Abstract

Cybersecurity incidents are increasing in sophistication and scale, leading to sensitive data breaches across industries. Although firms must comply with disclosure regulations, prior research finds substantial variation in the timeliness, quality, and quantity of breach disclosures. Existing studies emphasize regulatory and firm characteristics but give limited attention to firms’ financial conditions and external pressures as drivers of this variation. Drawing on disclosure literature and legitimacy theory, this study examines how financial flexibility, leverage, market performance, and profitability shape disclosure patterns and how public and institutional pressures moderate these effects. We develop a firm-level panel dataset by merging SEC 8-K filings, public and peer breach data, and CRSP/Compustat financial information. Using firm and year fixed-effects panel regression models, we aim to analyze variation in disclosure timeliness, quality, and quantity. This study is expected to contribute to cybersecurity disclosure research by clarifying how internal financial conditions and external pressures jointly influence firms’ disclosure behavior.

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