Abstract: The study provides an in-depth analysis of a certain
type of disclosure, which is a forward-looking disclosure (FOLD)
for annual reports of a sample of listed conventional banks in the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In addition, it
investigates whether some firm characteristics namely, (firm size,
firm performance, financial leverage and firm age) are
determinants of the level of FOLD. A library of FOLD with three
dimensions namely, (opportunities & expectations), (risks &
uncertainty) and (related financial information) has been
developed to measure the level of FOLD in the banks’ annual
reports. Multiple linear regression analysis with three models
(one for each dimension) is conducted while, multivariate
multiple regression has been run for FOLD Model. The findings
of the study show that the most common type of FOLD is related
financial information followed by, (opportunities & expectations)
and the latest is (risks & uncertainty). Moreover, the results of
multiple linear regression analysis have shown different results
concerning the effect of four firm characteristics on three
dimensions of the level of FOLD (opportunities & expectations),
(risks & uncertainty) and (related financial information). While,
the results of multivariate multiple regression report that firm
size, firm performance and firm age have a significant effect on
the level of FOLD, in contrast, firm leverage has an insignificant
effect. Another interesting finding, from running multivariate
multiple regression with interaction analysis, is firm leverage has
a significant effect on the level of FOLD if it joins with other
independent variables such as firm size and firm performance. To
best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that develops a
special library of FOLD with three dimensions.
|
