Corporate Governance Mechanisms and Voluntary Disclosure

The primary objective of this study is to examine the association between board composition, the existence of audit committees, ownership structure and the level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of listed companies in Bahrain Stock Exchange. Information was generated using content analysis of annual reports. A disclosure check list consisting of thirty items were identified from previous research and a self-constructed voluntary disclosure index was developed. Descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analysis were used to test the research hypotheses. Contrary to expectations and consistent with some previous empirical studies, the results indicate that there is no relationship between the extent of voluntarily disclosure and both, board composition and audit committees, but there is a negative and weak relationship with ownership concentration. The results of the study indicate that the board of directors, Chief Executive Officer, and audit committee have primary responsibility for corporate governance. The paper concludes with some recommendations and suggests some areas for future research.