Social Disclosures in India: Does CorporateSocial Responsibility Committee Quality Matter?

Abstract

This study investigates the association between the presence and quality of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee on social disclosures in India. The sample consists of 5,345 firm-year observations taken from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from 2011 to 2020. Our findings suggest that the presence of a CSR committee is positively associated with social disclosures in India. Further, using a CSR committee quality index based on 11 CSR committee attributes extracted from annual report disclosures, we report that social disclosures in India are positively related to CSR committee quality. The relationship is stronger for business group affiliated firms. Finally, our supplementary analysis reveals that promoting CSR committee quality enhances firms’ likelihood of meeting CSR mandatory spending and actual CSR spending in India. The results point to greater CSR firm commitment resulting from better CSR committee quality in non-business group affiliated firms.