Relationship between corporate social responsibility performance and disclosures: commercial banks of Bangladesh

Purpose The research investigates the determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending and CSR disclosures by the Bangladeshi commercial banks. In the process, it explains the relationship between CSR disclosures and CSR expenditure by Bangladeshi commercial banks. Design/methodology/approach Legitimacy theory has been used to explain the motivation for such expenditure and disclosure. For purpose of analysing the determinants, ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis has been used for the first test with CSR expenditures and ordered PROBIT regression analysis has been used for test with CSR disclosures. Findings The result found that CSR expenditure depend on banks’ size, age and government ownership, whilst CSR disclosures depend on CSR expenditure, profitability, age, government ownership and Islamic compliance. Practical implications The practical contribution of this study includes the assistance for the public policy development by providing better understanding of extent and credibility of CSR reporting by the Bangladeshi banking sector. Originality/value The study contributes to the academic literature by presenting preliminary findings from different focus on a developing economy like Bangladesh. The study leads to draw a standard for the developing country to find out the differences compared to developed country.