The impact of culture and governance on corporate social reporting

Abstract

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. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.