Board Characteristics and Corporate Social Disclosure: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

For the past twenty years, researchers have extensively debated the determinants of relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. Nevertheless, relationship between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility has received minimal attention in the extant literature, Particularly in developing countries. This paper seeks to fill the gap in the literature by examining the relationship between board characteristics and CSD. Using a sample 91 of non-financial listed companies in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) for year ended 2017. Multiple regressions were used to confirm the relationship between board characteristics and CSD. As well as, the content analysis method was used to extract the items of corporate social disclosure from the company?s annual reports. The empirical results reveal that the level of corporate social disclosure is still relatively low compared to developed countries. Regarding board characteristics, the result show that (board size, INED) are each positive and significant relationship with the level of corporate social disclosure.