Relationship between CSR Disclosure and Financial Performance of Companies Listed on Market For Alternative Investment

Abstract

This research aimed to study the relationship between financial performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai) during the year 2014-2015 which were the years after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) required listed companies to disclose CSR information in publicly available documents. This study was, therefore, different from previous studies which mostly studied companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). CSR disclosure was measured by the number of lines disclosed in annual reports by classifying into 8 topics according to “8 Principles” by SEC. Financial performance was measured from return on assets, return on equity and net profit margin, which were collected from financial statements. The relationship between CSR disclosure and financial performance was analyzed using a multiple regression analysis.

The results showed higher CSR disclosure in 2015 than in 2014, when considered in terms of topics and industries. Financial performance was also found to have a positive relationship with the human rights disclosure at 0.05 of level of significance. The limitation of this study was about the measurement of CSR disclosure which reflected only disclosure quantity. The measurement did not reflect disclosure quality. Therefore, future research could study this relationship using the measurement of disclosure which reflects a quality dimension.