Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by multinational corporations (MNCs) subsidiaries in an emerging country

Abstract

The paper examines the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) Reporting by subsidiaries of multinational corporations in Bangladesh in two different steps. At the first step, the study explores the general trend of CSR Reporting in Bangladesh, and then examines in more detail: (a) CSR of subsidiaries of MNCs and (b) CSR of UK MNCs and their subsidiaries in Bangladesh. Content analysis has been used to capture the nature and quantity of CSR issues provided in the annual reports by the companies that were listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange during the study. The paper suggests that CSR Reporting by MNCs subsidiaries in Bangladesh mainly means employee disclosure. CSR Reporting mostly consists of voluntary information with minimum level of mandatory disclosure. More importantly, subsidiaries disclose social and environmental issues more in line with Bangladeshi national companies than they do with their MNC parents. This highlights the fact that MNCs do follow different CSR Reporting strategy based on country of reporting.