The impact of culture and governance on corporate social reporting

Our aim is to increase understanding of the potential effects of culture and corporate governance on social disclosures. The ethnic background of directors and shareholders is used as a proxy for culture. Corporate governance characteristics include board composition, multiple directorships and type...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of accounting and public policy 2005-09, Vol.24 (5), p.391-430
Main Authors: Haniffa, R.M., Cooke, T.E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asia
Business accounting
Business studies
Corporate governance
Corporate social reporting
Corporations
Cultural diversity
Culture
Disclosure
Disclosure of information (securities law)
Empirical tests
Financial reporting
Malaysia
Social aspects
Social responsibility of business
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Our aim is to increase understanding of the potential effects of culture and corporate governance on social disclosures. The ethnic background of directors and shareholders is used as a proxy for culture. Corporate governance characteristics include board composition, multiple directorships and type of shareholders. The dependent variable, disclosure in annual reports of Malaysian corporations, is measured by an index score as well as in terms of number of words. Our results indicate a significant relationship between corporate social disclosure and boards dominated by Malay directors, boards dominated by executive directors, chair with multiple directorships and foreign share ownership. Four of the control variables (size, profitability, multiple listing and type of industry) were significantly related to corporate social disclosure with the exception of gearing. This study has public policy implications for Malaysia as well as a number of other countries in the Asia–Pacific region.
ISSN:0278-4254
1873-2070
DOI:10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2005.06.001