Empirical Evidence of Relationship of Features of Firms and Internet-based Financial Reporting

Objective: The evolution in communication and the development of global market lead to creation of new financial opportunities in the world. In this study, investigation on the level of information disclosure through Internet, as in the website of listed firms in Tehran stock exchange (TSE) and correlation with the firm's features such as the industry type, firm size, profit, products' importance, processes, competition (environmental stress) and electronic communication with clients and beneficiaries has been attempted. <p>Methods/Statistical analysis: Initially, a check list based on 84 previous researches, was prepared. The required information was collected through the website of listed firms in industries during 15 May to 20 June 2012 and the data recorded and analyzed in Excel spreadsheet, as the dataset. This information along with financial statements of firms, from automotive industries, chemical industries, banks, investment and medicine products, were processed and analyzed using regression model, concomitant with investigating hypotheses. This input data for statistical model was utilized for the research hypotheses. Finally the data was processed using SPSS software.</p> <p>Conclusion/Application: The results show that the studied companies tend to disclose non-financial information rather than financial information. Also there is a significant and positive relationship between firm size and nature of industry with Internet-based financial reporting. In other side there is a significant inverse relationship between profit and competition with Internet-based reporting and there is no significant relationship between the importance of products, services and electronic communication with clients and Internet-based reporting.</p>