Using the internet for financial disclosures: the Australian experience

The internet is a powerful communication device. It is no surprise then that companies are moving towards using the internet as a communication device for the distribution of financial information. Thus, making the internet a new voluntary disclosure medium. This paper explores this new opportunity for the internet; as a voluntary disclosure medium. This is done by extending previous studies, which have examined the effect Public Accounting (PA) firm quality has on the adoption of Internet Financial Disclosure (IFD) and testing this in the Australian context. The empirical results show that, while accounting firm size plays a significant role in explaining the IFD quality, the PA firm quality is not important for the IFD adoption which in turn has far reaching implications for using the internet as a tool for financial disclosures.