The impact of website design on the perceived credibility of internet financial reporting

Abstract

Marketing and information systems research show that surface features of a website can induce credibility effects. We conduct an experiment to examine the question of credibility effects induced by the surface features of webbased fi nancial reporting. We predict that participants will perceive fi nancial data from sites with surface fl aws (poor style and incompleteness) to be of lower credibility. Consistent with our expectations, we fi nd that surface features can signifi cantly affect users' perceptions of the credibility of fi nancial information. We present further analyses showing that website surface features also impact investment attractiveness, suggesting that website characteristics may adversely affect investor perceptions.were in the incorrect direction more than one item beyond the neutral point they were excluded from the analysis. Ten participants were deleted for failing the manipulation checks. The Dependent MeasuresInformation credibility was measured with three questions related to the representational faithfulness, the credibility and the reliability of the information on the website. The questions were adapted from similar questions posed by Hodge (2001) andMercer (2005). The three questions used to measure credibility are:1. The information provided on the site faithfully represents the actual fi nancial condition of AIP. 2. The information of the website was credible and believable. 3. The information was reliable. 136

Internet financial reporting disclosure index of e‐commerce businesses on social media

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