Institutional drivers for corporate social responsibility in the utilities sector

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Bandeira Pinheiro ◽  
José Carlos Lázaro da Silva Filho ◽  
Márcia Zabdiele Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business System ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Industry Sectors ◽  
National Business

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the influence of characteristics of the institutional environment on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachThis is a quantitative and descriptive research. The dependent variables used were environmental dimension (ED) and social dimension (SD) that together compose the corporate social performance (CSP). The independent variables that will be used are the characteristics of the institutional environments of Brazil and the UK. Thus, for this end, variables of the national business system of both countries will be used: corruption transparency, access to credit by countries, quality of the education system and labor relations. After their collection, the data were submitted to descriptive and inferential statistics and hierarchical regression.FindingsData show that UK companies make more disclosure in CSR than Brazilian companies. Through linear regression, it can be seen that the institutional environment affects disclosure in CSR. In the UK, a country with better educational, labor, political and financial indicators than Brazil, it presented better CSR practices. The findings reveal that the better an institutional environment, the more firms act in CSR. The findings of the research confirm the premise of institutional theory: different institutional fields can modify business performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study analyzed only the disclosure practices of companies in the public sector. Thus, the results should be carefully analyzed, without generalizations for all industry sectors. Therefore, it is suggested that future research looks at other industry sectors as well as other institutional contexts, i.e. other countries.Practical implicationsMultinational companies may have different CSR practices according to the institutional environment in which they operate. For example, companies in developed countries, such as the UK, have greater stakeholder pressure. Given this, managers must adapt their environmental strategies according to the institutional environment in which they operate.Originality/valueThis research contributes to CSR studies in various institutional contexts. There is a consensus in the literature that institutional environments affect firms' CSR practices. However, few empirical studies show results between the national business system and CSR. Thus, the present study intends to fill this research gap.

scholarly journals Between ethics and law

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Carminati
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Broad Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Economic Globalisation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a critical and broad perspective on how transnational companies (TNCs) behave in the global context, focussing its attention on the controversial issue of tax avoidance in the UK. It pursues this aim by taking into account not only economic globalisation, mobility of capital and tax havens but also ethics and corporate social responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThis paper seeks to provide an interdisciplinary viewpoint drawing not only from well-established scholarly literature but also from real cases and evidence, such as the scandals involving corporate giants, such as Starbucks, Google and Amazon in the UK.FindingsThis paper highlights the fundamental interplay and mutual aid of ethics and international laws, underlining the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility principles in today’s business practices. However, it also emphasises the need of reinforcing these principles with either regional or universalistic legal approaches to tackle TNCs’ misconduct in the international arena.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests that by establishing and enforcing international business laws, increasingly aligned with ethical principles, the gap between ethics and legislation can be consistently bridged. Hence, TNCs’ behaviour could be more efficiently controlled.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on modern economic globalisation by providing a comprehensive and integrative perspective on TNCs’ behaviour, accounting for the interplay of socio-ethical, legal and business principles.

Content in the context of welfare configurations: a comparative institutional analysis of self-reporting on corporate social responsibility

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-506
Author(s):  
Brita Backlund Rambaree
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) content in the context of four differing national institutional arrangements for welfare. An analysis is presented on how self-reported CSR differs in content across two western welfare states (the UK and Sweden) and two emerging economies in southern Africa (South Africa and Mauritius). Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a qualitative content analysis of the CSR self-reporting of 40 companies. This involved 10 of the largest companies incorporated in four countries, namely, Sweden, the UK, South Africa and Mauritius. The content is categorised into community involvement, socially responsible production and socially responsible employee relations. For each category, an analysis is provided of the reported issues (the question of what), the geographic focus of reported issues (the question of where) and ways of working with these issues (the question of how), as well as the extent of reporting and level of reporting (the question of how much). Findings The study shows that companies place focus on aspects, issues and localities in ways that differ between countries and can be understood in relation to current institutional arrangements for welfare. The content of self-reported CSR can be both complementing and mirroring the welfare arrangements. Differences in self-reported CSR agendas are particularly evident between the two western welfare states on the one hand and the two emerging economies on the other, as these represent two distinct contexts in terms of welfare arrangements. Originality/value This paper contributes to research on the institutional embeddedness of CSR in three ways: first, by going beyond measures of country differences in terms of extent of CSR to consider differences in CSR content; second, by focusing on the social aspects of CSR and placing these differences in relation to welfare configurations; and third, by contributing with empirical findings on how CSR content differs across national settings and across the established/emerging economy divide.

scholarly journals Earnings management and corporate social responsibility: UK evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousf Almahrog ◽  
Zakaria Ali Aribi ◽  
Thankom Arun
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Csr Disclosure ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The paper aims to re-interpret the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in limiting the extreme practices in earnings management (EM) by using evidence from large UK companies. Design/methodology/approach The study has used content analysis and disclosure index to measure the level of CSR. The authors measured EM based on discretionary accruals by using cross-sectional version of the modified Jones model. Findings The findings of this study reveal that companies with a higher commitment to CSR activities are less likely to manage earnings through accruals. Originality/value This study shed more light on the potential impact of CSR on earnings management in the context of the UK. Prior research on the impact of CSR on earnings management has used exclusively CSR scores, provided by CSR score indices. The manual measurement used in this study for CSR (disclosure index/content analysis) is considered to provide a more detailed and precise measure.

Do CEO overconfidence and narcissism affect corporate social responsibility in the UK listed companies? The moderating role of corporate governance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asma Bouzouitina ◽  
Mouakhar Khaireddine ◽  
Anis Jarboui
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Least Squares Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Upper Echelons Theory ◽  
Ceo Narcissism ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of two CEO characteristics, namely, narcissism and overconfidence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms in the UK. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 2,360 UK firms listed on the FTSE 400 index for the years 2010–2017, the feasible generalized least squares method was applied to test the hypotheses developed. Findings The finding argues that CEO narcissism and overconfidence positively affect CSR. In addition, this paper found that CG effectiveness moderates the CEO’s CSR behavior. Research limitations/implications This research is subjected to two limitations. First, this study used different measures to proxy for CEO narcissism and overconfidence. However, other measures are not included owing to the difficulty to collect data regarding these measures. Second, this study includes only CSR performance instead of all other dimensions and categories of CSR. These limitations do not change the conclusions of this research, and they may provide guidance for further investigations. Practical implications Given that the CEOs psychological and behavioral features are critical in understanding CSR, shareholders and boards of directors should incorporate the behavioral aspects of narcissistic and overconfident CEOs in the design of CSR strategy. Originality/value This study emphasizes the importance of top executives’ psychological characteristics for CSR, which is a key application and complements the “upper echelons theory” and fills the research gap in the literature. This is one of the few studies that investigate the interaction between CG, CEO profile and CSR.

The influence of corporate social responsibility disclosure on share prices

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marna De Klerk ◽  
Charl de Villiers ◽  
Chris van Staden
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Share Price ◽  
Global Reporting Initiative ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Share Prices ◽  
Incremental Value ◽  
Csr Disclosure ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between share prices and the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of large UK companies, using CSR data from an independent firm and a time period and setting (the UK) that coincides with increased legislation and increased public awareness of corporate social and environmental issues. Against a background of increased interest by investors in CSR disclosure, prior mixed results on the association between CSR disclosure and share prices suggest the need for further research that overcome some of the identified limitations of the extant literature. Design/methodology/approach – A modified Ohlson (1995) model is used to examine the relationship between CSR disclosure and share prices among the 100 largest UK companies. Three different measures of CSR disclosure are used to ensure robustness of results. Findings – The paper finds that higher levels of CSR disclosure are associated with higher share prices. Furthermore, the paper provides evidence that CSR disclosure by companies operating in environmentally sensitive industries show a stronger association with share prices than CSR disclosure by companies operating in other industries. The paper concludes that CSR disclosure provides incremental value-relevant information to investors beyond financial accounting information. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to provide evidence of the incremental value of CSR disclosure to share price determination in the UK, a country where CSR disclosure is high on the agenda. Our findings provide evidence that CSR disclosures by companies and, in particular, disclosures following the global reporting initiative(GRI) guidelines, are useful to investors and shareholders, as it is related to share price information.

Do environmental-related disclosures help enhance investment recommendations?

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habiba Al-Shaer
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Analyst Recommendations ◽  
Environmental Disclosure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Diversity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

PurposeUsing a sample of UK FTSE 350 companies continuously listed in the period 2007-2011, this paper aims to investigate the impact of the quality and quantity of corporate environmental disclosure on analysts’ recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a method based on that developed by Beck et al. (2010). The “CONI” approach measures information diversity, content and volume. It involves dual qualitative and quantitative measurement, which is suitable for the purpose of this paper.FindingsThe findings suggest that the quality of environmental disclosure is associated with more favourable buy recommendations. Mere volume of disclosure is insufficient for effective signalling about environmental strategies. Further tests show that only discretionary quality disclosure that is influenced by managerial intervention receives optimistic recommendation, suggesting that analysts are more likely to give better recommendation when managers have a higher level of discretion in their disclosures.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the academic literature by empirically examining the association between sell-side analyst recommendations on both innate and discretionary components of environmental disclosures (quality and volume) within the UK context. This is a significant extension of the existing literature, which has focused on the related association between analyst recommendations and corporate social responsibility, mainly measured by corporate social responsibility ratings or a dummy variable reflecting the existence of supplementary corporate social responsibility reports in different international setting. The topic is of interest to contemporary accounting scholars and responds to calls for more research into how analysts use nonfinancial data such as environmental data in making recommendations.

Conceptualizing corporate social responsibility practice: an integration of obligation and opportunity

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aashna Sharma ◽  
Gurparkash Singh
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility Practice ◽  
Strategic Csr ◽  
Social And Environmental Responsibilities ◽  
Explicit Csr ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose This paper aims to develop an integrated model to analyse the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception of organizations in a regulated environment. The developed model is used as a basis to analyse practice and perception of CSR using the obligation-opportunity concepts. Design/methodology/approach The paper critically reviews the seminal literature and identifies inherent shortcomings in CSR’s existing conceptualizations. The concepts of implicit and explicit CSR are used to build a case for the integrated obligation-opportunity conceptual model. To analyse the CSR perception of select Indian organizations, a set of propositions are developed. The propositions are evaluated using the interpretive qualitative approach to analyse interviews from 12 CSR heads across 10 organizations. Findings The paper develops an obligation-opportunity conceptual model as an analytical tool to visually map existing CSR models and analyse organizations’ CSR perceptions. The results of the analysis of interviews suggest: the organizations in India are contributing towards CSR to abide by the law that is as an obligation; organizations can contribute towards strategic CSR by incorporating economic, social and environmental responsibilities simultaneously with the help of the developed model; CSR environment in India is implicitly-explicit in nature. Originality/value The proposed obligation-opportunity model enables mapping different theories along the dimensions of obligation-opportunity conceptualizations. It can be a powerful tool for researchers and practitioners to understand, research and strategically implement CSR in the given institutional environment.

The roles of macro and micro institutions in corporate social responsibility (CSR)

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 955-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Pan ◽  
Xuanjin Chen ◽  
Lutao Ning
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Research Database ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Institutions ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose Firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviour is embedded in the institutional context. Under this logic, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the institutional antecedents of CSR, especially how two sub-national institutions – regional institutional development and industry dynamism – and their interactions affect firms’ CSR. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of 608 Chinese listed firms, with 2,694 observations made from 2009 to 2014. The data were collected from two sources. The CSR information was acquired from the CSR rating agency Rankins CSR Ratings, and the financial data from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research database. Panel ordinary least squares regression was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The empirical results indicate that firms located in advanced regional institutions and more dynamic industries are more likely to engage in CSR. Moreover, macro institution, termed as regional institutional development, positively moderates the relationship between micro institution in terms of industry dynamism and CSR. Originality/value Overlooking how the institutional environment influences CSR decisions limits understanding of firms’ CSR activities. This paper offers an institutional explanation of CSR and, in particular, investigates different levels of sub-national institutions and their interaction.

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