CSR disclosure in banking: A qualitative literature review

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reviews the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in banking to identify the most relevant aspects analyzed to date and avenues for future research. The CSR concept is key in the banking industry and banks are pushed to improve their social and environmental performance, and to disclose information about CSR in their financial and non-financial reports. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a mixed literature review approach, based on a qualitative analysis of the literature and complemented by some structured systematic analyses. The theoretical frameworks employed in the literature, the time and geographical distribution of the samples analyzed, and the main findings of the studies indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost are also examined. Findings: The findings show that (i) there is a significant gap between the liter-ature focusing on the financial dimension of bank disclosure and that exploring the CSR dimension; (ii) the time horizons analyzed in the empirical literature are concentrated around the 2008-2009 global financial crisis; (iii) the empirical litera-ture mainly focuses on the most developed European, North American and Asian countries. Originality/value: This study contributes to extant literature by describing the state of the art on CSR disclosure in banking and paving the way for future re-search on this topic. A call for research is raised on corruption-related disclosure and the relationship between national economic development and bank transpar-ency, with specific reference to CSR disclosure.