Make me talk: An inter-industry analysis on the effect of company-specific factors on voluntary disclosures of publicly-listed companies in the Philippines

• Main Authors: De La Rama, Carmela R., Gomez, Jason L., Salvatera, Carmela Claire G., Tanuecoz, Danica Lorena L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Information resources management > Philippines
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7492
• Institution: De La Salle University

Nowadays, useful information necessary to influence people’s decisions is as important as its source. As a result, companies disclose more information in their annual reports than those required to solve information asymmetry among business stakeholders. Voluntary disclosures are information that companies consider reporting aside from those required by regulatory bodies thus leading to this study which aims to identify the effect of company-specific characteristics and financial measures on the extent of voluntary disclosures by publicly-listed companies in the Philippines. Profitability, leverage, listing age, managerial ownership and structural complexity, among other factors, were determined in order to test their relationship with voluntary disclosures of companies. A two-phase methodology – descriptive statistics and panel regression analysis – were conducted in determining the relationship of these factors to voluntary disclosure in an overall and inter-industry analysis. The researchers found out that profitability, measured by return on equity is positively significant in the overall analysis. Profitability also has a significant positive impact in the mining and oil sector while a significant negative relationship in the properties and services industries. For leverage, only mining and oil resulted in a significant negative relationship. Lastly, an analysis in the properties industry showed that managerial ownership, which is measured by the percentage of shares owned by the managers, had a significant positive impact on voluntary disclosures. Having an awareness that certain company-specific characteristics and financial measures could significantly affect the voluntary disclosure level of companies, companies would be able to assess and compare their voluntary disclosure practice with their peers and competitors while investors should not only limit themselves to the required disclosures but consider voluntary disclosures in their decision-making process in order to help them obtain a broader understanding of the firm and identify risks entailed in investing in that company.