Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosures of UAE national banks: a multi-perspective approach

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine the determinants and extent of corporate social disclosure (CSD) by UAE national banks and to investigate the changes in CSD before, during and after the latest financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach Deductive in nature, this paper uses content analysis of annual reports of 16 UAE banks over a period of six years (2006-2011) to test eight hypotheses related to size, financial performance and other variables as potential explanatory variables of the CSD extent over different periods. Findings The findings show that human resources and community disclosures exhibited the highest extent of CSD over the six years. Moreover, the size and financial performance variables appear to be significant explanatory factors for the extent of CSD. The findings also indicate a strong variation in disclosure between banks with international presence and those with no such presence, while there is no significant disclosure variation between Islamic and conventional banks or during the different periods under investigation (pre, during and post recent financial crisis). Research limitations/implications Studies allowing a greater understanding of how banks with extensive governmental ownership define and disclose CSR in this particular region of the world are scarce and exploratory in nature. Consequently, the structure of national UAE banks provides a unique opportunity to understand the CSR mechanisms and disclosure of similar institutions in the world (particularly in the Arab world). This presents an interesting direction for further research. Practical implications These findings could assist UAE bankers and policymakers in integrating CSD in their corporate strategies and help the local and international business communities in understanding the characteristics of CSD in the UAE. Originality/value Comprehensive in scope, this paper provides a complete assessment of the potential explanatory proxies of CSD by UAE local banks before, during and after the recent global financial crisis. Comparable studies of the UAE banking sector have mainly focused on particular bank types (i.e. Islamic or conventional) and did not consider the effect of the recent adverse financial climate.

The relationship between corporate governance, corporate characteristics and agricultural credit supply: evidence from Bangladesh

“…Although the previous literature also highlights that profitability has a significant positive association with various corporate issues (Menassa and Dagher, 2019; Saha, 2019), the present study has found a negative association, which is similar to the study findings by Rahman et al (2011). It is noted that the more profit-seeking operations of corporations might be possible to inspire alternative investments for more profits.…”

Determinants of Corporate Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting among Asian Firms

“…Although empirical studies by Chih et al (2010) and Dyduch and Krasodomska (2017) did not find a significant link between corporate financial performance and CSR, studies by Roberts (1992); Haniffa and Cooke (2005); Gamerschlag et al (2010) and Menassa and Dagher (2020) found that companies are more likely to disclose CSR information when they are experiencing the relatively favorable financial performance.…”

“…In the literature review study, Ali et al (2017) found that determinants of CSR disclosure studies in developing countries are dominated by single-country studies, including Malaysia, Singapore, and China. For example, Baba (2017); Haniffa and Cooke (2005) are among studies that have examined the determinants of CSR disclosure in Malaysia; Hossain and Reaz (2007), Joshi and Hyderabad (2018) in India; Wang et al (2013) in China; and Menassa and Dagher (2020) in the United Arab Emirates. Unlike these studies, our study focuses on the factors driving ESG disclosure among 1244 companies in 20 Asian countries during the period 2005-2017.…”

The effects of managerial perceptions on CSR practices and corporate financial performance: an evidence from Vietnam

“…Famiola and Wulansari (2019), Fombrun and Gardberg (2000) and Ullmann (1985) mentioned the essential roles of mediating variables between CSR practices and CFP rather than supported their direct relationship. The research results even contradict the Managerial Opportunism Hypothesis developed by Preston and O'Bannon (1997) that postulated the negative relationship between CSR and CFP, however, partly confirm Menassa and Dagher (2019), Waddock and Graves (1997) that CSR and CFP mutually reinforce each other through a so-called virtuous circle hypothesis. On top of that, this paper advocated the Good Management Theory which posited that good adoption of CSR domains could possibly lead employee's productivity, corporate reputation, customers' satisfaction all of which cascade to financial growth.…”

“…Du et al (2013) added that external stakeholders in turn can experience better total welfare thanks to company's strategic CSR. However, the mixed results from studies examining the connection between CSR practices and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) occur due to differences in research methodology (Famiola and Wulansari, 2019;Margolis and Walsh, 2003;Menassa and Dagher, 2019) as well as studied context (Hofstede, 1980;Singh and Mittal, 2019) which may impact managers' attitudes towards CSR and their actions (Batool et al, 2016;Nguyen et al, 2015;Waldman et al, 2006).…”