Abstract—This paper aims to examine the effect of CG characteristics (ownership structure) on the extent of voluntary disclosure in the financial reports of non-financial listed firms in Saudi Arabia. This paper aims to examine the current level of voluntary disclosure and investigate the influence of variables, such as ownership structure (managerial ownership, family member on the board and government ownership level) and control variables (size, leverage and return on assets), in relation to the level of VDS in non-financial companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. The results of this study suggest that the corporate governance-related variables influence the level of information disclosed, thus confirming the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that the level of VDS was acceptable compared to other studies. With regard to the quality of disclosure, results regarding the CG characteristics showed that all the variables were significantly positively linked to the level of VDS. Moreover, the results regarding the control variables also indicate a significantly positive association with the level of VDS. The results of this paper might be of interest to regulators, investment analysts, and market participants and can aid Saudi authorities in enforcing new policies aimed towards improving the quality of financial reporting.

Index Terms—corporate governance (CG), disclosure, ownership structure, voluntary disclosure (VDS)

Cite: Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal, "The Effect of Ownership Structure on Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence from Saudi Arabia" Journal of Advanced Management Science, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 138-151, March 2017. doi: 10.18178/joams.5.2.138-151