Digital financial reporting quality and investor decision-making in emerging capital markets: Evidence from online disclosure platforms, artificial intelligence integration, and market reactions.

Background: The digitalisation of financial reporting has transformed the speed, accessibility, and volume of information available to investors in emerging capital markets. Online disclosure portals, XBRL tagging, and artificial intelligence tools for earnings analysis have collectively reshaped how investors process corporate financial information, raising questions about whether digital quality improvements reduce information asymmetry or introduce new governance risks.

Aim: This study examined how digital financial reporting quality influences investor decision-making in emerging capital markets and whether AI-assisted disclosure analysis moderates the quality-decision relationship.

Methodology: Panel data from 96 listed firms across the NGX, NSE, and JSE for 2016 to 2024 were analysed using fixed-effects regression, vector autoregression, and robust estimation. Digital reporting quality was measured through a composite index incorporating disclosure completeness, XBRL adoption, timeliness, and readability scores.

Findings: Digital reporting quality significantly reduces bid-ask spreads and improves analyst forecast accuracy. AI-assisted analysis positively moderates these effects in high analyst coverage environments. Timeliness emerged as the strongest quality dimension.

Contributions: The study disaggregates digital quality dimensions and documents their differential investor effects while introducing AI-assisted analysis as a novel moderating mechanism in emerging market contexts.