Effects of corporate governance on sustainable development reporting in Thailand

Abstract

The aims of this research are to investigate the extent of sustainable development reporting (SDR) by listed companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), to determine the differences in the intra-group SDR scores, and to test for the relationships between corporate governance and the SDR scores. The study population was top-100 SET-listed companies and the research data were collected from their 2011-2013 annual reports. The results showed that the SET-listed sampled companies earned an average SDR score of 33.5 (out of a total of 70) during the study period of 2011-2013; and that state-owned companies had higher scores on SDR than private firms. In addition, significant relationships existed between the variables of family ownership, audit type and industry type and the SDR scores. The limitations include the sole dependence on the annual reports as the credible source of data, the length of study, and the type of research information. This research study is the first that attempts to examine the influence of corporate governance on SDR in the Thai context.