Voluntary disclosure practices in emerging capital markets : the case of Egypt

Corporate governance is a crucial issue that is being addressed widely by regulators, and capital market participants around the world. Disclosure is identified as one of the challenges facing the implementation of corporate governance especially in developing countries. The current study aims to contribute to corporate governance and disclosure literature by oroviding empirical evidence of the relationship between corporate governance, ownership structure and the voluntary disclosure in an emerging capital market, namely Egypt. The study assesses the extent of total voluntary disclosure and its categories in the annual reports of the most active non financial companies m the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange over four years that witnessed a remarkable initiatives to enhance transparency and corporate governance. It employs a wider theoretical framework based mainly on the political ach and benefits from institutional theory. Using a sample of 182 annual reports of the most active Egyptian listed companies, the findings indicate that while the extent of voluntary disclosure is low, there was a gradual increase in the extent of total voluntary disclosure and its categories over the examined period. However, there is no significant difference between the voluntary disclosure over the four years. This suggests that companies manage their voluntary disclosure policy which is not a random practice but subject to certain influences. The reRression results indicate the board characteristics; board size and board composition; do affect the extent of voluntary disclosure. Interestingly, the findings indicate that the existence of family members on the board has a positive association with the extent of total voluntary disclosure. This suggests that family led companies may have a litigation and reputation cost concern.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo