详情
Information Disclosure during Privatization - The Case of Web Disclosure from China
This paper examines the association between ownership structure and the extent of Web
disclosure of 1056 listed companies of differential privatization stage in China. Literature
suggests that state controlled economies are expected to have restricted forms of information
disclosure and blockholder’s equity can reduce the needs for information disclosure. Our
results show that state ownership will curtail the extent of Web disclosure in the
post-privatization stage and private block shareholding is positively related to Web disclosure
for low privatization firms, but not for highly privatized companies. The findings indicate that
state and private blockholders have diverse Web reporting policies during ownership evolution
and information asymmetry may exist in post-privatization stage. The results suggest that
reinforcement of the institutional environment and continuous scrutiny of a company’s
reporting practices in the post-privatization stage should be emphasized.