Corporate social responsibility and reporting by multinational corporations in Bangladesh: an exploration

This study examines the extent of and motivations behind corporate social reporting (CSR) by large corporations in general and subsidiaries of multinational corporations in particular in Bangladesh. It particularly addresses the research question: Why, in Bangladesh, do corporations in general and subsidiaries of MNCs in particular produce or not produce social and environmental data in their annual reports? At the first step, the study explores the general trend of CSR in the UK and Bangladesh, and then examines in more detail: (a) CSR of subsidiaries of MNCs in Bangladesh in general; and (b) CSR of UK MNCs and their subsidiaries in particular. Content analysis has been used to capture the nature and quantity of CSR issues provided in the annual reports by the companies. At the second step, the study explores reasons for accepting social responsibility and practising CSR by subsidiaries through in depth interviews. The study argues that CSR in Bangladesh mainly means employee disclosure. More importantly, subsidiaries disclose social and environmental issues more in line with Bangladeshi national companies than they do with their MNC parents. Managerial perspectives on social responsibility are found to be limited to local traditions of philanthropy similar to the South Asian trend. The main reason for practicing CSR by corporations in Bangladesh is found to be to manage certain stakeholders’ perceptions for corporations’ own interests. It appears that a single theory (i.e. stakeholder, legitimacy or political economy) cannot explain the whole social and environmental reporting phenomenon observed in Bangladesh. Rather, each theory provides a slightly different and useful insight into CSR practices. The absence of CSR is not only socio-cultural; rather it is found to be political which hints that corporations are in control of choosing the channel for producing CSR and the choice not to make information available to the public.