Corporate governance disclosure quality: Exploratory evidence from the UK

Abstract

A fundamental aspect of good corporate governance is the protection of shareholders and their investments. These stakeholders are now demanding increasing levels of transparency in all aspects of business with a greater emphasis being placed on non-financial information for investment decision making. While the majority prior research has examined the corporate governance practices of the firm, research investigating the actual disclosure of corporate governance practice is scarce. This study contributes to this debate by providing exploratory evidence on the levels of corporate governance disclosure quality and compliance in a sample of 40 UK listed firms throughout the period 2002 to 2009. Findings report a notable increase in disclosure quality and compliance over this period with the greatest increase occurring from 2002 to 2004/05 and suggest that firms are responding to calls from investors.