The determinants of web‐based corporate reporting in France

The purpose of this paper is to consider the determinants of web‐based corporate reporting by French‐listed firms.

The paper is based on a literature review of the determinants of web‐based corporate disclosures and is both descriptive and explicative. It analyzes the use of the internet to disseminate corporate information and examines the extent of web‐based corporate disclosure by developing a set of disclosure indexes. To test the authors' hypotheses, an OLS regression framework was estimated on a sample of 529 French‐listed firms in 2005.

Descriptive analysis shows that French firms are using the internet to disseminate existing rather than timely information. The results show that large‐sized firms, large‐audited firms, firms featuring a dispersed ownership structure, those that have issued bonds or equities and IT industry firms extensively used the web to disclose information to their shareholders. The results also show that voluntary disclosures are more suited for the internet than mandatory disclosures.

The study does not cover all information provided on web sites, particularly those about the impact of IFRS on companies' accounts.

The findings are useful to both managers, wishing to meet actual and potential investors' informational needs and to investors wishing to invest in a richer informational environment and to better assess firm value.

This paper provides a better understanding of the choice of the internet to release information in the French context, where internet corporate reporting is not standardized as in the USA and Canada.