Trend of sustainability disclosure practices in Bangladesh: A case of two selected banks

Abstract

Sustainability is a global concern at the present time. It urges corporate bodies to get involved in sustainability disclosure activities. Many companies in the developed countries have been disclosing social and environmental issues since a long. But developing countries are legged behind in such disclosure. Recent studies showed that banking companies in Bangladesh disclosed more social and environmental information compared with other public listed companies. However, no prior study addressed the trend of corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) practices of banks in Bangladesh. Therefore, the study purposively selected two case banks to analyze the trend of CSD practices that would help extrapolate or predict the future disclosure practices. A number of equation models were applied to observe the nature and trend of CSD practices. The study applied content analysis techniques to gather data for trend analysis. It considered sustainability information disclosed in the annual reports by the case banks from 2000 to 2009. The study revealed that most of the trend lines were linear in shape. There was a positive correlation in disclosure practices between the two banks during last 10 years. According to t-test, there was no significant difference between the case banks that indicated existence of institutional isomorphism in disclosure practices. The study reveals that organizational heterogeneity could significantly reduce practice variations due to the common principles and initiatives.