A Longitudinal Examination Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Practices among Top Banks in Malaysia

This study examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) content of top 5 Malaysian public listed banks’ annual and sustainability reports over a 10 years period from 2005 to 2014 using content analysis. Motivated by the gap among prior CSR reporting studies in respect of banking industry as well as longitudinal sample, this study sets out to note the ways in which corporate reports have changed over the years in response to Malaysia government initiatives on CSR. The study finds an upward trend of CSR reporting after the launched of Bursa Malaysia CSR framework as well as the Bursa Malaysia mandatory requirement to disclose CSR information. Whilst determining the exact factors leading to these changes is beyond the scope of this study, it can be concluded that the increase reporting of CSR information provides an indication that the 5 banks are working on legitimizing its position in the society by disclosing information consistent with the requirement by the regulators.