Corporate social responsibility disclosure and financial information environment

Abstract

This study aims to explore whether or not social responsibility disclosure contributes to improve the financial information environment, through examining the impact of quantity and quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on the accuracy of analysts' forecasts and audit fees. Content analysis technique has been used to measure quantity and quality of CSR disclosure in annual reports of Saudi registered companies. OLS regression model is used to examine the relationship between the quantity and quality of CSR disclosure in the annual reports and the quality of the analysts' forecasts, and the audit fees. The results indicated that CSR disclosure provides useful information for outsiders, where it is associated with more accurate analysts’ expectations and reduced audit fees. These results suggest that CSR disclosure is associated with high quality financial information environment. This paper provides comprehensive analysis for financial information environment in Saudi companies. The findings of paper provide useful insights concerning the importance of social responsibility disclosure in Saudi business environment.