Title: Voluntary CSR disclosure on company's website: an empirical evidence from Pakistan

Authors: Ibn E. Hassan; Faryal Batool

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan ' Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan

Abstract: Corporate social responsibility (CSD) disclosure is an emerging trend among businesses. Companies pursue CSR practices and disclose them to stakeholders to gain competitive edge in marketplace along with various other benefits. The present study examines the CSD practices of Pakistani companies which were awarded by National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) in 2012 for their best corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. This research intended to find whether these companies disclose their CSR data on their websites? Furthermore, what is the extent and quality of this data? Analysis revealed that 24 companies disclosed CSR data by focusing three main dimensions: environment, social and economic. Eight out of twenty four companies issued standalone CSR reports. However, 12 companies do not have CSR data and even national websites. It was also witnessed that the websites were seriously lacking the level of interactivity in terms of CSR-related contact person's name, contact numbers and addresses. This is a highlighter study inviting the attention of scholars to investigate their country's perspective through detailed exploratory tools.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; CSR disclosure; National Forum for Environment and Health; NFEH; voluntary disclosure; corporate websites; Pakistan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2016.079348

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2016 Vol.13 No.4, pp.289 - 301

Received: 09 May 2015
Accepted: 19 Nov 2015
Published online: 27 Sep 2016 *

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