Search results

This study aims to examine the impact of firm-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance characteristics on the extent, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting of Pakistani listed enterprises.

This study used content analysis of corporate annual reports and stand-alone CSR reports available on corporate websites in 2021 to identify CSR-related governance features and to calculate CSR reporting scores. Multivariate regression is used to test relationships. In addition, the analysis tested the moderating role of profitability in these relationships.

Firm-level CSR governance characteristics contribute to the extent, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting in a developing country. Further, results confirm that profitability moderates the relationship between CSR governance and the extent and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting.

This study employed cross-sectional data and focused on a single developing country. Future studies might include a cross-national sample and longitudinal data to demonstrate the broader relevance of these findings. The outcomes of this study are restricted to CSR disclosures based on CSR reports and annual reports. Future research may examine additional corporate communication channels, such as websites and social media platforms.

This research validates the important role of CSR governance mechanisms as a driver of comprehensive CSR reporting. Business leaders and policymakers can facilitate improved corporate reporting by requiring companies to implement CSR-related governance mechanisms.

This is the first study to test the influence of firm-level CSR governance mechanisms in promoting the quantity, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting in a developing country.

Content analysis was used to measure corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with robust standard errors are used to examine the relationships for a sample of 168 firm-year observations listed on the Palestine Exchange during 2018–2021. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

Based on 168 observations listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) between 2018 and 2021, this study examines the impact of women's representation on the CSR reporting of Palestinian firms' boards. Moreover, the moderating effect of ownership concentration on the relationship between BGD and CSR reporting is examined. In order to test the hypotheses, the author’s employ OLS regressions with robust standard errors. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

The results reveal that Palestinian companies with more women on their boards have higher CSR practices and disclosure levels. In addition to the validity of agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories, the findings show the relevance of gender socialization and critical mass theories in explaining the favorable influence of women's presentation on boards in promoting best practices among Palestinian firms, such as CSR disclosure.

The study contributes to the limited literature in the MENA and Arab region countries by examining the influence of BGD on CSR reporting in Palestine, an emerging economy characterized by highly political and economic instability. The study offers a novel contribution by examining the impact of BGD, on not only the CSR reporting quantity but also the reporting quality. However, the generalizability of the study is limited due to the small sample size.

The findings of the study may bring the issues of CSR disclosure and female representation on board of directors to the attention of Palestinian firms' board of directors and managers, investors, professional associations, policymakers and regulators. While listed firms are only required to provide general information that falls under the scope of CSR in their annual reports under the Palestinian code of corporate governance, women representation on boards of directors is not addressed.

This study adds to the very limited literature on the role of the BGD in promoting CSR reporting in the Middle Eastern and Arabic markets in general, and in the Palestinian context in particular. This paper not only investigates but also seeks to theorize this role.

This study investigates CSR reporting’s role in debt access and cost of debt with the moderating role of external assurance and GRI adoption in emerging markets. Such an investigation will help facilitate external fund flow to firms in better terms.

We collected data from 16 emerging markets between 2008 and 2019 from the Thomson Reuters Eikon and ran fixed effects regression analysis and robustness tests by addressing endogeneity concerns, adopting alternative sample and integrating additional control variables.

The results show that CSR reporting has a positive association with access to debt and a negative association with the cost of debt. Furthermore, both external assurance and GRI adoption do not significantly moderate between CSR reporting and access to debt and cost of debt. Hence, creditors in emerging markets are not interested in CSR report assurance and GRI framework adoption and do not integrate them into their lending decisions.

Emerging markets are unique settings characterized by high growth rates, limited capital availability, high debt costs and weak institutional environments. Thus, reaching debt with convenient conditions is critical for emerging market firms to finance their growth. Hence, our study will help emerging market firms reach external funding more easily and in better terms via CSR transparency. Besides, our investigation is based on a broad sample of emerging markets, and hence updates prior emerging market studies conducted in single-country settings. Lastly, we test the complementarity of third-party assurance and GRI adoption to CSR reporting in loan contracting.

This paper explores how the disclosure quality, measured by the abnormal tone of environmental and social report, may determine the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of the firm. This study also investigates the impact of the moderator “board of directors” to explore the extent to which a well-balanced board of directors may affect this association within an impression management strategy.

This work uses a sample of 616 firm-year observations using a sample of French firms indexed on SBF120 index from 2010 to 2017. To test the developed hypotheses, the GLS regression is applied and to control for endogeneity issue and sample selection bias, the authors used, respectively, the two stage least square (2SLS) procedure and the Heckman model.

Findings suggest that a well-balanced board of directors moderates the relationship between the ESG performance and the disclosure quality. The positive effect of abnormal tone management on ESG is weakened by the presence of a good structure of the board, attenuating impression management initiatives.

The research provides evidence of the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting quality, in particular disclosure tone management, on the level of ESG performance in the French context. As the board of directors may have a major impact on weakening impression management strategies in particular tone management practices, in order to improve CSR report quality, the authors recommend French companies to ensure a well-balanced board of directors.

This study helps investors to comprehensively evaluate the information disclosed on CSR reports. It unveils that a strong board composition induces better quality of CSR report and brings better ESG performance. Thus, the study results point to the importance of a well-balanced board of directors and the regulation of the narrative disclosure of CSR information.

In this study, the authors investigate if analysts, as knowledgeable information intermediaries, can correctly identify bank corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and can reliably transmit that information to investors. Hence, the authors specifically explore if analysts perceive and behave differentially in the presence of genuine bank CSR activities (strengths). The authors also analyze if financial markets differentially assess bank CSR strengths. The authors further explore the viability of focusing on analyst and financial markets to validate genuine bank CSR strengths.

The authors use COMPUSTAT and CRSP for firm and financial data, I/B/E/S for analyst reporting data and MCSI Research KLD for CSR data. The sample consists of 329 distinct banks and 2,525 bank-year observations from 2003 to 2016. The primary CSR score is the total number of CSR strengths less the total number of CSR concerns, across six of the seven dimensions for each firm in each year of the sample (Adjusted CSR Score). In addition, the authors estimate all the analyses with dis-aggregated measures of total CSR strengths and total CSR concerns (Adjusted Total Strength Score).

The authors find that analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths from CSR concerns. Specifically, bank CSR strengths increase analyst following and forecast accuracy, while decreasing analyst forecast dispersion. The authors further find that bank CSR strengths increase bank market returns. These results are reversed for bank CSR concerns. Additionally, the authors demonstrate that this method using knowledgeable intermediaries can help validate bank CSR strengths.

The sample is limited to US banks and financial markets. The regulatory and information environment is likely to be different from global or emerging markets. However, since banks in many countries aspire to emulate the US banks, these results would be a precursor of banking sectors conditions in emerging markets. Additionally, the availability of data limits the sample to a period that ends in 2016. To the extent that the importance of ESG and CSR concerns has increased in the intervening time, the results may not accurately reflect the current state of the market.

This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups. First, the authors show that in addition to customers, analysts and the financial markets appreciate bank CSR strengths. Second, despite sophisticated financial reporting by banks, analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths. Third, the authors demonstrate a method for bank marketing researchers to validate genuine bank CSR activity, as well as provide additional support for customer related bank CSR outcomes. Fourth, the findings highlight the importance for banks to have high-quality CSR reporting. This might be especially helpful to a bank rebuilding its reputation after a CSR failure. Finally, this investigation using US banks could serve as a precursor for future bank CSR research and help develop CSR reporting guidelines for banks in emerging economies.

This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups.

This investigation benefits researchers, customers, banking executives, regulators and activist groups. First, the authors show that in addition to customers, analysts and the financial market appreciates bank CSR strengths. Second, despite sophisticated financial reporting by banks, analysts correctly distinguish and construe bank CSR strengths. Third, the authors demonstrate a method for bank marketing researchers to validate genuine bank CSR activity, as well as provide additional support for customer related bank CSR outcomes. Fourth, the findings highlight the importance for banks to have high-quality CSR reporting. This might be especially helpful to a bank rebuilding its reputation after a CSR failure. Finally, this investigation using US banks could serve as a precursor for future bank CSR research and help develop CSR reporting guidelines for banks in emerging economies.

There is emerging evidence in the accounting literature that investors react negatively to corporate greenwashing. But does that hold for all investors, or do different types of investors react differently? This paper aims to study retail investors’ responses to media reports on corporate greenwashing and how these responses depend upon the investors’ social value orientation. The authors argue that media reporting on corporate greenwashing negatively affects the rationale for allocating funds to firms engaging in greenwashing. The authors also expect this reaction to be stronger for prosocial investors compared to proself investors.

The authors conduct an online experiment with 229 participants representing retail investors in the German-speaking countries.

The results show that retail investors who received media reports on deceptive disclosure invest more funds in the company that does not engage in greenwashing (and less in the firm that engages in greenwashing) than investors who did not receive these reports. The authors’ results provide novel evidence that this effect primarily holds for investors with a prosocial value orientation. Finally, the authors’ data show that lower trust in the firm that engages in greenwashing partially mediates the effect of media reports on investor choices.

The authors provide unique evidence how different types of investors react to media reports on greenwashing. The authors find that moral motives, rather than risk-return considerations, drive investor responses to greenwashing. Overall, these findings support the important function of the media as an intermediary in stock market participation and highlight the pivotal role of individual traits in investors’ responses to greenwashing.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of new sustainability reporting (SDG) and external assurance (EXTA) practices. This study also examines the relationship between sustainability reporting activity and corporate economic performance for a sample of 99 companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019.

Using a two-stage analysis, this study examines how firms’ characteristics and corporate governance variables affect SDG and economic performance, as well as the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements for a sample of companies in that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019. The authors collected data from the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Disclosure database and the Bureau van Dijk for Orbis database.

The results show that the variables firm size, profitability, big 4 auditors and government ownership significantly affect SDG and economic performance. The results also reveal that firms operating in the manufacturing sector are positively correlated with SDG and the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements. Furthermore, the results indicate that board independence positively affects SDGs and EXTA.

The results can be particularly relevant and timely in helping large GCC companies promote their engagement to sustainable development practices by adopting more sustainable long-term strategies and policies. The findings could also guide managers in the strategic direction to identify firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features essential to promote sustainability reporting, an increasingly important performance indicator for investors and to enhance their confidence in the capital market. The results may also have practical implications to policymakers and other regulators in GCC countries to define effective frameworks that promote sustainable development reports and the use of EXTA.

The results make significant contributions by providing new insights to the existing literature on sustainability reporting in emerging markets by examining a unique perspective on the influence of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features on the adoption of new sustainability reporting practices. The authors further add to the previous literature on the relationship between a firm’s economic performance and sustainable reporting by providing evidence from large companies in GCC countries, which might benefit from the adoption of multiple conceptual lenses, in this case, legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Lastly, through the empirical findings, this study provides economic validity to the 2018 joint initiative of the GRI and the United Nations Global Compact to strengthen corporate actions to achieve the United Nations SDGs.

This paper aims to explore the extent of corporate social responsibility disclosure (hereafter CSRD) in Jordan and also examine whether ownership structure, board of directors and audit committee characteristics influence CSRD.

The extent of CSRD is measured by constructing a CSRD index for industrial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2021. Panel regression analysis is used to examine the potential effect of ownership structure, board of directors and audit committee on the level of CSRD.

This study provides empirical evidence that diverse groups of shareholders have different effects on CSR engagement, and board characteristics (board size, board independence and gender diversity) play a vital role in increasing voluntary disclosure, including CSR information. There is no evidence to support that CSRD is influenced by audit committee characteristics.

This study recommends that corporate regulators and policymakers can improve CSRD practices by expanding the scope of existing disclosure requirements related to CSR and developing a structured CSRD index to measure the degree of CSRD practices for comparative purposes. Encourage firms to actively participate in social responsibility programs by granting tax incentives and government facilities to firms with the best CSR reports. Policymakers should introduce initiatives that support female’s representation on board. Finally, firms should restructure their boards by increasing board size and the percentage of independent directors to enhance their effectiveness to support CSRD.

This paper contributes further insights into the literature on CSRD practices and disclosure by analyzing data from developing market contexts.

This study aims to assess whether non-financial corporate social responsibility (CSR) information decreases audit risk and audit scope and enables speedier completion of audit reports. The study also investigates whether institutional investors’ ownership (IIO) has an influence on the association between CSR disclosures and audit report lag (ARL).

This study uses a sample of 154 Saudi firms over 2016–2021 (837 observations) and applies ordinary least square regression to examine the study hypotheses.

This study’s results show that ARL is significantly shorter for firms with higher CSR disclosures. Furthermore, the findings show that IIO has no significant impact on the association between CSR disclosures and ARL.

This study offers new insights into how auditors respond to CSR disclosures and whether institutional investor monitoring influences the audit process in an emerging economy.

To assist Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs) in preparing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, Bursa Malaysia Berhad (BMB) launched the second edition of the Sustainability Reporting Guide (SRG) in 2018. This new SRG edition has several additional requirements for CSR reporting (CSRR), the most important of which is a chapter on assurance which provides detailed guidance on how it may be carried out. This study aims to determine whether the new SRG edition influences the extent of CSRR, and whether such effect is moderated by the provision of assurance on CSRR. It also aims to identify whether amending CSRR regulations and providing assurance on such reporting indirectly influences firm value through the possible improvement in the extent of CSRR.

This study performed a content analysis of the CSRR of a sample of Malaysian PLCs that maintained their positions among the top 100 companies by market capitalization between 2017 and 2020 to determine the extent of CSRR for the two years before and two years after the implementation of the new edition of SRG. This study conducted different statistical analyses to indicate whether the implementation of the second edition of SRG has an effect on enhancing the extent of CSRR, and whether the provision of assurance on such reporting moderates such an effect. This study then used instrumental variable regressions to examine the influence of the predicted extent of CSRR on firms’ value measured by Tobin’s Q.

This study found that the implementation of the second edition of SRG has a positive and significant influence on the extent of CSRR. This effect is strengthened by the provision of assurance on CSRR. Instrumental variable regressions also indicate that enhancing the extent of CSRR affected by the second edition of SRG is linked to higher firm value.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to assess the determinants and implications of CSRR among Malaysian companies after adopting the second edition of SRG.