IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v10y2022i4p87-d926996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CSR Disclosures, CSR Awards and Corporate Governance as Determinants of the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Shyamala Dhoraisingam Samuel

    (School of Business, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia)

  • Sakthi Mahenthiran

    (College of Business Administration, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Mubarak Al-Abdullah Area, West Mishref 40006, Kuwait)

  • Ravindran Ramasamy

    (Graduate Business School of Business, University Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK), Kuala Lumpur 50480, Malaysia)

Abstract

The current study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures, media announcements of CSR awards and a firm’s cost of debt in Malaysia. The sample consists of 104 Malaysian publicly listed companies belonging to the Edge Billion Ringgit Club between 2009 to 2015. The study uses panel data regression analysis and the ordinary least squares estimation method. The results find that the interaction between CSR disclosures and winning awards for a company’s CSR initiatives and practices lowers the cost of debt. Our study concludes that, when a company discloses more information on its CSR initiatives and practices, it reduces the cost of debt. Thus, we argue that CSR disclosures and awards can act as proxies for branding listed firms, making them more marketable and allowing them to negotiate better debt contracts. However, the study shows that politically connected companies have a higher debt cost than non-politically connected firms. Furthermore, our results indicate that smaller boards are effective, but audit committees are not effective in monitoring the board of directors in Malaysian listed firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Shyamala Dhoraisingam Samuel & Sakthi Mahenthiran & Ravindran Ramasamy, 2022. "CSR Disclosures, CSR Awards and Corporate Governance as Determinants of the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Malaysia," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:10:y:2022:i:4:p:87-:d:926996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/10/4/87/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/10/4/87/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shailer, Greg & Wang, Kun, 2015. "Government ownership and the cost of debt for Chinese listed corporations," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 1-17.
    2. Abdifatah Ahmed Haji, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility disclosures over time: evidence from Malaysia," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 28(7), pages 647-676, July.
    3. Amir Barnea & Amir Rubin, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 71-86, November.
    4. Mara Faccio, 2010. "Differences between Politically Connected and Nonconnected Firms: A Cross‐Country Analysis," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 905-928, September.
    5. Eng, L. L. & Mak, Y. T., 2003. "Corporate governance and voluntary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 325-345.
    6. Anthony B. Atkinson & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2015. "Lectures on Public Economics Updated edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 2, number 10493.
    7. Bliss, Mark A. & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Majid, Abdul, 2011. "Do political connections affect the role of independent audit committees and CEO Duality? Some evidence from Malaysian audit pricing," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 82-98.
    8. Bliss, Mark A. & Gul, Ferdinand A., 2012. "Political connection and cost of debt: Some Malaysian evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1520-1527.
    9. Jan Bebbington & Carlos Larrinaga & Jose M. Moneva, 2008. "Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 337-361, March.
    10. Carmen Lorca & Juan Sánchez-Ballesta & Emma García-Meca, 2011. "Board Effectiveness and Cost of Debt," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(4), pages 613-631, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed Hammam Mohammed Al-Madani & Yudi Fernando & Ming-Lang Tseng, 2022. "Assuring Energy Reporting Integrity: Government Policy’s Past, Present, and Future Roles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-24, November.
    2. Vitiana L'Abate & Nicola Raimo & Benedetta Esposito & Filippo Vitolla, 2024. "Examining the impact of circular economy disclosure on the cost of debt: A signaling theory approach via social media," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4007-4019, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abdalla Shwairef & Azlan Amran & Mohammad Iranmanesh & Noor Hazlina Ahmad, 2021. "The mediating effect of strategic posture on corporate governance and environmental reporting," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 349-378, February.
    2. Habib, Ahsan & Ranasinghe, Dinithi & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Islam, Ainul, 2018. "Political connections, financial reporting and auditing: Survey of the empirical literature," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 37-51.
    3. Wong, Wai-Yan & Hooy, Chee-Wooi, 2018. "Do types of political connection affect firm performance differently?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 297-317.
    4. Kopyrina, Olga & Stepanova, Anastasia, 2023. "The influence of ownership structure and board independence on the cost of debt in BRIC countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    5. Anastasia N. Stepanova & Olga O. Kopyrina, 2019. "The Influence Of Ownership Structure And Board Independence On The Cost Of Debt In Bric Countries," HSE Working papers WP BRP 74/FE/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    6. Jaime Guerrero-Villegas & Leticia Pérez-Calero & José Manuel Hurtado-González & Pilar Giráldez-Puig, 2018. "Board Attributes and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: A Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Khaw, Karren Lee-Hwei & Zainudin, Rozaimah & Rashid, Rasidah Mohd, 2019. "Cost of debt financing: Does political connection matter?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    8. Fei Hou & Fangnan Liao & Jie Liu & Hao Xiong, 2019. "Signing Auditors’ Foreign Experience and Debt Financing Costs: Evidence for Sustainability of Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Qu Deng & Hezun Li & Hong Yue, 2024. "Public–private partnership, cost of debt and accounting conservatism," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 432-482, March.
    10. Tzu-Ching Weng & Kai-Jui Hsu & Yi-Wei He, 2023. "The Impact of Corporate Political Connections on Analyst Forecast Quality," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 13(6), pages 1-1.
    11. Soumya Sarkar & Titas Bhattacharjee, 2017. "Impact of Voluntary Disclosures on Corporate Brand Equity," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(2), pages 125-136, May.
    12. Mohammad Enamul Hoque, 2017. "Why Company Should Adopt Integrated Reporting?," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 241-248.
    13. Danilo Drago & Concetta Carnevale, 2020. "Do CSR Ratings Affect Loan Spreads? Evidence from European Syndicated Loan Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-30, September.
    14. Abdul Wahab, Effiezal Aswadi & How, Janice & Park, Jason & Verhoeven, Peter, 2018. "Political patronage and analysts’ forecast precision," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 307-320.
    15. Emmanuelle Nys & Amine Tarazi & Irwan Trinugroho, 2013. "Political Connections, Bank Deposits, and Formal Deposit Insurance: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Working Papers hal-00916513, HAL.
    16. Nadia Smaili & Camélia Radu & Amir Khalili, 2023. "Board effectiveness and cybersecurity disclosure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(4), pages 1049-1071, December.
    17. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2020. "Related Party Transactions, State Ownership, the Cost of Corporate Debt, and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints y5qj3, Center for Open Science.
    18. Joni, Joni & Ahmed, Kamran & Hamilton, Jane, 2020. "Politically connected boards, family and business group affiliations, and cost of capital: Evidence from Indonesia," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    19. Petra F. A. Dilling, 2016. "Reporting on Long-Term Value Creation—The Example of Public Canadian Energy and Mining Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-26, September.
    20. Cull, Robert & Li, Wei & Sun, Bo & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2015. "Government connections and financial constraints: Evidence from a large representative sample of Chinese firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 271-294.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:10:y:2022:i:4:p:87-:d:926996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.