Ownership structure and corporate social responsibility disclosure: some Malaysian evidence

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of ownership structure on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Malaysian company annual reports (CARs).Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a CSR disclosure checklist to measure the extent of CSR disclosure in annual reports and a multiple regression analysis to examine the association between ownership structure and the extent of CSR disclosure in annual reports.Findings – The paper finds that, even among the larger and actively traded stocks in Malaysia, there is considerable variability in the amount of social activities disclosed in corporate annual reports. Results from multiple regression analysis show that, consistent with expectations, companies in which the directors hold a higher proportion of equity shares (owner‐managed companies) disclosed significantly less CSR information, while companies in which the government is a substantial shareholder disclosed significantly more CSR information in their annual re...

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