Corporate Information Transparency on the Internet by Listed Companies in Spain (IBEX35) and Mexico (IPYC)

Abstract

Abstract. Financial and non-financial disclosure play a central role in the functioning of capital markets. In this context, the Internet has been adopted as an effective mechanism for large companies to disseminate corporate information. The institutional theory approach has been applied to identify both formal (fundamentally legal and economic) and informal factors that significantly influence listed companies' level of corporate transparency on the Internet. Our work aims to build on existing study by focusing on two main objectives. Firstly, to make a comparative study of the corporate transparency of listed companies from Mexico and Spain by creating an index of corporate transparency on the Internet (e-CTI). And secondly, to identify the factors that affect this index using multiple regression analysis. Our study population is comprised of 70 companies, of which 35 belong to the Mexican Price and Quotations Index (IPyC) and 35 to the Spanish IBEX 35 index. The descriptive analysis reveals significant differences in the level of information disclosure between the two countries. The companies listed in Mexico obtain an e-CTI of 59%, while the Spanish ones register 80%, i.e. more importance is assigned to the disclosure of corporate governance data in Spain than in Mexico. Furthermore, this analysis shows that the factors most telling with regards to corporate transparency are the strength and application of law, GDP per capita, inflation and firm-level variables such as ownership concentration and Chairman of the Board-Chief Executive Officer (COB-CEO) duality. However, other variables such as board size and composition, profitability, leverage and firm size are not significant for the purposes of this analysis. Our work is of great relevance today, since most studies have focused on developed countries, mainly in the U.S. and Europe, with few comparisons being made between developed and developing countries, such as Spain and Mexico.

Web based financial disclosure in European con-text: European transparency directive analysis

“…This finding is consistent with Pichegger & Wagenhofer, (1999), Nurunnabi & Hossain, (2012) and Turrent & Ariza, (2012). We not support the first hypothesis (H1).…”

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as recognized guidelines for sustainability reporting by Spanish companies on the IBEX 35: Homogeneity in their framework and added value in the relationship with financial entities

“…Some authors studying non financial disclosure (e. g. Bonsón & Escobar, 2002;Aranguren Gómez & Ochoa Laburu, 2008;Briano Turrent & Rodríguez Ariza, 2012) draw on the publicly available information on company websites issued by the Spanish IBEX 35 companies, as we do here finding that there are variables which are significant at the level of information disclosure.…”

A cross‐national comparison of transparency signaling in corporate social responsibility reporting: The United States, South Korea, and China cases

“…The Forbes Global 2000 report released information about the core business of each company. On the basis of the research by Briano‐Turrent and Rodríguez‐Ariza (), we categorized the core business of each company into the following types of industry: (a) basic materials and construction ( N = 11), (b) technology and communications (e.g., telecommunication; N = 11), (c) consumer goods or services ( N = 4), (d) banking or financial services (e.g., insurance; N = 25), (e) oil or energy ( N = 8), and (f) automotive companies ( N = 5). After this, industry types were reorganized dichotomously based on the extent of their sensitivity toward the environment, following Fernandez‐Feijoo et al's () study.…”