Public investor perception towards internet financial reporting in Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the most useful components of internet financial reporting (IFR) in Malaysia firms from an IFR’s user point of view. This study uses the public investor from online forum in Malaysia. The components of IFR are compacted to 50 items only to represent the components in IFR for the purpose of optimization. The result of this study indicates that the top five components user’s reading preference and usage are: (1) annual report, (2) dividend, (3) current share price, (4) balance sheet and (5) historical share price. On the contrary, the features deemed unnecessary in IFR consist of: (1) audio-visual (video) recording of meeting, (2) multilingual, (3) external links, (4) site map, and (5) corporate calendar. The researcher extends prior research by conducting a research regarding the user’s opinion on each of the components in IFR. The component of IFR in this research is summarized from the multiple previous researches conducted regarding IFR. The study contributes to this literature on how user rates the components in IFR and it uses a compact checklist of 50 attributes as a proxy for IFR components.