Research On Relationship Between Listed Companies' Characteristics And Voluntary Information Disclosure-Evidence From China

Three months ago,listed company of China GEM Board Jiangsu Baoli International Investment Co.,Ltd.received the first Notice of Administrative Penalty issued by CSRC due to their violation behavior on voluntary information disclosure.Upon the happening of this incident,voluntary information disclosure of listed companies has once again drawn the attention from investors and securities market players.This has undoubtedly reveals the importance of voluntary information disclosure is increasing with the gradual development of capital market.However,the current domestic study on information disclosure is more focused on compulsory disclosure than on voluntary disclosure,and even for those studies on voluntary information disclosure,they are mainly about the impact of features of board of directors and corporate governance.Other than those,does the voluntary information disclosure impacted by other factors of companies'characteristics?Would those factors as ROA,market cap,and total asset growth rate,leverage ratio,listed age,direct controlling shareholder shares and whether audited by"Big 4" auditors affect the quantity and quality of disclosure?What is the difference of voluntary information disclosure between various industries and different ownership?In order to analyze these questions,this dissertation applies theoretical and empirical analysis approach with the valid data of 2475 A-share listed companies as of year 2015.Categorized by the ownership type,the entire company group is divided into state-owned(SOE)companies group versus private companies group,together with the entire companies group.We adopted empirical analysis of the data by 2015 1H(as bull market)vs.2H(as bear market)given the unparalleled stock market of the year.Findings from the analysis of the data of this special year are different from the results of previous scholars.Particularly,both market capitalization of listed companies in bull market and ROA in bear market of private companies have positive impact on voluntary information disclosure.Listed age and whether audited by "Big4" have positive impact on entire sample group,but not to SOE or private sample groups.Company size is the factor that has significant positive impact to all the three sample groups.Total asset growth rate and leverage ratio show negative impact on 1H&2H analysis of both entire and SOE groups.It was attributed to the flexible internal policy of private companies that makes them confirm to the market ups and downs and timely adjusted disclosure strategy,specifically increase temporary disclosure in 1H and decrease in 2H when the market de-leveraged.Whilst for state-owned companies,the high leverage ratio conduced to its inelastic disclosure strategy in fluctuated market given its rigid policy frame.Finally,this dissertation has proposed ideas and suggestions on how to improve and optimize the development of voluntary information disclosure of listed companies in China from perspectives of listed companies,regulators and investors.