Abstract
This study seeks to explore the perceptions of users regarding Internet financial reporting (IFR) practices in Jordan. A questionnaire survey of 200 possible participants of four different user-groups was conducted to investigate their perceptions regarding the usefulness and usability of IFR as a source of information in Jordan. 114 received responses were analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the analysis revealed that there is a strong agreement among the respondents on IFR being useable, accessible and available any time and from anywhere as a source of information for users’ decision making in Jordan. However, users’ perceptions regarding usefulness of IFR in decision making significantly differed. They addressed economic factors such as the cost of having Internet access and the cost of printing accounting information as two concerns regarding the future of IFR in Jordan. They also clarified that the traditional copy of the annual report is still the preferable source of accounting information for Jordanian users.
Highlights
The literature addressing the concept of online reporting has been subject to increasing amounts of research over the last decade and is considered to be a user-oriented development, little is known about the users’ perceptions regarding the role of online reporting in practices
Prior studies The following section is divided into two parts: firstly the review of the theoretical context, technology acceptance model, and secondly the discussion of studies investigating users’ perceptions. 2.1 Theoretical background: technology acceptance model Technological developments have vastly changed the landscape of most fields and operations of research and business practices
The results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in users’ perceptions regarding statement number 6 “I do not have to rely on other sources of information as I can rely on Internet financial reporting (IFR) for my decisions”
Summary
The literature addressing the concept of online reporting has been subject to increasing amounts of research over the last decade and is considered to be a user-oriented development, little is known about the users’ perceptions regarding the role of online reporting in practices. These include in the US: Ashbaugh et al (1999), and Ettredge et al (2002). Very few prior studies exploring the demand side examined IFR related issues Such issues include the relationship between the level and the features of IFR and users’ characteristics (Ettredge et al, 1999), users’ information attitudes and preferences (Beattie and Pratt 2003), and users’ preferences of the online reporting format and the effect of such format on decision-making (Ghani et al, 2009b). The findings showed that professional users prefer to rely on the published financial statements in pdf format whereas non-professional users prefer the managers’ take on the results in html format
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