THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPANIES LISTED, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURES AND OPERATING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This research is a comparative analysis aiming to examine the relationship between characteristics of the companies in the SET 100 Index group, corporate social responsibility disclosures and operating performance based on annual reports for the year 2013–2015 certified by the auditors, website, and sustainability report disclosures. The research was conducted by studying the contents emphasizing on social responsibility according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI V.G4). Page counting was used to determine social responsibility disclosure. Subsequently, disclosed data was analyzed and compared to find the relationship between characteristics of disclosure and operating performance. From this study, the results showed that characteristics of the companies in the SET 100 Index group and corporate social responsibility disclosures, except the proportion of equity holdings of five major shareholders, are related to operating performance. Furthermore, disclosure could be divided into two parts including 1) corporate governance and 2) corporate social responsibility. As there is no regulations on online data disclosure, it is considered as a voluntary act, which may help enhance a good image of the organization. As a result, only 52% of the companies in the SET 100 Index group disclose the data on corporate governance and 44% disclose the data on corporate social responsibility on their websites. In addition, it was found that the companies with higher level of corporate social responsibility disclosures than that defined by laws had better performance than the companies disclosing only basic data as defined by regulator authorities.