Asymmetrical dialogue? Corporate financial reporting via the Internet

摘要

This paper reports the results of a recent research study into the use of the Internet for communicating corporate financial information to stakeholders. Senior officers in a sample of smaller listed companies in the UK were interviewed about their use of the Internet for reporting corporate financial information, and about the ways in which they identify corporate stakeholders and their needs. It was found that assessment of stakeholder requirements is haphazard, but is informed in many cases by an intention to correct long-standing inequities in the provision of corporate information. Because the assessment of needs is largely intuitive, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of the Internet as a mechanism for communication of corporate financial information. However, it is clear that the additional medium of communication offered by the Internet has not so far radically changed the essential nature of the dialogue between company and stakeholder, which remains asymmetrical.