Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure And Firm Characteristics

The aim of this study is to examine firm characteristics and their influence on social responsibility disclosure of listed companies in our Arab country like UAE.These factors include(firm size,firm age,leverage,profitability,liquidity,type of auditor).Data utilized in this thesis is obtained from the annual reports of 125 UAE firms listed in DFM and ADX for three years.A social responsibility disclosure index is developed to measure the level of social responsibility disclosure in UAE.The average level of social responsibility disclosure by UAE listed firms is arguably low(with the mean of 41.7%).The results support the expectation that the level of social responsibility disclosure in UAE as an emerging capital market with secretive culture is low,however,this study found a gradual increase in the level of total social responsibility disclosure over the examined period.Maybe one of the reasons for this low level of social responsibility disclosure is the lack of effective regulation and law enforcement by the stock exchange regulatory bodies may contribute to the low level of information transparency,particularly of social responsibility disclosure.Further,the statistical results indicate that concerning on firm characteristics,the findings support a positive relationship between total social responsibility disclosure and each of firm size,firm age,leverage,profitability,liquidity,type of auditor.However,this study has some implications for firms,auditors,investors,and regulators.All these parties play an important role in improving the transparency and disclosure practices of corporations.Theoretically,this study contribute by highlights the importance of employing a wider theoretical framework,by encompassing several disclosure theories,to get more explanation to the social responsibility disclosure practices.In addition,it supports the notion of looking for theoretical explanations that considered being relevant to the topic being studied.Empirically,this study providing a new empirical evidence of the social responsibility disclosure practices from Arab countries region that has been subjected to few limited numbers of studies.As well as providing checklist of social responsibility disclosure items to the UAE capital market which can be used by interested parties to rank companies or assess their social responsibility disclosure practices.