IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jmgtgv/v23y2019i3d10.1007_s10997-018-9441-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Board diversity and earnings news dissemination on Twitter in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Ayman

    (The British University in Egypt)

  • Moataz El-Helaly

    (The American University of Beirut (AUB))

  • Nermeen Shehata

    (The American University in Cairo)

Abstract

We examine corporate adoption of Twitter by UK firms and provide the first empirical evidence on the association between board diversity, as measured by the proportion of foreign and women directors, and the decision to disseminate news in general and earnings news in particular through Twitter. We measure social media dissemination by tracing Twitter posts (tweets) by UK firms between 2013 and 2015. Utilizing the unique data by Spencer and Stuart on board characteristics, we investigate the relationship between diversity and earnings dissemination in top 150 UK companies between 2013 and 2015. We find that our board diversity measures are positively associated with using Twitter to disseminate earnings at least once, with the frequency of using Twitter to disseminate quarterly earnings, and with the number of tweets disseminating financial information. We also provide evidence that the presence of foreign directors is associated with earlier adoption of Twitter as an information dissemination channel. The results are robust to controlling for firm-level characteristics, other board structure variables, and industry and year-fixed effects. Additionally, we show that firms audited by Big Four auditors are more likely to use Twitter to disseminate earnings information. Our findings show the importance of diverse boards in using Twitter as an alternative or additional information dissemination channel.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Ayman & Moataz El-Helaly & Nermeen Shehata, 2019. "Board diversity and earnings news dissemination on Twitter in the UK," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(3), pages 715-734, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:23:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10997-018-9441-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10997-018-9441-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10997-018-9441-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10997-018-9441-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merve Kılıç & Cemil Kuzey, 2018. "Determinants of forward-looking disclosures in integrated reporting," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 115-144, January.
    2. Ntim, Collins G. & Lindop, Sarah & Thomas, Dennis A., 2013. "Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa: A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre- and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 363-383.
    3. Dulacha Barako & Alistair Brown, 2008. "Corporate social reporting and board representation: evidence from the Kenyan banking sector," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 12(4), pages 309-324, November.
    4. Eng, L. L. & Mak, Y. T., 2003. "Corporate governance and voluntary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 325-345.
    5. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    6. Milton Harris & Artur Raviv, 2008. "A Theory of Board Control and Size," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1797-1832, July.
    7. Walid Ben-Amar & Millicent Chang & Philip McIlkenny, 2017. "Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Response to Sustainability Initiatives: Evidence from the Carbon Disclosure Project," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 369-383, May.
    8. Ridhima Saggar & Balwinder Singh, 2017. "Corporate governance and risk reporting: Indian evidence," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(4/5), pages 378-405, April.
    9. Nermeen Shehata & Ahmed Salhin & Moataz El-Helaly, 2017. "Board diversity and firm performance: evidence from the U.K. SMEs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(48), pages 4817-4832, October.
    10. Collins G. Ntim & Teerooven Soobaroyen & Martin J. Broad, 2017. "Governance structures, voluntary disclosures and public accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 65-118, January.
    11. Wendy Beekes & Philip Brown & Wenwen Zhan & Qiyu Zhang, 2016. "Corporate Governance, Companies’ Disclosure Practices and Market Transparency: A Cross Country Study," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3-4), pages 263-297, March.
    12. Jose-Manuel Prado-Lorenzo & Isabel-Maria Garcia-Sanchez, 2010. "The Role of the Board of Directors in Disseminating Relevant Information on Greenhouse Gases," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(3), pages 391-424, December.
    13. Lian Fen Lee & Amy P. Hutton & Susan Shu, 2015. "The Role of Social Media in the Capital Market: Evidence from Consumer Product Recalls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 367-404, May.
    14. Hazar Ben Barka & Ali Dardour, 2015. "Investigating the relationship between director’s profile, board interlocks and corporate social responsibility," Post-Print halshs-01139747, HAL.
    15. Cheng, Eugene C.M. & Courtenay, Stephen M., 2006. "Response to discussion of "board composition, regulatory regime and voluntary disclosure"," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 293-294.
    16. Abdul Hadi Ibrahim & Mustafa Mohd Hanefah, 2016. "Board diversity and corporate social responsibility in Jordan," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 279-298, October.
    17. Cheng, Eugene C.M. & Courtenay, Stephen M., 2006. "Board composition, regulatory regime and voluntary disclosure," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 262-289.
    18. Mazboudi, Mohamad & Khalil, Samer, 2017. "The attenuation effect of social media: Evidence from acquisitions by large firms," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 115-124.
    19. Khamis Hamed Al†Yahyaee & Ahmed Khamis Al†Hadi & Syed Mujahid Hussain, 2017. "Market Risk Disclosures and Board Gender Diversity in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Firms," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 645-658, December.
    20. Collins Ntim & Teerooven Soobaroyen, 2013. "Black Economic Empowerment Disclosures by South African Listed Corporations: The Influence of Ownership and Board Characteristics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 121-138, August.
    21. Manuel Branco & Lúcia Rodrigues, 2008. "Factors Influencing Social Responsibility Disclosure by Portuguese Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 685-701, December.
    22. Liao, Lin & Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2015. "Gender diversity, board independence, environmental committee and greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 409-424.
    23. Helen Kang & Mandy Cheng & Sidney J. Gray, 2007. "Corporate Governance and Board Composition: diversity and independence of Australian boards," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 194-207, March.
    24. Alan I. Murray, 1989. "Top management group heterogeneity and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(S1), pages 125-141, June.
    25. Mohammad Jizi, 2017. "The Influence of Board Composition on Sustainable Development Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 640-655, July.
    26. David A. Carter & Betty J. Simkins & W. Gary Simpson, 2003. "Corporate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Value," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 33-53, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesca Rossignoli & Andrea Lionzo & Bruno Buchetti, 2021. "Beyond corporate governance reporting: the usefulness of information on board member profiles," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(1), pages 27-60, March.
    2. Amin, Marian H. & Mohamed, Ehab K.A. & Elragal, Ahmed, 2021. "CSR disclosure on Twitter: Evidence from the UK," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thi H.H. Nguyen & Mohamed H. Elmagrhi & Collins G. Ntim & Yue Wu, 2021. "Environmental performance, sustainability, governance and financial performance: Evidence from heavily polluting industries in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2313-2331, July.
    2. Lucrezia Songini & Anna Pistoni & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Fabrizio Fratini & Valentina Minutiello, 2022. "Integrated reporting quality and BoD characteristics: an empirical analysis," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 579-620, June.
    3. Nguyen, Thi Hong Hanh & Ntim, Collins G. & Malagila, John K., 2020. "Women on corporate boards and corporate financial and non-financial performance: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Nicola Cucari & Salvatore Esposito De Falco & Beatrice Orlando, 2018. "Diversity of Board of Directors and Environmental Social Governance: Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 250-266, May.
    5. Ntim, Collins G., 2016. "Corporate governance, corporate health accounting, and firm value: The case of HIV/AIDS disclosures in Sub-Saharan Africa," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 155-216.
    6. Amin, Marian H. & Mohamed, Ehab K.A. & Elragal, Ahmed, 2021. "CSR disclosure on Twitter: Evidence from the UK," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Collins Ntim & Teerooven Soobaroyen, 2013. "Black Economic Empowerment Disclosures by South African Listed Corporations: The Influence of Ownership and Board Characteristics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 121-138, August.
    8. Giuliana Birindelli & Stefano Dell’Atti & Antonia Patrizia Iannuzzi & Marco Savioli, 2018. "Composition and Activity of the Board of Directors: Impact on ESG Performance in the Banking System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Khandelwal, Chandni & Kumar, Satish & Madhavan, Vinodh & Pandey, Nitesh, 2020. "Do board characteristics impact corporate risk disclosures? The Indian experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 103-111.
    10. Halil Emre Akbaş & Seda Canikli, 2018. "Determinants of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation on Turkish Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    11. María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez & Isabel Gallego‐Álvarez, 2019. "An international approach of the relationship between board attributes and the disclosure of corporate social responsibility issues," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 612-627, May.
    12. Liao, Lin & Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2015. "Gender diversity, board independence, environmental committee and greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 409-424.
    13. Rodríguez-Ariza, Lázaro & Frías Aceituno, José V. & García Rubio, Raquel, 2014. "El consejo de administración y las memorias de sostenibilidad," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 5-16.
    14. Mohamed H. Elmagrhi & Collins G. Ntim & Ahmed A. Elamer & Qingjing Zhang, 2019. "A study of environmental policies and regulations, governance structures, and environmental performance: The role of female directors," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 206-220, January.
    15. Cuadrado-Ballesteros, Beatriz & Rodríguez-Ariza, Lázaro & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, 2015. "The role of independent directors at family firms in relation to corporate social responsibility disclosures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 890-901.
    16. Simona Alfiero & Massimo Cane & Ruggiero Doronzo & Alfredo Esposito, 2018. "Determining characteristics of boards adopting Integrated Reporting," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(2), pages 37-71.
    17. Jaime Guerrero-Villegas & Leticia Pérez-Calero & José Manuel Hurtado-González & Pilar Giráldez-Puig, 2018. "Board Attributes and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: A Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Akbas Halil Emre, 2016. "The Relationship Between Board Characteristics and Environmental Disclosure: Evidence from Turkish Listed Companies," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 7-19, December.
    19. Elisa Menicucci & Guido Paolucci, 2022. "Board Diversity and ESG Performance: Evidence from the Italian Banking Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-19, October.
    20. M. A. Gulzar & Jacob Cherian & Jinsoo Hwang & Yushi Jiang & Muhammad Safdar Sial, 2019. "The Impact of Board Gender Diversity and Foreign Institutional Investors on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Engagement of Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dissemination; Disclosure; Social media; Twitter;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:23:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10997-018-9441-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.