Do stakeholders or social obligations drive corporate social and environmental responsibility reporting? Managerial views from a developing country

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore senior managers’ perception and motivations of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) reporting in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 senior managers of companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. Publicly available annual reports of these companies were also analysed.

Findings

The results indicate that senior managers perceive CSER reporting as a social obligation. The study finds that the managers focus mostly on child labour, human resources/rights, responsible products/services, health education, sports and community engagement activities as part of the social obligations. Interviewees identify a lack of a regulatory framework along with socio-cultural and religious factors as contributing to the low level of disclosures. These findings suggest that CSER reporting is not merely stakeholder-driven, but rather country-specific social and environmental issues play an important role in relation to CSER reporting practices.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to engagement-based studies by focussing on CSER reporting practices in developing countries and are useful for academics, practitioners and policymakers in understanding the reasons behind CSER reporting in developing countries.

Originality/value

This paper addresses a literature “gap” in the empirical study of CSER reporting in a developing country, such as Bangladesh. This study fills a gap in the existing literature to understand managers’ motivations for CSER reporting in a developing country context. Managerial perceptions on CSER issues are largely unexplored in developing countries.

Citation

Hossain, M.M., Alam, M., Islam, M.A. and Hecimovic, A. (2015), "Do stakeholders or social obligations drive corporate social and environmental responsibility reporting? Managerial views from a developing country", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 287-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-10-2014-0061