Web-based Disclosure: explanatory study in the MENA region (Published)
This paper aims to investigate the practices of Web based disclosure in the MENA countries and to study the extent and the nature of information disclosed on the websites. To this end, the paper studied the content of 237 companies’ websites of each of the following countries: Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. The study was conducted during the period from February 2018 to May 2018. Content and descriptive analyses were employed to analyze data. The results show that firms use similar forms of presentation to disclose information on their websites. However, we detect a significant dispersion in the content of information disclosed. This paper fills some of the gap in the knowledge of the online disclosure in the MENA region. The results give a further understanding of the various types of information disclosed on the Web in the MENA countries. This kind of understanding will help the various parties involved in online reporting (such stockholders, auditors, investors, regulators…) to formulate policies and to adjust their visions about this practice. This study adds to the existing literature by analyzing 10 countries in the MENA region, which allows us to have a clearer idea on the practices of information’s disclosure on the websites in this region.
Keywords: MENA countries., Web-based disclosure, disclosure content, presentation format