The impact of corporate governance and ownership structure on voluntary disclosure in annual reports of Saudi listed-firms

Abstract EN

Purpose: This study deepens our understanding of the relationship between Corporate Governance (CG) and Voluntary Disclosure (VD) and examines if different ownership structures affect VD in Saudi Arabia, a developing country that suffers from a shortage of studies in this research area.

Methodology: We ran a multiple regression model to examine a sample of 361 firm-year observations between 2007 and 2011.

We used manual content analysis and a checklist consisting of 54 VD items to analyze the content of annual reports and determine the VD score.

Findings: We find that the average value of VD level is 35%, while the data analysis provides empirical evidence on the positive impact of board independence, audit committee activity, family ownership, and state ownership on VD.

However, a statistically insignificant correlation is found for role duality and institutional ownership.

Furthermore, larger, older, highly leveraged, and highly profitable firms are found to voluntarily disclose information more than others.

Originality/value: This study is of interest to policy makers and regulators.

Our findings imply that an effective CG system, characterized by a high level of board independence and an active audit committee, and ownership structures, characterized