Corporate social disclosures by listed companies on their web sites: an international comparison

Abstract

This paper extends previous research of corporate social disclosures by concentrating on information released on a firm's Web Site rather than through annual reports. It compares and contrasts corporate social disclosure practices between the two mediums of communication with respect to the number of firms reporting, amount of information released, and nation. In addition, this study considers the practices of 172 organizations from four nations within the Asia-Pacific region (namely Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong). The principal findings of this study are: (1) Australian and Singaporean firms provide significantly more corporate social disclosures on their Web Sites than in annual reports with their counterparts in Malaysia and Hong Kong showing no significant differences; (2) organizations in all countries appear to provide more narrative information on Web Sites than annual reports; and (3) companies provide a greater emphasis on disclosing product and customer-related information on their Web Sites than in annual reports.