Shareholder activism, Muslim CEO, family-controlled firms and disclosure of annual general meeting minutes on the corporate websites in Malaysia

Limited studies have examined the disclosure of Annual General Meeting (AGM) minutes on corporate websites. As such, little is known about the drivers of the disclosure of AGM minutes on corporate websites. This study investigated the drivers of the disclosure of AGM minutes on the corporate websites of Malaysian public-listed companies. The main drivers examined in this study were shareholder activism, Muslim Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and family-controlled firms. This study incorporated firm size, proprietary cost, audit quality, board size and analyst coverage as the control variables. Regression analysis was conducted on the dataset of 261 Malaysian public-listed companies for the financial year ended 31 December 2016 (with AGM meetings held between 1 January 2017 and 30 June 2017). The findings showed that shareholder activism, Muslim CEOs and family-controlled firms were significant and positively associated with the online disclosure of AGM minutes. The robustness tests also supported the findings. This implies that shareholder activism helps in pushing for dissemination of vital corporate information online. Muslim CEOs appeared to transpose the Islamic values of transparency onto the corporate reporting. Contrary to expectation, family-controlled firms are more likely to disclose the AGM minutes to the general public. This suggests that family firms are motivated to quell the illusions of any expropriation from family ownership. The results support agency, stakeholders and signalling theories in explaining online corporate disclosure practices. This study contends that the disclosure of AGM minutes on the corporate websites is crucial for new and absentia investors to assess the sustainability of companies. The findings assist academicians, policy-makers, and managers in understanding the role and determinants of voluntary corporate disclosure.