Abstract
The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed descriptive account of web-based investor relations (WIR) practices amongst non-financial companies listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia. The extent of WIR was measured using an innovative disclosure checklist (known as WIR Index) consisting of 152 items overall, 102 for content, 33 for design, 7 for timeliness and 10 for interactivity information items. The result from 258 non-financial companies suggests that the extent of WIR is still limited. The mean for overall WIR disclosure is 40%, and 41%, 42%, 33% and 23%, respectively, of the WIR content, design, timeliness and interactivity dimensions items. The high degree of variation in the overall WIR and its dimension and lower score of the overall WIR disclosure items, indicates lack of corporate website usage for investors relations (IR) communication. The findings of this study could shed light on the extent of WIR practices and also provide an update on the current use of corporate websites for IR communication amongst non-financial listed companies in Malaysia. Hence, the findings should be useful to regulators and policy-makers to better understand and improve overall WIR practices by listed companies in Malaysia.
Highlights
With the advancement in communication technology via the Internet and the World Wide Web, attention has been drawn to the Web as a communication medium for public listed companies. Hindi and Rich (2010) describe the Internet as one of investors’ most frequently used sources of information, and many companies have been reporting all or part of their financial information on websites
The results indicate a high level of cross-sectional variation in the overall web-based investor relations (WIR) disclosure amongst the surveyed companies, with the minimum scoring website showing only 0.12 (12%) of the WIR index checklist items and the maximum scoring website showing 0.71 (71%) of the items
This study provides exploratory information regarding the extent of WIR practices amongst nonfinancial companies listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia
Summary
With the advancement in communication technology via the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web), attention has been drawn to the Web as a communication medium for public listed companies. Hindi and Rich (2010) describe the Internet as one of investors’ most frequently used sources of information, and many companies have been reporting all or part of their financial information on websites. IR Global Rankings (2013) considers IR website as the first intuitive resource for most people seeking information about a company and the main communication channel used by companies to interact with the capital markets universe. This implies that IR via the Web has become widely acknowledged as an innovative way of communicating business and financial information to the investment community. The use of the Internet technology would enhance the efficiency of capital markets through the availability of timely, frequently, and relevant financial information to the investment community (FASB, 2000). With effective delivery of corporate information and communication over the Internet, this dynamic medium is perceived as able to convince investors and enhance confidence in the company
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