Disclosure of corporate social responsibility in Baltic public companies: choices of reporting and its determinants

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the choices of CSR reporting and its determinants in Baltic public companies. We assess the overall CSR disclosure situation and reveal the disclosure format and measurement content for social, environmental, and governance components. Then we explore the determinants of choices of reporting. Logit and Tobit regression models for balanced panel data sets are applied from 2017 to 2021. Our findings showed that mandatory disclosure dominates among Baltic public companies. Size and some performance indicators such as ROA, EPS, ROE, and capital intensity are important for CSR disclosure. Larger companies choose to present the separate CSR report, while smaller firms disclose CSR in annual reports. Larger companies also choose quantitative disclosure measures instead of only qualitative ones.

KEYWORDS:

• CSR disclosure
• choices of reporting
• determinants of choices of reporting
• social disclosure
• environmental disclosure
• governance disclosure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The criteria for a company’s size are presented in the Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements, and related reports of certain types of undertakings (EU Commission 2013; European Parliament 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vilija Aleknevičienė

Vilija Aleknevičienė is a professor at the Department of Applied Economics, Finance and Accounting, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). Her main research interests are risk-adjusted performance of companies and farms, decision modeling in financial markets, and financial behavior. Environmental protection and development of green financial sector opened a new niche for decision modeling in financial markets and assessment of changes in investors’ financial behavior.

Dalia Juočiūnienė

Dalia Juočiūnienė is an associate professor at the Department of Applied Economics, Finance and Accounting, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). Her main research interests are research on management accounting systems, research on environmental costs in agriculture, and corporate social responsibility disclosure.

Danutė Zinkevičienė

Danutė Zinkevičienė is a professor at the Department of Applied Economics, Finance and Accounting, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). Her main research interests are formation of financial accounting policy and its influence on the financial decisions of business entities; research on asset valuation; research on management accounting systems. She also serves as a consultant for government regulators on improving agricultural accounting.