We investigate the effects of national culture and corporate governance on corporate social responsibility reporting and the extent to which corporate governance has a moderating effect on the cultural influences on corporate social responsibility reporting. A total of 403 annual reports, corporate websites and corporate sustainability stand-alone reports pertaining to 203 companies in China, Malaysia, India and the United Kingdom were evaluated. Corporate social responsibility reporting is more prevalent in companies in countries in which the society is individualistic and also in societies where there is low power distance. Corporate social responsibility reporting is enhanced by corporate governance in the form of social responsibility board committees, while government ownership influences the reporting quality of corporate social responsibility reporting. Corporate governance moderates some of the detrimental cultural influences on corporate social responsibility reporting. These findings have implications for the development of guidelines for corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting across countries. A further contribution is to show that national culture is associated with resistance to reporting corporate social responsibility, but that corporate governance can help to mitigate the influence of national culture.

INTRODUCTION

Many studies have observed differences in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting across countries (see for example, Ortas et al., 2015; Orij, 2010; Van der Laan Smith et al., 2005). CSR reporting is also influenced by corporate governance (see for example, Fifka and Pobizhan, 2014; Ortas et al., 2015). In order to understand CSR reporting, it is therefore necessary to examine not only how culture can influence both the CSR practices and reporting and the corporate governance practices in a particular country, but also how these factors interact in determining corporate CSR disclosure practice. This issue is of practical concern because there are calls for uniform CSR reporting standards to be applied worldwide, based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines (Ban, 2012). To assess whether this standardisation is feasible, it is necessary to consider the cultural influences on CSR reporting and to consider how the effect of cultural differences on CSR reporting is moderated by corporate governance; and particularly whether corporate governance is helpful to overcome cultural reluctance to reporting transparency (see Haniffa and Cooke, 2002; Kelton and Yang, 2008). We are firstly interested in whether cross country differences in CSR reporting are caused by cultural differences. Our first research question examines the effect of cultural influences on CSR reporting for companies in diverse cultural settings. We investigate if the quality and quantity of CSR reporting is influenced by national culture. We suggest that this is likely, because reporting is affected by the cognitive, normative and regulative structures of organizations (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). The cognitive and normative structures of an organization are influenced by the social norms it accepts (i.e. national culture) and these norms influence how the organisation will tell its story through CSR reporting (Gray et al., 1995; Van der Laan Smith et al., 2005; Orij, 2010). The second research question examines corporate governance. Previous research has shown an association between corporate governance and corporate transparency. For example, studies have found that companies with more independent directors and more diverse boards provide more voluntary disclosures to improve transparent reporting (see Chen and Jaggi, 2000; Chau and Gray, 2010). These same findings can be examined in the area of CSR disclosures, i.e., do certain board characteristics result in more or better CSR disclosure. We therefore determine if CSR reporting is influenced by the corporate governance structures implemented at the company/organisational level.