On-Line Financial Reporting. An Analysis of the Dutch Listed Firms

This paper reports on the extent to which the Internet is used for financial reporting in theNetherlands. Results show that corporate reporting via the Internet seems to be an established fact. Mostlarge companies have websites, and a growing percentage of those companies are placing businessreporting information, including financial data, on their sites. However, the situation is not as positive asit seems. Further results show that Dutch corporations vary not only in their stage of Web-utilization, butalso in the depth or volume of released information (divided into financial statement information andother investor related information). Besides, there is considerable variability in the manner in which thedata are delivered, as shown by the scores of timeliness, technology and user support. In fact, the totalweighted scores ranged between 11% and 74%. Concentrating on two sectors, it is found that the reportingbehaviour within a single sector seems to be more or less homogeneous. This makes us conclude thatcompanies are (partly) inspired by their competitors, and that they wish to keep pace with rivals.