Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to propose a contingency framework of e-readiness for corporate online reporting as a step towards establishing an e-readiness assessment methodology regarding corporate online reporting. This framework reflects the attempt to provide a theoretical background in the field. An extensive review of a number of instruments for assessing e-readiness as well as of other previously developed accounting frameworks was performed to identify the potential factors to be included in the proposed framework. Thirteen exploratory interviews and informal discussions were conducted with academics in the area of accounting and information technology and management information systems, and a pilot questionnaire survey was distributed to collect the perceptions of four different user-groups of corporate online reporting, (financial analysts, managers, bank credit officers and auditors) regarding the potential factors that should be included in the proposed framework. The contingency perspective was employed to integrate several internal and external factors in the form of the proposed framework. A framework was developed to integrate both endogenous and exogenous factors that recognise actual features regarding the e-readiness of corporate online reporting.

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