Beyond the Screen: How Corporate Internet Reporting Drives Firm Performance Across Asia (Research Square)

Summary

• Internet users reached 5.18 billion people in January 2023, or 64.4% of the world's population.p.2
• The sample covers all companies listed on the capital markets of Asian countries in 2022, with firm performance measured by Tobin's Q.p.2
• The dataset holds 6,810 observations across 29 countries in 5 Asian regions.p.5
• Social responsibility disclosure, corporate governance information, contact and information supply services and timeliness of information affect financial performance.p.7
• Investor-related information, social media and website convenience do not affect company performance.p.7
• In Central Asia, only contact and information supply services influence company performance.p.9
• In Southeast Asia, the social responsibility disclosure coefficient is 0.074.p.10

Key insights

1. Global internet users in January 2023 increased by 1.9% compared with 2022.p.2
2. Corporate internet reporting is measured with seven indicators following the approach of Xiang and Birt.p.2
3. The website convenience indicator has the lowest standard deviation, meaning little difference between Asian companies.p.5
4. Timeliness of information, such as stock prices, investor calendars and alerts, is found to encourage better company performance.p.8
5. The investor-related information indicator is found not to affect performance, possibly because it tends to present past information.p.8
6. In Southeast Asia, social responsibility disclosure is linked to a 7.4% increase in financial performance in the model.p.10
7. The paper concludes that voluntary disclosure on several key indicators improves firm financial performance.p.11