VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE OF ACCOUNTING AND MANAGEMENT INFORMATION ISO 9001 CERTIFIED COMPANIES

Th e advent of the Internet has changed the ways companies communicate and has made accounting and management information available to all stakeholders. The aim of this paper was to determine in what way quality management through the implementation of the ISO 9001:2000 standard affected the web-based financial statement disclosure in comparison with the companies without ISO certification. It was found that ISO 9001 certified companies paid more attention to their corporate communication and invested more effort in the presentation of accounting information on the Internet than companies without that quality certificate. This study also investigated the availability of easy access to financial statements through hyperlinks in companies with and without ISO 9001 assuming that quality-oriented companies made their accounting information easily accessible. The research, carried out on the sample of 50 Croatian companies with the highest value added, revealed that ISO 9001 certified companies disclose specific management information like ownership structure, ethical code, audit report, Supervisory Board report and Annual General Meeting report on the Internet more often than companies that do not hold the ISO 9001 certificate.