Determinants of the Corporate Decision to Disclose Social Information

The decision to disclose social information in annual reports is a voluntary one. A positive model of the factors that may influence firms′ decisions to disclose social information is proposed. It is hypothesised that the decision may be affected by (a) social performance, (b) political visibility, (c) financial variables, and (d) economic performance. It is found that the decision to disclose social information is well explained by the model and that the key explanatory variables are social performance and political visibility.