A preliminary investigation on the use of the internet for business reporting : a case of companies listed on Amman stock exchange (ASE)‎

الملخص EN

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which companies listed in ASE use the Internet to disclose business and financial information.

This issue should be of considerable interest to policy makers as well as foreign and local investors.

With globalization and the tendency of many emerging economies, including Jordan, to relax restrictions on foreign investment, the need for electronic disclosure of business information becomes more warranted to ease accessibility of financial data and to provide investors, especially foreign investors, with timely and less costly information.

The study findings indicate that only 82 of the 183 companies (44.8%) have Websites.

Compared to other sectors, the banking sector is a leader in using electronic disclosure where 16 out of the 17 banks covered by the study have Web sites.

Further examination of the Web sites indicates that banks’ web-sites tend to be investors as well as customers oriented and disclose more financial information on the Web than other companies.

Most other companies’ web-sites in the remaining sectors are customer-oriented and in general did not disclose annual report data.

Company size and foreign investors’ share in company capital are positively associated with the availability of Website.

However, the study failed to provide evidence supporting the association between these two variables and the extent of financial information disclosed on the Web.

Key Words: Internet Business Reporting, ASE, Jordanian companies.