JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

As Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure is becoming more common practise amongst companies, it is valuable to understand the underlying factors involved. The Goal of this thesis is to examine if the factors suggested by previous studies seem to have significance in a Finnish sample composed of 31 listed companies. As an ancillary research question linkage between Corporate Governance recommendation deviations and CSR ratings were examined. The research was executed by utilizing raw data from Thomson ONE Banker financial database, public information available in the 2012 annual reports, corporate governance statements and company web sites. This data was used to construct 10 independent variables. The CSRHub overall rating was applied to form the dependent variable. The raw data was then processed using linear regression. The results were limited as in many variables’ case no significance was found. Age and profitability factors alone had an anticipated affect on CSR disclosure ratings, but other variables fell short when trying to demonstrate positive or negative significant linkages. Average age of board members showed negative significant relationship with CSR ratings at a 1 % level, profitability at a 5 % level. The relative homogenous nature of Finnish listed companies can be argued to hinder the results. It is unlikely that the variables used in this thesis have such insignificant affect on CSR disclosure in all situations. It can be argued that the Finnish cultural environment is most likely the cause of the variables’ indifference. Finland is seen as a “model student” of the European Union and this cultural atmosphere might be the single most powerful determinant. More important than any specific company characteristic. It would be highly interesting to see more studies thriving to examine this perspective.