Investigating corporate social responsibility disclosure by banks from institutional theory perspective

Abstract

Previous research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has mainly focused on the companies operating in different industry ields. Yet, a limited number of research have investigated the CSR practices in the banking sector. Accordingly, this study attempts to add further knowledge to this domain by measuring and comparing the extent and quality of CSR practices and their components which are: Employees, Community, Environment, and Corporate governance at a larger geographical scale. Moreover, the relationship between institutional environment and CSR and its components will be empirically examined. Secondary data provided by the CSRHUB database is used for a sample of 231 banks operating in ive different regions from 2012 to 2015. The indings reveal that the CSR practices are exercised at a large scale across both developing and developed countries. Interestingly, the developing countries, especially those considered advanced economies or those having well-established international business relations with other developed countries, seem to have a progressing banking system that provides CSR at the highest international levels. Accordingly, no signiicant difference has been reported between banks in such developing countries and their counterparts in other developed countries. On the contrary, regional settings have signiicantly impacted the CSR in total and on each component. These results provide valuable insights and implications to both practitioners and academia. The researchers suggest studying the CSR practices for banks operating in less advanced developing countries.