The association between company attributes and timeliness in reporting practices among Malaysian companies

Abstract

The issue of timeliness of financial reporting has received much attention from various parties such as professional bodies, regulatory authorities, investors and academicians in Malaysia in recent years. Timeliness is an important characteristic of the usefulness of the financial information. Stale information is irrelevant because it can lead to incorrect judgements for decision making. This study empirically examines the timeliness, i.e., the reporting lag, of 138 companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia in 2002. This study also reports on the association between timeliness and each of the following corporate attributes, i.e., company size, profitability, debt proportion, company age, and sector. The results of a descriptive analysis indicate that 99.3 percent of the companies in the sample lodged their annual reports within the Bursa Malaysia`s regulatory deadline of 180 days. It is also found that the Malaysian listed companies took on average 143 days to submit their annual reports. A multivariate regression analysis indicates that company size is the only significant factor of the reporting lag. Profitability, debt proportion, company age and sector are found to be not significantly influence the reporting lag. These findings, significance of the study, and implication for future research are also discussed