Firm Ownership, Board Characteristics and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures in Vietnamese Listed Companies

This study aims to examine the relationship between firm ownership, board characteristics and the extent of corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) in the annual reportsin a developing country like Vietnam.The data is based on a content analysis of the annual reports oftop 100 (VN100) companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh stock exchange for the year 2021.Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the corporate social responsibility disclosures index and the independent variables, namely the board independence, board size, managerial ownership, foreign ownership and the presence ofa sustainability committee (or CSR committee) after statistically controlling the effects of company size and the profitability of the companies.Results indicated that board independence, foreign ownership and the presence ofa sustainability committee are positively and significantly correlated with the level of CSRD. Conversely, it is found that managerial ownership has negative significant impacts on the CSRD. The results also displayed no significant relationship between the board size and CSRD.Our study provides several suggestions to promote the CSR information disclosure of listed companiesin countries which share similar corporate ownership and board characteristics. The regulators and policy makers should increase the number of independent board members, maintain the existence of the CSR committee, increase the foreign ownership ratio for transparency of information provided.