Corporate social responsibility

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to attempt to identify the type and quality of social information disclosed by Lebanese commercial banks and to report on the extent of these disclosures and their relationship with size, financial performance, and other chosen variables.Design/methodology/approachDeductive in nature, this paper uses content analysis of annual report social disclosures of 24 Lebanese commercial banks to test six hypotheses related to the nature of social disclosures and their association with selected variables.FindingsThe findings provide evidence of the widespread use of this phenomenon by these banks as a means to communicate with their stakeholders. Moreover, results reveal that these banks attribute a greater importance to human resource and product and customers disclosures, whereas the availability and extent of environmental disclosure is still weak. In addition, a strong association is found between these disclosures and size and financial performance variables, whereas the relationship with the bank age is found to be a weak one. Finally, findings suggest no difference in social disclosure behavior between listed banks and banks with an overseas presence, and non‐listed banks and those operating only in Lebanon.Research limitations/implicationsFurther longitudinal and causal analyzes would shed more light on the importance and determinants of this phenomenon in small and developing economies. One obstacle to overcome in this endeavor is the non‐availability of social and environmental databases similar to the ones used by researchers in developed countries. On the research front, this paper adds to the relatively small number of studies addressing issues related to corporate social disclosure practices by banks.Practical implicationsAt the practical level, the paper attempts to inform corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices of Lebanese banks which would result in more socially and ethically oriented banking activities in Lebanon.Originality/valueStudies of CSR have generally been conducted in relatively large economies with active financial and stock markets. This paper tests and applies relevant accounting theories to a developing small economy and shows that even small family‐owned banks with high public visibility can exhibit strong social and ethical awareness.

Human Resource Disclosures in Corporate Annual Reports of Insurance Companies: A Case of Developing Country

“…Table 3 presents the eight disclosures items related to human resources that used content analysis. The items were adopted from prior studies in the accounting literature for sample companies [34,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. First, based on literature review, human resources related disclosure items were identified.…”

“…Human resources disclosure in corporate annual reports was collected manually via content analysis. Eight categories were pre-defined to assess objectively human resources related information based on a review of accounting literatures [34,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Disclosure related to employee health and safety, employment of minorities or women, disabled employee, employee training, employee assistance/benefits, employee remuneration, employee profiles and employee morale are defined as human related disclosures [34,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43].…”

Determinants of bank social responsibility: case of Croatia

“…Most of the studies of the banking industry document a positive link between these two constructs (e.g. [84], [42], [81], [65]). …”

“…[87], [14], [67], [88], [54]), and only some refers specifi cally to the banking industry (e.g. [81], [65]). …”

“…Content analysis of corporate disclosures has been also used in a number of academic studies (e.g. [1], [97], [32], [65], [91]). …”