Corporate Internet reporting represents one of the voluntary types which helps to achieve transparency by disseminating various types of timely information by using different presentation types and easily accessible tools. Corporate governance has become one of the most crucial issues in recent years due to the consequent scandals that have happened either in developed or developing countries. Therefore, most stakeholders demand greater transparency within the disclosed information provided by various companies. Consequently, the current study aims to contribute to the disclosure literature by examining the association between corporate Internet reporting and its main components, and corporate governance and ownership structure variables in one of the developing countries, namely Egypt, based on a comprehensive theoretical framework and explore the economic consequences of corporate Internet reporting and its main components. By using a self-construct disclosure index, the study measures corporate Internet reporting based on an un-weighted checklist that includes 100 items. Of the Egyptian listed companies, 343 are surveyed to explore the extent of corporate Internet reporting. The findings reveal that about half of the Egyptian listed companies have a website. However, the level of corporate Internet reporting is slightly low relatively to the developed countries. The results of the empirical findings demonstrate that corporate Internet reporting by Egyptian listed companies is influenced by various variables such as company size, leverage, legal form, asset in place, financial type, foreign listing, audit type, shares volatility, shares activity, shares issuance, block holder ownership, managerial ownership, governmental ownership, institutional ownership, board size and family members on the board. In addition, the study indicates that these determinants vary among the various components of corporate Internet reporting: content, presentation, timeliness and usability. Finally, the study provides empirical evidence that corporate Internet reporting has a positive impact on firm value. Such a finding demonstrates the importance of corporate Internet reporting in the Egyptian context and reveals the motivation for applying such a disclosure medium.

Privatisation has been a major political and economic phenomenon over the past few decades, and researchers continue to target it for both theoretical and empirical work. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the Egyptian experiment concerning its privatisation programme, and to determine whether this programme has affected the performance of privatised firms. Using 15 years of data, which cover the period 1990/1991 to 2004/2005; this thesis empirically investigates three main issues. Firstly, it examines whether the performance of privatised firms improves following privatisation through comparing pre- and postprivatisation performance in terms of profitability, operating efficiency, output, leverage and level of employment. Secondly, it evaluates the performance changes of privatised Egyptian firms after matching them to control firms (private firms) based on size and industry. Thirdly, it evaluates the impact of the post-privatisation sectoral environment and the pre-privatisation experience on post-privatisation performance. For the first two issues, several statistical techniques, such as parametric t-test, the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Mann-Whitney test are performed. The results from this analysis indicate clearly that there are significant increases in both profitability and operating efficiency as well as significant declines in the leverage and employment, but there is no significant change in the output. Furthermore, the results show a significant difference in performance changes between privatised firms and private firms according to most performance measures. As to the third issue, several multi-regressions are used to model the relationship between the post-privatisation performance (as dependent variable) and ownership structure, the performance experience of the privatised firms pre-privatisation, the performance of their counterparts from competitor firms (private firms), and firm size (as independent variables). The results from this analysis demonstrate that the ownership structure really matters and that the performance of privatised firms depends on the degree of state ownership involvement; also, through the passage of time, the competitive environment has a significant impact on most performance measures of privatised firms. As such, this thesis represents the first study in Egypt to evaluate and compare the performance of privatised firms with the performance of their counterparts from private firms. The study contributes to the work on privatisation by comparing the performance changes of privatised firms to those of already private ones, so that the study can determine whether the post-privatisation performance matches that of the private firms. A caveat to the finding of this thesis is that the privatised firms might need a longer period to reflect more fully the impact of the privatisation programme on some of their performance measures.

Investor relations (lR) and corporate communication are functions that make the difference for the listed companies' communication process to the market. They are also the strategic corporate tool that creates visibility, interest, and liquidity, and ultimately attracts and motivates investment. The objective of this research study is to identify and extract perceptions on the IR function by the top management of the listed firms on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), the analysts and the fund managers who analyse and invest in the Gree~ stocks. The mandatory and voluntary disclosure strategies used by Greek listed c,ompanies are also identified and their effectiveness evaluated. From the findings the author extracts and synthesizes an effective IR model. The research, based on a grounded theory approach, identified and investigated key IR issues through semi-structured interviews. Interview and questionnaire data were collected from 164 market players. Empirical data on IR activities, programmes and opinions by the Greek companies, the local and global sell side analysts and the local and global institutional investors were collected. It is the first study to have been conducted in the IR area and the corporate communication process in Greece, and its findings could be utilised by the listed companies and market players in other markets. In conclusion, the study, by evaluating IR programmes and recommending a corporate communication framework and methodology, contributes towards a better understanding of the IR process and the IR effectiveness in a non-English speaking market, full of small capitalization listed firms that struggle to get attention from the investors. With the current research, the author also intends to contribute towards an enhanced interface and understanding between academic research and business practice in the areas of corporate communication and IR.

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The collapse of Enron sparked interest in auditor independence issues and caused much controversy over how best to prevent future accounting scandals. Through an agency theory framework, this research examines whether the primary users of UK audited financial statements have confidence in auditor independence. Four auditor-client relationships identified in the literature as potentially independence-impairing were examined these were economic dependence, non-audit service provision, long tenure and ex-auditor employment. These relationships were also highlighted in the Auditing Practices Board's Ethical Standards for Auditors (2004). Postal questionnaires were employed to investigate investor perceptions of the four auditor-client relationships and perceptions of safeguards for auditor independence. The current study is the only UK study to compare institutional and private investor perceptions on these issues. Descriptive statistics revealed that both groups of investors perceived economic dependence and the provision of non-audit services as potentially independence-impairing. However, investors appeared relatively unconcerned about ex-auditor employment and long tenure. Furthermore, the investors did not appear to be in favour of further regulations. Parametric and non-parametric tests were employed to determine whether background variables, such as accounting education, had an effect on perceptions of auditor independence. The results showed that the private investors without accounting qualifications were generally more concerned about the independence-impairing nature of the relationships than those with accounting qualifications and those institutional investors who were themselves ex-auditors employed by their former client company were the ones least concerned that ex-auditor employment could impair auditor independence. Whilst the current research was a response to recent accounting scandals, a review of the literature highlighted concerns for auditor independence dating back over 40 years. Academics and the accounting profession have yet to agree on how best to prevent future losses of independence. It appears that in the modern business environment, issues of auditor independence will remain a point of controversy.

This study empirically investigated four aspects of the financial reporting system in Oman: (1) the perception of corporate report users and auditor groups of the various elements of annual corporate reports, (2) the informational needs of corporate reports' users, (3) current reporting practice, and (4) determinants of the level of mandatory and voluntary disclosure in annual corporate reports. The first stage of the research focused on the first two aspects, which were examined via a questionnaire survey administered to seven major user groups: individual investors, institutional investors, government representatives, financial analysts, accountants, auditors, and regulators. Additionally, during this stage, similarities and differences in the perceptions of three auditor groups were investigated. The second stage of this study focused on the other two aspects, which were measured through an examination of 111 Omani corporate annual reports. The study also conducted interviews with 27 professional users in order to understand and confirm the findings of the first and second stages of the research. The study revealed that different user groups relied heavily on information obtained from the financial analysis of annual corporate reports, especially the financial statements. The usage and importance of individual report sections was broadly consistent with that in developed countries. User groups differed in their views of the importance of individual sections of the management discussion and analysis section and the corporate governance report. Regarding auditor groups, the study found that the views of auditors from the Big four audit firms differed significantly from the views of auditors from international affiliated and local audit firms. Regarding the informational needs of different stakeholders, users highly rated and demanded some of the information presented to them in the questionnaire, namely, price earnings ratio, comparison of a company's actual performance with competitors', gross profit margin, trend analysis on profitability, profit forecast and future cash flows. The second stage of the research revealed that Omani listed companies complied with mandatory disclosure requirements. However, these provided low amounts of voluntary disclosure. Comparing users' demand list of information with companies' supply list, the study revealed an information gap between what external users demanded and what companies disclosed in their reports. Using multiple regression analysis, the study was able to identify main causes of variations in the level of annual disclosure. It was found that companies' compliance with disclosure requirements is influenced by company size and auditor type. Regarding voluntary disclosure, large listed companies, companies audited by Big four audit firms, and companies in the industrial sector disclosed more information in their annual reports than other companies. On the other hand, debt ratio, current ratio, return on equity, and ownership structure had no significant association with either the level of mandatory or voluntary disclosure. Employing interviews, the study was able to understand and explain the questionnaire and regression analysis findings. One main finding was that users of reports believed that companies were complying with disclosure requirements. However, interviewees were dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of voluntary disclosure. Another important finding was that auditors have control over the disclosure since they might prepare the annual reports as claimed by some of the interviewees. Finally, the study indicated that establishing a professional body to oversee and govern the accounting profession in Oman is a necessity to improve the quality of the financial reporting system.