The effect of corporate governance on the extent and quality of corporate internet disclosures: evidence from Australia

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on the extent and quality of corporate internet disclosures. To achieve this objective, this research will provide an analysis of the extent of engagement by Australian listed firms with the internet as a disclosure vehicle. The primary focus of the thesis is the potential role of board of director and audit committee characteristics in limiting agency conflict and enhancing disclosure outcomes for Australian listed companies. Several hypotheses are developed to examine the impact on corporate internet disclosure of the specific board of director characteristics of independence, size and experience; combining the role of CEO and chair of the board and the audit committee characteristics of committee independence, chair independence, financial expertise and meeting frequency. The hypotheses are tested using hand collected data of a sample of the top 300 companies listed on the ASX. By using a weighted index to proxy for corporate internet disclosure, an over-arching finding of the research is that Australian companies are not utilising the capabilities of the internet to their full extent for disclosure, falling short of international best practice. The results of the empirical analysis demonstrate that the extent and quality of corporate internet disclosures on the websites of Australian listed companies is significantly associated with the proportion of independent directors on the board and the level of financial expertise of the audit committee. This thesis contributes to the corporate governance literature, the voluntary disclosure literature and the specific corporate internet disclosure literature. Given the importance of the internet as a disclosure medium, this research also provides regulators with evidence regarding those governance mechanisms that can most effectively assist in improving internet disclosure outcomes for investors and other stakeholders.