The value relevance of corporate responsibility reporting: South African evidence

Purpose Corporate responsibility reporting (CRR) deals with companies’ ethical, economic, environmental, and social impacts. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on whether CRR is associated with the information set that shareholders use to value a company's equity and therefore, the value‐relevance thereof for investment decision making. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a modified Ohlson model developed by Hassel, Nilsson and Nyquist to examine the role of CRR in providing information to shareholders that may affect their valuation of a company. The paper uses two data sets, namely a KPMG dataset on the CRR of the top 100 South African companies and the McGregor BFA database for financial data. Findings It was found that the share prices of companies with higher levels of CRR are likely to be higher. Originality/value Prior research in which different valuation methods and different assessment periods were used was conducted in different developed countries. Some studies show value relevance, while others do not. South Africa is a developing country and by bringing a developing country to the literature the authors’ aim is to contribute to the current debate on the value relevance of CRR.