CSR-BASED CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: A MALAYSIAN STUDY

Download This Article

Normah Omar ORCID logo, Rashidah Abdul Rahman ORCID logo

https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv6i4c1p2

Abstract

The current study focuses on corporate social responsibility-based corporate governance (CSR-based CG) reporting that is purely based on information divulged in the annual reports of the country’s top 100 public listed companies (PLCs) by market capitalization. It highlights the companies with the highest scores vis-à-vis reporting on their CSR-based corporate governance practices and the areas in which they excel in. The annual reports of these companies have either been obtained directly from the organizations concerned or from their respective websites via links from Bursa Malaysia. A CSR-based Corporate Governance Score Checklist is used in ensuring consistency in analysing the annual reports. A 5-point Likert Scale is used to measure the CSR-based CG attributes, a “5-point” score denotes the maximum level of compliance and acceptance of the gauged attributes for CSR-based CG reporting whilst a “1-point” score represents low or no compliance. The results of the study reveals that that there is much room for improvement vis-à-vis Malaysian companies’ reporting of their CSR-based CG practices, as the average reporting score of these sample firms only came up to 55.1% for the period 2006 and this figure has slightly improved relative to the average score of 52.2% obtained in 2002. Furthermore, CG reporting has been found lacking mainly in areas such as Strategic Planning and Performance Management, Risk Management and Internal Control, Financial Matters, Human Capital, and Intellectual Capital. As such, improvement may involve the implementation of corporatewide internal programmes in most of these areas.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance Reporting, Corporate Social Responsibility-Based Corporate Governance Framework

How to cite this paper: Omar, N., & Rahman, R. A. (2009). CSR-based corporate governance: A Malaysian study. Corporate Ownership & Control, 6(4-1), 176-192. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv6i4c1p2