Transparency, CSR Disclosure and the Financial Performance of Firms A Case of Pakistan Stock Exchange

Abstract

Transparency in disclosure and audit are among the major considerations that triggers stakeholders interest in an organisation. The evaluation of firm's financial performance is a pre-requisite before investment, that is represented by its financial statements and the transparency and accuracy of these financial reporting helps in building and maintaining investors confidence on the credibility of the organization. On one end, firm's financial performance ensures the security of interest of the shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders meanwhile it also reflects industry's sustainability in a broader view. The major objective of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) of a firm is also to ensure the interest of all stakeholders by means of transparent reporting. This paper is an attempt to investigate the association between firm's performance and corporate governance in Pakistan in a globalised corporate scenario. The firm's performance is measured as return on equity, whereas corporate governance is addressed here based on disclosure and transparency mechanism along CSR (Corporate social responsibility). This study discusses the theoretical end empirical literature based on the association of Corporate Governance and firm's financial performance in the presence of foreign competition, along interpretations based on findings of empirical research done in this study comprises of a sample of non-financial listed firm's on KSE-30, during the period of 2013 to 2019. The sample taken here consists of 22 non-financial firms listed at Karachi stock exchange. The study finds a hybrid type of effects of attributes regarding disclosure, transparency and CSR in corporate governance on the firm performance along effects attributed by some macro-economic variables.