Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosures of UAE national banks: a multi-perspective approach

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the determinants and extent of corporate social disclosure (CSD) by UAE national banks and to investigate the changes in CSD before, during and after the latest financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach - Deductive in nature, this paper uses content analysis of annual reports of 16 UAE banks over a period of six years (2006-2011) to test eight hypotheses related to size, financial performance and other variables as potential explanatory variables of the CSD extent over different periods. Findings - The findings show that human resources and community disclosures exhibited the highest extent of CSD over the six years. Moreover, the size and financial performance variables appear to be significant explanatory factors for the extent of CSD. The findings also indicate a strong variation in disclosure between banks with international presence and those with no such presence, while there is no significant disclosure variation between Islamic and conventional banks or during the different periods under investigation (pre, during and post recent financial crisis). Research limitations/implications - Studies allowing a greater understanding of how banks with extensive governmental ownership define and disclose CSR in this particular region of the world are scarce and exploratory in nature. Consequently, the structure of national UAE banks provides a unique opportunity to understand the CSR mechanisms and disclosure of similar institutions in the world (particularly in the Arab world). This presents an interesting direction for further research. Practical implications - These findings could assist UAE bankers and policymakers in integrating CSD in their corporate strategies and help the local and international business communities in understanding the characteristics of CSD in the UAE. Originality/value - Comprehensive in scope, this paper provides a complete assessment of the potential explanatory proxies of CSD by UAE local banks before, during and after the recent global financial crisis. Comparable studies of the UAE banking sector have mainly focused on particular bank types (i.e. Islamic or conventional) and did not consider the effect of the recent adverse financial climate.