Transparency, corporate governance and firm performance in The Netherlands

Henry van Beusichem; Abe de Jong; Douglas DeJong; Gerard Mertens

doi:10.5117/mab.90.31343

Maandblad Voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie 90(7/8): 308-322, doi: 10.5117/mab.90.31343

Transparency, corporate governance and firm performance in The Netherlands

Henry van Beusichem, Abe de Jong, Douglas DeJong, Gerard Mertens

Corresponding author: Henry van Beusichem ( h.c.vanbeusichem@utwente.nl )

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited.

Citation: van Beusichem H, de Jong A, DeJong D, Mertens G (2016) Transparency, corporate governance and firm performance in The Netherlands. Maandblad Voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie 90(7/8): 308-322. https://doi.org/10.5117/mab.90.31343

Abstract

We explore the relations between transparency, corporate governance, and performance for Dutch exchange-listed firms over 1997-2007. Our measure for transparency is based on annual report information. In 2005 a new accounting standard (IFRS) became mandatory and applicable to the annual reports of Dutch listed firms. We investigate the effects of IFRS by comparing pre and post IFRS periods. We find that under IFRS transparency has increased substantially, and that the determinants of transparency have also changed. Pre-IFRS, disclosure is mainly driven by firm size, leverage and protective preference shares. Post-IFRS, we observe very little variation in disclosure practices.