The Impact of Corporate Attributes on the Extent of Voluntary Disclosure and Reporting by Listed Companies in Bangladesh
International Journal of Accounting and Business Finance, Issue 1 (2017)
34 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2017
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine the extent and level of voluntary reporting of the listed companies in Bangladesh. It also explores the potential effects of corporate governance characteristics, ownership aspects and firm characteristics on voluntary reporting. The sample of the study consists of 123 companies with 861 firm year observations listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh for the year 2004 to 2010. To measure the extent of reporting self constructed checklists have been used which contains 97 items focusing on corporate social reporting, corporate environmental reporting and corporate sustainability reporting. The study found that level of total voluntary reporting in the annual reports of listed Bangladeshi companies is low. However, a gradual increase in the extent of voluntary reporting and its categories has been noticed over the period of study. Through regression analysis, the outcomes show significant positive relationship between voluntary reporting and firm size, firm's liquidity, percentage of independent directors and board structure while it has significant negative relationships with market categories, company age and number of independent directors. However, audit committee and board size have a non-significant relationship with voluntary reporting of the listed Bangladeshi companies over the examined period.
Keywords: Voluntary Reporting, Corporate Social Reporting, Corporate Environmental Reporting, Corporate Sustainability Reporting
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