Verrecchia (1983) argues that whether a firm will voluntarily disclose corporate information is a function of the proprietary costs associated with the disclosure. Unless there is perceived benefit that outweighs the proprietary cost, firms will not disclose.
Information costs. The decision by managers to disclose information about corporate governance is likely to be influenced by a trade-off between the direct costs to be incurred for providing such disclosure, the benefits to be derived by the firm or its shareholders from such disclosure (Scott. 1994). Hence, managers may decide to voluntarily disclose information if doing so is less costly than having investors and other market participants incur information costs themselves (Roberts, 1992; Atiase, 1985: Lang and Lundholm, 1993: Milgrom. 1981). Two variables are used to capture investors' information needs and information costs with respect to a firm's web-based disclosure:
1. new financing ; and
2. free float.