Corporate Social Responsibility Index Research Articles

Determinants of the Web accessibility of European banks

This paper aims at identifying the factors influencing the implementation of Web accessibility (WA) by European banks. We studied a database made up of 49 European banks whose shares are included in the Dow Jones EURO STOXX® TMI Banks [8300] Index. Regarding the factors for the implementation, we considered three feasible reasons. Firstly, WA adoption can be motivated by operational factors, as WA can aid in increasing operational efficiency. Secondly, we expect large banks to have higher WA levels, as small firms face competitive disadvantages with regard to technology adoption. Lastly, WA can also be understood as a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, so, the more committed a bank is to CSR, the more prone it will be to implement WA. Our results indicate that neither the operational factors nor the firm size seem to have exerted a significant influence on WA adoption. Regarding CSR commitment, results indicate a significant influence on WA adoption. However, the effect of the influence is contrary to that hypothesized, since more CSR-committed banks have less accessible Web sites. A possible reason for this result is that banks not included in the CSR indexes try to overcome this drawback by engaging in alternative CSR activities such as WA.

Strategic corporate social responsibility and economic performance

This article proposes a novel Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) index based on a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. Acknowledging the argument that companies might favour those CSR dimensions that provide strategic competitive advantages, we argue that the index can capture companies’ strategic approach to CSR. Furthermore, our findings reveal a neutral relationship between this strategic CSR index and economic performance as measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q, when controlling for firm unobserved heterogeneity and past economic performance. By contrast, an equally-weighted index of the same CSR indicators is found to be negatively related with ROA, which reinforces our claim that this specific DEA-based index is a measure of strategic CSR.

The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Corporate Governance Characteristics in Malaysian Public Listed Companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and corporate governance characteristics namely board size, board independence, audit committee, ownership concentration and managerial ownership in Malaysian public listed companies.Design/Methodology/Approach – The content analysis was used to extract the CSR disclosure items from annual reports and companies' web sites. Then the CSR disclosure index was constructed after combining CSR disclosure items disclosed both in annual reports and companies' web sites. Econometric analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the corporate social disclosures index and the independent variables, namely board size, board independence, audit committee, ownership concentration and managerial ownership.Findings – Results based on the full regression models indicated that only one variable was associated with the extent of disclosures, namely audit committee. Audit committee are positively and significantly correlated with the level of corporate social responsibility disclosure.Research Limitations/Implications – The findings are limited to the context of the study and it was limited to Malaysian public listed companies, January to December 2011. The sources of the data in this report were companies' annual reports and web sites only.Practical Implications – The study is functional to organizations and statutory bodies to take into considerations in distinguishing the corporate governance characteristics that will enhance CSR disclosures, since it had been shown in previous studies that corporate social responsibility in Malaysia is low. The meaningful of company which should be willing to allocate their costs towards corporate social responsibility activities also can be determine by the government. Thus, this study will stress the level of activity through corporate social responsibility reporting in Malaysian public listed companies and helps the government to ascertain the level of corporate social responsibility activities through corporate social responsibility reporting among Malaysian public listed company.Originality/Value – The study reveals the extent of the disclosure of corporate social responsibility to companies' web sites and constructed the CSR index based on two sources of data, namely companies‟ web sites and annual reports.

Hubungan Antara Kinerja Lingkungan Dan Kinerja Komite Audit Dengan Kualitas Pengungkapan Corporate Social Responsibility (Pada Perusahaan Mamufaktur di BEI)

This research is aiming investigated the relationship between environmental performance with the quality of corporate social responsibily disclosure, the relationship between audit commitee performance with environmental performance, and the relationship between audit commitee performance  with the quality of corporate social responsibily disclosure. Environmental performance is measured by ISO 14001 certificate. The proxy of audit commitee performance are audit commitee meeting, audit commitee report, audit charter. The quality of corporate social responsibily disclosure is measured by CSR index from Global Reporting Initiative. The number of samples used in this research were one hundred thirteen manufacturing company. The sampling method used  purposive sampling method. Data are taken from annual report 2010-2011 of the manufacture companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange. The examined technique hypothesis is mutiple regression by using SPSS program. The  result showed that environmental performance has a positif significant relationship with the quality of Corpoate Social Responsibility disclosure as the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis showed that environmental performance has a positif and sgnificant relationship with audit commitee performance. The third hypothesis showed that audit commitee performance has a positif and sgnificant relationship with the quality of Corpoate Social Responsibility disclosure.

Corporate social responsibility index for Ukrainian banks: The essentials for implementation

The aim of this paper is to solve the problem of CSR performance measurement for Ukrainian banking institutions by developing a CSR index. It is done by measuring a corporate social responsibility (CSR) through 25 different indicators for 40 Ukrainian banks, which represent 80% of total banking system assets. This paper is a first attempt in Ukrainian practice to put CSR indicators into a standard metrics and develop specific methodology that would allow comparing CSR for different banks. To check the adequacy of our preliminary findings we compare CSR results for Ukrainian banks with CSR results for Swedish banks, where the level of CSR is definitely higher, since it is a socially directed developed economy. After that the weights of CSR index for Swedish banks counted by our methodology was compared to different professionally made indexes.

Alkalis in Coal and Coal Cleaning Products / Alkalia W Węglu I Productach Jego Wzbogacania

In the coking process, the prevailing part of the alkalis contained in the coal charge goes to coke. The content of alkalis in coal (and also in coke) is determined mainly by the content of two elements: sodium and potasium. The presence of these elements in coal is connected with their occurrence in the mineral matter and moisture of coal. In the mineral matter and moisture of the coals used for the coke production determinable the content of sodium is 26.6 up to 62. per cent, whereas that of potassium is 37.1 up to 73.4 per cent of the total content of alkalis. Major carriers of alkalis are clay minerals. Occasionally alkalis are found in micas and feldspars. The fraction of alkalis contained in the moisture of the coal used for the production of coke in the total amount of alkalis contained there is 17.8 up to 62.0 per cent. The presence of sodium and potassium in the coal moisture is strictly connected with the presence of the chloride ions. The analysis of the water drained during process of the water-extracting from the flotoconcentrate showed that the Na to K mass ratio in the coal moisture is 20:1. Increased amount of the alkalis in the coal blends results in increased content of the alkalis in coke. This leads to the increase of the reactivity (CRI index), and to the decrease of strength (CSR index) determined with the Nippon Steel Co. method.

ANALISIS PENGARUH KARAKTERISTIK PERUSAHAAN TERHIDAP PENGUNGKAPAN TANGGUNG JAWAB SOSIAL PERUSAHAAN DALAM LAPORAN TAHUNAN PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR YANG TERDAFTAR DI BEI PERIODIE 2009-2010

This study aimed to analyze the effect offirm characteristcs on the disclosure ofcorporate social responsibility. The characteristics are proxied by the management ownership, leverage, size of the company and the profitability. While the disclosure of corporate social responsibility is proxied by CSR Index. The samples of this research were 48 manufacturing companies. Based on the hypothesis test, it was found that ownership management and profitability did not significantly affect the disclosure of corporate social responsibility while leverage variable and firm size significantly affected the disclosure ofcorporate social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Performance: A Stratigraphical Analysis

Over the last two decades in OECD countries an increasing number of firms are obtaining certification as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). Several studies (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) have sought to test whether there is a relation between Social Responsibility certification and the firms’ performance. Our work builds a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), in order to overcome some problems related to the multiplicity of CSR definitions and certifications. By using this database, our work carries out a stratigraphical analysis in order to verify whether some variables are statistically different in the CSR group with respect to the benchmark case (non-CSR). The main results show that there are several interesting differences in some economic indicators between CSR and non-CSR firms and between USA and EU, and among different industrial sectors.

KLD 400 Index Inclusion and Corporate Bonds

This study examines the relationship between the cost of public bonds and corporate social responsibility. We use firms added to the KLD 400 Index, a stock index of corporate social responsibility, and find that these firms have a significantly higher yield spread following inclusion to the index. This relationship remains constant even after controlling for the joint determination of yield spread, covenant structure, and debt maturity. We conclude that after firms are recognized as leaders in corporate social responsibility, they pay a higher yield to issue public debt.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Performance of Firms?

Over the last two decades in OECD countries increasingly more firms are certifying as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). This kind of certification is assigned by private companies that guarantee that a certain firm’s behaviour is environmentally and sociologically correct. Some papers (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) tried to establish if there exists a link between Social Responsibility certification and the performance of firms. Their results were ambiguous and did not show any common connection. This ambiguity depends mainly on the static nature of their analyses and on the problem of whether performance is affected more by certification costs or by increasing sales due to an effect on reputation. Our work would like to discover whether certain performance indicators are affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and their certifications by looking at panel data. The novelty of our analysis is due to its dynamic aspect and from a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), to be objective and obtain a representative sample. The main results seem to support the idea that CSR firms which are more virtuous, have better long run performance. They have some initial costs but obtain higher sales and profits due to several causes reputation effect, a reduction of long run costs and increased social responsible demand.

‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms

Recently, the presumed benefits of corporate social responsibility have become an important issue, especially for China where institutional settings are quite different from other parts of the world. Using an internationally accepted benchmark (OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD, 2004), this study constructs a corporate social responsibility (CSR) index to measure the quality of the corporate social responsibility practices of the 100 major Chinese listed firms during 2004–2007. This enables us to evaluate the progress of the corporate social responsibility practices of Chinese firms. The results show that Chinese companies have been making progress in their corporate social responsibility practices. The findings also show that market rewards Chinese firms for improving their corporate governance practices which implies ‘doing-good’ leads to ‘doing-well’ in the equity market in China. We also find that overseas-listed and more profitable Chinese firms have better improvement in CSR practice. This study has policy implications in pushing for further CSR initiatives in other emerging markets.

Whether environmental factors matter: some evidence from UK property companies

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is test whether what property companies say they do with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general and the environment in particular has an impact on corporate value as expressed by their return on assets (ROA).Design/methodology/approachThe annual report for any UK‐listed company is a statutory document with its contents prescribed by legislation. This paper is concerned with a comparison of how real estate companies present themselves in their annual reports with their actual performance. To extract that information systematically, word frequency analysis (WFA) was undertaken on the contents of the annual reports of the top 20 UK‐listed property companies by value using a CSR vocabulary of words and phrases. The frequency of each of these was established in each annual report between 2001 and 2010. Two indices were created: a general CSR index based on the occurrence of a CSR vocabulary; and a green index based on the environmental vocabulary. These indices were then modelled against the ROA for each company.FindingsAs expected, ROA is positively related with both indices and is statistically significant in the GREEN equation, suggesting the firms with good performance are likely to invest more in sustainability. The size of firms is positively associated with both indices, indicating larger firms have better defined CSR. Return has a significantly positive coefficient with both indices, suggesting that the “greener” companies outperform others in the stock market.Originality/valueThe research uses new content analysis techniques to identify the relative commitment of property companies to CSR and the environment. The documents analysed are statutory and therefore less likely to be used to present aspiration rather than action. Overall the paper addresses only one aspect of corporate activity and will be best viewed in coordination with other approaches.

PENGARUH CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE DAN ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE TERHADAP ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE PADA PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR YANG TERDAFTAR DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA

This research is aimed to examine effect Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Disclosure and EnvironmentalPerformance on Economic Performance.This research used Corporate Social Responsibility Index (CSDI) asmeasure of CSR, Proper Index as measure of Environmental Performance and Return on Equity (ROE) asmeasure of Economic Performance. The samples of this research are 11 manufactur firms listed at IndonesianStock Exchange year 2006 until 2009. The research hyphotesis were tested using multiple regression analysis.Result of the analysis showed that corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure have significant effect on economicperformance, but Environmental Performance do not has significant effect on Economic Performance. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, Environmental Performance, Economic Performance

The Impact of Fulfilling Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Performance — A Stakeholder‘s Approach

This study aimed to empirically explore how a firm's fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) would impact on firm performance. For this research purpose, a CSR index (CSRI), based on the ideas of socially responsible investment (SRI) and corporate contributions to its stakeholders, was constructed to measure the degree that a firm fulfilled its CSR. The data were sampled from the publicly listed firms on Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and from the database of Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ ) for the time period of 2004–2009. With the method of regression analysis, the findings revealed that fulfilling CSR had a significantly positive impact on firm performance. The implication suggested that a firm could serve as a good corporate citizen, while in the meantime showing an exceptional firm performance.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Performance: A Stratigraphical Analysis

Over the last two decades in OECD countries an increasing number of firms are obtaining certification as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). Several studies (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) have sought to test whether there is a relation between Social Responsibility certification and the firms’ performance. Our work builds a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), in order to overcome some problems related to the multiplicity of CSR definitions and certifications. By using this database, our work carries out a stratigraphical analysis in order to verify whether some variables are statistically different in the CSR group with respect to the benchmark case (non-CSR). The main results show that there are several interesting differences in some economic indicators between CSR and non-CSR firms and between USA and EU, and among different industrial sectors.

Reflectance parameters of cokes in relation to their reactivity index (CRI) and the strength after reaction (CSR), from coals of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland

Abstract Coke samples made from coals and blends of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland were studied to determine relationships between their reflectance parameters ( R max , R min , R bi ) and technological indices CRI and CSR . It was found that coke reactivity with CO 2 decreased, and coke strength after reaction increased, with increasing mean maximum reflectance ( R max ) and bireflectance ( R bi ) and with decreasing mean minimum reflectance ( R min ) of cokes. It was also observed that for cokes with bireflectance below 4.0%, CRI indices are higher than the CSR , but when coke bireflectances rises above 4.0% then their CSR s surpassed the CRI values. Thus, R bi ≅ 4.0% seems to correspond with structural transformation of cokes resulting in the increase of their mechanical strength and adequate decrease of reactivity with CO 2 and, as a consequence, improving coke quality. Relationships of the CRI and CSR indices with cokes reflectance parameters turned out to be similar but distinctly stronger than those with cokes microtextures. The results obtained showed additionally, that higher inertinite content in parent coals (≥ 30 vol.%) could make poorer resultant cokes, i.e. increase of the CRI and decrease of the CSR factors. This influence varies depending on the rank of initial coals and is greater for middle rank coals than those from lower ranks. The results show that reflectance parameters of coke, especially bireflectance, make possible the prediction of CRI and CSR indices, and thus can be used for estimation of coke quality.

The interaction between corporate social responsibility and value added intellectual capital: empirical evidence from Turkey

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the mainstream issues for sustainable corporate performance in recent decades. Engagement in CSR activities has proven to have certain benefits for companies, ranging from better financial performance to shareholder wealth maximisation. Companies' value creation process has been dominated by companies' hidden assets and concurrently the concept of value added intellectual capital (VAIC). The purpose of this study is to provide evidence from an emerging market about the interaction between CSR and VAIC, and thus contribute to the understanding and awareness of the significance of socially responsible investments for companies.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analyses, which take into account VAIC and its dimensions, are conducted on a sample of manufacturing companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) during the period 2007‐2008. It is shown that some causality is related to the existence of a lag during the periods for the variables CSR and VAIC. Based on previous empirical studies, this study conducts the analyses based on the assumption that there may be a relationship between firm age, financial leverage, return on sales and market‐to‐book ratio and CSR.FindingsThe results fail to provide any significant relationship between CSR and VAIC during the period analysed. These findings should not overshadow the benefits of CSR, but should be attributed to the time it takes for these investments to have an impact on firms' intellectual capital.Practical implicationsA larger sample of firms covering a longer time span could be utilised. Generation of a CSR index in Turkey that eliminates the subjectivity of CSR measurement will undoubtedly improve the accuracy of the analyses.Originality/valueThis paper increases the understanding of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and value‐added intellectual capital. This research is also the first research to have examined Turkish companies for CSR and VAIC issues.

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: An Exploratory Study

In this article, we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management (EM). Our CSR index, using KLD data, incorporates information from the following issue areas: the community, corporate governance, diversity, the product, employee relations, the environment, and human rights. Results show that more socially responsible firms have higher quality accruals and less activity-based EM, both of which impact financial reporting quality.

Pengaruh Corporate Social Responsibility Terhadap Nilai Dan Kinerja Perusahaan Manufaktur

This study aims to determine the effect of CSR Index to the value and performance of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI), and to find out how much the ability of the variable CSR Index in explaining the variable Tobin’s Q, ROA, and ROE manufacturing companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI). This study uses data sampled during the 75 years from 2007 to 2009. A statistical method used to test the research hypothesis is a simple linear regression model. Therefore, before performing hypothesis testing carried out tests of classical assumptions. The results of this study prove that, CSR Index has a significant effect on Tobin’s Q and ROE with 95% confidence level. However, CSR Index has no significant influence on ROA with 95% confidence level.
 Key words : CSR Index, Variabel Tobin’s Q, ROA, ROE

A Delphi Study to Identify Corporate Social Responsibility Indicators: The Case of Greek Telecommunication Sector

The Telecommunication sector deals with numerous social and operational challenges such as technological development, increased demand for telecommunication services, health concerns and environment protection. The aim of this paper is to identify both general and sector-specific indicators in order to measure the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance. The Telecommunication sector has analyzed and identified the main stakeholders that affect and are affected by business operations. Six main stakeholders, namely suppliers, customers, corporate governance, environment, society and human resources and forty three indicators are indentified concentrating on the Greek market with the use of Delphi technique. Additionally, the study presents a specific formula for each indicator so as to measure CSR performance in specific terms. The contribution of the study is to formulate an aggregate CSR index and translate CSR concerns into specific indicators and to recommend a methodology in order to propose indicators applicable to any sector.