Users’ perception of corporate information in Saudi Arabia: An empirical analysis

This study examines the perceptions of the users of eight different sources of corporate information available in Saudi Arabia. The sources of information includes annual corporate reports, interim reports, specialists advice, friend’s advice, newspapers and magazines, specialised publications, direct information from companies and market rumours. Our sample comprises of five major user groups, namely individual investors, institutional investors, creditors, governmental officials, and financial analysts. The study reveals that the corporate annual report was the most important source of corporate information to all of the participating user groups. Individual investors were found to attach lower importance to obtaining information directly from companies than the other groups in our sample. The fact that creditors valued direct information from companies more importantly than the other groups is perhaps because creditors in Saudi Arabia are in a much stronger position to demand formal information from companies.