Dissemination of corporate information via social media and networks in Africa

Abstract

This paper reports on the extent of online corporate disclosure (OCD) practices among 315 companies listed in 12 African stock markets. The paper examines the impact of board composition and ownership structure on the level of online information dissemination by top African corporations. The paper uses a disclosure index comprising of a comprehensive set of items that fully capture the extent of online information disclosure via all facets of disclosure, namely companies websites, social networks and media sites. Ordinary least squares is used to test the hypotheses. The results reveal the underlying relations among board composition, ownership structure and control variables as the determining factors of OCD. Moreover, Facebook is the dominant platform used for corporate disclosure closely followed by twitter. Although non-financial disclosure via social networks is adopted by most of the companies in the African countries, financial disclosure is adopted by only South Africa and Tunisia.