Do foreign banks disclose corporate social responsibility practices more than their local counterparts? Empirical evidence of an emerging market context

This study examines the levels of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) between foreign and local banks in Malaysia by engaging the reconciliations of the stakeholder theory and resource‐based view. Additionally, independent directors, portrayed as unique internal resources, may affect the CSRD level. Using the panel data of 37 commercial banks retrieved over the period between 2010 and 2017, OLS and robust regressions revealed that the local banks disclosed more CSR information than their foreign banks' counterparts, and the increasing number of independent directors on the board produced lower CSRD. However, the interaction term offered new insight that the independent directors are acting as an effective resource for the foreign banks with a highly concentrated ownership environment. This gives a nuanced understanding of the proposed integrative theory to stimulate foreign banks' more social and environmental performances.