Determinations of Internet Financial Reporting: Evidence form Bahrain Bourse

الملخص

The use of internet in business has become inevitable as the result of marvelous development in information technology. Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) is supposed to have a significant role in raising companies’ corporate earnings and their value. The objective of this study is to examine the level of adoption of IFR among listed companies in Bahrain and to examine the relationships among the companies of specific characteristics and IFR. The sample of the current study consists of all 47 listed companies in Bahrain Bourse (BB) in the financial year 2013.The results reveal that 42 companies (89.4%) own websites while 5 companies (10.6%) do not own websites on internet. Moreover out of 42 websites owned companies, 38 of them (90.5%) are adopting IFR while the other 4 (10.6%) do not. The findings also reveal that there is direct relationship among reporting financial information online and the four variables: size, leverage, liquidity and industry type. However, an inverse relationship is noted among IFR and profitability. In addition, size and leverage are also found to be the most significant variables that affect adopting IFR in the listed companies in Bahrain followed by liquidity. This paper contributes towards a better understanding and acceptability of determinations of Internet Financial Reporting by listed companies in Bahrain Bourse.