Corporate Governance and CSR Disclosure: Evidence from a Developing Country

Abstract

This study aims to enhance our understanding about the role of corporate governance in driving CSR disclosure agenda in a developing country, Pakistan. This research used a content analysis method to codify the reported information in the annual reports into CSR disclosure theme and used regression analysis technique to determine the relationship between characteristics of corporate governance and CSR disclosure, while controlling for company characteristics. Multiple directorships of a chairman, non-executive directors on board, and non-executive directors in the audit committee were used as proxies of corporate governance and the number of sentences disclosed was used to measure the extent of CSR disclosure. We have found that only one corporate governance characteristic i.e. multiple directorships of a chairman has significant positive relationship with CSR disclosure while other corporate governance characteristics such as independence of corporate board and presence of non-executive directors in the audit committee have non-significant relationship. The results are suggesting that corporate governance mechanism plays a limited role in driving the CSR reporting agenda in Pakistan.