Voluntary Disclosures and Corporate Governance Characteristics: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

Voluntary disclosure practice has become more important especially in developing markets where there is a lack of studies on voluntary disclosure and its determinants. This research is conducted with the aim to provide a better understanding of voluntary disclosure and its relationship with corporate governance characteristics in Vietnam. Our study is based on a sample of 100 largest market capitalization companies during a three- year period starting from 2014 to 2016. Analysis indicates a moderate extent of voluntary disclosure compared to other countries in different studies. Foreign ownership is found to have a significantly positive link with the volume of voluntary disclosure. The study also reveals significant relations between board independence, CEO separation, audit committee existence, audit quality and the extent of sub-categories of voluntary disclosure. Interestingly, there are significantly positive links between audit committee presence, audit quality, foreign ownership and voluntary disclosure in the following year. Our findings are expected to contribute to literature on voluntary disclosure in Vietnam. They can be helpful for policy makers to gradually improve the voluntary disclosure practice as well as information asymmetry in Vietnam market