Impact of corporate governance on CSR disclosure

Abstract

The study examines the impact of corporate governance on CSR disclosure practices of Indian companies. The corporate governance variables such as board age, audit committee size, board meetings, CEO duality, board independence, employee CSR training, independent directors board meetings, sustainability committee and women on board were used. The sample consists of 386 companies listed in the BSE 500 index for a period of 10 years from 2007–2016 and panel data regression is used for analysis. The study finds that the corporate governance variables such as board independence, CEO duality and sustainability committee improve CSR disclosure. In contrast, board age, employee CSR training and women on board weakens CSR disclosure. This study is important due to following reasons, firstly, Indian policymakers issued a wide set of voluntary and non-voluntary rules and guidelines on corporate governance and CSR disclosure. It is interesting to see its impact on Indian companies. Secondly, this study uses a more advanced Bloomberg ESG scores as well as individual environment, social and governance scores to measure the CSR disclosure. Finally, the study aims to fill the literature gap concerning corporate governance and CSR disclosure in India covering a larger study period and sample size.