A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration, School of Management

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012

This thesis explored how the CSR is engaged and accounting disclosures are made by companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) with the help of three case studies (Large companies of JKH, Dialog and CTC) and a survey based on annual reports, sustainability reports and interviews. The purpose of the study was to analyze the CSR disclosures in terms of nature, content, quality, perception of management and relationship with financial performance. The CSR reporting is relatively new to Sri Lanka and the first formal CSR report was released in the year 1999. GRI G3 sustainability reporting guidelines were mainly used in the study to assess the content and quality of the CSR reporting. With respect to three case studies, an increasing trend of the CSR reporting was seen but the disclosure content had slightly gone down at the end of year 2010. CTC disclosed more performance indicators as per GRI G3 guidelines when compared with others but did not disclose other standard requirements of reporting principles and guidelines. Stakeholder engagement was found to have been an important variable in determining the CSR engagement and disclosures. The CSR disclosure content was also different from each other with respect to three cases. CSR score ranging from 1 to 5 which measured the disclosure content under the economic, environmental and social categories showed that CTC has high level of involvement in both environmental and social aspects while DIAL had considered more on economic aspects. JKH also has given the priority for environmental aspects. CTC topped the overall CSR score (3.46) while JKH had the lowest (2.87). Dialog maintained a score of 3.3. Further, JKH and Dialog were found to have been continuing with more philanthropic activities in addition to other contributions while CTC has been focusing more on sustainability programs. Positive relations of the CSR disclosures with respect to some performance indicators such as revenue, total assets, return on equity, and return on assets were found even though it was not possible to statistically prove. Over the time, DIAL had significantly reduced resources allocated for CSR as a consequence of continuous losses reported last two years despite the lot iii efforts taken to promote the CSR. Further it was highlighted in two cases that the CSR engagement and reporting as advocacy advertising to build up the corporate image. The quality of CSR reporting had been affected to some extent due to inaccuracy, non comparability and unreliability of disclosed information and non disclosure of negative incidences. The survey on the CSR practices found that only 34% (78 firms) of listed companied had reported CSR in some or other forms and of them only 12 firms had used GRI G3 as CSR reporting guidelines. Adopters of CSR were mainly large and old firms. The proportion between adopters and non Adopters of the CSR reporting varied among business sectors and a single firm in four business sectors did not disclose CSR while all the firms in telecommunication sector made CSR disclosures. Further, the CSR content significantly varied among adopters ranging from one page disclosure to 64. Only a very few firms had allocated adequate space for CSR reporting. On the other hand it was found that CSR adopters had won many awards for their social responsibilities and other economic achievements as well. CEOs of the CSR adopters perceived CSR as an important variable which could enhance the value of firm in the long run thus incorporating the CSR in to corporate vision, mission and strategies. Only other hand a few CEOs were of the view that philanthropic activities are important in deciding the scope of CSR engagement may be due to contextual and cultural reasons prevailing in Sri Lanka. It could be mentioned that the level of the CSR reporting in Sri Lanka is at a satisfactory level despite the fact that the importance of CSR is heavily talked about in many corners of the society. On the other hand, even the few firms those engage in the CSR reporting use CSR as advocacy advertising to enhance the company image as a good corporate citizen and to minimize the risk of sustaining commercially in a globally competitive business environment. Existing global CSR reporting guidelines may not fit to all the reporting environments and rather allow companies to simply comply with minimum disclosure requirement and to appear in the society as a good corporate citizen. Hence, this paper finally proposes a framework for new reporting guidelines by considering contextual factors, prevailing guidelines, principles and ethical aspects to enhance the CSR reporting.