Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting: a study of selected banking companies in Bangladesh

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by banks in the developing economy of Bangladesh. This paper also aims to examine the users' perceptions relating to CSR disclosures issues.Design/methodology/approach -The study collected two types of data. First the annual reports of 20 selected banking companies, which are listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), were considered. A questionnaire was also used to investigate the level of users' understanding and their perception of CSR reporting.Findings -The principal findings are twofold: first, the study shows that the selected banking companies did some (albeit little) CSR reporting on a voluntary basis. Second, that the user groups are in favor of CSR reporting, and would like to see more disclosure. The current disclosures by the selected banks, however, are not ample at all to measure the social responsiveness of the organizations.Originality/value -The paper provides useful informaiton on users' perceptions relating to CSR disclosures issues.

The Compliance of the Integrated Reports Issued by European Financial Companies with the International Integrated Reporting Framework

“…While the authors of [45] report low disclosure of social information and no disclosure of environmental policy, authors of [46] notice concerns in this area driven by the legitimacy theory. The most common CSR aspects covered by banks in their reports are: community involvement [46][47][48][49], human resources [45,47,48,[50][51][52], and product and customer disclosures [51,53]. In line with the characteristics of the sector, the environmental aspects seem to be the least presented [43,45,46,49,51,53].…”

“…In line with the characteristics of the sector, the environmental aspects seem to be the least presented [43,45,46,49,51,53]. The information was in general disclosed on a voluntary basis [45,50,54,55]. The factors determining the level of CSR disclosure in the banking industry are: size [51,55], assets-in-place [55], market structure [56], IT investments [56], risk factors [56], board representation [57], and financial performance [51].…”

Sustainability Reporting Practices: Evidence from Bangladesh

“…There have been a number of studies examining corporate social reporting in a developing country such as Bangladesh (Belal, 2000;Imam, 2000;Belal and Owen, 2007;Islam and Deegan, 2008;Mahmud, Biswas and Islam, 2017). Prior studies (Khan, Halabi and Samy, 2009;Mahmud et al, 2017) focused exclusively on banking sector. Social disclosure practices have evidently directed toward revealing the social disclosures status of banks with capturing a range of stakeholders' perceptions and the impacts of corporate governance elements on banks social reporting.…”

Responsabilidad social empresarial en la dimensión laboral: caso Bancolombia y BBVA

“…En la revisión realizada de los artículos científicos publicados en los últimos trece años acerca de la RSE en el sector bancario y/o financiero se encontraron 47 documentos, y la mayoría de ellos se concentran en estudiar la divulgación de la RSE a través de sus páginas Web, sus formas, a quién la dirigen y en otros casos, pretenden medir su impacto en los clientes; algunos ejemplos son: Farook & Lanis (2005), Castelo & Lima (2008), Khan, et al (2009), Hassan & Syafri (2010, Hinson, et al (2010). Con respecto a la RSE en los bancos los estudios muestran de forma general lo siguiente:…”