Page 8 - IILMGSM Journal_Management Perspective

kla and Gekara (2010) investigated the use of
web-based facilities for communicating corporate
information by companies in India and China. The
sample consists of fortune 500 companies in India
and China from various sectors of the economy. The
study reveals that of the 500 companies in India 416
(83.20%) had active websites out of this 409
(98.31%) distributed their current year annual reports
on their websites and 125 (30.05%) also included
auditors’ report of the previous year. While 402
(80.40%) of 500 companies in China had active
websites out of this 400 distributed their current year
annual reports on their websites and 23 (5.72%) also
included auditors’ reports of previous year.
Bhardwaj and Kumar (2011) investigated the
utilization of web-based facilities for communicating
corporate information by 1325 Indian companies and
concluded that 84.52 percent had active websites
while 4.50 percent companies did not have any
website and the websites of the remaining 10.94
percent companies were not accessible/under
construction/not in use during the period of this
study.
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the present study are:
(1) To survey the availability of websites for the
companies listed in the international stock
exchanges.
(2) To draw a complete picture of the situation of
internet-based corporate reporting of Indian
GDRs.
(3) To rank different companies as well as sectors
based on the extent of internet-based corporate
reporting.
Research Methodology
The study was empirical and descriptive in nature.
The total population of the study includes all the
Indian GDRs listed companies in London,
Luxemburg and Singapore. The sampling frame was
list of Indian GDRs. Simple random sampling
technique was used to complete the study. The total
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sample size was 110 companies. The condary data
was collected from the official website of the
companies. The period of collecting data relating to
corporate reporting on the internet was from
September 1, 2013 to October 15, 2013. The MS
Excel was used to analyze data.
Measurement of the Level of internet-based
Corporate Reporting
The content analysis technique was applied to
measure the level of web-based corporate reporting
by the sample companies. Content analysis is defined
by Budd et al. (1967) as, “a systematic technique
for analyzing message content and message handling-
it is a tool for observing and analyzing the overt
communication behavior of selected
communications.”
On the basis of review of literature 44 attributes have
been categorized into five broad areas, namely
financial information attributes (15 attributes),
corporate governance attributes (10 attributes),
corporate social and environmental attributes (5
attributes), investor relations attributes (3 attributes)
and presentational attributes (11 items) (See
Annexure-I). Financial attributes measured the
content of accounting and financial information
provided by the companies’ website. Corporate
governance attributes examined the availability of
certain corporate governance information of the
company on internet. Corporate social and
environmental attributes examined the disclosure of
corporate social and environmental content areas.
Investor relations attributes considered to what
extent companies provided adequate investor
relations information on their websites.
Presentational attributes examined whether
companies used advanced technology in order to
make the website more user friendly and attractive.
Results and Discussion
 Overall reporting
In the sample of 110 companies only 86 companies
(78%) had active websites. Among the rest of the