Corporate disclosures and firm characteristics: A study of the emerging market listed companies

The objective of this study is to understand whether firm characteristics explain the extent of corporate disclosures in the annual reports of listed Indian companies. In the field of accounting, voluntary information disclosures have been receiving a lot of attention as they bridge the gap between what is mandatory and what is sought by the stakeholders. Due to the prime focus of corporate disclosure literature on the linkage of company characteristics with the extent of disclosures, it becomes pertinent to study this aspect before studying the policy and regulatory impact. Hence, it is examined what prompts listed corporate entities in an emerging market like India to disclose more. The disclosure scores of Indian CNX 100 companies over a period of five years (2011–2015) related to firm characteristics such as age, size, and listing status were arrived at through content analysis and subsequent coding of the data. The study applied correlation, regression, and t-test to analyze respective scores and firm-specific data accessed from CMIE Prowess and Ace Equity industry databases. The study found firm characteristics such as age and listing status to be non-significant in leading corporations to enhanced disclosures. However, regression results improving with respect to the firm size and almost becoming significant in later years especially in the post-policy period (i.e., post-2013) remains an important takeaway from this study. The study stands on a formidable ground that it is the policy initiatives that are pushing firms to reveal more about their businesses keeping in mind the diverse perspectives of accounting information users