Moath H. Tarawneh

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The relevance of this study lies in the importance of making accurate investment decisions and reliable earnings forecasts, especially given the role of big data in financial analysis. The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of electronic business (e-business) information on the forecasting of future earnings among listed industrial firms in Jordan, and to examine the moderating effect of big data on this relationship. E-business information consists of forward-looking, financial, and sustainability disclosures. Data from 180 firm-years of industrial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange between 2017 and 2022 were analyzed by using multiple regression models. The results show that more e-business disclosures are positively associated with accurate future earnings expectations. Specifically, forward-looking, financial, and sustainability disclosures indicate a strong statistical relationship between disclosure quality and earnings predictability. Moreover, adding big data as a moderating variable significantly strengthened the predictive power of the relationships, where the adjusted R² increased by more than 30 percentage points. This notable enhancement provides new empirical evidence of the value added by big data analytics in improving the relationships between e-business information and the forecasting of future earnings in industrial companies. The study concludes by providing practical insights for investors, policymakers, and corporate managers, highlighting the joint roles of e-business transparency and big data technologies in enhancing financial prediction and supporting strategic decision-making.