Online corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in the banking industry

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, this study analyzes the extent to which banks report online their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; second, it determines the impact of size, ownership structure, multiple exchange listing, and the internationalization of banks on the level of their online CSR reporting. Design/methodology/approach – This study examines the Turkish banking industry’s online CSR communications by performing a content analysis of banks’ online reporting of their CSR practices in four sub-dimensions, namely, environment and energy, human resources, products and customers, and community involvement. A sample of 25 banks in Turkey was grouped according to the criteria of size, ownership structure (listed or unlisted on stock exchanges), multiple exchange listing (listing on home and foreign exchanges), and internationality (local or foreign). This study employs a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test to determine the significance of the differences among these groups. Findings – The results of the study demonstrate that the most disclosed dimension on the websites of the banks is products and customers. In particular, there is a lack of disclosure on items of environment and energy. Further, the findings of the research show that size, ownership structure, and multiple exchange listing are significant in explaining online CSR disclosure level. Originality/value – Several previous studies have focussed less on the CSR disclosure practices of companies in industries with little direct environmental impact, such as banking and finance. This study extends the previous studies of CSR reporting by gathering data from the banks’ websites rather than their annual reports. This study contributes to the literature by examining the online CSR disclosure practices of banks from an emerging market context and, specifically, that of Turkey.