Corporate social disclosure by banks and finance companies: Malaysian evidence

Abstract

This paper provides empirical evidences on the corporate social disclosure practice in the highly regulated industries namely banking and finance. In response to prior literature, research in specific industry will allow the researcher to see some specific pattern in disclosure theme for those industries because all social disclosure items were treated equally. Result from the study on disclosure theme shows that product related disclosure was highest. It may indicate some important issues taking place in the period under study. Furthermore, the result of the hypothesis testing shows that size, listing status and age of business appear to significantly influence the disclosure practice and may conforms to legitimacy theory postulate. While the profitability variable show insignificant relationship possibly due to prior literature notion that decision to disclose social information is related to public pressure variable rather than profitability variable. Finally, for the company profiles the result shows negative and insignificant relationship.