Determinants of Web-Based CSR Disclosure in the Retail Sector of the Czech Republic

Abstract

A b s tra c t Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an engaging, momentous aspect of current business practices. Firm s may build and reinforce stakeholder relationships by taking part in CSR projects. Companies, operating in the retail trade sector, may be of special interest as they aim to communicate w ith the general public, as potential customers. One may thus concentrate on observing their corporate social responsibility disclosure from commonly available inform ation. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, only few studies document the corporate social responsibility efforts of firm s in the Czech Republic. More research w ith this regard can hence provide new insights. We thus investigate the determinants of web-based CSR effort disclosure of retailing firm s in the Czech Republic. The linear probability model, probit as well as logit are used in the analysis, together w ith a set of sub-sector, organizational, legal and financial explanatory variables. We find evidence of a positive relationship between the probability of CSR effort disclosure and E B IT . We also find some evidence th a t net debt, net profit, RO A as well as firm age are positively related to firm CSR effort reporting.