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Corporate e-disclosure determinants: Evidence from the Brazilian market

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to verify the existence of associations between characteristics of the firm and their voluntary readiness to disclose relevant corporate information using their corporate website. To this end, data from 314 non-financial companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange, BM&FBovespa (Brazil), were used. The results suggest that larger companies tend to provide more financial and corporate governance information of interest to the market, that companies listed for a longer time were less liable to offer information, and that companies recognized as adopting the best governance practices (according to requirements from Novo Mercado criteria) provided more corporate information on their websites.

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Notes

  1. The Novo Mercado is a differentiated segment of trading, consisting of companies that undertake to adopt stricter practices of corporate governance established by BM&FBovespa, with the principal aim being to afford greater protection of shareholders and market confidence. The regulations for listing on the BM&FBovespa Novo Mercado are available at: www.bmfbovespa.com.br/empresas/download/RegulamentoNMercado.pdf.

  2. By the time this article was completed there was only BM&FBovespa.

  3. E-mails were sent to the intermediaries of corporate information requesting their opinion (response to an electronic questionnaire on the Web, on an 11-point scale) about the relevance of the 40 categories of information considered in the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rua Itapeva, #474, São Paulo, Brazil

    Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva

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  1. Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva
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  2. Luciana Massaro Onusic
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Correspondence to Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva.

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1received his PhD in Finance from University of Sao Paulo, USP, (Brazil), and is a member of the Brazilian Finance Society. He is Professor of Finance in the Accounting and Controllership Department of the School of Business Administration of São Paulo at the Getulio Vargas Foundation Business School, FGV (Brazil). His research interests include stock markets, corporate governance and behavior finance. He is also an independent member of several boards, is certified by IBGC (Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance) and the scientific coordinator of the Center for Corporate Governance, associated with USP.

2received her PhD in Business Administration from USP (Brazil). She is a professor at the EPPEN, Escola Paulista de Política, Economia e Negócios of the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Her research interests include management and corporate strategy. She has worked in business consulting, and has held executive positions at high levels.

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Mendes-Da-Silva, W., Onusic, L. Corporate e-disclosure determinants: Evidence from the Brazilian market. Int J Discl Gov 11, 54–73 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/jdg.2012.14

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