statistics for independent variables, i.e., the firm
characteristics, in Table III show that the mean of ROA and ROE (profitability) is 0.0482
and 0.207, respectively. These figures are regarded as relatively low when compared to the
total assets invested in the Islamic banks industry. This could be due to the limited number
of Islamic contracts applied in GCC. As for the mean of firm size, i.e. total assets, it was

OFD
Country N Mean SD

KSA 33 0.8121 0.03060

Kuwait 12 0.7194 0.22895
Bahrain 24 0.5167 0.24646
Qatar 18 0.8315 0.12532
Oman 18 0.5833 0.28703 Table II.
UAE 39 0.7940 0.14839 Level of online
Total 144 0.7241 0.21404 financial disclosure

Variable Min. Max. Mean SD

ROA −0.8982 0.2850 0.048174 0.1672577

ROE −1.0306 1.5689 0.207469 0.3736181 Table III.
Size 63,902 768,595,345 1.28E8 1.802E8 Descriptive statistics
Leverage 0.13 0.91 0.6729 0.23790 for dependent and
Age 2 42 22.02 13.825 control variables
 JEAS 1.28m, with a minimum of 63,902m and a maximum 768,595,345. The normality
distributions of total assets were skewed. Hence, natural logarithm was used in the
regression analysis to reduce skewness and bring the distribution of the variables nearer to
normality. Moreover, the mean leverage for the banks was almost 67.3 percent, with a
minimum of 13 percent indicating banks with moderate percentage of debts and a
maximum of 91 percent signifying banks with very high debts. Finally, Islamic bank age
ranges from 2 to 42 with a mean of 22, indicating fairly young banks.

4.2 Validity
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To test the validity, the model of the study was checked for multicollinearity which involved
conducting the variance inflation factor (VIF). The VIF should be lower than 10 and
tolerance should not be below 0.2 (Field, 2005). The VIF scores for each variable, both
independent and dependent, are reported in Table IV. The results indicate that since no VIF
score exceeded 10 for any variable in the model, while no tolerance score was below 0.2. So,
it was concluded that there is no threat of multicollinearity.
Furthermore, to detect the presence of autocorrelation at lag 1 in the prediction errors or
residuals from the regression analysis, the Durbin–Watson (D–W) test was used as reported
in Table V. The D–W value of the model was 2.344. It can be assumed that there is a positive
autocorrelation in the models because the D–W values of the models were beyond the
d-statistic range which is less than the minimal range (1.5–2.5). In order to overcome this
problem, Lag 1 had been considered when testing the model of the study.
Additionally, the researchers conducted the Pearson’s correlation test to measure the
correlation between the dependent and independent variables. The results of the pairwise
correlation presented in Table VI demonstrate a weak correlation between the variables
where the correlation does not exceed 0.431. However, the table also reports a significant
correlation between ROA and ROE (0.823). Such a problem of multicollinearity was
mitigated using Lag 1.

4.3 Testing the hypotheses

Table VII reports the findings of the regression analysis of the model. These findings show
that the value of calculated F-statistic for the models is 6.549 at a confidence level 95%,
where the p-value for the model is less than 5 percent at 0.000. This finding supports the
significance of the regression model statistically.
For the first firm characteristics, profitability, the results indicate that there is a positive
but insignificant association with OFD, as the significance levels of the ROA variable is 0.892

Model Tolerance VIF

ROA 0.301 3.325

ROE 0.272 3.675
Table IV. Size 0.932 1.073
Collinearity Leverage 0.921 1.086
statistics test Age 0.837 1.194

Model R R2 Adjusted R2 SE of the estimate Durbin–Watson

Table V.
Autocorrelation test 1 0.438 0.192 0.162 0.19588 2.344
 Variables ROA ROE Age Size Leverage OFD
Signaling
theory and the
ROA determinants
Pearson 1 0.823** −0.148 0.238** 0.171* 0.142
Sig. 0.000 0.077 0.004 0.041 0.090 of OFD
ROE
Pearson 0.823** 1 −0.321** 0.191* 0.223** 0.115
Sig. 0.000 0.000 0.022 0.007 0.170
Age
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Pearson −0.148 −0.321** 1 0.007 0.053 0.029

Sig. 0.077 0.000 0.936 0.526 0.730
Size
Pearson 0.238** 0.191* 0.007 1 0.138 0.431**
Sig. 0.004 0.022 0.936 0.100 0.000
Leverage
Pearson 0.171* 0.223** 0.053 0.138 1 0.016
Sig. 0.041 0.007 0.526 0.100 0.852
OFD
Pearson 0.142 0.115 0.029 0.431** 0.016 1
Sig. 0.090 0.170 0.730 0.000 0.852 Table VI.
Notes: *,**Significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels (two-tailed), respectively Correlations matrix

ROA ROE Size Lev. Age F-statistics Prob. (F )

Beta 0.019 0.047 0.425 −0.958 0.047 6.549 0.000

t-statistics 0.136 0.318 5.366 −0.741 0.563 Table VII.
Sig. 0.892 0.751 0.000 0.460 0.575 Regression analysis

and of the ROE variable is 0.751. This result is in line with the results reported by Al-Sartawi
(2018), Ashbaugh et al. (1999) and Xiao et al. (2004). Although this shows that there a direct
relationship between profitability and disclosure levels, which supports the signaling theory,
this result remains insignificant with the context of Islamic banks in the GCC. One reason for
this could be due to PLS principle in Islamic banking, where banks are protected and have
stable profits. Another reason could be related to the Islamic principle of trusteeship, i.e. due to
the trust between managers and investors, managers might not have the need to signal their
justification for their compensation packages.
Along similar lines, the findings report a negative and insignificant relationship between
OFD and leverage at a significance level of 0.460. This result contradicts the study by Omran
and Ramdhony (2016), while it is similar to the studies by Aly et al. (2010) and Hieu and Lan
(2015) who found no relationship between leverage and online financial disclosure. This could
be due to the high debts of the Islamic banks in the GCC, where these banks might practice
conservatism. However, this does not support the trusteeship principle of Islam.
Regarding size, the study found a significant and positive relationship with online
financial disclosure, i.e. at a significant level of 0.000. This could be because larger firms are
more resources than smaller firms, and therefore it is expected that they have efficient
information systems that enable them to easily trace information for operational, tactical
and strategic purposes. This result is similar to Agboola and Salawu (2012), Hossin et al.
(2012) and Omran and Ramdhony (2016).
 JEAS This study also failed to find an association between age and online financial disclosure
at a significance level of 0.575. This is in line with the results of Adebimpe and Ikenna
(2013), and Yusuf (2013) who also found an insignificant relationship with age. The
insignificance of age shows that experience with investor relations does not necessarily
encourage banks to undertake more advanced means of financial reporting such as online
financial disclosure. One reason for this could be that when compared to conventional
banks, Islamic banks in the GCC are relatively young.
Consequently, we can summarize that the level of OFD by the GCC Islamic banks has a
positive relationship with size. Nevertheless, the level of OFD has a negative relationship with
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leverage, and a positive yet insignificant relationship with profitability (ROA and ROE) and age.

5. Conclusion and recommendations

This research study set out to examine and report on the extent and firm characteristics that
determine the practices of online financial disclosure by the Islamic banks in the GCC
countries. This paper is an important contribution to filling the gap in the literature, as there
are a negligible number of studies dealing with OFD from an Islamic perspective. The paper
provides awareness regarding OFD that might prove beneficial to the various stakeholders of
the banks including investors, regulators and preparers of financial statements. Data were
collected using the websites of 48 Islamic banks listed on the stock markets in the GCC
countries. Moreover, the study used the websites of the stock markets to get more financial
information which was not found on the websites of the banks. The study covered a period of
three years from 2015 to 2017. A checklist was adopted from Al-Sartawi (2016) to compute the
total level of online financial disclosure. The index measured both the content and
presentation dimensions of the websites and online reports. This study found that the overall
level of OFD in the GCC by Islamic banks is 72.4 percent. This can be assumed as a
considerable improvement in the level when compared to the study conducted by Basuony
and Mohamed (2014). Due to this upsurge in usage of the internet, it is recommended that the
government or regulators to develop guidelines or issue pronouncements on OFD.
The results also report a significant and positive relationship with firm size. On the other
hand, the results show an insignificant relationship with profitability (ROE and ROA),
leverage and age. It can be concluded that larger banks disclosed more financial information
on their websites due to the availability of resources where they can benefit from the resulting
lower costs. The results are also consistent with the results of agency theory that large firms
attempt to reduce the high agency costs associated with information asymmetry between the
management and investors by disclosing a large amount of information.
This study recommends that Islamic banks use the internet to improve the availability of
financial information within the banks themselves. For example, based on Agboola and
Salawu (2012), many of the processes that occur in remote places can be automated and fed
into a firm-wide information system or intranet. Moreover, to promote the uniformity in
disclosure by Islamic banks, both regulatory and professional bodies should jointly provide
a template for online financial disclosure.

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 Appendix Signaling
theory and the
determinants
Content of OFD
1 Income statement of current year 47 Company address
2 Balance sheet of current year 48 Information on corporate strategy
3 Cash flow statement of current year 49 Current year information can be distinguished
from last year’s information
4 Auditor report of current year 50 Directors shareholding information
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5 Annual report of current year ( full text) 51 Annual report of current year (excerpt)
6 Notes to financial statements of current year 52 Disclaimer
7 English version of financial statements 53 CEO signature in the report
8 Statement of changes in shareholders’ equity 54 Sales of key products
9 Income statement of past years 55 Annual general meetings information
10 Web page in English 56 Segmental reporting by region in current year
11 Accounting policy 57 Annual report of past years (excerpt)
12 Balance sheet of past years 58 Segmental reporting by region in past years
13 Cash flow statement of current year 59 Code of conduct and ethics for directors,
officers and employee
14 Annual report of past years ( full text) 60 Link to GCC Bourses website
15 Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) basis in the current year 61 Indicator for finding current information directly
16 Auditor report of past years 62 Information about managers, at least the identity
and curriculum vitae of executives
17 Notes to financial statements of past years 63 Projected information
18 Dividend information 64 Information on intellectual capital
19 Quarterly report of current year 65 Current year resolutions of shareholders’ meeting
20 Analyses of main business risks 66 Historical share prices
21 Segmental reporting by line of business in current year 67 Current press releases or news
22 Supplement or amendment to current year annual report 68 Corporate governance principles/guidelines
23 Corporate information 69 type of auditor
24 Half-year report of current year 70 auditor rotation
25 Management report/analysis in current year 71 institutional investor
26 Auditor report of current year Presentation
27 Changes in stockholders’ equity in the current year 72 Annual report in PDF format
28 Chairman’s report 73 Hyperlinks to financial analysts
29 Summary of annual report of current year 74 Hyperlinks inside the annual report
30 Members of the Board of Directors 75 Link to homepage
31 Summary of financial data over a period of at least five years 76 Ability to download reports
32 Same day stock prices 77 Link to table of contents
33 The advantages of holding the firm’s stock 78 Direct e-mail contacts ( feedback) available
34 Top stockholders in current year 79 Financial data in processable format (such as Excel)
35 Financial ratios 80 Use of multimedia technology (in general)
36 Half-year report of past years 81 Table of content/sitemap
37 Summary of key ratios over a period of at least five years 82 Hyperlinks texts
38 Segmental reporting by line of business in past years 83 Hyperlinks to data on a third-party’s website
39 Users quickly find the financial information 84 Change to printing friendly format possible
40 Quarterly report of past years 85 Format of reports suitable for calculations
41 Auditor signature in past years report 86 Internal search engine
42 Information on the date of latest websites update (RSS) 87 Clear boundaries for annual reports
43 Charters for the audit committee 88 Annual report in HTML format
44 Company’s charter in the current year 89 Menu pull-down
45 Shareholder information 90 Advanced features Table AI.
46 Corporate social responsibility report OFD index

Corresponding author
Abdalmuttaleb Musleh Al-Sartawi can be contacted at: amasartawi@hotmail.com

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