OWNERSHIP CONCENTRATION AND CORPORATE DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY: EVIDENCE FROM THAILAND

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the association between the ownership concentration and the corporate disclosure and transparency of Thai listed firms in SET100 index. Transparency and disclosure of corporate is proxy by the scores according to Corporate Governance Report of Thai Listed Companies (CGR) criteria. The characteristics of ownership concentration in this study measure by the shareholding proportion in three dimensions: the largest shareholders of firm, the shares held by the five largest shareholders of firm, and the shares held by blockholders owning 5% or more of the firms’ shares of firm. The multiple regression is employed for hypothesis testing. The results showed that the ownership concentration is negatively significantly related to the corporate disclosure and transparency which confirmed the research hypothesis. The finding is also consistent with prior research that firms with concentrated ownership structure have a tendency to lessen their corporate disclosure for various reasons. Moreover, the results indicated that larger firms have higher disclosures and transparency scores because they are closely followed by their stakeholders. Keywords: Ownership Structure, Ownership Concentration, Disclosure, Thailand Journal: Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences