An empirical study of the financial information disseminated on the internet and the perceived usefulness for shareholders and regulators

The importance of Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) to users is discussed in various research studies. Size, profitability, foreign listing and industry types are some of the determinants to disseminate more financial and nonfinancial information on the internet. However, the evidence of the usefulness of such information is inadequate. This study tries to identify the perceived usefulness of statutory, voluntary information and audit assurance disseminated on the internet to selected users of such information. The study result is consistent with previous studies, except that the regulators are concerned with statutory obligations rather than information overload by way of voluntary disclosure.