Drivers of Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Internet Corporate Reporting in Public and Private Sector Indian Companies

Abstract

The paper’s objective was to measure the drivers of mandatory and non-mandatory internet corporate reporting by public and private sector companies following the internet disclosure compliance of listing and obligation requirement of SEBI under Clause 46. Several drivers, namely firm size, profitability, leverage, liquidity, board size, independence of board, and CEO duality, were used to measure the effectiveness of mandatory and non-mandatory disclosure. A multiple regression model was applied to test the present paper’s hypotheses. The results of multiple regression revealed that the firm’s size was exceptionally important for both sectors. In contrast, public sector disclosure was largely impacted by leverage, liquidity, board size, and board independence. In comparison, the private sector disclosure scores were mainly impacted by leverage and board size, although there is no relationship between ICR and firm profitability and CEO duality. In performing separate multivariate regression between the two sectors, many disparities emerged. This disparity showed that public and private sector corporations had quite different firm and governance characteristics of the disclosure. As the first exploratory research to assess the mandate internet disclosure of public and private sector companies in India, it is very informational, specifically for those working on Indian companies’ regulation, compliance, and research.