Open AccessClosely-held corporations participate less in corporate social reporting
Author(s) -
Jia-Hong Lin,
Ed Vos
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
corporate ownership and control
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1810-0368
pISSN - 1727-9232
DOI - 10.22495/cocv4i1c1p1
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , accounting , business , multinational corporation , stock (firearms) , annual report , stock exchange , measure (data warehouse) , finance , public relations , political science , mechanical engineering , database , computer science , engineering
This study investigates the relationship between corporate social reporting (CSR) disclosures and firm characteristics (such as: financial performance and corporate structure) in 100 multinational companies that list on the main U.S. stock exchanges. By using content analysis method, it evaluates annual reports according to several criteria. The results show that the absolute measure of net income and firm size are significant predictors of CSR disclosures. This association does not hold for the relative measure of income and other variables. However, not surprisingly, closely-held shares percentage variable has a significant negative relationship with corporate social reporting. This reveals that closely-held corporations are expected to conceal more information from the public than others. In sum, the findings confirm that large firm and profitable firms are more likely to disclose their CSR practices, but less so when closely held