Abstract

The present study aims towards three research purposes. Firstly, it intends to reveal the pattern that associates the elements of the Integrated Reporting (IR) of companies listed on the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange (Tadawul). Secondly, it verifies the existence of a relationship between IR practices and some firm-specific characteristics. Third, it examines the similarities between the IR practices of these companies. IR communicates how an organization's strategy, governance, performance, and prospects lead to value creation. The dataset used for the IR elements is retrieved from Tadawul and consists of data regarding integrated reports for 126 companies listed in 2019; while the data for the firm-specific characteristics, as the size of the company, the auditor type and the type of company are extracted from Marketscreener.com and Argaam.com portals. The methodology used consists of the empirical-analytical approach with the use of Optimal Scaling techniques. Main findings consist of a positive association found between the elements of the IR, as well as that the specific characteristics of the firms are not related to the elements of the IR. In our results a dissimilarity is found in the corporate information disclosure practices. These findings reveal a need for a deep investigation of the IR elements and firm characteristics in Saudi Arabian companies. One of the future research direction is a multilinear data for various years such that can reveal a more comprehensive understanding of IR elements and firm characteristics. This study becomes relevant in the context of IR elements and firm characteristics relations, that are not yet studies at their research potential.

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