Effect of Firm Characteristics on Timeliness of Corporate Internet Financial Reporting of Malawi Public Firms

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of firm characteristics on the timeliness of corporate internet financial reporting in Malawi. The research is a quantitative study, guided by the post-positivist philosophy and a deductive approach. Content analysis of secondary data was done through a disclosure index on corporate internet financial reports. Regression analysis was performed to find the impact of firm characteristics variables (leverage, size, and profitability) on the dependant variable timeliness of corporate internet reporting. The study focused on 50 companies, comprising of 13 listed companies on the Malawi Stock Exchange and 37 limited companies that are not listed using their industry sector. The study found out that 86% of the sampled listed and non-listed companies had a corporate website. Of these, 24% are engaged in internet financial reporting which signifies a low level of internet financial reporting in Malawi. In addition, the researchers found out that of those presenting financial reports on their website, the lag time is more thus making the information not to be timely presented to the stakeholders.