Corporate social and environmental disclosure by Indonesian listed companies on their corporate web sites

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of corporate social and environmental disclosure (CSED) made by Indonesian listed companies in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on their corporate web sites, and to investigate the relationship between the company’s environmental sensitivity and the extent of the corporate social and environmental web site disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The corporate social and environmental web site disclosure examination in this study was conducted at the company level, with the target sample of Indonesian listed companies that provided their profiles on the IDX web site. The sample consisted of both sensitive and non‐sensitive companies. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings The results of this study suggest that the extent of CSED made by Indonesian listed companies on their corporate web sites is low and the nature of disclosure is mostly descriptive, without any specific time frame. The most disclosed information is “community”, followed by “human resources”. It is found that there is no significant difference between the extent of CSED in both sensitive and non‐sensitive industries. Overall, the results indicate that the practice of CSED in Indonesia is still at an early stage. It seems that most of the companies in this study still have a lack of understanding about CSED, and the main reason for their disclosure is to gain societal recognition of the adequacy of their social behavior. Originality/value In the lack of studies which explore the practice of CSED within the developing country context, and in media other than annual reports, this paper provides some insight about the practice of CSED made by Indonesian listed companies on their corporate web sites.